“Immediately after the occupation of Yugoslavia the Reich Government and the OKW introduced obligatory labor service for the population of the occupied territory. The exploitation of manpower in Yugoslavia has been carried out within the framework of the general German plan. The Defendant Göring, as the leader of the German economic plan, issued directives to his subordinates concerning the systematic exploitation of manpower of the occupied territories.
“In a report from Berlin, written by one of the head functionaries of the economic service of the German Kommandantur in Belgrade, named Ranze, instructions by Göring are communicated, according to which the economic measures in the occupied territories do not aim at the protection of the local population, but at the exploitation of manpower of the occupied countries for the benefit of the German war economy.
“Immediately after the occupation of Yugoslavia, the Germans established offices for enlisting workers for ‘voluntary’ labor in Germany. They also used the organizations which already existed in Yugoslavia for arranging employment of workers, and began to carry out their plans through these organizations. Thus, for example, in Serbia they used the central office for arranging employment of workers as well as the labor exchange. Through these organizations, until the end of February 1943, and from Serbia alone the Germans sent 47,500 workers to Germany. Later on this number considerably increased but the relative data in this respect have not yet been fully established. These workers were employed in agriculture and various industries in Germany, mostly in the heaviest work.”
In the report of the Yugoslav Republic it is stated that the Gestapo and a special commission used pressure and force. This went so far that these “volunteer” workers were hunted in the streets, collected in units, and herded into Germany by force.
“Apart from these so-called ‘volunteer’ workers, the Germans sent into forced labor in Germany a large number of prisoners from various camps, as well as politically ‘suspicious’ persons, who had to perform the heaviest kinds of work under disgusting living and working conditions. As early as 1942 many innocent victims of the Banyitza, Saimishte, and other camps, were sent into Germany.
“The first transport of them left on 24 April 1942, and these transports continued without interruption until 26 September 1944. Old and young, men and women, farmers, workers, intellectuals, and others were taken not only to Germany, but to other countries under German occupation as well.
“According to the registers of Banyitza Camp, which are far from giving an exact picture, over 10,000 prisoners were sent for forced labor from this camp alone.
“The German authorities in Serbia issued a series of orders, aiming at maximum exploitation of manpower. Among the first measures two decrees were passed: The Decree for General Labor Service and Restriction of the Freedom of Labor, of 14 December 1941, and the Decree for the National Labor Service for the Reconstruction of Serbia, of 5 November 1941. According to the first decree all persons between 17 and 45 years of age could be called up for compulsory labor in certain enterprises and branches of economy. According to the second order, such persons could be called up for civilian service in the National Reconstruction, which in fact meant that they had to work for the strengthening of the German economic and war effort.
“The persons eligible for labor in accordance with these two laws, although remaining in the country, worked in fact for the aims and benefit of the Germans’ economic exploitation. They were primarily used for work in the mines (Bor, Kostolac, et cetera), for road building and railway line repairs, in the water transport, and so on.
“On 26 March 1943 the German Commander of Serbia, Befehlshaber Serbien, in a special order introduced the so-called war economy measures of the Reich in the occupied territory of Serbia, and by this act imposed the general mobilization of manpower in Serbia. . . .