Presiding Judge Toms: Oh, maybe Belgians, Dutchmen, but Poles—?
Dr. Bergold: Yes, definitely. I am prepared to make that statement on oath, Sir.
Defendant Milch: May I supply an observation of my own on the Polish question? Shortly before I was taken prisoner, I was in the country in Schleswig-Holstein. In that region the only foreigners there were Poles. Those Poles on the estate where I was, perhaps 30 or 40 of them, said that they did not wish to return home, that they would ask to be allowed to remain on the estate just as did their colleagues in the neighborhood. These people were dressed very neatly on Sundays. They looked very clean and healthy. They could not be told from any German in the neighborhood there except for certain racial distinctions. All of them had bicycles. On that bicycle they went on Sundays to the nearest pub and met their girl friends and danced, and they told me themselves that never before had they been so happy as they were in Germany. That was at a time when the British were 50 kilometers away from their village.
Presiding Judge Toms: Perhaps that is why they were so happy.
A. No. They said that they did not want to leave there now. They wished to remain.
Q. I think you misunderstood my point. Perhaps their happiness arose from the fact that the British were only 50 kilometers away.
A. No. I understood what you were trying to say, Sir, but I also talked to the German employers there. I was there in a totally private capacity, and I knew these people quite well. They were friends of mine, and they told me that they were quite satisfied with their Poles, and they also said that the Poles had done very good work and that the Poles had asked to be allowed to remain after the collapse, because in those days they did not wish to return to Poland and they were quite well looked after here.
May I ask the Court to believe me that we in Germany were not all of us hangmen and people who delighted in other people’s misery. I may say here that I think that the majority of the German people are good-hearted and that they treat other people well and that these people did not know that in some isolated places there were isolated criminals who polluted our good name for a long time to come. The people are suffering from that now, and they will suffer in the future. That is what depresses all of us the most. Otherwise, one has to take the point of view that all Germans are criminals and then it might be justified to hang the lot. Then, please start on me.
Dr. Bergold: Witness, after this question was discussed, you received information that this employment of foreign workers was admissible. Could you tell me now what you knew before, prior to that moment, concerning this question?