The home furlough connected with the change-over was discontinued because the men granted these furloughs did not return, even in the case of the first convoys. The French Report, RF-22, itself states on Page 69 that of the 8,000 men forming one leave convoy, 2,000 did not return. The report states that the “unfortunate people” were placed before the alternative: “Either you return, or your brothers die.” This consideration, however, did not impress them. Nor could their promise prevent them from immediately joining the Maquis.
The cancellation of these home furloughs does not therefore constitute an arbitrary act in slave labor. Perusal of the French report can only strengthen that impression.
It follows therefore that no conscription of workers, violating the laws of war or carried out in an inhuman manner, was effected by the Defendant Sauckel in this field either.
I now come to the question of the treatment of workers.
In order to facilitate proper judgment, a clear distinction must be made between the different bearers of responsibility. The works manager was responsible for general labor conditions in the works, while the general conditions of life outside the works were the competence of the German Labor Front.
These spheres of responsibility become clearly apparent through the fact that two exponents for them are mentioned in the Indictment, namely, Krupp and Dr. Ley. The Defendant Sauckel can be held responsible for what happened in these spheres only insofar as events were due to his decrees, or where, contrary to his duty, he failed to exercise direct supervision. The Defendant Sauckel was directly responsible for the wages. On assuming office he found a table of wages which he could not modify on his own responsibility; to do so he had to apply for permission to his superior office, which was the Four Year Plan, and for the consent of the competent Reich minister. The legal regulations compiled in the chapter on wages of my Document Book 2 show that the basic decrees were not issued by the Defendant Sauckel, but by the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich (see Documents Sauckel-50, 17, and 58) and the Reich Minister of Economics (Document Sauckel-51) and the Reich Minister of Finance (Document Number Sauckel-52).
The Defendant Sauckel could schedule wages and fix wages for piece work only within the general outlines existing for him, and in so doing he had to consider the interests of the ministries in question. So far as it was at all possible for the Defendant Sauckel to do so, he worked for an amelioration; thus a series of his decrees show that he granted premiums such as bonuses, compensatory payments, and the like [see Document Numbers Sauckel-54 and 58(a)].
The Defendant Sauckel’s activity, however, could on the whole only aim at increasing wages by influencing the competent agency. This is shown in Document 021-PS of 2 April 1943. There we find as appendix a treatise with statistical material bearing on a proposal for a basic improvement of wages for Eastern Workers. From a study of wage sheets dating from different periods it will also be seen that the average wages of Eastern Workers were raised several times during the Defendant Sauckel’s term of office.
It was for the Defendant Sauckel to determine the working hours, but only within the framework of the superior competence of the Reich Minister of Labor Seldte. This is shown by Document Number Sauckel-67, where Seldte fixes the working hours for Eastern Workers in Paragraph 3 of the Decree of 25 January 1944. Generally speaking, the working hours were the same as for the German workers, depending upon the output in each factory. This is also admitted by the French Government Report, Document UK-783; the cases enumerated there, on Page 580, of excessive working hours are contrary to the orders of the Defendant Sauckel.
Since they do not specify any year, it cannot be ascertained if they deal only with temporary measures or with permanent conditions. The same lack of clarity obtains in the French Report RF-22, Page 101; there the minimum working time is given as 72 hours, which was liable to increase to 100 hours. This may refer to the work of concentration camp inmates. Working hours were then changed by Goebbels, who on the basis of his powers of plenipotentiary for the waging of total war introduced the 10-hour day for Germans and foreigners alike, although in practice this could not be applied generally. Unreasonably long working hours cannot be maintained and will lead to setbacks. I should like to add that Sauckel was responsible for the fact that these extra hours were paid for, or compensated, in the same manner as overtime work.