VORRINK: They were youngsters who for some reason or another left their homes, and they were taken by the Green Police or the Security Police and pressed into the SS. I myself have come across quite a few cases of this in Dutch concentration camps. As an old leader in the Youth Movement I was able to speak to these youngsters and got them to tell me about their life.
HERR BABEL: You say “pressed”? What do you mean by “pressed”?
VORRINK: That means that they were threatened with imprisonment if they were not willing to join the SS.
HERR BABEL: You heard that yourself?
VORRINK: Yes.
HERR BABEL: You further said that thousands of workmen left their organizations. I think you said tens of thousands. Did they do so voluntarily, or what was the reason for this?
VORRINK: The reasons were that the workmen refused to be in a nazified trade union and to submit to the Leadership Principle. They wanted to be in their old trade unions where they could have a say in the running of their organizations.
HERR BABEL: The resignations, therefore, were voluntary?
VORRINK: Yes.
HERR BABEL: In regard to the Jewish question you said that at first nothing happened to the Jews, but that nevertheless there was a wave of suicides. Why? What was the reason for those suicides when it had been said, “nothing will happen to you.”