GÖRING: To a certain extent deported forcibly, and I have already explained why.
GEN. RUDENKO: You heard, Defendant Göring, that a series of German documents have been read which make it clear that these people from the occupied territories were sent forcibly to Germany; that they were rounded up, taken in the street, and from the cinemas, loaded into trains and sent to Germany under military guard. If they refused to go to Germany, or tried to evade mobilization, the peaceful inhabitants were shot and submitted to tortures of various nature. You have heard of these documents which describe these methods.
GÖRING: Yes, but may I ask you to look at those documents again. These show that recruitment was not ordered, but that registration even for forced labor was regulated by decrees and other orders. If I had been given an absolute guarantee, particularly in the East, that all these people would be peaceful and peace-loving people, that they would never take part in partisan activities or carry out sabotage, then I probably would have put a larger number to work on the spot. But for security reasons, both in the East and West—particularly in the West—where young age groups were reaching the age of military service—we were compelled to draft these men into labor and bring them to Germany.
GEN. RUDENKO: They were taken to Germany only in the interest of security and safety?
GÖRING: There were two reasons. I have already explained them in detail. Firstly, for security reasons. Secondly, because it was necessary to find labor.
GEN. RUDENKO: And for that reason—let us take the second, the necessity of finding labor—people were forcibly taken from their country and sent to slavery in Germany. Is that correct?
GÖRING: Not to slavery; they were sent to Germany to work, but I must repeat that not all of those who were taken away from the East and are missing there today, were brought in to work. For instance, in the case of Poland already 1,680,000 Poles and Ukrainians had been taken by the Soviet Union from the territory which the Russians occupied at that time, and transported to the East—the Far East.
GEN. RUDENKO: I do not think you had better touch on the question of the Soviet territories. Just answer the question which I am asking you, which concerns the deportation to Germany of the peaceful population from the occupied territories. I am asking you once more: You said in answer to Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe’s question that of the 5,000,000 persons who were sent to Germany, approximately 200,000 were volunteers, while the rest were taken to Germany forcibly. Is that not so?
GÖRING: First of all, I must correct that. I did not say that to Sir David at all, but he asked me.
GEN. RUDENKO: And you admitted it?