"6. The G.B.A. emphasized that during the past two years he had been in the position of being able to guarantee the execution of the given tasks in advantage. This was not possible with absolute certainty in the year 1944. He would, however, make every effort in order to fulfill the plant program under any circumstances.
"The G.B.A. brought up the question of the stabilization of the wages in the occupied territories. The Fuehrer emphasized again that it would be necessary to maintain the level of wages also, in the future; since the additional recruitment of 4,050,000 -workers for the year 1944 was made compulsory by virtue of the Fuehrer's decision." -- Do you have a page missing, Dr. Bergold, too?
DR. BERGOLD: Missing.
MR. DENNEY: "I suggest the following program to make the necessary workers available" -- That is Page 62 -- "after a most exhaustive examination of all possibilities:
"1. From reserves within Germany, about 500,000 new workers can be mobilized if the utmost efforts are exerted (commitment of workers who became unemployed as a result of enemy air raids, duty to register shutting down, measures of selection.
"2. Recruitment of Italian workers amounting to 500,000, of these from January to April monthly 250,000 to 1,000,000 and from May to December 500,000.
"3. Recruitment of 1,000,000 monthly French workers at the same rates, from 1.2 to 31.12,44." (From the beginning of January to the end of December). "(about 91,000 per month).
"4. Recruitment of 250,000 workers from Belgium.
"5. Recruitment of 250,000 workers from the Netherlands.
"6. Recruitment of workers from the Eastern territories, the occupied former Soviet territories, the Baltic States, the Government General" -- And the figure has been left out.
"7. Recruitment of workers from the rest of the European countries, 100,000.
"In order to be able to carry through this program, I ask that the Fuehrer be requested to issue a decree to the highest Reich authorities and military offices concerned, emphasizing again to these agencies the urgency of the task. This decree might mention in an appropriate manner that at an exhaustive conference of the Chiefs at the Fuehrer's with the competent departments, a total requirement of 4,050,000 additional workers for the year was laid down and that the G.B.A. thereupon worked out the above program for the fulfillment of the requirement; the Fuehrer has approved it and its fulfillment is to be aimed at under all conditions. The highest Reich authorities and the military offices concerned should have it pointed out to them that they should assist the G.B.A. with the greatest vigor in carrying out this measure.
"In my opinion, primarily the following authorities are to receive the decree:
"1. The Reich Fuehrer SS and the Reich Minister of the Interior Himmler for the information of all higher SS and police chiefs in the West, in the East and in the South.
"2. The Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs von Ribbentrop for the information of diplomats representing the Reich.
"3. The Chief of the OKW, Field Marshal Keitel, for the information of the military commanders in French and Belgium, the military commander SouthEast, the plenipotentiary general with the Fascist-Republican Government of Italy, the chiefs of the army groups in the East.
"4. The Reich Minister of occupied Eastern territories for the information of the Reich Commissioners for the Ukraine and the Ostland.
"5. The Reich Commissioner of the occupied Dutch territories.
"6. The German General in Cracow, and the General Governor.
"I would be especially grateful to you, most Honorable Reich Minister, if you would be so kind as to expedite this matter as much as possible. In order to carry out the spring cultivation in Germany, as well as to prevent a further decrease in the level of employed in the armament industry, the speediest action is essential. It is important to get the recruitment of foreign workers under way again as Quickly as possible.
Since the Fuehrer has made his decision, I do not want a single day to be lost in the preparation of the measures which must now be taken."
If Your Honor please, an error has been made in the transcription in the original which I have and which I will now show to Dr. Bergold. Opposite Item 6, which appears on page 62 of Document Book 2-B of Exhibit 50 in evidence, the figure "600,000" should be inserted.
We have now obtained the 42nd meeting and in the interest of order it might be well to read that at this time. If Your Honors will recall, that is on page 27 of Document Book 3-A. It is the results of the 42nd meeting which was held on 23 June 1943, and it was passed for the moment because the copy of Dr. Bergold did not have the proper page in it and we now have the photostat of the original.
"The manpower situation in the coal mining industry, particularly in the hard coal mining industry, is still unsatisfactory and necessitates an extension of the measures decided upon at the 36th session of the Central Planning board held on 22 April 1943.
"The intensive discussion yielded as the most expedient solution the use of Russian prisoners of war to fill the existing vacancies. The more homogeneous character of the shifts will bring about the necessary higher output resulting both from an increased capacity of such shifts and particularly from a restriction of fluctuations.
"1. The present drive, which is to be carried out throughout the German economy proper, aims both at freeing Russian labor fit for work in the mining industry and actually not employed as semi-skilled workmen, and at replacing it by additional imported labor consisting of Eastern workers, Poles, etc. Thus, about 50,000 workmen are expected to be made available up to the end of July 1943. This drive is to be accelerated.
"Furthermore, as an immediate measure it should be suggested to the Fuehrer - RVK and the GBA submitting the necessary figures for the statement to the Fuehrer - that 200,000 Russian prisoners fit for the heaviest work be made available from the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS through the intermediary of the Chiefs of the Army Groups. The prisoners will be selected on the spot by medical officers in the mining industry and officials of the Commissioner General for Labor Control (GBA) will take charge of then, there and then. Provisions are to be made for an extension of this program in order to satisfy any demand for manpower, which will have accumulated up to end of the year 1943.
"The manpower needed by the mining transport industry and by the iron-producing industry may be supplied from that same source provided that the necessities of the coal mining industry have previously been adjusted.
"The performance of the Soviet Russians so employed is to be raised by a premium system. For this purpose the ban on pay restrictions is to be lifted and the manager be allowed to distribute among the workmen, according to his duty and discretion, RM 1 per head per day as a premium for particular services rendered.
"Furthermore, care will be taken that workmen can exchange these premiums, which will be paid out in camp money, for goods. It is intended to put at their disposal various provisions - beer, tobacco, cigarettes and cigars, small items for daily use, etc.
"The Reich Ministry of Food, in conjunction with the Reich Association Coal and the Reich Ministry of Economic Affairs, will clarify the question whether further improvement can be granted as far as rations are concerned.
"2. Equally in occupied countries, labor is to be tied more securely to the various factories by means of the distribution of additional ration cards as premium for good service. This refers in particular to the Government General and the occupied territories in the east. The output demanded of the Government General is to be fixed at the proposed amount, and the additional rations for armament workers may then be rated accordingly."
The Court will note the amount of these premiums that are being placed at the disposal of the people working could be purchased for RM 1 is reasonably limited.
The next document is NOKW-198, which should have been inserted in Your Honors' Document Book No. 2. The chart should be between pages 58 and 60. It is listed in the index of Document Book 2-A as NOKW-098. It follows NO-1177 and precedes 1929-PS which was just offered as Exhibit No. 50. It is a photostat and looks like this (photostatic copy of document held up by Mr. Denney) if Honors please.
It has a letter attached to it, a photostat.
THE PRESIDENT: That will be Exhibit No. 51?
MR. DENNEY: We offer this as Exhibit No. 51. If the Court please, in having copies made of this exhibit some difficulty was encountered because there are some figures which have been written over and the original exhibit which the Secretary General has perhaps gives a little clearer picture. For some reason it was impossible to photostat the chart and this was the best we could do -- to make a translation of it which has been certified. I suggest that your Honors look at the original so as to see the handwriting which appears over the figures. We have tried to show them as well as possible on the copies which we made.
(The original exhibit was handed to the President by the Secretary General)
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dixon, this is the German.
MR. DENNEY: That is what we wanted your Honors to see -- the writing and figures because it was impossible in the translation to make the copies show -- it conforms, at least, as a Chinese copy so as to speak. Your Honors will note that on the letter which is on the first page -- that is this short piece of paper with it -- up in the right hand corner there is handwritten "back to Central Planning" and then "MI" which are the initials in the handwriting of the defendant.
Now this is a proposal of distribution for I/1944. It is submitted that that means the first quarter of 1944. There is no other date on it except at the bottom it says "25 February 1944".
Now, if this is examined, over on the left side appears a chart "distribution of labor" and it is to be noted that foreigners -- French, Belgians, Dutch, Italians, Eastern workers, Balkans, and other foreigners - are listed there and, also, prisoners of war, and that distribution of labor is listed in thousands.
Over at the right, the third section, under III it speaks of "armament and war production", listing thereunder mining, other raw material industry, 220A iron and metal and ore manufacturing industry, trade goods and food producing industry, building industry, and energy.
And then the various totals by "natives, male and female; foreigners, male and female". Then over in the last column under "balance: 31 May 1943" prisoners of war.
There are some handwritten notes on the left. There are also some handwritten notes on the right. We will produce the original after the recess in order that your Honors may see it because on the original the Defendant's note "Back to Central Planning Milch" is in red pencil. Also, this other handwriting on the plan is in red pencil. I would like Your Honor to see it.
(A recess was taken).
MR. DENNEY: If Your Honors please, we have now obtained the original of Exhibit 51 and Your Honors will note that there are, in addition to the short letter, two pages. The first page appearing thereafter has nothing on it that is not typewritten. That has been photostated and Dr. Bergold has a copy of that and we are getting this page photostated to add it to the exhibit. However, the page that I want to bring up for Your Honors' attention at this time is the last page and the first page and when the photostat comes through of this second one we just have typewritten material except for one red pencil mark around the word "Geheim". We will add that to the exhibit.
It is our contention that the figures in red on the second page were placed there by the defendant.
JUDGE MUSMANO: You say the second page?
MR. DENNEY: Well, the second page in the exhibit, actually that first page which is there. The second page is not part of the exhibit which Your Honors have and there is no red writing on there. So that the record is clear, on the last page which Your Honors have of the original exhibit.
We then cone to the 53rd meeting of the Central Planning Board, which appears at Page 29, Document Book A. It is page 56 in the German copy.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Denney, is there a page number for this photostatic exhibit 51? Where should it go?
MR. DENNEY: It goes between pages 58 and 60. It should have page 59 in Document Book 2-B, and Your Honors' index in Document Book 2-A should be corrected to read NOWK 198 instead of NOWK 098. Its page number is 59, Document Book 2-B. It follows an excerpt from the Tribunal which is NO 1177 and precedes Exhibit Number 50, which is 1292-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: We have it.
MR. DENNEY: In addition, we would like to offer as Exhibit 52 and ask the court to judicially notice NO 1177, which appears at page 103 in Document Book 2-C, an excerpt from the transcript of the International Military Tribunal pages 5651 to 5656. That becomes Document No. 52. It is next to the last document on the index of Your Honors' Document Book No. 2, No. 1172.
222A This is the testimony of -- on cross-examination by Mr. Justice Jackson in the initial trial of the defendant with reference to the matter which we ore now going to read, the 53rd meeting of the Central Planning Board, appearing on page 29, Exhibit 48 A, Document Book No. 3 A. This is a partial excerpt from the "stenographic transcript of the 53rd conference of the Control planning Board, concerning the supply of labor on February 16, 1944, 10 o'clock in the Reich Air Ministry.
(Prsent: Milch (for Central Planning), Dehrle, Berk, etc.)" "Milch:
The Armament industry employs foreign workmen to a large extent: according to the latest figures - 40 percent. The new directions by the Plenipotentiary General for Manpower are mostly foreigners and we lost a lot of German personnel which was called up. Specially the air industry being a young industry employs a great many young people who should be called up. This will be very difficult as is easily seen if one deducts these working for experimental stations. In mass production the foreign workers by far prevail. It is about 95 percent and higher. Our best new engine is made 88 percent by Russian prisoners of war and the other 12 percent by German men and women. 50 - 60 Ju 52's (a Junkers plane) which we now regard only as transport planes are made per month. Only 6 - 8 German men are working on this machine: The rest are Ukrainian women who have beaten all the records of trained workers."
Continuing 10 pages later: "The list of the shirkers should be entrusted to Himmler's trustworthy hands who will make them work all right. This is very important for educating people and has also a deterrent effect on such others who would likewise feel inclined to shirk."
Then, going down to page 1913: "Milch: It is, therefore, not possible to exploit fully all the foreigners unless we compel them by piece work or we have the possibility of taking measures 223A against foreigners who are not doing their bit.
But, if the foreman lays hands on a prisoner of war or snacks him there is at once a terrible row, the man is put into prison etc. There are sufficient officials in Germany who think it their most important duty to stand up for human rights instead of war production. I am also for human rights. But if a Frenchman says: 'You fellows will all be hanged and the chief of the factory will be beheaded first' and if then the chief says 'I am going to hit him' then he is in a mess. He is not protected. I have told my engineers 'I an going to punish you if you don't hit such a man; the more you do in this respect the more I shall praise you. I shall see to it that nothing happens to you'. This is not yet sufficiently known. I cannot talk to all factory leaders. I should like to see the man who stays my arm because I can settle accounts with everybody who stays my arm. If the little factory-leader docs that he is put into a concentration camp and runs the risk of losing the prisoners of war. In one case two Russian Officers took off with an airplane but crashed. I ordered that these two men be hanged at once. They were hanged or shot yesterday. I left that to the SS. I expressed the wish to have them hanged in the factory for the others to see."
Field Marshal of the German air force, a man who had a soldier's book in the first page of a soldier's book, which he had from the time that he was a private until he was a field marshal, the statement saying:
"Respect prisoners of war."
(at the request of Dr. Bergold, the last statement was read by the reporter. )
MR. DENNEY: We now come to the 54th meeting which starts at page 1 of Your Honor's Document Book. That appears in Document Book 3A, page 1. At this meeting Speer was absent and the defendant presides, and, although we have it in here at some length, there is only one more meeting after this one; I think it necessary for the record that all of this be read in because it shows the critical situation in which they found themselves as of this date. We have a record of Speer's conference with Hitler and the date, March 1, 1944. The clerk then can judicially notice the position in which the German Wehrmacht found itself and we have a statement of Field Marshal Keitel which was given at the first trial, which we will read into the record shortly. We have seen the defendants working on a program for labor for the first quarter of 1944 in Exhibit 51, and at this meeting the whole thing was threshed out.
"Sauckel: (This, incidentally, was the beginning of the meeting.) Field Marshal, Gentlemen, it goes without saying that we shall satisfy as far as possible the demands agreed upon by the Central Planning Board. In this connection I wish to state that I call such deliveries as can be made by the Plenipotentiary for Labor "possible" by stressing every nerve of his organization. Already on January 4th I had to report to the Fuehrer with the greatest regret that for the first time I was not in a position to guarantee delivery of the grand total of 4,050,000 men then calculated in the Fuehrer's headquarters for the year 1944. In the presence of the Fuehrer I emphasized this several times. In the previous years I Was able to satisfy the demands, at least with regard to the number of laborers, but this year I am no longer able to guarantee them in advance. In case I can deliver only a small number, I should be glad if those arriving would be distributed by percentage within the framework of your program. Of course I shall readily agree if I am now told by the board: Now we have to change the program; now this or that is more urgent. It goes without saying that we will satisfy the demands whatever they may be, to the best of our ability, with due regard to the war situation.
So much about figures.
"We have no reason to contest the figures as such, for we ask nothing for ourselves. We are not even able to do anything with the laborers we collect; we only put than at the disposal of industry. I only wish to make some general statements and ask for your indulgence.
"In the autumn of last year the supply program, inasmuch as it concerns supply from abroad, was frustrated to a very great extent; I need not give the reasons in this circle; we have talked enough about them, but I have to state: the program has been smashed. People in France, Belgium, and Holland thought that labor was no longer to be directed, from these countries to Germany because the work now had to be done. For months sometimes I visited these countries twice a month -- I have been called a fool who against all reason traveled around in these countries in order to extract labor. This went so far, I assure you, that all perfectures in France had general orders not to satisfy my demands since even the German authorities quarreled over whether or not Sauckel was a fool.
"If one's work is smashed in such a way, repair is very, very difficult. Now for the first time I have been reproached by officers stationed in the East, which was very hard on me, that it was the Plenipotentiary for Labor who did not extract enough men from the East during the last year and thus was responsible if now our soldiers had to fight against the same men wham I should have t ken away; for these had become an essential part of the Russian divisions."
"Thus I have been reproached several times by front officers; and I wish to protest here and now. For the East last year was barred to me. In large areas I was forbidden to take anything from agriculture. I was told: You don't get any men since we have to organize agriculture here, the Donots area too was barred to me, and I was not allowed to extract anything. I had to struggle hard for every individual man whom I wished to extract from the East. Therefore I wish to state. expressly here and now that the reproaches made by the front that the men who I did not extract now fight on the side of the enemy are unjust, since I was entirely kept out of these areas. Such was the situation at the end of the year.
"At that time I was very much concerned: We discovered a decrease in the amount of labor employed. Today I am able to report that we stopped that decrease. According to most accurate statistics, which I had ordered, we have today again including foreign workers and prisoners of war, the same number of 29.1 millions which we had in September. But we have added nothing since that time. Thus we dispatched to the Reich in these two months no more than 4, 500 Frenchmen which amounts to nothing. From Italy only 7,000 civilians arrived. This, although from January 12 until today I have had no hour, no Sunday, and no night for myself. I have visited all these countries and traveled through the whole Reich. My work was terribly difficult, but not for the reason that no more workers are to be found. I wish to state expressly, in France and in Italy there are still men galore. The situation in Italy is nothing but a European scandal, the same applies to a certain extent to France. Gentlemen, the French work badly and support themselves at the expense of the work done by the German soldier and laborer, even at the expense of the German food supply, and the same applies to Italy. I found out during my last stay that the food supply of the northern Italians cannot suffer any comparison with that of the southern Italians. The northern Italians, that is as far to the south as Rome, are so well nourished that they need not work; they are nourished quite differently from the German nation by their Father in Heaven without having to work for their bread.
The labor reserves exist, but the means of touching them have been smashed."
Of course, there is a note at this time speaking of Italy. Italy had withdrawn from the war as of March 1, 1944.
"The most abominable point made by my adversaries is their claim that no executive had been provided within these areas in order to recruit in a sensible manner the Frenchmen, Belgians, and Italians and to dispatch them to work. Thereupon I even proceeded to employ and train a whole batch of French male and female agents who for good pay just as was done in olden times for 'shanghaiing' went hunting for men and made them drunk by using liquor as well as words, in order to dispatch them to Germany. Moreover I charged some able men with founding a special labor supply executive of our own, and this they did by training and arming with the help of the Higher SS and Police Fuehrer a number of natives, but I still have to ask the Munitions Ministry for arms for the use of these men. For during the last year alone several dozens of very able labor executives have been shot dead. All these means I have to apply, grotesque as it sounds, to refute the allegation there was no executive to bring labor to Germany from these countries."
The term "executive" is certainly peculiarily used here when he has to ask the SS and Police, or rather the armament Industry to give them weapons so that these executives may be safe in going about in their so-called recruiting of labor.
"I have to tell you, Field Marshal, after repeated inquiry, there is no longer a genuine German direction of labor. I have just issued the well-known proclamation which the Fuehrer himself had inspired, corrected, and adapted concerning voluntary honorary service. What success this step will have, I don't know yet; it will be very little. But I shall enlarge this voluntary honorary service. The Fuehrer wishes it to be administered by the Women's Service. Therefore, I shall go tomorrow and see the Women's Service and the Women District Leaders of the Women's Service of Germany in order to insist on the most extensive recruitment by the Women's Service of women above the ages of 45 and.
50 years. Something will be attained in that way. There are quite good, beginnings in some of the districts. There are quite good beginnings in some of the districts. But recruitment must be continuous and uninterrupted, and such things need some time before they run smoothly. Out of the German labor reservoir, however, 60,000 new laborers have been found in the first two months of the year, and the start as a whole has functioned better than I expected. The grand total so far is 262,000. Of these from the East alone there are 112,000. Thus the satisfactory statement can be made that the authorities in charge of what remains of the occupied areas have acknowledged the fact that better results are expected if the available labor is used in Germany than if it is used abroad. The supply of these 112,000 new Eastern workers, mainly men, has made it possible for us to hope for arrival within the first two months of 262,000 workers.
"Then some words about the question of women's labor. I have asked one of my assistants to give you later a survey comparing the English regulations on the national service to women with the German ones. It is perfectly correct to state that England, even if we take into account the difference in the total number available, does not use as many of her women as we do. One ought to abstain therefore from the reproach which is still made against me, that we didn't do enough with regard to the use of women's labor. On January 4th I told the Fuehrer expressly and repeatedly; if he gave me the power to recruit laborers a la Stalin, I should be able to put at his disposal perhaps a million more women. The Fuehrer brusquely and repeatedly refused this. He used the expression that our German long-legged slender women could not be compared with the (Austrian dialect term for short-legged, used in a derogatory sense) and healthy Russian women. I, for my part, also wish to warn against setting too much hope on the usefullness to these woman. But I wish to ask you to be sure that I am doing everything in order to put to work everybody who is fit for work, as far as I am able to do within the frame-work of the Fuehrer's permission, and this by exercising some soft moral pressure as well.
In the same way I have directed all my assistants to examine continuously the results of the action of January of last year concerning the duty to register and to make sure that the labor exchangers continuously find out and call up the women whose children grow beyond the age in question, and the girls who reach the age groups in question. Thus we do everything possible.
In order to enable me to reach these numbers, two conditions must be fulfilled. First it is indispensable that all authorities which administer the occupied countries must recognize the necessity of fulfilling the demand for labor in the Reich. This so far is not the case everywhere. Especially the protected factories in the occupied countries make my work more difficult. According to reports received within the last days these protected factories are to a great part filled to capacity, And still labor is sucked up into those areas This strong suction very much obstructs our desire to dispatch labor to the Reich. I wish to emphasize that I never opposed the use of French labor in factories which had been transferred from Germany to France. I am still sound of mind, and as recently as last summer I charged Mr. Hildebrandt with an inquiry in France which had the following results: It would be easy to extract from French medium and small factories (80% of all French factories are small enterprises with only 36-40 working hours) - 1 million laborers for use in the transferred factories, and 1 million more for dispatch to Germany. To use 1 million within France should be quite possible unless the protected factories in France artificially suck up the labor completely and unless their number is continually increased, as happen according to my reports especially in Belgium, and unless new categories of works are continually declared protected, so that finally no labor is left which I may use in Germany. I wish here and now to repeat my theses: A French workman, if treated in the right way, does double the amount of work in Germany that he would do in France, and he has here twice the value he has in France.
I want to state clearly and fearlessly: the exaggerated use of the idea of projected factories in connection with the labor supply from France in my submission implies a grave danger for the German labor supply. If we cannot come to the decision that my assistants together with the armament authorities, are to come-out every factor, this fountain of labor too in the future will remain blocked for the use of Germany, and in this case the program prescribed to me by the Fuehrer may well be frustrated. The same applies to Italy. In either country there are enough laborers, even enough skilled workers; only we must have enough courage to stop into the French plants. What really happens in France, I do not know. That a smaller amount of work is done during enemy operations in France, like in every occupied country, than is done in Germany seems to me evident.