"Where, however, in the occupied territories the appeal for volunteers does not suffice, obligatory service must be under all circumstances resorted to. This is an undisputable requirement of our labor situation. Recruitment must be made as benefits the prestige of the Greater German Reich and the will of the Fuehrer. Irresponsible promises regarding pay, contracts, 600-a housing, free time, and so on must not be made.
Living conditions in Germany itself, which are better than anywhere else in Europe, can and should be emphasized without exaggeration being necessary. Jewish methods of catching people, such as were customary in the democratic states of the capitalistic world, are unworthy of the National Socialist Greater German Reich. With the above principles as a basis I order the following: I. General. The recruitment of foreign labor in the areas occupied by Germany belonging to allied, allied-friendly, or neutral states will be carried out exclusively by my commissioners or by the competent German military or civil agencies for the tasks of labor mobilization. Other agencies, organizations or persons are not allowed to recruit foreign labor.
This proves that only Sauckel and his organization were competent in this matter and that no lies were told to the foreigners; that as a matter of practice they were treated correctly and decently, and were recruited in the main voluntarily.
I come now to 2, the bottom of page 58. "The care of foreign labor will be carried out: a up to the boundaries of one Reich by my commissioners or in the occupied areas by the competent military or civil labor mobilization agencies. Care of the labor will be carried out in cooperation with the respective competent foreign organization, b. within the area of the Reich. 1. by the German Labor Front in the cases of non-agricultural workers; 2. by the Reich Food Administration in the case of agricultural workers. The German Labor Front and the German Food Administration are bound by my directives in the carrying out of their tasks of caring for the workers."
That proves again that only Sauckel was competent for transporting these workers. On the same page I read II.
"Carrying out of Recruitment: la. For the carrying out of recruitment in allied, friendly, or neutral foreign countries, my commissioners are solely responsible. They must, in all cases of political importance, come to an agreement with the Chief of the respective German diplomatic missions, and to this extent are bound by the directives of the chief of the mission or his deputy. The missions chiefs are to be informed of all basic questions of mobilization of 1 bor. Negotiations with foreign agencies and organizations in foreign lands which are of basic importance are to be carried out in agreement with respective Reich representatives or on the basis of their arrangements. Conversations with foreign agencies and organizations on questions of technical execution of the **** 602 tion of recruitment can be carried on by my representatives directly."
This shows that Sauckel was in charge. It shows also, however, that workers in allied, friendly, and neutral coun tries were included in this recruitment. I shall prove that this was a considerable number, so that what Sauckel Said about one mere 200,000 that came voluntarily was a mis statement.
602-a I come now to the next page to IIb. "For the respective recruitment of labor in areas occupied by the Germany, agencies for the mobilization of labor of the German military or civil administration installed in these areas are exclusively responsible.
I retain for myself the right to send special representatives to these agencies from time to time."
This proves that Milch was not responsible.
Then III about three pages later: "Carrying out of the transportation into the Reich." That is Page 59 in the middle of the page. "b, Composition and operation of the transports." I beg your pardon. "A. Basis principles, after recruitment and during the transport into the Reich a correct, faultless, treatment of the workers, male and female, is to be striven, for in order that willingness to work and the trust of those recruited may not be destroyed perhaps already during transport. The workers recruited are us a rule to be taken in collective transports with special trains, or if necessary in group transports, with regular trains.
"b. Composition and operation of the transports. The composition and operations of the transports up to the place of work is the task of my representatives, in the occupied territories of the labor mobilization agencies of the military and civil administration, in the countries in which foreign representatives are to direct the transports up to the fronties, the German recruiting agency must take part in the supervision and care of the transports.
"The chief of the transport must take care that during the transport;
"1. Unconditional order and cleanliness prevail. The necessary hygienic precautions must be assured under all circumstances in each transport and if temporary lodging in a collection camp takes place, in every collection camp.
"2. An overloading of the cars will not take place.
"3. A sufficient number of toilets, also at stops, and in the collection camps, or perhaps latrines, will be at hand.
"4. Masculine and feminine members of the transport will be separated.
"5. Ethnic Germans, as far as possible, till be separated from the foreign 603 a members of the transport.
"6. Prevent friction amongst the various foreign elements of the transport through suitable sheltering."
I skip now to "c, Supply for the transport. The food supply for the industrial workers in transit within the Reich is the duty of the DAF German Workers front, office for labor mobilization. For the rest, my office effect the supply for the transport."
I skip now to the next paragraph: "The assurances of a sufficient and substantial supply of the members of the transport within the sphere of war-conditioned possibilities is of special importance. Special care must therefore be devoted to that question."
"d. Decontamination. As far as the foreign workers originate from areas whence the introduction of contagious diseases must be feared, they must, if necessary, be decontaminated several times." I skip one sentence. "This must take place within the borders of the Reich in transient camps specifically provided for this purpose. While the workers are in decontamination place the workers are to be treated unexceptionally."
Those orders prove, Your Honors, that oven Sauckel wanted to do the best that he could for the transport of these workers. It is not a fact that there was a plan according to which these transports should be carried out in an inhumane manner. On the contrary, the plan existed that they should be carried out with the utmost care.
From the same exhibit number I come to Regulation No. V, Page 63 of the English document book. Regulation No. 5 of the GBA regarding the exclusive competence of the GBA offices to accept contracts for the allocation of labor of 11 July 1924. In allocating workers it must always be kept in mind that manpower is requested at offices outside the administra tion for the allocation of Labor.
THE PRESIDENT: We will recess until 1:30.
(A recess was taken until 1330 hours.)
604-a AFTERNOON SESSION
THE MARSHAL: The Military Tribunal is again in session.
DR. BERGOLD: May it please the Court. Before I continue, I should like to rectify a number of errors. These are errors in the English translation.
I have before me a German report of the meeting of the 27th of January, page 529. In the English translation a very serious mistake has come to light, and I beg the Tribunal to make an order to have that rectified. There, with reference to my Exhibit Number 11, I had spoken the following sentence.
"You will see from this that the question of foreign workers occupies only a relatively small part of the statements of this 53rd meeting", and then everything following is not understandable in the English report.
I should like, therefore, to repeat it.
"Everybody was meditating about the main thing: Have the foreign workers arrived at all or we fooled by Sauckel?"
That appears important.
Then, Your Honors, my assistant has pointed out to me that in the course of the interpretation this morning, the words " voluntary recruitment" had only been translated as "recruitment". The word "voluntary" should have been added. That is a crucial point.
Likewise, the words "digestible nourishment" were only translated as "supplies". "Digestible" had been omitted.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Bergold, it seems to me that the only kind of recruitment there can possibly be is voluntary recruitment. The word "recruitment" means a voluntary offer to work.
DR. BERGOLD: I have been informed, Mr. President, that in your language the word "recruitment" refers to voluntary, a recruitment by the State, that is, for instance the calling up a recruitment for the army, that is a forcible recruitment is the same thing. Maybe I have been misinformed, and I must apologize.
THE PRESIDENT: I think there is a distinction between recruitment and drafting. Recruitment means asking for voluntary service; drafting means compulsory service. I think you may rely upon the Tribunal in its interpreting the word "recruitment" as voluntary.
DR. BERGOLD: Thank you, very much indeed. I wish now to continue with Exhibit No. 14-A, document No. 3044-PS, on page 6 of the English Document Book, which I wished to submit this morning. It is instruction No. 5, of the Plenipotentiary General dated 11 July 1942. I have been informed that this document is not contained in the English document book; it is contained in the German book and I shall read the instruction order No. 5 from the plenipotentiary for labor allocation regarding their jurisdiction on the labor distribution for the receiving of orders regarding the supply of workers, dated 11 July 1942; in carrying out these allocations labor special care should be taken at all times that labor allotments are requested at agencies outside of the administration of the labor allotments, or simultaneously at different agencies. This causes difficulties and delays in obtaining supplies, which must be prevented at all costs. On the basis of instructions from the Fuehrer, and the Marshal of the Greater German Reich, I, therefore, order that the requirement regarding labor should only be claimed from agencies of the labor allotment administration, or as a rule, therefore, from such labor offices as are responsible for the local firm concerned. In certain cases where the General Plenipotentiary of Labor Allocation and the Reichsminister of Ammunition and armaments, have agreed on the urgency of certain stock progrms, request is to be made directly through the Reich Ministry for 606 (a) Armament and Ammunition to Main Office 4 of the Ministry of Labor; Your Honors, this proves that with the requests for labor only the General Plenipotentiary and the labor offices, were concerned, with the exception of certain individual cases where the Ministry of Defense was also competent not, however the Quartermaster-General of the Air Force.
I now turn to Exhibit No. 15, page 125 of the German Document Book, Document No. 2241*PS, dated 20 July 1942. An order from Sauckel on the 10 August 1942, published in Sauckel's section of instructions, page 64 in the English Document Book. This document contains first of all a decree regarding the newly occupied eastern territories, and then follows the decree to which I am now going to refer, I should like only to read the beginning of it:
"Decree of the Plenipotentiary General for Manpower on the execution of the transportation of workers, in this case, damage to and soiling of passenger coaches of the German Railways and their fittings."
The Prosecution incidentally has submitted an exhibit in order to show that condition were not orderly. In reality we are here concerned with an attempt to prevent such individual disorderly conditions, to do away with them. There are mistakes made in every country in the world, but when the competent authorities take action to remove these conditions, one cannot hold that against them.
I shall now turn to Exhibit No. 16, which is document No. 654-PS dated September 18, 1942, notes made by Dirak about a conference with Himmler about the surrendering of Jews to Himmler for extermination through labor. It is on page 67 of the English Document Book. Your Honors as proof of the fact that Milch had nothing to do with it, I shall read the introduction as follows:
"Discussion with Reich Fuehrer of SS Himmler on 18.9.42, in his Field Headquarters in the presence of State secretary Dr. Rothenberger, SS Gruppenfuehrer Streckenbach, and SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Bender.
607 (a) We are here concerned with the internal agreement made between the Administry of Justice and Himmler.
Then I turn to Exhibit No. 21, that is document No. 1063-PS, dated 17 December 1942. It is an order from Mueller regarding the workers capable of work to be taken from the concentration camp. It is page 100 of the translation. Have you found it? I shall read the introduction:
"The Chief of the Security Police and the Security Service." Then comes the reference number, followed by the statement "Secret" and then by "Secret to: All commanders of the security police and the security service.
All inspectors of the security police and the security service.
All commandants of the security police and the security service.
All chiefs of the State police headquarters.
For the information of: The chief of the SS economic and administration headquarters, SS Lt. Gen.
POHL.
All higher SS and police chiefs.
The inspectors of the concentration camps."
It was a secret document, and no agency is mentioned therein which in any way is connected with the defendant Milch. I shall read the first paragraph:
"For reasons of war necessity not to be discussed further here, the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German police on 14 December 1942, has ordered that until the end of January 1943, at least 35,000 prisoners qualified for work, are to be sent to the concentration camps."
Later on I shall prove just why this order was issued, because Himmler for his Waffen-SS was beginning to start armament terms of his own.
I now turn to document No. 22, the number is )18-PS, dated 21 December 1942. It is a letter from Rosenberg to Sauckel dealing with the question of workers in the East. Page 102 of the English document Book.
The prosecution has presented the documents in order to show that they were inhumane acts. Its real significance becomes apparent from the second paragraph of this document on the first page, which I shall now read.
"If there is now complete agreement between your and my conception of the matter, I nevertheless find it necessary on the grounds of several occurrences during the last months, to point out with reference to the enclosure, the methods applied by your agencies and collaborators. I thereby do not disregard the fact that considering the scope and urgency of the task to be accomplished, difficulties and hardships, yes, even false measures by the executing branches, can in the long run not be avoided. But it seems necessary to me, to follow up these occurrences insofar as they touch the conduct of war and the interests of the Reich."
Then on the following page, there is the third last long paragraph, and it begins by saying, "Even if I do not close my eyes to the necessity..." Have you found it? It is on page 102, the third last line from the bottom.
"Even if I do not close my eyes to the necessity that the numbers demanded by the Reichsminister for Armament and ammunition as well as by the agricultural economy justify unusual and hard measures I have to ask, due to the responsibility for the occupied Eastern territories which lies upon me, that in the accomplishments of ordered tasks, such measures be excluded, the toleration and prosecution of which will some day be hold against me and my collaborators. In order to achieve this, and to bring into agreement the requirements given by the peculiar political situation of the Eastern territories with the measures of the commissions and the staffs of your agencies, I have empowered the Reichs commissioner for the Ukraine insofar as neccessary to make use of his right, and to see to it that methods which run contrary to the interest of the conduct of the war and war economy in the occupied East be abolished.
"It appears strange to me that in numerous cases which should have been discussed with the civil authorities, we only receive information through the police and other agencies."
And I shall now read the last sentence of the paragraph: "With consultation of our mutual wishes, which you personally will certainly understand, it is 609 (a) unfortunately impossible for me to accept a co-responsibility for the consequences which result from the recounted state of affairs."
That ends the reading from Document 1-A. I shall now turn to Document Book 1-B. The first is Exhibit No. 28. The index, incidentally, is still in the first book, Your Honors. We are here concerned with Exhibit No. 28, Document No. 3012-PS, dated 19 March 1943; an order signed by one, Christianson, to all group leaders of the SD and the minutes of a telephone call "signed Stapf". This is on page 131 of the English Document Book; in the German Document Book, at the beginning of the Document 3012-PS, a decree is reprinted from which I shall road. Page 224 of the German Document Book.
"Decree Regarding Labor Service and Labor Employment in Operational Zones of Newly Occupied Eastern Territories." It's an order from the Chief of the General Stiff of the Army. "For the security of military and economical necessity in operational territories, the following order is published in agreement with the Economic Staff East.
"Chapter I, Labor Service, paragraph 1. All inhabitants of the operational zone between 14 and 65 years of age are subject to labor service, depending on their ability to work. After having been called up, they will have to report to the local labor authorities or any other official agency responsible in order to he registered. This labor service mag consist of work outside their normal place of residence or outside the operational zone."
After this decree follows a telephone conversation with the Chief of the Economic Staff East, and I shall read the last sentence on the German page. That is in English: "therefore order ..." It's the fourth paragraph and it's on page 131 in the English.
"I therefore order that in the individual territories, quotas are set up which are to be fulfilled with the consent of the native administrative agencies and in the rural areas with the competent 1-A leaders pursuant to the service obligation, As far as the quotas cannot be filled by voluntary enlistments, they are to be filled by conscription.
For the realization of the service obligation, in the individual case, compulsion may be used if necessary. However, it is not permitted, that the workers are procured by collective measures of 610 (a) coercion."
That is signed "Stapf." apparently, only in individual cases, in cases of extreme obstinacy, coercion can be applied, whereas collective measures of coercion are prohibited.
Under the same document number, there follows, after this telephone conversation, a file note which I shall pass by -- a secret letter from the Commander of the Security Police-- and then follows a letter from a Special Commander, called 4-A, most of which the prosecution has already presented, without, however, reading the heading of the letter into the record, as far as I can remember. The heading states, "Special Commando 4-A, dated 19 March 1943, Secret. To all Commando Leaders, Personally, of SD outside Commandos." And therefore defendant Milch could not possibly know of the secret orders of the SD. He was no agency of the SD.
Under the same document number, there follows, after this letter, a File Note. It's two sheets further on -- File Note regarding a conference on the 10th of March. This is still Document 3012. There follows a new part. Have you got it in German? It is on Page 236 in German.
"File Notice regarding the conference on the 10th of March 1943 with the KV Chief, State Councillor, Poulkert in Rowno.
"Present: Major General Nagel, Wi in the South; secondly, Lt. General Bruch, Rue in the Ukraine; thirdly, KV Chief State Councillor Pouckert, Wi Staff East, Chief Group Labor and Plenipotentiary of the GBA, fourth, Oberregierungsrat Meincke, Deputy to the Plenipotentiary of the GBA at Rowno; fifth, Chief administrative Councillor Bong-Schmidt, Wi in the South, Group Chief, La in Rowno; sixth, KV Chief, Dr. Ackerman, Economic Staff South, Wi in the South, Group Chief in Rowno, temporary.
"State Councillor Peuckert stated in his introduction that labor employment in the German agriculture and the armament programs ordered by the Fuehrer demanded the quickest obtaining of another one million laborers from Eastern territories urgently."
