A. When I got these orders my assistants were always present and they in turn took down the individual numbers required for this kind of work. I also received rosters which pointed out in detail how many people were needed for certain productions and how many were needed in a certain place. There was also, besides the red-slip system, another one, which was a system used after the red-slip system. We called this the Dringlichkeitsstufen—that means the priority system for workers. These Dringlichkeitsstufen, which were divided according to place and kind of work, were given to me in the presence of my assistants and they in turn worked out these plans. The influence of Speer was so great that sometimes he specifically asked for certain specialists from a certain factory to be turned over to another place. It also happened that we were not even told about these things. If we were not able to supply him with workers from inside Germany, we had to take them from the other departments or from foreign countries. There was always a reserve of something like 500,000 people who went to schools where they were trained for the armament production.
Q. That was 500,000 German and foreign workers?
A. Yes.
Q. When a requirement was fixed for Speer or for Milch in the Central Planning Board and they called you in and said we need 500,000, or some number of workers, would they give at that time the breakdown of what kind of workers they wanted, or would they give a blanket request for 500,000 without the listing of specialties?
A. Naturally, they gave a detailed breakdown. For instance, they only asked for miners, but they also asked for specialists in that kind of work.
Q. The requirements would be stated in detail for the kind of work, not only whether it should be a mine worker, but, for instance, a locomotive engineer in a mine, or something like that, would they not?
A. Naturally, since there are many kinds of professions; I, for instance, put in charge of the mining President Dr. Gaertner who was always oriented about the different jobs which were required in that field of work.
Q. Then after you got the detailed specification of the qualifications of the workers desired, would you also get a statement as to what places they would work in, and so on?
A. This was just the remarkable thing about it, especially from Speer; factories were always mentioned and they were also mentioned by priority; for instance, the ones that always were working on the so-called Fuehrer orders had priority over the others. Speer actually controlled the small places, not step by step, but directly from the highest echelon.
Q. So that you would be informed at the Central Planning Board, at least for Speer’s factories, about the specialists and the place to which they were supposed to be sent, is that right?