Then the last clause in the next sentence, which says, “...these youths are to be used later in the Occupied Eastern Territories as especially reliable construction forces.”
You will observe that the last paragraph says that “the actions under Points 1 and 3”—which I have just been reading—“are known to the Führer.” And there is something about SS help in regard to this action. You had set a time limit on that.
The next page of the document has the distribution, to the Reich Marshal, the Reichsführer SS, the Reich Youth Führer, and the Reich Minister of Interior, and down at the bottom, a Gauleiter bureau, among others.
What do you know about this seizing of young people between 10 and 14 and the turning over of them to your youth organization in Germany during these war years, and about how many thousands of them were so kidnaped, if you know?
VON SCHIRACH: I have already said that I do not wish to minimize my responsibility in this connection. But it was not until later that I was informed of this matter. Not I, but somebody else was Youth Leader of the German Reich in that year; and he made the agreement with the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force and the Reichsführer SS. But my own measures were...
MR. DODD: Later you were the Youth Reichsleiter of Germany, were you not? And you were also the war commitment officer of Youth in Germany at this very time?
VON SCHIRACH: I was at Vienna, and the date was 20 July 1944. You will remember that the history-making events of that time were occupying all officials in Germany to a very great extent. Later I heard about this matter from Axmann, and I know that the accommodation, training, feeding, and the whole treatment of these Russian youths was actually excellent.
MR. DODD: You also know that even at this hour the Allied forces are trying to find thousands of these young people to return them to their proper place? Do you know that this morning’s press carried an account of 10,000 people that are still unlocated?
VON SCHIRACH: I do not believe that those are these young people who were accommodated in apprentice hostels and who under exceptionally well-ordered conditions received very good professional training.
MR. DODD: You see, it is perfectly clear from this Document 345-PS that this program was in fact in operation. The letter from Rosenberg says so. He says it had “already shown results.” And so your youth organization must have had something to do with it before this message was sent.