To clarify the above statement the Defendant Göring makes further the following suggestion—I quote on Page 8 of the Russian text of the document, Paragraph B, Subparagraph 6:
“The allocation of Russians must under no circumstance be allowed to prejudice the wage problem in the eastern territories. Every financial measure in this sphere must proceed from the standpoint that lowest wages in the East—according to a specific Führer decree—are a prerequisite for the equal distribution to balance war costs and the clearing of war debts by the Reich at the end of the war.
“Infractions are subject to the severest penalties.”
This is followed by two lines which are of interest, not only because they incriminate the Defendant Göring for introducing the system of forced labor. Having expressed himself so categorically against the “prejudice of the wage problem in the eastern territories,” Göring stated at the same conference as follows—Page 98 of the document book, “The same applied in substance to every encouragement of ‘social aspirations’ in the Russian colonial territory.”
The covering letter appended to the minutes of the meeting consists of comments which really do not add anything new to the facts already presented to the Tribunal. Therefore I shall not quote this letter.
The next document which I consider necessary to submit to the Tribunal and which I beg you to accept as evidence under Exhibit Number USSR-379 (Document Number UK-82) is a decree issued by the Defendant Göring on 10 January 1942. I will quote only the first 18 lines of this decree, which are on Page 100 of the document book:
“In the coming months the employment of manpower will acquire still greater importance. On the one hand, the recruiting situation of the Armed Forces necessitates the release of all members of the younger age groups for this task. On the other hand, urgent armament production and other phases of the war economy, and also of agriculture, must be provided with the manpower urgently needed by them. For this, the utilization of prisoners of war, especially from Soviet Russia, plays an important role.
“The measures that will be necessary in this field in the future promise success only under unified leadership, and I shall use every means to attain it.
“For that reason I have now granted my manpower commission—which had already been dealing with all the manpower questions of the Four Year Plan—the unlimited power to direct . . . the entire manpower program.”
Later on, Your Honors, the criminal activity of the fascist conspirators in organizing and extending the system of forced labor acquired such magnitude that on 21 March 1942 Hitler issued a decree creating a special department under the Defendant Sauckel, who developed these activities on a large scale. I shall not dwell any longer on these historical facts as they have already been covered by our American, English, and French colleagues.