“Special treatment is hanging. Hanging should not take place in the immediate vicinity of the camp. A certain number of the manpower from the original Soviet Russian territory should attend the special treatment; at that time they are to be warned about the circumstances which led to this special treatment.” (T-53.)
If workers sought to escape, search measures were to be decreed locally, and when caught the fugitive must receive special treatment. (T-54.)
Heinrich Himmler was one of the most relentless pursuers of slave labor, as, of course, he was the most notorious executant of all that was inhuman, indecent, cruel, and vulgar in the entire Nazi program. Himmler does not defy description, he invites it. He stands out in the whole hideous camp of Hitler barbarians as the most savage of them all. A fiend in human shape, a monster in the clothing of man; there is no wild beast, bound only by jungle code, which, in point of honor, was not his superior; there is no slimy, maggoty larva, wriggling in the stagnancy and stench of the foulest cesspool which could be regarded his inferior. His creed was murder, his religion massacre, his belief kidnapping, his faith treachery, and his dogma oppression in every form. Only one thing mattered and that was German blood—
“What happens to a Russian, to a Czech, does not interest me in the slightest. What the nation can offer in the way of good blood of our type, we will take, if necessary by kidnapping their children and raising them here with us. Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death interests me only insofar as we need them as slaves for our Kultur; otherwise, it is of no interest to me. Whether 10,000 Russian females fall down from exhaustion while digging an antitank ditch interests me only insofar as the antitank ditch for Germany is finished * * *. When somebody comes to me and says, ‘I cannot dig the antitank ditch with women and children, it is inhuman, for it would kill them,’ then I have to say, ‘You are a murderer of your own blood because if the antitank ditch is not dug, German soldiers will die, and they are sons of German mothers. They are our own blood.’ That is what I want to instill into this SS and what I believe I have instilled into them as one of the most sacred laws of the future. Our concern, our duty, is our people and our blood. It is for them that we must provide and plan, work and fight, nothing else. We can be indifferent to everything else.” (T-145.)
When hundreds of thousands of Russian prisoners of war died from exhaustion and hunger, his regret was not that they died, but that it was deplorable “by reason of the loss of labor.” (T-144.)
The defense in this case denied that foreign workers and prisoners of war were maltreated, and produced some evidence to dispute the prosecution’s contentions in this regard, we quote from the affidavit of one Albin Schirmer, a resident of Nuernberg—
“From the year 1929 onwards, I was employed by the Hercules Works, Ltd. at Nuernberg (Nuernberger Herkuleswerke G.m.b.H.), and worked there in the capacity of foreman throughout the war. The necessary workers were requested by the firm from the Labor Office. The Labor Office allocated French prisoners of war, free French, and Czech workers to the firm. The free foreign workers, who also cooperated in executing the commissions of the Luftwaffe, were treated in every respect in exactly the same way as the German workers. Some lived in furnished rooms. Some lived in a camp as it was cheaper there. Working hours, wages, ration cards, and the supplementary ration cards for workers, whose hours were long, were the same as for any German. Equally, freedom of movement during leisure hours, permission to attend theaters, churches, and cinemas, the protection of the Labor Front and of strength-through-joy, permission to visit public houses and German families were available to free foreign workers as well as to German workers. Intercourse with German girls was also permitted to free foreign workers. This, however, did not apply to prisoners of war. The sanitary installations of the firm were good, and were available for the use of foreign workers, as well as of the German workers. The prisoners of war had fixed times for taking showers whereas the free foreign workers had their showers at the same time as the Germans. The free French workers were allowed free postal communication with France, and they also went there on leave. I know of only two cases in which free French workers did not return from their leave in France.
Many French prisoners of war volunteered as free workers, in order to be eligible for the resultant advantages. Even the prisoners of war had beer sent to them every day.
During air raids, the free foreign workers played their part with devotion, a thing which they would certainly not have done if they had not considered that they were well-treated.
After the arrival of the American troops most of the French workers said good-by to me in a friendly fashion, shaking hands with me, and wishing me luck. The female workers from the Ukraine too liked it here according to their statements.”