Castle Krakow 25 Jan. 1940
Minister President Field Marshal Goering Deputy for the Four-Year Plan The Commissioner General for the Generalgouvernement Poland
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
G B 1/W
I To the Director of the Service Agency for the Four-Year Plan Major General Buehrmann or representative in Krakow Lenartovicza 13
For the execution of the task of systematically placing the economic strength of the Generalgouvernement, within the framework of the Four-Year Plan, in the service of the German defense industry, I give the following
Directives
1. In view of the present requirements of the Reich for the defense industry, it is at present fundamentally impossible to carry on a long-term economic policy in the General gouvernement. Rather, it is necessary so to steer the economy of the General gouvernement that it will, in the shortest possible time, accomplish results representing the maximum that can be gotten out of the economic strength of the General gouvernement for the immediate strengthening of our capacity for defense.
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2. In particular the following performances are expected of the total economy of the General gouvernement:
a. Intensification of agricultural production esp. in the larger farms (above 100 ha.) and a planned distribution of the foodstuffs to be requisitioned in order to fill the requirements of the troops, units, and service agencies as well as of the native population, which are not yet fully covered by the present production.
b. Fullest exploitation of the forests, in temporary disregard of forest conservation principles, so as to deliver to the Reich approx. 1 million fm sawmill lumber, 1. 2 million fm of mine timbers and up to 0.4 million rm of fiber wood.
c. Stepping-up of the, raw material production in the industrial sector, in particular: in the extraction of iron ores and pyrites in order to cover the local needs of the smelting plants operated in the General gouvernement ; in petroleum extraction ; in order to cover the militarily most important requirements of the General gouvernement and to export the greatest possible quantities to the Reich; in the chemical industry (nitrogen, phosphate) to provide for the fertilizer requirements of agriculture in so far as they can be covered in the General gouvernement ;
d. Exploitation, if necessary also partial expansion, of the industrial capacity existing in the General gouvernement, in order to execute as rapidly as possible the Wehrmacht orders to be placed by the Reich in the General gouvernement while maintaining production of those products which are absolutely vital for the running of the economic machinery in the General gouvernement even if the strictest standards are applied ;
e. Maintenance of the productive capacity of those plants to which Wehrmacht orders have not yet been assigned but which are chosen as replacement plants for militarily vital factories which have been or will be evacuated in the Reich ;
f. Stripping and scrapping of those plants which have neither been made into armament plants nor declared to be replacement plants, as well as of destroyed buildings;
g. Supply and transportation of at least 1 million male and female agricultural and industrial workers to the Reich—among them at least 7500 000 (sic] agricultural workers of which at least 50% must be women—in order to guarantee agricultural production in the Reich and as a replacement for industrial workers lacking in the Reich.
3. In order to attain the expected performances, provision is to be made:
a. that the organizational measures for increasing agricultural production and for the building up of the live stock, extraordinarily depleted by the war, are implemented by the insurance of the seed and fertilizer supply—if necessary by imports from the Reich—; by sufficient supplies of agricultural machinery from local production in the General gouvernement; by a planned development of the water economy which should be simultaneously designed for the requirements of the waterways and of the power supply;
b. that all uneconomic consumption of wood be avoided and that the shipment of the quantities to be delivered to the Reich is insured;
c. that within the framework of the stepping-up of the industrial raw material production the following are guaranteed : financing through the most extensive possible utilization of the credit system existing in the General gouvernement; procurement of the necessary mining and drilling equipment, the supplying of the workers with the food and articles of clothing absolutely essential for the maintenance of their full efficiency; the shipment, especially of mineral oil, to the Reich;
d. that in engaging the industrial capacity of the General gouvernement with armament orders from the Reich the following be coordinated :
nature and volume of the orders
location and capacity of the plants
raw material requirements and coverage the latter as far as possible out of raw material stocks existing in the General gouvernement—
requirements and provisioning of workers means of transport for delivery of materials and dispatch of finished products ;
pre-financing of wages in the General gouvernement and transfer of the proceeds from the Reich;
e. that exact investigations be made in order to determine the plants which are either required for filling the armament orders or continue to work for the supplying of the General gouvernement with absolutely vital goods, or are being maintained as replacement plants, or are to be stripped and scrapped ; and that the putting into operation or continued operation of the plants be uniformly regulated and made subject to permit;
f. that in order to insure the necessary supply of Polish workers in the Reich the labor offices harmonize the recruiting with the labor requirements in the General gouvernement; that the shipment will take place early enough to be completed in the course of April ; that the transfer of savings of these workers be regulated who came to the Reich merely as migratory workers.
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4. For the uniform orientation of the total economy of the General gouvernement towards the tasks now to be accomplished the following additional measures are to be taken:
a. In the food supply of the population it must under all circumstances be seen to it that the persons working in plants vital to life and armaments will maintain their efficiency while the rest of the population will have to remain restricted to a minimum ration as long as the food shortage lasts.
b. Any production which, on the basis of raw materials important for armament, is directed towards objects which in the framework of the present plan are not vital, is to be ruthlessly discontinued in so far as it will not be possible to switch it over to sufficiently abundant Ersatz materials and other materials (e.g. by producing wooden shoes while simultaneously prohibiting the production of leather shoes and boots for the native population) . For the rest, all raw material saving decrees prohibitions of production and shipment and orders valid in the Reich are to be carried through in the Generalgouvernement at least to the same degree as is done in the Reich.
c. The shipment of raw materials to the Reich is to be limited to those amounts not absolutely needed in the Generalgouvernement to guarantee militarily vital production. The right of disposing of the stocks of raw materials, half-finished and finished goods in the Generalgouvernement is reserved to your service agency. For the better regulation of supply small amounts of valuable raw materials will be brought into collection depots from scrapped plants and from smaller depots.
d. The supplying of militarily vital plants with coal and the filling of the most urgent coal requirements of the population are to be guaranteed by agreements with the proper Reich agencies.
e. The collection of leather and old material [Erfassung] and the gathering of scrap are to be pushed forward according to plan. In view of the especial conditions in the Generalgouvernement, Jewish dealers who can be freed for this purpose from forced service etc., may also be engaged.
f. A transport plan will be drawn up in agreement with the transportation authorities with the object of bringing transport desires into line with transport possibilities and to arrive at priority scale which will then be made the basis Of all further planning.
g. Price and wage regulations, currency protection and credit policy will be harmonized in closest accord between the agencies
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concerned with the object of creating stable conditions as an indispensable prerequisite for any economic planning.
h. In order to gain a conception of the presumable shape of the payment transactions between the Reich and the Generalgouvernement, a payment balance sheet is to be drawn up as soon as it is possible to see to what extent armament orders from the Reich can be filled in the General gouvernement.
5. I reserve the right to issue further basic instructions.
Copy of the present is being sent to the subordinate service agencies as well as to the Commander in Chief East, the Chief of the Armament Inspectorate Upper-East, the Military Commander in Krakow and the Bank Director of the Emission Bank in Poland with the request that the service agency for the Four-Year Plan be supported in every possible way in the execution of its tasks.
(signed) Dr. Frank
Certified
(signed) Ministerialkanzleiobersekretaer als
Kanzleivorsteher