A I am a member of the Academy of Science, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; an active member of the Academy of Architecture of the USSR; president of the Armenian Academy of Science; an Honourable member of the Iran Academy of Science; member of the Society of Antiquarians in London; and a member Consultant of the American Institute of Art and Archeology.
QHere you in Leningrad at the time of the German blockade?
AYes.
QDo you know about the destruction of monuments of culture and art in Leningrad?
AYes.
QCan you tell us in your own words, facts that were known to you?
ABesides general observations in regard to general activities activities around Leningrad, I also was an eye-witness of the treasures which were destroyed by the enemy, so far as the Hermitage Museum is concerned, and the building of the Winter Palace and Heritage Palace - the exhibits belonging to the Hermitage Museum. During many months there was a systematic air bombardment and artillery shelling of the buildings of the Hermitage. There were to aviation bombs that hit the building Hermitage and about 30 artillery shells hit the buildings These shells caused considerable damage to the building. Air bombs destroyed drainage and the water supply of the museum. Observing the damage done to Hermitage, I also saw at the same time the burning of the Academy of Science, which was situated on the opposite shore of the river. The buildings of the Academy of Science; namely, the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography situated right next to the Zoological Museum. All these buildings were subjected to heavy artillery shelling by incendiary shells, and as a result of this I saw the result of these hits while looking at it from the Winter Palace. The damage itself, from artillery shells, caused considerable damage; and to wit, the ones that I consider were substantial. One shell broke a portico of the main building of the Hermitage, facing Million Street, and the upper part of the Atlanta statue was bombed and the remainder was destroyed, the second shell having gone through the ceiling was one of the biggest holes in the Winter Palace, which broke through the walls of the first story and caused considerable damage within the hall itself. Two shells hit the former riding school of the palace, where considerable exhibits dating from the 17th and 18th century were located.
One hit broke entirely four famous carriages of the 18th Century and one of gilt carriage of the 19th Century was hit.
Furthermore, one shell went through the ceiling of the column hall of the main building of the Hermitage and a balcony, and the gallery of this hall was destroyed by it. At the same time, a branch building of the Hermitage Museum on Talt Street, late Stieglitz was hit by the aviation bombs which caused great damage to the building. The building was absolutely wrecked, and a large part of the exhibits in this building was destroyed.
Q Do I understand you correctly? You have mentioned about des-
truction of the Hermitage and you mentioned the 'Winter Palace. Is that only one building? Where was the Hermitage Museum located, the one that you mentioned?
AUntil the Revolution, the Hermitage occupied a special building of its own facing Million Street, and the other side facing the Winter Palace on the Neva. After the Revolution, a Small Hermitage was also joined to the Big Hermitage, the building which was separating the Hermitage from the Winter Palace; and subsequently the winter palace was also in corporated into the Large Hermitage.
So now the series of buildings and premises which belong to the Hermitage consist of the Winter palace, Small Hermitage, and Big Hermitage, which was occupied by the musuem prior to the Revolution, and also the building of the Hermitage Theatre, which was built by Catherine II. That was the building that was hit by the bomb, that was mentioned.
QBesides the destruction of the Winter Palace and the Hermitage, do you know any other facts about the destruction of other monuments?
AYes, I observed monuments which suffered great damage from artillery shelling and aviation bombs. Among them damage was caused to the Kazan Cathedral, which was built in 1814 by Architect Voronichin Isaaki; the cathedral, where columns carried out the traces of damage.
THE PRESIDENT:You are going rather too fast. Go on.
THE WITNESS:And within the city limits great damage was done to the Rastrelli Building and the Smolensk Cathedral, which was build by Rastrelli, where the middle part of the gallery was blown up. Furthermore, considerable damage was done to the surface of the walls of Fortress of Peter and Paul, which now is not a military fortification at all.
QBesides Leningrad, do you know anything at all about the destruction and devastation of the suburbs of Leningrad?
AI had the chance to familiarize myself with the condition of the monuments of Peterhof and Pavlovsk, and in all those three towns I saw traces of monstrous encroachment on those monuments by the Germans. And of all the damage which I saw, it is very hard to state in full, because it is too much, allthe damge had traces of mutilation.
As to the shelling of the Winter Palace, I could mention that 30 shells, which I talked about before, hit the Hermitage -- 30 bombs.
That was not during one raid -- but during several raids.
In other words, in Peterhof, besides the damage which was caused to the big palace by fire, it was destroyed completely. I also saw roofs torn off Peterhof, which was guilded and silver-plated, and the Monplaisire of old building Peterhof and on the opposite side of the building. Besides this, the sheetings could no fall off on account of fire and damage -- they were torn off. In the older buildings of Peterhof, which were built by Peter, all damage had a trace of mutilation; not as a result of any catastrophe, because the Museum wasn't touched at all. But the decorated walls were absolutely torn off. All ancient stones which dated to the time of Peter the Great disappeared without any trace, and very ordinary stones were put in their place. In Tsaskoe Selo, the large palace, which was built by Rastrelli, samage certainly showed signs of mutilation, because in a whole series of halls valuable furniture was carried away before the building perished in the fire. In Argate Hall the walls were decorated by polished agates, and was turned into a munition plant, and the forge was put into the fire place, which dated to the 18th Century, and which as absolutely ruined.
In Pavlovsk, the palace of the city was also ruined by fire. A whole lot of traces -- of the fire prove the fact that valuable property, which was in the halls, was carried out beforethe hall was set on fire.
QYou mentioned just now about the Winter Palace and other monuments of culture which were enumerated by you. In other words, that Winter Palace was deliberately ruined? What particular facts do you have for this statement?
AThe deliberate shelling of the Hermitage by artillery fire during the siege, as well as for all my colleagues, was quite clear, because damage was caused not by just artillery shelling just once or twice during this methodical systematic shelling of the city, which we were witnessing for several months. The first hits were directed not at the Hermitage, not at the Winter Palace -- the shells were passing by. Of course, it was hitting into the range of the palace and after this, approximately in the same direction, with just variations from the state line.
The shells were hitting no further, one or two during one particular shelling.
Of course, it was not accidental in character,
GENERAL RAGINSKY:I have no more questions for the witness.
THE PRESIDENT:Do any of the other prosecuting counsel want to ask any questions? Do any of the defense counsel want to ask any questions?
CROSS EXAMINATION BY DR. LATERNSER (Counsel for General Staff and OKW):
QMr. Witness, you have just said something about artillery shelling and also by aerial bombs, of the Hermitage, Winter Palace, and also the Peterhof Palace. I would be very much interested as to where the buildings are located; that is, as seen from Leningrad?
AThe Winter Palace and Hermitage, which stands right next to it, are in the center of Leningrad on the shores of the River Neva on the Palace Quai, not so far from the Palace Bridge, which during all the shelling, was hit only once. On the other hand, on the other side was Neva -- next to the Winter Palace and Hermitage there was the so-called Palace Square and Halturin Street. Did I answer your question?
QI amend the question a little differently. In what part of Leningrad were these buildings -- in the south, the north, the southwest or southeast? Will you tell me something about that?
AThe Winter Palace and Hermitage are right in the center of Leningrad on the shores of the Neva, as I have already mentioned before.
QAnd where is the Peterhof?
AThe Peterhof is on the shores of the Finnish Bay, southwest of the Hermitage, if you consider the Hermitage as a starting point.
QCan you tell me whether close to the Hermitage Palace and Winter Palace there is any industry, particularly armament industry?
ASo far as I know, in the vicinity of Hermitage, there are no industrial concerns. If the question meant as to locating the building of the headquarters of the staff, then it is located on the other side of the Palace Square, and it suffered much less due to the shelling than the Winter Palace. The staff building, which is on the other side of the Palace Square, so far asI know, was hit only by two shells.
Q Witness, do you know anything about the fact whether 22nd Feb - A - O'B - 1 probably close by, close to these buildings which you mentioned, whether there was any battery or artillery?
AAround Winter Palace, around the square, there wasn't a single artillery battery, because from the very beginning steps were taken not to have any shooting or shaking from fire near the building Hermitage, so that it wouldn't suffer from earth trembling.
QDid the factories, which were in Leningrad during the siege, continue to work in armament production?
AI do not understand the question. What part are you talking about--Leningrad in general?
QArmament factories in Leningrad: had they been working during the time of the siege?
AI know that in the neighbourhood of the Hermitage building and Winter Palace, the immediate neighborhood, there weren't any factories working for war purposes.
During the blockade there were no factories at all.
But I know that in Leningrad munitions were being made, and as much as I can judge were successfully used.
DR. LATERNSER:I have no more questions.
BY DR.SERVATIUS (Counsel for the Political Leadership Corps):
QWitness, the Winter Palace is on the Neva River. How far is the next bridge across the Neva River from the Winter Palace?
AThe nearest bridge, the palace bridge, is within about 50 metres from the Palace.
But as I already said before, only one shell hit the bridge, and for exactly that reason I believe the Winter Palace was deliberately shelled.
I didn't think it possible that the bridge was the object of shelling, because only one shell hit the bridge and about thirty shells hit the Palace.
The other bridge is an exchange bridge which joins the island of Vasiliev to Petrogradskaya Storona; and with regard to that fact only during the raids only incendiary bombs were dropped on that place, which hit this bridge, and then only very few.
Q Witness, have you any knowledge of artillery--whether you 22nd Feb - A - O'B - 2 could judge Whether the target was the Palace or the bridge in the vicinity?
AI never was an artillery man, but I suppose that if German artillery was trying to hit the bridge then it couldn't possibly hit the bridge only once and hit the Palace, which is quite a ways away, thirty times.
That is what makes me think so.
QThat is your conviction as a non-artillery man. I have another question.
The Neva River was used by the fleet. How far from the Winter Palace were the ships of the Red Fleet?
AIn that part of the Neva River there were no fighting ships, and what would serve as military operations on other parts of the Neva was considerably away from the Palace.
QOne last question. During the entire siege were you in Leningrad?
AI was in Leningrad from the first day of the war until the 31st of March 1942.
Then When the German troops were driven out of the suburbs of Leningrad I had a chance to examine Peterhof.
DR. SERVATIUS:Thank you. I have no more questions.
THE PRESIDENT:General, do you want to ask any questions in re-examination?
GENERAL RAGINSKY:No further questions.
THE PRESIDENT:The witness can retire.
MAJOR GENERAL ZORYA:May it please your Honors. I want to begin to submit documentary evidence on the part of the Soviet Prosecution with regard to the employment of compulsory slave labor practised by the Hitlerites on a large scale.
With its plans for world domination, with its negation of law, ethics, mercy and humane considerations, Fascism early envisaged the enslavement of the peaceful population of the temporarily occupied territories, the deportation of millions of people to Fascist Germany, and the compulsory employment of their labor power.
Fascism and slavery--these two concepts are inseparable.
22nd Feb - A - O'B - 3 I begin, your Honors, my presentation of this document relative to the report of the Yugoslav Republic, which was already submitted to the Tribunal as USSR-36.
I refer to page 40 of your document book.
I read into the record extracts from the report of the Yugoslav Republic, which is entitled, "Forced Labor of Civilian Populations."
I quote.
The Fascist policy of the wholesale exploitation of the occupied territories has also been applied in Yugoslavia.
Immediately after the occupation the Reich Government and the OKW introduced forced labor for the population of the occupied territory.
The exploitation of the manpower in Yugoslavia has been carried out within the framework of the general German plan in this respect.
The Defendant Goering, as the leader of the German Economic Plan, issued directives to his subordinates concerning the systematic exploitation of the manpower of the occupied territories.
In a report from Berlin, which was written by the Head of the Administration Service of the German Kommandantur in Belgrade, named Ranze, instructions by Goering are communicated, according to which the economic regulations in the occupied territories do not aim at the protection of the local population, but at the maximum exploitation of the manpower of the occupied countries for the benefit of the German war economy.
Immediately after the occupation of Yugoslavia, the Germans established offices for enlisting workers for "voluntary" labor in Germany.
To their own organization the Germans immediately added the organizations which already existed in Yugoslavia for employment of the workers and labor mediation, and began to carry out through these organizations also their own plans.
Thus, for example, in Serbia they immediately incorporated into their own organization the main and central office for labor mediation, as well as the labor exchange.
Through these organizations, until the end of February 1943, and only from the territory of Serbia the Germans sent into Germany 22nd Feb - A - O'B - 4 47,500 workers to work there.
Later on this number considerably increased but, however, the data in this respect have not yet been fully examined.
These workers have been employed in agriculture and various industries of Germany, regularly performing the most difficult kinds of work.
In the report of the Yugoslav Republic it is stated that the Gestapo and special police also used pressure and force, and this went so far that these "volunteer" workers were hunted and collected through the streets and dragged into Germany by force.
Apart from these so-called "volunteer" workers the Germans sent for forced labor in Germany a large number of prisoners from various camps, as well as politically "suspicious" persons--suspicious from their point-who had to perform the most difficult kinds of work and under the worst living and working conditions.
As early as 1942 many innocent victims of the Banjica, Sajmiste, and other camps, were sent for forced labor into Germany.
The first transport of them left on April 24, 1942, and these transports continued without interruption until September 26, 1944.
Old and young, men and women, farmers, workers and intellectuals,and others were sent to Germany.
However, they were not taken only to Germany, but to other countries under German occupation as well.
According to the log books of the Banjica camp, which are far from giving an exact picture, over ten thousand prisoners were sent for forced labor from this camp alone.
The German authorities in Serbia issued a series of orders, aiming at a complete mobilization of manpower.
Among the first measures the following two laws were passed:
The law for the Compulsory Work and Restriction of the Freedom of Employment of 14 December 1941, and the law for the National Service work for the Reconstruction of Serbia, of November 5, 1941.
According to the first decree of law between 17 and 45 years of age could be called up for compulsory labor in vertain industrial undertakings and branches of economy. According to the second law, such persons could be called up for civilian service in the "National Reconstruction," which in fact meant that they had to work for the strengthening of the German economic and war effort.
The persons recruited in accordance with these two laws, admittedly remained in the country itself, but in fact they worked exclusively for the aims and benfit of the Germans' economic exploitation. They were primarily used for work in the mines (Bor, Kostolac, etc), for road building, railway line repairs, and for water transport, and so on.
On March 26, 1943, the German Commandant of Serbia, chief of armed forces, in a special order, introduced the so-called war economy measures of the Reich in the occupied territory of Serbia, and by this act imposed the general mobilization of the manpower in Serbia.
By this order, therefore, the entire population of the occupied Serbia was mobilized into the German war economy. The Germans exploited, in fact, to thegreatest possible extent the Serbian manpower.
The situation was in no way different in the other occupied areas of Yugoslavia. Without entering into numerous details of this planned exploitation, we shall quote here only one example from the occupied Slovenia. According to an official "Announcement" of the Regional German Farmers' Union in Koruska of August 10, 1944, issued in Celovec, every case of pregnancy of non-German women was to be reported to the loval administration, and in all such cases the women had to give up their children, and also were subject to committing abortions. The "Announcement" itself explains that in cases when non-German women give birth to their children, this "creates difficulties for their use in work", and besides, also, "a danger for the popultation policy". Furthermore, this "Announcement" states that it will be the duty of the Office of Work Service to influence these women to commit abortions.
As another example of the exploitation of manpower, we quote the circular instructions of the German State, Councillor for the Maribor District, of August 12, 1944.
This circular deals with the question of enlisting various categories of population in the occupied Province of "Donja Stajerska" into the armed forces and labor service, and it calls not only upon all the inhabitants of this occupied area, but also on the Dutchmen, Danes, Swedes, Luxembourgers, Norvegians, and Belgians, who may find themselves living there, to join up for labor service.
I shall pass on now to the report which was presented to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit No. 93.
First we should make a special note on the role of the defendant Frank in organizing deportations of the Polish population for slave labor to Germany.
I shall read into the record several excerpts from the so-called Frank's Diary submitted to the Tribunal as exhibit USSR-223.
This is the way Frank characterized his attitude toward the Poles at the meeting of the section chiefs which took place in Cracow, 12 April, 1940: Page twenty-six of the document file, reverse side. I quote:
"Under the pressure of the Reich it has now been ordered that as an insufficient number of voluntar workers have applied for work in the Reich it is permissible to use compulsion.
"This compulsion implies the possibility of arresting Poles, both men and women. In the course of this practice a certain amount of unrest has occurred which, according to some reports, is very wide spread, and which may lead to difficulties in all direction.
General Field-Marshall Goering in his long address some time ago stressed the necessity of deporting to Germany a million workers. Only 160,000 have been delivered up to date.
Arrests of young Poles when leaving churches and movie-houses will lead to an ever increasing nervousness of the Pole.
Generally he has no objections to make when the loitering rabble which is capable of work is taken off the streets. The best way would be to arrange a radi and it is absolutely legal to stop a Pole in the street and to ask him what he is doing, where he is working, etc."
During his conversation with defendant Sauckel, 18 August, 1942, defen-
dant Frank stated:
"I am glad to be able to tell you officially that so far through us more than 800,000 workers have been sent into the Reich.
"Recently you have requested us to obtain 140,000 more workers.
I have pleasure in telling you officially that in accordance with our agreement of yesterday 60% of these newly requested Poles will be sent to the Reich before the end of October and the remaining 40% before the end of this year."
Frank fulfilled his promise to defendant Sauckel.
At the conference of the Polish leaders of the Labor Front in the Government-General, 14 December 1942, Frank stated the following in his address "You know that we have given to the Reich more than 940,000 Polish workers.
Accordingly the Government-General is at the head of all European countries, both absolutely and relatively.
This performance is collossal; it was recognized as such also by Gauleiter Sauckel" I shall now read into the record that section of the Report of the Government of the Polish Republic which is entitled "Deportation of the Civilian Population for Forced Labor."
a) As early as on October 2nd, 1939, a decree was issued by Frank concerning the introduction of forced labor for the Polish civilian population within the Government General. By virtue of the said decree Polish civilians were under the obligation to work in agricultural establishments, on the maintenance of public buildings, road construction, regulation of river, highways, and railways.
b) A further decree of December 12th, 1939, extended the groups of those liable to forced labor to children from the age of 14 years. And a decree of May 13th, 1942, gave the authorities the right to use forced labor even outside the Government General.
c) The practice which developed on the basis of those decrees turned into a mass deportation of civilians from Poland and Germany.
Throughout the Government General, in towns and villages posters were continually inviting Poles to go "voluntarily" to work in Germany. At the same time however every town and village was told how many workers they were to supply.
The result of the voluntary recruitment was usually very disappointing. As a result of that the German authorities named the people to go or arranged round-ups in streets, restaurants, and other places and those caught were sent straight to Germany. There was a particular hunt for young workers of both sexes. The families of those deported received no news from them for months and only after some time postcards arrived describing the poor conditions in which they were forced to live. Often, after several months, the workers used to return home in a state of spiritual depression and complete physical exhaustion.
There is substantial evidence that while on that forced labor thousands of men were sterilized while young girls were forced into brothels.
d) These laborers were either sent to live with German farmers, working on their land, to work in factories, or special work, while confined to forced labor camps. The conditions in these camps were abhorrent.
e) According to provisional estimates, in 1940 alone, several hundred thousand women and men were sent to Germany as laborers.
f) To this great army of slave workers thousands of Poles deported from the incorporated territories have to be added and also 200,000 Polish prisoners of-war who, by a decree issued by Hitler in August 1940, were "released" from camps, but only to be sent to forced labor into various parts of Germany.
g) These deportations continued throughout the years of war. The total number of those workers reached at a certain point a figure of two millions. Exact figures are obviously not available. But if one considers that in spite of the very high death rate among those people, there are now about 895,000 Polish citizens registered in Western Germany, the estimate appears correct.
The whole chapter of deportations to forced labor is presented here in a very condensed form. Behind these few lines lies the history of hundreds of thousands of Polish families destroyed, tragedy, death and sorrow. The history of each of these laborers was a continuous tragedy: Fathers leaving their families without means, husbands their wives with no possibility of maintaining them, with no protection and little hope of return.
The quoted number of two million conceals an ovean of broken lives, in-
volving, at the least, 10% of the total population of Poland. This was a terrible crime, a crime terrible enough in itself, but especially so with respect to all these victims.
Deportation and forced labor were a flagrant violation of the laws of warfare.
The Greek Report on the German Atrocities, submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit USSR-369, states the following:
"As in all the other occupied territories, the Germans pursued two main objectives in their occupational policy in Greece: the maximum exploitation of the country's resources in the inter sts of the German military economy, and the enslavement of the population by means of systematic terror and general repression."
In following up their universal policy of plunder and revenge, the Germans as usual broke all the commonly accepted laws of behavior.
In part of the report of the Greek Government which is entitled, "Recruitment of Manpower" there are two paragraphs which I intend to read into the record.
"One of the many problems confronting the German administration was that ofrecruiting labor.
"All males between sixteen and fifty years of age were liable to labor conscription. Strikes were declared illegal, andsevere penalties enforced for resort thereto. Persons who organized and directed a strike were liable to the death penalty. Strikers were tried by military courts.
"At first, the Germans by propaganda and various forms of indirect pressure, tried to recruit Greek labor to work within Germany. They promised high wages and better conditions of life. As this kind of voluntary recruitment failed to produce the expected results they abandoned it and confronted the workers with the dilemma either of being taken as hostages or else of being sent to Germany to work."
Analogous measures for the deportation of manpower to Germany were also applied by the fascists in Czechoslovakia. But the deportation by the fascist criminals of peaceful populations into slave labor reaches its widest application inthe territories of the Soviet Union, which they had temporarily occupied. I would like now to deal briefly on preparations which the Germans set up for utilization of forced labor in the temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union. Even before their attack on the Soviet Union, in a document which is known to the Tribunal as "Green Folder", USSR Exhibit 10, a whole chapter is dedicated to the problem of organizing compulsory Labor on these Soviet territories, which the fascist war criminals intended to seize. The chapter is entitled "The Utilization of the manpower of the Local Population".
This chapter (pages 17 and 18 of the "Green Folder", page 83 of the Document Folder , which is submitted to the Tribunal) lays down the principal of forced labor for the peaceful Soviet population.
Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the sub-section "a" in the second part of that chapter, entitled "Recruitment of the Local Population" point out that:
"The workers in public utilities, in oil production works, manufacturing installations and warehouses, etc. will be forced to continue their work, under threat of punishment if necessary."
And several lines above that:
"In case of necessity, the workers will be organized into labor gangs."
The non-payment of wages for the compulsory labor of Soviet citizens was provided for already as early as the date of Goering's "Green Folder". The question of payment was reduced to the question of providing the workers with food. The fascist slave owners were only interested in maintaining the working potential of the people and nothing more.
Page 18 of the Russian text of Defendant Goering's "Green Folder" mentions at least three times, food as the only payment allowed.
I do not wish to take up the time of the Tribunal with the further analysi of this document, but will proceed with my presentation.
Defendant Goering, who lent his name to this directive for the plunder of the Soviet Union -- for how else could we refer to this document continued to organize slave labor in the temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union.
As evidence I present to the Tribunal USSR Exhibit 386, a document which deals with this phase of Goering's activity. These two documents are the minutes of the conference of 7 November 1941, on the subject of "Utilising the Russians", in which Goering participated, and a covering letter.
One hundred copies of the document were originally prepared and mailed to the 14 addresses which Your Honors will find on page 5 of the Russian text at the end of the covering letter.
The covering letter to the minutes of this conference bears the signature of the Chief of the Military Department of the Economic Staff of the East, Dr. Rachner. The minutes of the conference in question appear to have been written by Von Norman who was evidently an official of the same organization.
I think it will promote clarification if I read into the record certain parts of these minutes.
I quote page 6 of the Russian text of the document which corresponds to page ninety-five 5 and ninety-six in the document book:
"The conference of the 7th of November 1941, on the utilization of the Russians -
THE PRESIDENT:Has this been ad before?
GENERAL ZORYA:According to the information this wasn't read before. This is a document of the Soviet prosecution which was considerably publicized in May 1943 in the note of Foreign commissar Molotov.
THE PRESIDENT:Well, if it havn't been read you may go on.
The Reichsmarshal gave the following directive on the subject of utilising Russian manpower:
1. The presence of great manpower reserves in the Fatherland is a decisive factor for the outcome of the war. The labor capabilities of the Russian workers were proved during the construction of the gigantic Russian industry. Therefore this capability must be utilised for the good of the Reich.
In the face of such an order from the Fuehrer, whatever objections there may be must be delegated to the background.
Whatever negative sides therefore to the utilization of Russian labor, must be reduced to the minimum and must become primarily the concern of the intelligence agencies and the security police.
2. Russians in the Zone of operations. Here the Russians should be used primarily in the construction of roads and railroads, for clearing work, clearing out minefields, and in the construction of airfields. A considerable portion of the German construction battalions should, in consequence, be disbanded, German skilled workmen should be sent to war industry. To dig and break stones should not be their work, but Russians exist for it.
3. Russians in territories under the Jurisdiction of Reich Commissars and in the Government - General. The provisions under 2 above apply. Besides that, the Russians should also be used for farm work. In the absence of machines, human hands can fulfil the demands imposed by the Reich on the rural economy of the Eastern are Further an adequate supply of local manpower should be assigned to the maximum exploitation of the Russian coal deposits.
4. Russians in the Territory of the Reich including the protectorate. In the utilization of manpower demand should determine supply. In considering the needs of manpower, two facts must be kept in mind. First, that the foreign workers who eat much but produce little are to be deported from the confines of the Reich. And secondly, that in the future the German woman must not be used as extensively in the field of labor as hitherto. Together with the Russian prisoners of war we must also utilize the manpower of the Russian civilian population".
I shall now omit a page and will ask your Honors to refer to p. 8 of the same exhibit. In the middle of the page there is section "b", entitled "Free Russian Workers." That is page 97 of the document book.
My colleague, Col. Pokrovski, already mentioned the fact that the Hitlerites placed the civilian population in the category of the prisoners of war.
This gave them the opportunity to falsify for propaganda purposes the number of the captured Re** my soldiers in their reports on military operations, on the one hand, where simultaneously utilizing the civilian population as a source of manpower, on the other hand.
The section to which I just referred begins as follows:
"The use and the treatment of laborers should in actuality be the same as toward the Russian prisoners of war."
It should here be noted that the minutes of the conference end with it following statement by Goering: (Yon will find this excerpt on page 98 of the document file.)
"The mobilization of manpower and the use of the prisoners of war constitute one enterprise and should be organizationally coordinated."
On p. 7 of the minutes we come acrossthe following statement by Goerin on the subject of labor conditions for Russian workers and particularlythei wages:
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now.
(A recess was taken.)
General Zorya, can you tell the Tribunal whether you think you will be able to finish this afternoon?
GENERAL ZORYA:My intention is to finish my statement this evening, in any case.
THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much.
GENERAL ZORYA:I would like to read a statement of Goering's which concerns the condition of work of the Russian workers. As far as concerns thelabor of Russians, Goering said the following:
"The worker may receive a little pocket money."
"Since this labor costs but little to his employer, the taxation of the employer should be given special attention."
To elucidate the foregoing **ther, Defendant Goering makes the following suggestion:
"The utilization of the Russiansin no case should lead to the disregard of the wage principle applied to the Eastern areas."
All the financial measures here undertaken must be based on the Fuehrer's categorical instructions which consider the payment of the minimum post wages in the East, a prerequisite of Germany being able to meet both its military expenses and its debts after the termination of the war.
Any violation of these instructions should be strictly punished."
This is followed by two lines which are of interest, aside from the indictment of Defendant Goering for introducing the system of forced labor.
Having expressed himself so categorically against the "violation of the wage principle in the Eastern territories", Goering stated at this meeting as follows:
"The same naturally applies to every encouragement of the social tendencies on the Russian colonial territory."
The letter appended to the minutes of the meeting contains comments which basically do not add to the facts already presented to the Tribunal. I shall, therefore, not quote it.
I now consider necessary to submit to the Tribunal and to present it as evidence, on page 37 of the Document Book, a decree of the defendant Goering, dated 10 January 1942. I will quote only the first eighteen lines of this decree, which are on page 100 of the Document Book:
"In the next few months the utilization of manpower will acquire still greater importance. On the one hand, the military situation necessitates drafting all young men so as to enable the army to accomplish its task. On the other hand the war industries, as well as the other phases of the war economic, and agriculture must be accorded sufficient manpower, sorely needed by them.
"The utilisation of the prisoners-of-war will play an important part in the solution of this problem. Only unified leadership can insure the success of whatever measures are to be applied in this field, and I shall use every means to attain this.
"For that reason, I granted the members of my Manpower Unit, who dealt with the question of the maximum utilization of manpower in the field of all measures referring to the utilization of labour.