Armament Tasks within the Four Year Plan
PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 3721-PS
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT NO. 41-A[[92]]
TESTIMONY OF FRITZ SAUCKEL, 22 SEPTEMBER 1945, REGARDING
THE JURISDICTION OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD
TESTIMONY OF FRITZ SAUCKEL TAKEN AT NUERNBERG, GERMANY, 1030 HOURS TO 1210 HOURS ON 22 SEPTEMBER 1945, BY JOHN J. MONIGAN JR., MAJ., CAC, OUSCC
Major Monigan: Principally, what I am interested in are the functions and responsibilities of the Central Planning Board in their relationship to your office and their relationship to industry.
Sauckel: I believe that this Central Planning Board was founded about three months after my taking over my office. The Board was founded in accord with a law by the Fuehrer or just upon an agreement between the Fuehrer and Speer and Goering, I don’t know which. The leader and chairman of this Central Planning Board was Speer himself. It was founded to transfer the work from the Four Year Plan to Speer, I think, because Goering was already ill at that time, and there also were difficulties about which I am not informed. Speer always took on the job of making great changes in production and put it under his own direction. Constant members of this Central Planning Board were the State Secretary and Field Marshal Milch, and State Secretary Koerner. These three were responsible for the decisions of the Central Planning Board and for internal matters and they went through this office if they were worked out by other people inside the office. I was only called to this Central Planning Board when my task was discussed, and the demands were put before me and my agencies by Speer, the Four Year Plan [Office], as well as by Milch. The Fuehrer himself told me to fulfil these demands without question. In other words, if Speer asked me for a certain amount of workers, for instance, several thousand, I could not refuse him. The particular minister had to give the number to the Central Planning Board and that was the only place where the number of workers could be discussed. In the Central Planning Board it was decided how many workers I was able to supply to these various sections like Milch and Speer, agriculture, and so on. If it came to an argument, these discussions were brought before the Fuehrer and he then decided himself.
Q. Would the Central Planning Board, in their outline of workers to be provided for agriculture and for Speer and for Milch’s industries, etc., just give you the numbers of workers which they required, or would you get the final destination of the workers too, say panzers [tanks] and machine guns, and so on, from the Central Planning Board?
A. In general, I always got the numbers for the sections in large, except for Speer who always demanded individual allocations of workers to agriculture or mining; in other words, Speer always demanded a certain number of workers for a certain kind of work.
Q. Except for Speer, they would give the requirements in general for the broad field, but in Speer’s work you would get them allocated by industry, and so on. Is that right?