EXTRACT FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE THIRTY-NINTH
CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD,
23 APRIL 1943
STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE 39TH CONFERENCE
OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD
Subject: Food Situation and Armament Industry.
Held on Friday 23 April 1943, 9:30 A.M. in the Festival Barrack
near the Zoo, Jebenstrasse
Milch: I am convinced that there are more Russian prisoners of war. At that time 4,000,000 were captured. A large part of them died, however the number of those who are still living is higher than we are told now. We reckon here with hundred thousand Russian prisoners of war in the agriculture. Altogether, we have 300,000 of them in the Reich. During the First World War I had 200 Italian prisoners of war with me. These prisoners were to be turned over, however, we kept ours by reporting them dead in order to keep them. And these people also wanted to stay in spite of the fact that we told them that they would be reported dead even to their families. We dragged these prisoners around with us till the end of the war.
Kehrl: If the food supplies of the labor brought in from abroad are taken from the German rations then, while we think that we are very rich for having these people, the German rations are in reality reduced, and the decrease in the working capacity of our own workers does more harm than the good done by the new people.
Speer: But from the figures of this incoming labor we have to deduct those who leave the country because of expired foreign agreements, and the others which we lose because of cases of death or illness. On the whole the increase of labor in our total war economy is not at all so very important. (Interpolation: the more labor we fetch from the East, the more this total figure will increase.)