SAUCKEL: It is correct. I saw in Hitler, whom at that time I revered, a man who was the leader of the German people, who had been chosen by the German people; and I, as a German citizen and a member of a German government department, considered it my duty to justify by my work in my own sphere the confidence placed in me by the head of the State. I might say regarding this telegram...
GEN. ALEXANDROV: No explanations are needed about this telegram. I am not interested in your attitude towards Hitler. I am only interested in your personal attitude to those measures for compulsory labor which were carried out by you. It is essential to keep all questions within these limits. Now follows Document Number 1292-PS. This is a record of the meeting at Hitler’s headquarters on 4 January 1944...
SAUCKEL: I request the permission of the Tribunal to add a few words to your last statement, Mr. Prosecutor. I was unable to see a criminal in Hitler at that time, and I never felt he was one; but I did feel obliged to do my duty, nothing else. As a human being and as the result of my upbringing I would never have supported crime.
THE PRESIDENT: What was your question, General? Simply whether this was a telegram sent to Hitler?
GEN. ALEXANDROV: I asked about the telegram, from which I have read one sentence into the record, in order to obtain a confirmation from the Defendant Sauckel that this telegram had been sent. I was not interested in anything else.
[Turning to the defendant.] The next document is 1292-PS. Have you got this document?
SAUCKEL: No.
GEN. ALEXANDROV: You have already been shown the passage I am about to read. Your statement reads as follows: “GBA Sauckel declared that with fanatical determination he would attempt to secure this manpower.”
You were, at that time, speaking of the mobilization of 4 million workers. It says further: “He would do everything in his power to obtain the manpower desired for 1944.”
Did you say that? Is the statement correctly rendered in the minutes of the report?