It consists of numerous detailed statistical tables. I quote from it in round numbers. to serve the National Socialist war effort. that 150,000 persons were compelled to compulsory labor; and from the report of the official Dutch government 431,000 persons were affected. round-ups undertaken during November 1944, nor the deportations carried out in 1945. policy of German recruiting of foreign workers. These statistics are cited from the report of the Defendant Sauckel or his administration which were concerned with the deportation of labor. The extent of labor utilized in the occupied territories is demonstrated by statistics concerning workers used in constructing fortifications of the Atlantic Wall as part of the Organization Todt, which I recall was directed by the Defendant Speer after the death of its founder. The following statistics are found in a teletype message sent to Hitler by the Defendant Sauckel on 17 May 1943. It is from Sauckel to Hitler. It is Document 556-PS 33. I submit it to the Tribunal under the No. 84. I read:
"To those responsible for the Execution of the Four Year Plan. The Chief for the Use of Labor:
"Regarding the employment of labor for the Todt Organization, I will be very much obliged if you will permit me to give you the following statistics:
"Since the time that I am responsible for all the labor forces for all German industry, a new labor force has been given to the Todt Organization. The total figure of the workers in the Todt Organization is as follows:
"The end of March 1942 -- 270,969 persons.
"The end of March 1943 -- 696,003 persons.
"In this regard it must be pointed out that labor, and particularly the labor of the Todt Organization, was especially charged with the execution of the work on the Atlantic Wall. This is all the more to be noticed in France, in Belgium, and in Holland."
I skip a few lines. I read page two:
"Despite these innumerable difficulties, the number of workers of the Todt Organization of the West was increased. The end of March 1942 from 66,701 workers to 248,200 workers to the end of March 1943." is included in a report which was found in the Archives ofthe German Armed Forces High Command, It is Document 1323-PS, which I submit under the number 85. According to this document, 1,228,686 workers were employed in Germany to the 30th of September 1941. Of that figure 483,84.2 came from the occupied Western territories. I shall read from the document which lists the number of deportees according to country origin. I shall confine myself to reading the items regarding the Western states, since the statistics of workers deported from the East of Europe come within the province of my Soviet colleague.
"End of March, in Holland, 134,093.
"In Belgium, 212,903.
"In France, 77,247.
"In Italy, 23,844." formed the National Socialist Government of the results of his campaign for the first half of 1944. I quote the document, which is No. 208-PS, which I submit to the Tribunal under the number 90. I read from the second page-Coming from Foreign Countries:
"In the north, 33,000.
"In Belgium, with the north of France, 16,000.
"In the Low Countries, 15,000.
"In Italy, 37,000." January 1943. I submit to the Tribunal that that is proof. The Tribunal will remember elsewhere Sauckel's acknowledgement at the 58th conference of the Four Years Plan, which I formerly read.
Sauckel admitted that there were 5,000,000 foreign workers in Germany, of whom 200,000 were real volunteers. the circumstances of its execution and by the multitude of the victims whom it affected. To prove the seriousness of its effect, it only remains for me to recall the illtreatment which foreign workers received in Germany. Germany were treated the same as German workers,--the same living conditions, same working agreements, and the same discipline. The theory is not in itself conclusive. My American colleagues have furnished proof of the wrong which the the life of the German worker. The reality was even worse. Foreign workers did not have in Germany the treatment to which, as men, they had the right. I affirm this and I shall try to prove it to the Tribunal.
crime which I am denouncing. It does not only domplement the crime of deportation itself, it gives it its true meaning. I said that the policy of the defendants in the occupied territories could be summed up in the following proposition: Utilization of the living forces and extermination of the unproductive forces. One must ignore this idea, which is one of the ruling conceptions of National Socialism, in order to judge of the treatment which the defendants imposed upon foreign workers. One must not ignore this idea. The Germans used the human potential of the occupied countries up to the extreme limit of its individual strength. They had some consideration for foreign workers to the extent that they wished to increase output. To them was applied working conditions, living conditions, and discipline which were imposed upon foreign workers deported to Germany.
which I am going to denounce. The working conditions of the foreign workers were placed under his control by an agreement with which he was fully in accord. The text of this agreement, concluded with the Chief of the German Labor Front, Ley, on the 2nd of June, 1943, appeared in the Reichsarbeitsblatt, 1943, Part I, page 588. I submitted this to the Tribunal at the beginning of my presentation. subject to the control of an inspection department of the Arbeitseinsatz. The Defendant Sauckel could, therefore, not have beer, unaware of the cruelties of which foreign workers were the victims. He permitted those which he had not prescribed. first evidence of the desire of the defendants to utilize the human potential of the occupied territories up to the utmost limit of its strength which were imposed upon the foreign workers. The legal working hours were at a minimum of hours a week by the decree of Sauckel dated August 22, 1942. In reality, most foreign workers were subjected to much longer working hours. Special work, which compelled workers to work overtime, was mostly given to foreign workers. It was not unusual for the latter to be forced to work 11 hours a day - that is, 66 hours a week - if they benefited from the weekly rest. Refugees, Document UK 78, which I submit as Document 87:
"Length of Work or Duration of Work.
"2. The average number of working hours was 11 and sometimes 13 a day in certain establishments. At the Maschinenfabrik, Berlin, the Berlin Spandau, the Alkett factory, imposed work of ten hours and a quarter a day, up to 12 hours for the night. At Koenigsberg, the factory for caterpillar treads, Krupp, imposed 12 hours a day."
with that of the German workers. this equality. The policy of freezing wages was a permanent element of the price policy followed by the National Socialist Government, which resulted that the wagesof the workers employed in Germany remained circumscribed. They were, moreover, heavily burdened with taxes. Finally, they were affected by the fines which the German undertakings had the right to impose upon their workers. These fines might reach the sum of the weekly wage for the slightest breach of discipline.
I furnish proof of this in Document D-182. These are two drafts of speeches to foreign civilian workers. One of them is intended for Russian and Polish workers. I leave this for my Soviet colleagues. I submit the other to the Tribunal under the number 88, and I cite:
"The Project of Compensation of Foreign Civilian Workers, Maintenance of Labor Discipline, January 1944.
"I must inform you of the following:
"The increases in the lack of punctuality, and negiligences, have brought the competent authorities to issue new and stronger instructions to insure the discipline of labor. The lack of discipline in labor, such as repeated failure of punctuality, absences without excuse, the abandonment of labor on its own authority, will in the future be punished by fines which may attain the average daily salary. In serious cases for instance, in absences without excuse - repeated absences of those guilty will be punished by fines which may reach the average weekly salary. Moreover, in such cases, the supplementary ration cards may be taken away for a period which may reach four weeks." actually received by the foreign workers, did not allow them to raise the standard of their existence in the places where they had been deported. I say that this standard was insufficiently high and that the attitude of the Arbeitseinsatz in this matter constitutes a characteristic violation of the elementary principles of the rights of man.
I will demonstrate it in submitting to the Tribunal, proof of the inadequacy of the food supply, the insufficiency of food, and the insufficiency of medical care to which the foreign workers could lay claim. phlets in which the accommodations reserved for the reception of foreign workers were represented as being extremely comfortable. It was quite different in reality.
I will not stress this point. My American colleague, Mr. Dodd, has already submitted and commented upon Document D-288, a statement concerning Dr. Sager, the doctor in charge of the working camps attached to the Krupp factories. I will not read this document anew to the Tribunal, but I would like to recall that in this document Dr. Sager said that French workers in the Krupp factories, war prisoners, had been billeted for more than a half year in ovens, in places of public convenience, and that the men slept there, five in each small spot. This document will be desposed as number 80.
To this insanitary accommodation was added an insufficient diet. I do not claim that the foreign workers deported to Germany were systematically reduced to starvation; I claim the leading principle of National Socialism is expressed in the rules for the feeding of foreign workers. They were decently fed to the extent that the manpower service was to maintain or increase its capacity for work. They were reduced to short rations the moment that, for any reason whatsoever, their industrial output diminished. They then entered into that category of dead forces, which National Socialism sought to destroy. Congress of the Labor Administration of Greater Germany: "The feeding and remuneration of foreign workers should be in proportion to their output and their good will." He developed this theme in documents which I am offering in evidence to the Tribunal. which is Document 016-PS, which I shall not read since it has already been read to the Tribunal by my American colleagues. But I wish, even so, to draw your attention to the second paragraph, age 1, of this document, which concerns the work of war prisoners and foreign workers and civilians:
"All these men must be fed, lodged, and treated in such a way that they may be exploited to the maximum with a minimum of expense."
I ask the Tribunal to remember this formula. This is the question of exploiting to the maximum foreign labor with a minimum of expense. It is the same conception which I find in a letter of Sauckel addressed, *---* 14 March 1943, to the Gauleiters. It is Document 633-PS, which I submit to the Tribunal under the number 90:
"Purpose, treatment, and care to be given to foreign labor.
"Not only does it honor or consider our National Socialist conception of the world opposed to the plutocratic and Bolshevistic methods, but it is, before anything else, good sence which demands proper treatment of foreign labor, even Russians of the USSR. Slaves undernourished, ill, discontented, despairing, full of hate, will never submit to the possibility of exploiting entirely their output, which they might do under normal conditions."
I skip now to the paragraph before the end:
"But given that, we will need foreign labor for long years, and their replacement is very limited. I cannot, then, exploit them on a short-range policy and I cannot waste their power of labor." brought out by the establishment of food sanctions which were inflicted on the deported workers. I refer to Document D-182, which I have just offered in evidence as number 88, and I remind you that it forces the possibility of inflicting on recalcitrant workers the sanction of a partial suppression of food rations. Moreover, those who were exposed to diseases and epidemics, since they were poorly lodged and poorly fed--the foreign workers--did not benefit in any way from suitable medical attention.
I submit, finally, a report given on June 15, 1944, by Dr. Fevrier, head of the Health Service of the French Delegation with the German Labor Front. It is Document 536, which I quote, at page 15. I submit it, first, under the number 91, and I quote at page 15 of the French text, and page 13 of the German text--the last paragraph at page 15:
"At Auschwitz, in a very fine camp of 2,000 workers, we find tubercular people who were recognized as such by the local German doctor of the Arbeitsamt, but this doctor neglects to repatriate them out of hostile indifference. I have now taken steps to obtain their repatriation.
"At Berlin, in a clean hospital, well lighted and well ventilated, where the chief doctor, a German, only comes every three weeks, or a female doctor, who is a Russian, distributes uniformly every morning the same calming drops to all the patients, I have seen a dozen tuberculars, three of them transformed prisoners. They have all, except one, gone beyond the extreme limit at which this treatment might still have had some chance of being efficacious." tation. Professor Henri Dessaille, Medical Inspector General of the Labor Ministry, estimates that 25,000 French workers died in Germany during their deportation. But not all died of diseases. To slow extermination was added swift extermination in concentration camps.
severity contrary to the law of nations. I have already given some examples of the sanctions to which the deported workers were exposed. There was something additional. The workers who were deemed recalcitrant by their guards were sent to special reprisal camps, the Straflager; some disappeared in political concentration camps. Tribunal proof of this fact. In the course of my presentation I submitted to the Tribunal this document under number 44, the ordinance of Sauckel of 29 March 1943, which extends the term of the work contracts by the length of time which the workers spent in prison or in internment camps.
I will not dwell on this point. My American colleague, Mr. Dodd, has placed before the Tribunal the documents which prove the shipment of deportees from labor to concentration camps. I permit myself merely to refer the Tribunal to the presentation which Mr. DuBost will furnish the Tribunal within a few days. workers. It constitutes the culmination of the crime of deportation of workers, and the proof of the coherence of the German policy of extermination. civilian mobilization of foreign workers for the service of National Socialism in Germany. I have shown how the establishment of compulsory labor was inserted into the general framework of the policy of German domination. I have denounced the methods which the Defendants employed for the forcible recruitment of foreign manpower. I have emphasized the importance of the deportations undertaken by the Arbeitseinsatz, and I have recalled how the deported workers were treated and mistreated. jurisdiction of the Tribunal: Violation of international conventions, attack on the law of nations, common-law crime. for these infractions. It was the Reich Cabinet which set up the principles of the policy of compulsory recruitment; the High Command of the German Armed Forces effected its execution in the workyards of the Wehrmacht, the Kriegsmarine, and the Luftwaffe; the civilian administrations made it the support of the German war economy.
I recall more particularly the guilt of certain of the defendants: Goering, General Delegate for the Four-Year Plan, coordinated the planning and the execution of the plans for the recruitment of foreign laborers. Keitel, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, counter-signatory of Hitler's decrees, integrated compulsory labor with his manpower policy. Funk, Reich Minister of Economics, and Speer, Minister of Armament, based their programs of war production on compulsory labor. Sauckel, finally, Delegate General for the Manpower Service, showed himself a resolute, fanatical--as he himself has said--agent of the policy of compulsory enrollment. And Seyss-Inquart, in Holland, was his agent. the Tribunal to condemn the crime of the civilian mobilization of foreign workers. I ask the Tribunal to restore the dignity of human labor which the Defendants attempted to degrade.
M. GERTHOFER: Mr. President, Your Honors. I am the French Prosecutor in charge of that part of the Indictment concerning the facts of which the accused axe reproached in the countries of Western Europe, which are provided for in Article 6-B of the Charter of 8 August 1945. concern, on the one hand, persons, and, on the other hand, private or public property. ment inflicted on war prisoners, on civilians, torturings, murders, deportations, as well as devastations not fustified by military exigencies--were presented to you and will be presented to you by my colleagues. We will have the honor, M. Delpech and myself, to present to you the pillage of private and public property. of the French Prosecution. We shall strive to present it as briefly as possible, to shorten the reading of numerous documents submitted to the Tribunal, and to avoid, whenever possible, dry figures.
We will only bring out the principal facts. Nevertheless, sometimes we must enter into details in order that the Tribunal can appreciate certain characteristic facts with which the defendants have been charged, facts which ordinarily we call "economic looting". permission to express all the gratitude of the prosecutors of the Economic Section of the French Delegation to their colleagues from the other Allied Delegations, and particularly the American section of the economic case, which has been kind enough to rut at our disposal a great number of German documents discovered by the United States Army, and considerable material means for their reproduction in a sufficient number of copies.
I shall have the honor of presenting in succession to the Tribunal, first, general remarks on economic looting of the occupied countries of Western Europe gium and the Grand Ducky of Luxembourg. I shall have the honor of presenting to you the sixth part, which relates to France, and also to conclude. Finally, Monsieur Delpech in a special presentation will give you specific information on the looting of works of art in the occupied countries of Western Europe. documents. We shall quote, only the passages which seem to us the most important. When the same document relates to several different questions, since it is impossible to give all the extracts at the same time because of the complexity of the facts, we shall ready extract concerning each of these questions In presenting them, we shall indicate each time the reference in the document book. Purposes of the aggression of which Germany was to become guilty. The theories of race and of living space increased the desire of the Germans at the same time that they stimulated their war-like intentions.
turned against Poland and prepared to attack the countries of Western Europe in which they hoped to find what they lacked in order to assure their dominatio. United States Army, which I submit to the Tribunal under Number 92. This is the transcript of a conference held in Goering's office January 30, 1940, with Lt. Colonel Conrath and Director Lange of the construction machines group of which this is the principal passage:
"Field Marshal Goering first told me that he had to inform me of the view of the Fuehrer on the economic measures which were necessary.
"He expressed himself as follows:
"The Fuehrer is convinced that it would be possible to bring the war to a decisive conclusion by making a great attack in 1940. He figured that Belgium, Holland and Northern France would fall into our possession and that he, the Fuehrer, based his opinion on the calculations that the industrial region of Douai and Lens, of Luxembourg, of Longwy and of Briery might furnish, as far as raw materials are concerned, replacement for the deliveries from Sweden. After this the Fuehrer decided, without worrying about the future, to utilize fully our reserves of raw materials, even if the final years of the war must be affected by this. The accurary of this decision has been strengthened by the view that the best stocks were not the stocks of raw materials but stocks of finished war products. Moreover, one must count, if the aerial war begins, that our factories which furnish the finished product may be destroyed.
The Fuehrer, moreover, has the view that the principal effort must take place in 1940 to obtain the maximum results, and from this fact we must put aside any long-range production program for the benefit of those which would not be terminated in 1940." surplus of products of every kind, but after four years of the prodigal looting and the enslavement of productivity, these countries are ruined, and the whole of their population is Weakened physically as the result of rigorouse restrictions. violence, ruthlessness and blackmail. spoliations ordered by the German leaders in the countries of Western Europe and to show that they constitute, as far as they are concerned, war crimes rightly within the scope of the International Military Tribunal for major war criminals. and the profit derived by them as the result of the enslavement of productivity in occupied countries. On one hand we do not have enough time. On the other hand, we find ourselves faced with material difficulties resulting from the secret nature of certain operations and the destruction of archives through acts of war or voluntarily at the time of the German rout. have, permit us to fix the order of the minimum greatness of the spoliations. Nevertheless, I shall ask the Tribunal permission to make three preliminary remarks. will not be referred to by this presentation since they belong to the competence of another jurisdiction. incalcuable, of German atrocities. For example, the prejudice experienced by the immediate relatives of murdered breadwinners, or the prejudice suffered by certain victims of ill treatment, who are totally or partially incapacitated, totally or partially, temporarily or permanently prevented from working, or the prejudice resulting from the destruction of localities or buildings for the purpose of vengeance or intimidation.
military operations, properly speaking, which would be the pecuiary results of war crimes. on the economic looting of Western Europe. By economic looting, one must understand the removal of wealth of every kind, as well as the enslavement of the productivity of the different invaded nations. there were numerous stocks of manufactured objects and abundant reserves of agricultural products, the German undertaking was faced with real difficulties. extent, requisitions were not actuate. In fact, they had to find the opportunities for ferretting out the most diverse thibgs, which were sometimes hidden by the inhabitants.
On the other hand, they had to maintain for their own profit the economic activity of these countries. ducts and their production was to possess almost the total sum of means of payment and to impose, if need be by force, their distribution in exchange for produets or levies while struggling against the rise of prices. naturally, forced to work directly or indirectly for the profit of Germany.
This first part will be divided into five chapters: Chapter 1, German seizure of the means of payment or purchasing power; secondly, enslavement of the productivity of the occupied countries,; thirdly individual purchases, which we must not confuse with the individual acts of looting; fourth, blackmarkets, organized for the benefit of Germany; fifth, we shall examine the question of economic looting from the point of view of international law and as a contravention of the Hague Convention.
First Chapter, German Seizure of Means of Payment or Purchasing Power: different occupied countries nearly the same procedure. First, they took two principal measures. First was the issuing of paper money. By an ordinance of 9 May 1940, published in the "Verordnungsblatt fur die besetzten franzosischen Gebiete", the official German gazette, which will be subsequently referred to under its abbreviation VOBIF, concerning Denmark and Norway, which I submit to the Tribunal under Number 93, concerning Denmark and Norway, and also applying on the 19th of May 1940 to the occupied territory of Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and France, the Germans proceeded to issue bank notes of the Reichskredit Kasse which were valid only in each of the occupied countries. countries of existing means of payment; notably in France through the ordinances of June 24, August 7, August 16 and September 17, 1940, which will be submitted as documents 95, 96, and 97; ordinances in Belgium of June 17 and July 2, 1940, submitted under the numbers 99 and 100. the whim of the Germans, without any possible control on the part of the financial adminstrations of the occupied countries, were to serve, as we shall enormous war tributes under the pretense, of maintaining occupation troops and to impose alleged payment agreements through compensation called "clearing", functioning almost exclusively for the benefit of the occupying power.
sole benefit. of services, for which Germany paid regularly in appearances by means either of notes of the Reichskreditkasse or these alleged clearing agreements or through war tributes called indemnities for the maintenance of occupying troops were done knowingly without furnishing any compensating consideration. only fictitious and are a fraudulent procedure which was most often used to bring about the economic looting of the occupied countries of Western Europe. this presentation. I shall limit myself presently to pointing out to the Tribunal that to bring about the economic looting of the occupied countries with their own money, it would have been necessary that this money preserve an appreciable purchasing power. All the efforts of the Germans were to attempt a stabilization of prices. A severe regulation prohibiting rises in prices was subsequently promulgated by several decrees. VOBIF, pages 8, 60, and 535, submitted under No. 101, document No. 101. Nevertheless, the application of such measures could not prevent economic laws from acting. The countries and the massive purchases carried out in these countries by the occupying power, had as a principal result a continuous rise of prices. The leaders of the Reich were perfectly aware of the situation and followed with the greatest attention the rise in prices, which they sought to attenuate. of the Armistice Commission for German economic questions, which we will discuss when we examine the particular or special case of the economic looting of France.
Chapter 2, Enslavement of the Production of the Occupied Countries: disorder, as the result of this invasion, reigned there. The population fell back before the enemy advance. Industries were stopped. German troops guarded the factories and prevented anyone whatsoever from entering. which were affected by this situation, since almost all of them were affected by it. original of one of the numerous notices placed in industrial establishments of France. I submit this notice under the number 102.
Document 102 is dated Paris, June 28, 1940. One text is in German, and the other is in French. Here is the French text:
"By order of General Field Marshal Goering of 28 June 1940, the Generallufszeugmeister took possession from the fiduciary point of view of this factory. Entry is permitted only to those who have special authorization by the Generallufszeugmeister Verbindungsstelle, Paris." technicians, who came shortly after the troops, proceeded to a methodical removal of the best machines. dated December 1940 and emanating from the Economic Section of the OKW, page 77 and 78, that the removal of the best machines of the occupied territories was to be organized, in spite of the terms of Article 53 of the Hague Convention. sources - were grouped naturally around these factories in the hope of securing their subsistence. In all occupied countries the same problems existed in a painful fashion: to stop looting of the machinery, which continued at a very troubling rate, and to give work to the workers.
under the pretenze that they had to guarantee the supplying of the populations. The ordinance of May 20, 1940, published in the VOBIF, page 31, which we submit under Number 104, applying to the Low Countries, to Holland, to Belgium, to Luxembourg, and to France, prescribes that work should be resumed in all enterprises or industries for food supply or agriculture. The same text provided for the appointment of provisional administrators in the event of the absence of the directors or for any other reasons.
THE PRESIDENT: Would that be a convenient place to break off?
(WHEREUPON at 1300 hours the Tribunal adjourned, to reconvene at 1000 hours, 21 January, 1946). Military Tribunal, in the matter of:
The
M. GERTHOFER: Mr. President, Your Honors: At the end of the last session I had the honor of beginning the account of the French prosecution on the economic pillage; and in the first chapter I had indicated to you succinctly how the Germans had become roasters of the means of payment in the occupied countries by imposing war tributes under the pretext of maintaining their Army of Occupation and by imposing so-called clearing accords, functioning to their benefit almost exclusively.
In a second chapter, entitled "Subjection of Productivity in the Occupied Territories", I had the honor of expounding to you that after the invasion the factories were under military guard and that German technicians proceeded to transfer the best machinery to the Reich; that the working population grouped themselves around the factories to ask for subsidies; and, finally, that the Germans had ordered the resumption of work and had reserved for themselves the right to designate provisional administrators to direct the enterprises. of the occupied countries and over the industrialists to bring the factories back to productivity. trators in charge and insinuated that the factories would be utilized for the needs of the occupied populations. production, the industrialists little by little resumed their work, endeavoring to specialize in the manufacture of objects destined to the civilian populations. manufacture of defensive armaments and then progressively of offensive armaments. They requisitioned certain enterprises, shut down thosewhich they did not consider essential, themselves distributed raw materials, and placed controllers in the factories.