Q. I want to know what you had to do with the labor assignment of the Jaegerstab and what was your main task there; otherwise, we will be here about an hour or so.
A. Among other things, we had the task, on the basis of the reports of the various factories which came over the Armament Inspectorates to me, to write up a proposal how those red slips were to be distributed on each individual production. In the Jaegerstab, I also had the task to distribute those red slips in such a way that the most important factories would get the necessary number of red slips. The red slips were orders to the labor assignment offices or agencies of Speer; in other words, to the Armament Inspectorates and to the armament commandos, and were given from Sauckel to his labor assignment agencies which were to provide preferentially the necessary amount of workers on the basis of those red slips. I furthermore had the task to take care of transfers of laborers who already were in the armament industry by giving respective orders to my agency and requesting Sauckel to carry out the transfer. Since in the fighter production, the question, in the first place, concerned skilled workers only; transfers of this kind were carried out. Skilled workers were no longer assigned to us by Sauckel in 1944. My main activity, therefore, concerned transfers from one of the industries to the other, and as regards the Jaegerstab, in transfers from the destroyed bomber factories or from other aircraft types to the fighter factories which were working full time.
I finally had the task to deal with deliveries of armament to the Wehrmacht soldiers and I had to take care of those. In 1944, through several actions, many laborers were withdrawn from the armament industry and delivered to the army. That concerned particularly skilled workers. It was my task then, together with those responsible for the production, to take care of the distribution in such a manner that the armament industry be hampered as little as possible in their production.
Q. Is it known to you that Milch tried to see to it that no one from the fighter factories had to go to the Wehrmacht?
A. Yes, from all the factories, and particularly from the fighter factories, they tried to send as few laborers as possible to the army. At the beginning, in the early days of the Jaegerstab—in other words, in the months of March and April, approximately—we tried to relieve the fighter program from delivering laborers to the Wehrmacht. Later on, this was very difficult. I know, however, that Milch tried his very best to give as few people as possible to the Wehrmacht from Jaegerstab production, that is, of the Jaegerstab factories.
Q. Witness, you just said that, concerning the request for assignment of workers, you made suggestions to Sauckel. In these meetings there is a statement by Saur that says, “We take care of the labor assignment.” What is correct now? Did you just request them or did the Jaegerstab actually take care of the assignment?
A. The Jaegerstab was not able to give orders to offices which did not belong to the Speer Ministry or to the Air Ministry. In Jaegerstab, very often Saur and perhaps Milch—I can’t remember, concerning Milch—used such words. In reality, however, it was quite different. I appeared at Sauckel’s and I was ordered to tell him about the creation of the Jaegerstab and its importance concerning the fighter production, with the request that when labor was distributed, the Jaegerstab production should be considered in first place. An order to Sauckel was never given by me and I am sure that Sauckel would certainly not have followed my request, particularly as he always and repeatedly stressed the point that he was independent and was responsible only to the leader of the Four Year Plan and Hitler.
Q. When Saur made such a statement, “We take care of the labor assignment,” why do you think he said that?
A. Well, once in a while such strong words were used. I never took this statement very seriously and I didn’t react to it because I knew exactly that nothing would happen afterwards, and nothing really happened. I was sure that the labor assignment should have been taken care of by the Jaegerstab, but it was impossible to take care of that for one single production. Everyone who had something to do with labor assignment could understand that.
Q. Witness, you just spoke concerning boasting remarks. Is it known to you that Milch often used such strongly exaggerated boasting remarks during these meetings?