Admiral Canaris’ position was entirely correct and in accordance with accepted international law. In the episode of the Russian gunners adverted to by Milch, he could not help but know the physical facts and could not escape being aware that such use of prisoners of war violated international law. His responsibility here is unequivocal.
On 25 March 1944, the defendant complained that prisoners of war were not being treated with sufficient severity—
“If a decent foreman would sock one of those unruly guys because the fellow won’t work, then the situation would soon change. International law cannot be observed here. I have asserted myself very strongly, and with the help of Saur I have represented the point of view very strongly that the prisoners, with the exception of the English and the Americans, should be taken away from the military authorities. The soldiers are not in a position, as experience has shown, to cope with these fellows who know all the answers. I shall take very strict measures here and shall put such a prisoner of war before my court martial. If he has committed sabotage or refused to work, I will have him hanged, right in his own factory. I am convinced that that will not be without effect.” (T-249.)
When a German field marshal, speaking to men subordinate in rank, declares that “international law cannot be observed here”, it can only mean to those under his command that in the execution of their duties, international law should go overboard and, thus being unlimited in their treatment of prisoners of war, the rights of the prisoners of war must sink also.
Defense counsel insists that Milch had, as a matter of fact, a mild and lenient disposition. Testimony was introduced to show that on several occasions when he sat on courts martial, his judgments were tempered with mercy. Note will be taken of this occasional yielding of an apparently implacable and unyielding spirit, but one must also remark the incongruity that one who, in his references to foreign workers and prisoners of war, had constant harshness on his lips, could have possessed in his make-up no harshness at all. In one of his speeches he complains because the workers collapsed, and that they receive a furlough of three or four days every eight weeks. This he calls “dirty business of the first order, and treason to the country!” (T-249.)
Then he adds—
“I further ask for support by the Luftwaffe physicians. With all the rabble that we have among the foreign workers, there is of course a lot of shirking. At the moment the Russians—that is, the Russian prisoners of war—are feigning a lot of fatigue and illness. The incidence of sickness of one and a half to two percent which we have had up to now has at least doubled and in some factories it has been increased to eight, nine, and ten percent. That is, of course, done by previous agreement. There the official physicians, who have to be very strict, find out that it is not true, and then we return the fellows to work by means of the whip. Then the whip serves as a cure.” (T-250.)
Recommending the employment of so merciless an instrument as a whip can hardly be regarded as evidence of a mild disposition. Then he says—
“Let everyone consider that if he does not do his duty, we do not ask whether there is a law; we ask only whether he is the responsible one and then we will seize him no matter who he is * * *. Please go wherever you are going and knock everybody down who blocks your way! We cover up everything here. We do not ask whether he is allowed to or whether he is not allowed to. For us, there is nothing but this one task. We are fanatics in this sphere. We do not even consider letting anything at all distract us from that task. No order exists which could prevent me from fulfilling this task.” (T-251.)
Then comes the outburst which is an out and out defiance of all law—