As regards France, in particular, Hitler and the Defendant Speer held a conference on 4 January 1943 in the course of which it was decided that more severe measures would be taken to expedite the recruiting of French civilian workers without discrimination between skilled and unskilled workers. This is made clear by a note to which I would ask the Tribunal to refer. That is a note signed by Fritz Sauckel, himself. It has already been presented by the American Prosecution under Document Number 556-PS (Exhibit Number RF-67).
The Defendant Speer knew that the levies for forced labor in the occupied territories were obtained by violence and terror. He approved the continuation of these methods from September 1942 onward. He knew, for instance, that workers were deported by force from the Ukraine to work in the Reich. He knew, likewise, that the great majority of workers in the occupied regions of the West were sent to Germany against their will. He even declared before the American magistrate who was questioning him that he considered these methods regular and legal.
The Defendant Speer, knowing that the foreign workers were recruited and deported for forced labor in Germany, made specific demands for foreign workers and provided for their employment in the various branches of activity placed under his direction.
The preceding paragraphs summarize all the declarations made by the defendant in the course of the interrogation already mentioned and to which I have just referred.
I beg to remind you that Speer, in addition, was a member of the Central Committee of the Four Year Plan. On account of this, and in common with Field Marshal Milch, only Hitler and Göring were superior to him as far as demands for labor were concerned. He likewise took part, in this capacity, in discussions which took place with Hitler to settle the numbers of foreign workers required. He knew that most of these forces were obtained by means of deportation, through coercion and enslavement of the occupied countries. Proof of this is furnished by various passages of the minutes of the Central Committee of the Plan and from Speer’s conferences with Hitler. I refer to Document Numbers R-123 and R-124 which have been submitted under Exhibit Number USA-179, on 12 December 1945 (Exhibit Number RF-1414).
Speer did not hesitate to resort to methods of terrorism and brutality as a means of achieving a peak output from the forced workers. He found justification for the action of the SS and of the police and for the use of concentration camps to subdue recalcitrants.
I beg to recall to the Tribunal the document relating to the minutes of the 21st meeting of the Central Committee of the Four Year Plan, 30 October 1942, Page 1059, already quoted. This is the document which I quoted previously, Exhibit Number USA-179, Document Numbers R-123 and R-124 on 12 December 1945 (Exhibit Number RF-1414).
The Defendant Speer likewise bears responsibility for the use of prisoners of war in military operations directed against their countries; for in his capacity as chief of the Todt Organization, he forced citizens of the Allied nations to work for this organization, particularly, in the building of fortifications and, among other things, the famous West Wall. He likewise forced Frenchmen, Belgians, Luxembourgers, Dutchmen, Norwegians, and Danes to manufacture arms to be utilized against the allies of the countries to which they themselves belonged.
Finally—and this is a very important question regarding the responsibility of the Defendant Speer—he participated directly in the use of internees from the concentration camps. He proposed the use of internees from the concentration camps in the armament factories. Now, in view of the wretched physical condition of the prisoners, no profit but only the extermination of the prisoners could be expected from this measure. The use of internees from the concentration camps in the factories had the effect of increasing the demand for this type of labor; and this demand was satisfied in part, at least, by sending to the concentration camps persons who, in ordinary times, would never have been sent there.
Speer went so far as to establish, near the factories, concentration camps which served solely to feed them with labor.