In April of 1944, I was visiting Speer near Meran when a call came that I should immediately go to Hitler. Speer asked me if I had any idea what was afoot, but I did not. I immediately went to Berchtesgaden. There Hitler asked me, “What has become of your fighter production?” I told him that I did not know precisely, because in the Reich the Todt Organization did not do the constructing but another organization. He was greatly excited and said roughly, that he had heard enough about this other organization, that he did not want it, and he demanded that the Todt Organization should take over that construction immediately.
Then the plans were fetched overnight from Berlin. I explained the whole system to him once more. I told him that I could only carry out this construction if it were given priority above all other construction as far as workers, machines, building materials, trucks, and so on—whatever is needed in construction—were concerned. I was given assurances that that priority would be given me, and I then took over this construction project.
I was able to assure myself that the Hauptausschuss Bau—the Main Committee for Construction—which had been in charge before I took over had begun constructions at three locations. On one of these we immediately stopped work, because both architecturally and, as the Jaegerstab told me, technically the factory was no good.
Q. Witness, you then said that the wish to build these bombproof fighter factories by the Todt Organization was communicated to you by the Jaegerstab. What do you know about that personally?
A. I know the following: The Jaegerstab, as far as the entire work of the Plenipotentiary for construction was concerned, was not satisfied with the work. Saur complained continuously about how work dragged on and asked me repeatedly to step in and do something. He called me to his meetings in the Jaegerstab and asked me to develop further plans. I was called up continuously by other gentlemen. I remember Major Dr. Krohmer, who also asked me to step in, and again and again I had to say that that would not do because, I said the Todt Organization did not carry out construction in the Reich. I was pressed continuously by the Jaegerstab, because it was the organization that would benefit from these constructions.
Q. Do you know whether Milch went in that direction too, or only Saur?
A. That I cannot say. I did not speak about that to him myself. I did speak with Saur and a few other gentlemen—I believe with Schlempp who was later representative of the Todt Organization in the Jaegerstab.
Q. When was that first pressure on the part of Saur? Was that before March of 1944?
A. Yes. That was even earlier, but I cannot say precisely. It might have been in February even.
Q. Do you know whether Saur visited the Fuehrer on this matter?