Q. Now did you obtain any of this labor for the construction project? Do you recall obtaining any of this from Schmelter?
A. I take it that Hitler himself had approved these workers. Our request went to Schmelter, and he was working his own men in that Todt Organization, and in the Jaegerstab, and it was his job to settle the details when they should come, and what they should be paid, and such matters. That was Schmelter’s job, and Schmelter was told that this is a technical staff, and he knew that Hitler had approved the workers, and so it was his job to take care of the details, and to inform the Einsatzgruppe what it should do. I did not carry much of these things in detail after that.
Q. Now do you recall how large a construction was at Kaufering? I am speaking both at Kaufering I and Kaufering II?
A. You mean the technical construction?
Q. Yes.
A. There was one main hall in Kaufering I, three hundred meters long, ninety meters wide, with six stories. Kaufering II conducted production later, but everything was concentrated in Kaufering I.
Q. Do you recall how much of this construction was completed?
A. I should think three-fourths. At the last time I visited this construction shortly before the collapse, the machines were being set in on one side of the building, and that is as far as it went.
Q. And to whom was this plant allocated?
A. That I cannot say. In my opinion the Messerschmitt, but I must be careful in what I say here, because in the last week before the collapse there were negotiations with the armament staff. I cannot remember what that situation was in Kaufering, but in Muehldorf there was constant talk of putting Buna in there. That changed continuously, dependent on the war situation. Once Speer wanted to set up a steel foundry in the fighter factory in the Rhineland, which was later changed.