My Fuehrer,
As Gruppenfuehrer Bormann has already informed you, I am going to the eastern areas on the 15th April in order to secure 1 million workers from the east for the German war economy in the coming months.
The result of my last trip to France is that, after exact fulfilment of the last program, another 450,000 workers from the western areas, too, will come into the Reich by the beginning of the summer.
With the addition of about 150,000 workers who furthermore may be obtained from Poland and from the other territories, it will then be possible by summer again to put 5-600,000 workers at the disposal of German agriculture and 1,000,000 workers at the disposal of the armament and other war industries.
I ask for your approval to have the new French workers come into the Reich under conditions similar to those of the last group. I have taken contact with the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW).
Since the largest part of the Belgian civilian workers and prisoners of war perform very satisfactorily, I ask you to agree that a similar statute to that which was granted to the French be made for some 20,000 Belgian prisoners of war. This very great concession by you has made a very deep impression upon Laval and the French Ministers. Laval has repeatedly asked me to transmit his sincerest thanks for this to you, my Fuehrer.
1. After one year’s activity as Plenipotentiary for the Allocation of Labor, I can report that 3,638,056 new foreign workers have been added to the German war economy from 1 April of last year to 31 March this year.
As a whole, these forces have produced satisfactory performances. Their feeding and housing is secured, their treatment so indisputably regulated that, in this respect too, our National Socialist Reich presents a shining example compared to the methods of the capitalist and bolshevist world. However, it is naturally inevitable that mistakes and blunders still occur here and there. I will continue to endeavor with the greatest energy to reduce them to a minimum.
In addition to the foreign civilian workers, 1,622,829 prisoners of war are also employed in the German economy.
2. The 3,638,056 workers are distributed amongst the following branches of the German war economy: