Sauckel: We should like to set an example. However, I do not like to rely on this alone for the next year; but I should like to ask that one have the confidence in us that, reasonably speaking we are doing things in the right way. The factories which Speer barred to us * * *.
Reich Marshal: Really I am not imposing. But when I constantly hear: I could do very much if I only had the executive power, then I am ready to assist you, not permanently, but then, for five days or one week, by putting my men at your disposal. In France also we have training regiments, and the army, too, could arrange to make certain units available so as to make a big push.
Sauckel: If I may be permitted to speak quite frankly, the conditions are as follows: All of our Military Commanders, and also our Commissioners General—with the exception of Koch—also the general governors, take the stand that in all of their regions the supreme law is tranquility and order. Also during the present era of war these German people still feel—after all that is typically German—the inherent obligation of maintaining order in their country and of somehow protecting the local population.
(Reich Marshal: They do not see Germany, but Seyss-Inquart sees Holland only.)
That is the greatest difficulty which we face, and in spite of the obduracy which is there I am of the opinion that we really have more friends in these countries than we imagine. I shall place my reports at your disposal, among them a detailed report of a Flemish man, an economist who lives with his wife in Weimar, works there, and who at the same time looks after the Flemish people in my district. The matter is as follows: Our highest political authorities in these countries cultivate to some extent social contacts with the local high society; thus in Belgium, bluntly stated, with elite circles, the high financial circles, and leaders of industry. They show to the German commanders in chief a certain demeanor of courteousness and of conventionality and thereby satisfy our gentlemen to a great extent. Under this mask, however, they permit their nearest subordinate organizations to persecute and harass everybody who is in any way friendly to Germany. Unwillingly and without being suspected by our gentlemen [Herren] we have in this manner placed the Germans who were there under pressure. They all have become fearful, and they bar their minds against Germany, and those who really did something for Germany resign.
Reich Marshal: * * * Our method of procedure in the expansion of the large air fields, Sauckel, would then be that, we try, first of all, to get a hold of the available labor in the vicinity of the harbors in France, Belgium, and Holland which so far has not been recruited in any manner by Speer or by the Luftwaffe, or by you—just as the Russians do, and as the British now also are doing in Southern Italy and Sicily. There is a scarcity of water there and he who loafs is not permitted to come near the water tap. They are very strict on this point. Now, in the fifth year of the war, we too must be just as strict. And over and above this I still need workers who will be fetched from regions farther away if those from the immediate vicinity are not sufficient. And then come specialists, whom Speer makes available from his organization, the engine operators and so forth. If I am to rearm the Luftwaffe with everything that is conceivable now, I do need a considerable reserve stock of laborers. Technical workers must be included. This is in addition to the number necessary for fulfilling needs arising from actual fluctuation and departure of workers. Now that would have to be considered in detail.
Sauckel: May I call attention to the following: That which makes things very difficult for me at the moment is the question of our currency. It is a fact that prices in France, and in the entire west, are very much out of proportion. If we bring the workers to Germany and, according to German standards, we pay them just as well as the German workers, that does not help them at all because their families living in the occupied territories cannot buy anything with the money that the people transfer. I should like to ask you, Herr Reich Marshal, to talk with Reich Minister Funk and the other competent officials so that under all circumstances and with all possible means the German mark will preserve its purchasing power against the French franc, just as it was done on the other side, during the World War.
Reich Marshal: All we need to do is to fix the rate of exchange, just as was done at that time with the dollar, i.e., today the German mark equals 20 francs, tomorrow 23, then 27, then 40, etc., etc., up to one million, or one billion. We have had all that. The same holds true for the guilder. One cigarette now costs in Holland 1.50 guilders; formerly it cost 10 cents. I merely have to say: 1.50 guilders equal to 10 pfennigs, or one mark equals 15 guilders.
Sauckel: That would solve a big problem in the wage question.