I submit two documents in evidence. The first consisted of the minutes of a conference which took place on 4 January 1944 at the headquarters of the Führer. I have just submitted this document to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number RF-68 (Document 1292-PS). I quote, French translation, Page 2, last paragraph; German original, middle of Page 4:
“The Plenipotentiary General for Allocation of Labor (GBA) Sauckel, declared that he would try with fanatical determination to obtain this manpower. Up to now he had always kept his promises regarding the number of workers to be provided; with the best will in the world, however, he was not in a position to make a definite promise for 1944. He would do anything possible to provide the manpower required for 1944. The success would depend mainly on the number of German police put at his disposal. If he had to rely on the indigenous police his project could not be carried out.”
I refer now to the statements made by Sauckel at the conference of the central office for the Four Year Plan on 1 March 1944. It is Exhibit Number RF-30 (Document R-124), to which I repeatedly have called the attention of the Tribunal. The passage which I am about to quote has not yet been referred to before the Tribunal. Page 3 of the French translation, German text, from Page 1775 on:
“The term ‘S-factory’ ”—S-Betrieb—“in France is actually nothing else but a protection against Sauckel’s grasp. That is how the French look at it, and they certainly cannot be expected to think differently. They are Frenchmen in the first place, who are faced with a German point of view and German actions different from theirs. It is not up to me to decide whether the protected factories (Schutzbetriebe) are useful and necessary. I have described the situation only from my point of view. Nevertheless, I still hope to succeed eventually by using my old organization of agents on the one hand and, on the other hand, by those measures which I have fortunately been able to wrest from the French Government.
“In the course of negotiations lasting 5 to 6 hours I wrested from M. Laval the concession that the death sentence may be imposed on officials who sabotage the recruitment of labor and other measures. Believe me, it was very difficult. I had to fight hard to succeed, but I did succeed. And I am requesting, especially of the Armed Forces that, in case the French Government does not really put its mind to it, most drastic action be taken now by the Germans in France. Please do not resent my following remark: Several times, when in company of my assistants, I have faced situations in France which caused me to ask, ‘Is there no respect in France for the German lieutenant and his 10 men?’ For months on end everything I said was paralyzed by the reply, ‘What do you want, Mr. Gauleiter? Don’t you know that we have no police forces at our disposal? We are powerless in France.’
“This was the reply given over and over again. How, in the face of these facts, am I to achieve labor recruitment in France? The German authorities must co-operate; and if the French, despite all their promises, do not remedy the situation, we Germans must make an example of one case and, on the provisions of this law, put some prefect or mayor against the wall if he does not co-operate, else not a single Frenchman will go to Germany.”
By such means the deportation of workers to Germany finally was achieved, by arresting them, and by the threat of reprisals. It was a logical consequence of the National Socialist system that the policy of recruiting foreign workers was accomplished by police terror.
I have told the Tribunal that the resistance offered by the prisoners of war and by the workers of the occupied territories against the activities of the defendants, which were in turn insidious and brutal, wrecked the plan for the recruitment of foreign workers. The Defendant Sauckel encountered the greatest difficulty in carrying out the programs which he had persuaded Hitler and the Defendants Göring, Speer, and Funk to accept.