Chapter XXIV: Section III: of the order deals with the relations with certain other (4)

I now refer to Document Number 1130-PS, which is marked Exhibit USA-169. This document consists of a statement made by one Erich Koch, Reich Commissar for the Ukraine, on the 5th day of March 1943 at a meeting of the National Socialist Party in Kiev. I quote from the first page of the English text, starting with the first paragraph—and in the German text it appears at Page 2, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly again from the English text Koch said:

“1. We are the master race and must govern hard but just . . . .

“2. I will draw the very last out of this country. I did not
come to spread bliss. I have come to help the Führer. The
population must work, work, and work again . . . for some people
are getting excited that the population may not get enough to
eat. The population cannot demand that. One has only to remember
what our heroes were deprived of in Stalingrad . . . . We
definitely did not come here to give out manna. We have come
here to create the basis for victory.

“3. We are a master race, which must remember that the lowliest
German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more
valuable than the population here.”

At this point I should like to offer in evidence Document Number 1919-PS, which is Exhibit USA-170. This is a document which contains a speech delivered by Himmler, the Reichsführer SS, to a group of SS Generals on the 4th day of October 1943 at Posen; and I am referring to the first page of the English text, starting with the third paragraph. For the benefit of the interpreters, in the German text it appears at Page 23 in the first paragraph. Quoting directly again from this document on the first page, starting with the third paragraph:

“What happens to the Russians, to the Czechs, does not interest
me in the slightest. What the nations can offer in the way of
good blood of our type we will take, if necessary, by kidnapping
their children and raising them here with us. Whether the other
nations live in prosperity or starve to death interests me only
insofar as we need them as slaves for our culture; otherwise, it
is of no interest to me. Whether 10,000 Russian females fall
down from exhaustion while digging an anti-tank ditch or not
interests me only insofar as the anti-tank ditch for Germany is
finished.”

THE PRESIDENT: Who is the author of that document?

MR. DODD: The author of that quotation is the Reichsführer SS, Heinrich Himmler.

The next document to which I make reference is Number 031-PS, which is Exhibit USA-71. This document is a top-secret memorandum prepared for the Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories on the 12th of June 1944 and approved by the Defendant Rosenberg; and from it I wish to quote, from the English text starting with the first paragraph, and in the German text it appears at the first paragraph of Page 2. Quoting directly:

“The Army group center has the intention to apprehend
40,000-50,000 youths at the ages of 10 to 14 who are in the Army
territory and to transport them to the Reich.”

I wish to pass now to line 21 of Paragraph 1. Quoting directly I read as follows:

“It is intended to allot these juveniles primarily to the German
trades as apprentices to be used as skilled workers after 2
years’ training. This is to be arranged through the Organization
Todt which is especially equipped for such a task by means of
its technical and other set-ups. This action is being greatly
welcomed by the German trade since it represents a decisive
measure for the alleviation of the shortage of apprentices.”

Passing a little further on in that document, I wish to call to the attention of the Tribunal Paragraph 1 on Page 2, and to quote it directly:

“This action is aimed not only at preventing a direct
reinforcement of the enemy’s military strength but also at a
reduction of his biological potentialities as viewed from the
perspective of the future. These ideas have been voiced not only
by the Reichsführer SS but also by the Führer. Corresponding
orders were given during last year’s withdrawals in the southern
sector . . . .”

I call to Your Honor’s attention particularly that the approval of the Defendant Rosenberg is noted on Page 3 of the document. It is a note in ink on the original. I quote it:

“Obergruppenführer Berger has received another memorandum on
June 14, according to which the Reich Minister now has approved
the action.”

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, did you mean to leave out the sentence at the bottom of Page 1?

MR. DODD: No, Your Honor, I did not, but I did not want to refer to it at this time. I will refer to it a little later on.

THE PRESIDENT: Isn’t it really a part of what follows at the top of Page 2, which you did read, “Following are the arguments . . .”

MR. DODD: Yes, I did omit that. I thought you were referring to the sentence above. I’m sorry.

“Following are the arguments against this decision of the
minister.”—and then quoting—“This action is not only aimed at
preventing direct reinforcement of any military . . .”

THE PRESIDENT: Yes and you were telling us how you showed that the Defendant Rosenberg was implicated.

MR. DODD: Yes. On the last page of that document, the original bears a note in ink, and in the mimeographed copy it is typewritten:

“Obergruppenführer Berger has received another memorandum on
June 14, according to which the Reich Minister now has approved
the action.”

One page back on that same document, from the first paragraph, four sentences down, the sentence begins:

“The Minister has approved the execution of the ‘Hay Action’ in
the Army territories under the conditions and provisions arrived
at in talks with Army group center.”

The purposes of the slave labor program which we have just been describing, namely the strengthening of the Nazi war machine and the destruction or the weakening of peoples deemed inferior by the Nazi conspirators, were achieved, we repeat, by the impressment and the deportation of millions of persons into Germany for forced labor. It involved the separation of husbands from their wives, and children from their parents, and the imposition of conditions unfit for human existence, with the result that countless numbers were killed.

Poland was the first victim. The Defendant Frank, as Governor of the Government General of Poland, announced that under his program 1 million workers were to be sent to Germany; and he recommended that police surround Polish villages and seize the inhabitants for deportation.

I wish to refer to Document Number 1375-PS, which is Exhibit USA-172. This document is a letter from the Defendant Frank to the Defendant Göring and it is dated the 25th day of January 1940; and I wish to quote from the first page of the English text, starting with the first paragraph, and in the German text, again, it appears at Page 1 of the first paragraph. Quoting directly:

“1. In view of the present requirements of the Reich for the
defense industry, it is at present fundamentally impossible to
carry on a long-term economic policy in the Government General.
Rather, it is necessary so to steer the economy of the
Government General that it will, in the shortest possible time,
accomplish results representing the maximum that can be secured
out of the economic strength of the Government General for the
immediate strengthening of our capacity for defense.

“2. In particular the following performances are expected of the
total economy of the Government General . . . .”

I wish to pass on a little bit in this text to the second page and particularly to Paragraph g in the English text. In the German text, the same passage appears on Page 3 in Paragraph g. I am quoting directly again:

“Supply and transportation of at least 1 million male and female
agricultural and industrial workers to the Reich—among them at
least 750,000 agricultural workers of which at least 50 percent
must be women—in order to guarantee agricultural production in
the Reich and as a replacement for industrial workers lacking in
the Reich.”

The methods by which these workers were to be supplied were considered by the Defendant Frank, as revealed in another document to which we now refer.

It is an entry in the Defendant Frank’s own diary, to which we have assigned our Document Number 2233(a)-PS and which we offer as Exhibit USA-173. The portion which I shall read is the entry for Friday, the 10th of May 1940. It appears in the document book as 2233(a)-PS, on the third page in the center of the page. Just above it are the words “Page 23, Paragraph 1” to the left:

“Then the Governor General deals with the problem of the
compulsory labor service of the Poles. Upon the pressure from
the Reich it has now been decreed that compulsion may be
exercised in view of the fact that sufficient manpower was not
voluntarily available for service inside the German Reich. This
compulsion means the possibility of arrest of male and female
Poles. Because of these measures a certain disquietude had
developed which, according to individual reports, was spreading
very much and might produce difficulties everywhere. General
Field Marshal Göring some time ago pointed out, in his long
speech, the necessity to deport into the Reich a million
workers. The supply so far was 160,000. However, great
difficulties had to be overcome here. Therefore it would be
advisable to co-operate with the district and town chiefs in the
execution of the compulsion, so that one could be sure from the
start that this action would be reasonably expedient. The arrest
of young Poles when leaving church service or the cinema would
bring about an ever increasing nervousness of the Poles.
Generally speaking, he had no objections at all to the rubbish,
capable of work yet often loitering about, being snatched from
the streets. The best method for this, however, would be the
organization of a raid; and it would be absolutely justifiable
to stop a Pole in the street and to question him as to what he
was doing, where he was working, _et cetera_.”

I should like to refer to another entry in the diary of the Defendant Frank, and I offer in evidence an extract from the entry made on the 16th day of March 1940, which appears in the document book as 2233(b)-PS, and it is Exhibit USA-174. I wish particularly to quote from the third page of the English text:

“The Governor General remarks that he had long negotiations in
Berlin with the representatives of the Reich Ministry for
Finance and the Reich Ministry for Food. Urgent demands have
been made there that Polish farm workers should be sent to the
Reich in greater numbers. He has made the statement in Berlin
that he, if it is demanded from him, could of course exercise
force in some such manner: he could have the police surround a
village and get the men and women in question out by force, and
then send them to Germany. But one can also work differently,
besides these police measures, by retaining the unemployment
compensation of these workers in question.”

The instruments of force and terror used to carry out this program reached into many phases of Polish life. German labor authorities raided churches and theaters, seized those present, and shipped them back to Germany. And this appears in a memorandum to Himmler, which we offer in evidence as Document Number 2220-PS, and it bears Exhibit Number USA-175. This memorandum is dated the 17th day of April 1943; and it was written by Dr. Lammers, the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, and deals with the situation in the Government General of Poland.

DR. SERVATIUS: I should like to call the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that the last three documents, which have just been read, were not made available to me beforehand. They do not appear on the original list of documents, nor have I been able to find them on the later list.

I therefore request that the reading of these documents be held in abeyance until I have had an opportunity to read them and to discuss them with my client.

Perhaps I may, at the same time, lodge an additional complaint. I received some interrogation records in English the day before yesterday. I consulted my client about them and he told me that they are not the actual transcripts of his words in the interrogation, because he was interrogated in German; an interpreter translated his statements into English, and then they were taken down.

These documents cannot have any evidential value since they were not presented to the defendant for certification; he did not sign them, nor were they read to him. They are transcripts in English, a language of which the defendant understands little or nothing.

I also discovered that another interrogation record on the Defendant Speer contains statements which incriminate my client but which are apparently also incorrect, as I established in consultation with the Defendant Speer.

I should like to have an opportunity of discussing the matter with the representative of the Prosecution and of clearing up these differences—to decide to what extent I can agree to the use of these documents. They were to be presented by the Prosecution today or tomorrow at the latest, but for the time being I must object to their use.

THE PRESIDENT: As I understand it, you said to us that the last three documents were not available to you and that they were not in the original list. Is that right?

DR. SERVATIUS: Not up to now. I want to have an opportunity of reading these documents in advance. They are being read here without my having seen them.

THE PRESIDENT: And then you went on to deal with the interrogations which have not been put into evidence.

DR. SERVATIUS: Yes, I wanted to take the opportunity of saying that I wished to discuss these documents with the Prosecution before they are submitted to the Tribunal tomorrow, or probably even today. Meanwhile I must object to their being used as evidence.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, do you know what the circumstances are about these three documents which have not been supplied?

MR. DODD: I do not, Your Honor. They have been placed in the defendants’ Information Center and they partly have been in the information list. It may be that through some oversight these entries of this diary were neglected.

DR. SERVATIUS: I have these documents before me now; they are not numbered; the document concerning Sauckel begins on Page 10—question and answer on Pages 11 and 12. The record is not continuous; it consists of fragments of a transcript, which I want to trace to its origin.

THE PRESIDENT: Counsel for the Prosecution will supply you with these documents at the adjournment this afternoon. With reference to the interrogation, if they propose to use any interrogation in the Trial tomorrow, they can also supply you with any documents which are material to that interrogation.

DR. SERVATIUS: Thank you.

MR. DODD: I believe I was referring to Document Number 2220-PS.

THE PRESIDENT: That is right. You have not begun to read it yet.

MR. DODD: I propose to read from the fourth page of the English text, Paragraph 2 at the top of the page, particularly the last two sentences of the paragraph; and in the German text the passage is found in Page 10, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly, it is as follows:

“As things were, the recruiting of manpower had to be
accomplished by means of more or less forceful methods, such as
the instances when certain groups appointed by the labor offices
caught church and movie-goers indiscriminately and transported
them into the Reich. That such methods only undermine the
people’s willingness to work and the people’s confidence to such
a degree that it cannot be checked even with terror, is just as
clear as the consequences brought about by a strengthening of
the political resistance movement.”

That is the end of the quotation. We say that Polish farmland was confiscated with the aid of the SS and was distributed to German inhabitants or held in trust for the German community, and the farm owners were employed as laborers or transported to Germany against their will. We refer to Document Number 1352-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-176. This document is a report of the SS, and it bears the title “Achievement of Confiscations of Polish Agricultural Enterprises with the Purpose of Transferring the Poles to the Old Reich and Employing them as Agricultural Workers.”

I wish to read from the first page of the English text beginning with the fifth paragraph; and in the German text it appears on Page 9, Paragraph 1 on that page. Quoting:

“It is possible without difficulty to accomplish the
confiscation of small agricultural enterprises in the villages
in which larger agricultural enterprises have been already
confiscated and are under the management of the East German
Corporation for Agricultural Development.”

And then passing down three sentences, there is this statement which I quote:

“The former owners of Polish farms together with their families
will be transferred to the Old Reich by the employment offices
for employment as farm workers. In this way many hundreds of
Polish agricultural workers can be placed at the disposal of
agriculture in the Old Reich in the shortest and simplest
manner. In this way, to begin with, the most pressing shortage
now felt in a very disagreeable manner, especially in the
root-crop districts, will be quickly removed.”

Pursuant to the directions of the Defendant Sauckel, his agents and the SS men deported Polish men to Germany without their families, thereby accomplishing one of the basic purposes of the program, the supplying of labor for the German war effort, and at the same time, weakening the reproductive potential of the Polish people.

I wish to refer directly to Document L-61, which bears Exhibit Number USA-177. This document is a letter from the Defendant Sauckel to the presidents of the land labor offices. It is dated the 26th day of November 1942, and I want to read from the first paragraph of that letter which states as follows:

“In agreement with the Chief of the Security Police and the SD,
these Jews who are still in employment are also, from now on, to
be evacuated from the territory of the Reich and are to be
replaced by Poles, who are being evacuated from the Government
General.”

And passing to the third paragraph of that same letter, we find this statement. Quoting:

“The Poles who are to be evacuated as a result of this measure
will be put into concentration camps and put to work, insofar as
they are criminal or asocial elements. The remaining Poles, so
far as they are suitable for labor, will be transported—without
family—into the Reich, particularly to Berlin, where they will
be put at the disposal of the labor allocation offices to work
in armament factories instead of the Jews who are to be
replaced.”

THE PRESIDENT: Who is the Chief of the Security Police, mentioned in the second paragraph?

MR. DODD: The Chief of the Security Police was Heinrich Himmler. He was also the Reichsführer of the SS.

DR. SERVATIUS: May I say something with regard to this document. The Defendant Sauckel denies knowledge of it and says that the place of dispatch, not mentioned during the reading of this document, is of importance. The document, according to its letterhead, was written at 96 Saarland Strasse, which was not the office of the Defendant Sauckel. The second point is that this document, contrary to the statement in the document list classifying it as an original letter of Sauckel, was not signed by him. Moreover the certification of the signature, customary on all documents, is missing. May I ask the prosecutor to read this into the record, so that I can come back to it later.

THE PRESIDENT: If the procedure which the Tribunal has laid down has been carried out, either the original document or a photostat copy will be in your Information Center; and you can then compare or show to your client either the photostat or the original.

DR. SERVATIUS: I have done that and only object now to the fact that from the reading of this document parts which I consider important are being omitted. If this letter is being read here it must be read in its entirety, including the parts which I consider important, namely, the letterhead and the type of signature.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat that.

DR. SERVATIUS: I am asking that if it is to be used as evidence, the letter should be read in its entirety, including its complete heading and the signature as it appears, namely, “signed Sauckel.” The certification of the signature is missing, a fact from which my client draws certain conclusions in his favor.

THE PRESIDENT: You will have an opportunity after adjournment of seeing this document; and you have been told already that you can refer, when your turn comes to present your defense, to the whole of any document. It is inconvenient to the Tribunal to have many interruptions of this sort; and if you wish to refer to the whole document, you will be able to do so at a later stage.

DR. SERVATIUS: I must assume then, Mr. President, that it is admissible to read parts of a document instead of the whole. Did I understand correctly?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly. You can put in a part or the whole of the document when your turn comes. We will adjourn now; but, Mr. Dodd, you will satisfy this counsel for the Defense as to the reason why he had not got these documents.

DR. SERVATIUS: Yes, I understand, Mr. President.

MR. DODD: Yes, I will.

THE PRESIDENT: And you will make them available to him and insure that he has an opportunity of seeing the original of this document so that he can check the signature.

MR. DODD: We will, and I will see that the original is available to him.

THE PRESIDENT: All right, we will adjourn now.

[_The Tribunal adjourned until 12 December 1945 at 1000 hours._]

EIGHTEENTH DAY
Wednesday, 12 December 1945

_Morning Session_

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn this morning at 12:30 for a closed session and sit again at 2:00 o’clock.

MR. DODD: May it please the Tribunal, I should like to report to the Tribunal this morning with reference to the questions which arose yesterday afternoon concerning three documents.

After adjournment we found that Document 2220-PS was in the defendants’ Information Center in photostatic form, and that the two other documents, being respectively two entries from the Frank diary, were also there but in a different form. The Frank diary consists of some 40-odd volumes which we, of course, were not able to photostat, so we had placed instead in the defendants’ room the excerpts. As a matter of fact, we had placed the entire document book there.

DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for the Defendant Frank): Yesterday the Prosecution submitted documents concerning the Defendant Frank; the numbers are 2233(a)-PS and 2233(b)-PS, which were presented as Exhibits USA-173 and USA-174. These are not ordinary documents, but excerpts from the diary of Frank. Six weeks ago I applied in writing to have this diary, which consists of 42 heavy, thick volumes, submitted to me. I made this request for the first time on the 2d of September, the second time on the 16th of November, the third time on the 18th of November, and the fourth time on the 3rd of December.

Unfortunately, I have not so far received this diary, and I should like to ask the Tribunal that it be submitted to me as soon as possible, not least because this material was surrendered by the Defendant Frank himself to the officers who arrested him and was to be used as evidence for his defense.

I am of course not in a position to work through all this material in a few days, and I should like to ask the Tribunal that this diary be put at my disposal without delay.

In this connection I should like to call the attention of the Tribunal to another matter. The Tribunal has already approved that the four long speeches which the Defendant Frank delivered in Germany in 1942 and which led to his dismissal by Hitler from all his offices should be put at my disposal as evidence. The General Secretary of the Tribunal informed me of this on the 4th of December, but unfortunately I have not so far received copies of these speeches. I should be very grateful, therefore, if the Tribunal will ensure that its decisions are carried out and that the documents are submitted to me without delay.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will look into these matters with the General Secretary of the Tribunal, and doubtless it will be able to arrange that you should have these documents submitted to you in the defendants’ counsel Information Center.

DR. SEIDL: Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Mr. Dodd.

MR. DODD: May I refer briefly to the discussion that we were engaged in yesterday in order to take up the train of thought.

I wish to remind the Tribunal that we were discussing or had just completed a discussion of Document L-61, which had to do with a letter written by the Defendant Sauckel to the presidents of the “Länder” labor offices. I had read two excerpts from that letter.

Referring to the letter, we say that the Nazi campaign of force and terror and abduction was described in another letter to the Defendant Frank, which we wish to refer to as Document Number 1526-PS.

THE PRESIDENT: Before you pass from that, Mr. Dodd, has either the original or the photostatic copy been shown to Sauckel’s counsel?

MR. DODD: Oh, yes, Sir. A photostatic copy was in the defendants’ Information Center, and after adjournment yesterday we got the original and handed it to him here in this room.

THE PRESIDENT: And he saw it?

MR. DODD: Yes, Sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

MR. DODD: This document, Number 1526-PS, USA-178, is a letter written by the chairman of the Ukrainian Main Committee at Kraków in February 1943. I wish to read from the third page of the English text, beginning with the second paragraph; the same passage in the German text at Page 2, Paragraph 5. I quote:

“The general nervousness is still further increased by the wrong
methods of labor mobilization which have been used more and more
frequently in recent months.

“The wild and ruthless manhunt as practiced everywhere in towns
and country, in streets, squares, stations, even in churches, as
well as at night in homes, has shaken the feeling of security of
the inhabitants. Every man is exposed to the danger of being
seized suddenly and unexpectedly, anywhere and at any time, by
the police, and brought into an assembly camp. None of his
relatives knows what has happened to him, and only weeks or
months later one or another gives news of his fate by a
postcard.”

I wish to turn to Enclosure 5 on Page 8 of this document, which I quote:

“In November of last year an inspection of all males of the
age-classes born 1910 to 1920 was ordered in the area of
Zaleszczyti (district of Czortkow). After the men had appeared
for inspection, all those who were selected were arrested at
once, loaded into trains, and sent to the Reich. Similar
recruitment of laborers for the Reich also took place in other
areas of this district. Following some interventions, the action
was then stopped.”

The resistance of the Polish people to this enslavement program and the necessity for increased force were described by the Defendant Sauckel’s deputy, one Timm, at a meeting of the Central Planning Board, which was, by the way, Hitler’s wartime planning agency. It was made up of the Defendant Speer, Field Marshal Milch, and State Secretary Körner. The Central Planning Board was the highest level economic planning agency, exercising production controls by allocating raw materials and labor to industrial users.

Now, Document R-124, Exhibit USA-179. This document consists of excerpts from minutes of the meetings of this Central Planning Board and minutes of conferences between the Defendant Speer and Hitler. Only the excerpts, of course, from these minutes upon which we rely are being offered in evidence. I would say to the Tribunal, however, that the balance of the minutes are available—can be made available—if the Tribunal so desires.

This deputy of Sauckel, his name being Timm, made a statement at the 36th conference of the Central Planning Board; and it appears on Page 14, Paragraph 2 of the English text of Document R-124, and on Page 10, Paragraph 2 of the German text:

“Especially in Poland the situation at the moment is
extraordinarily serious. It is known that violent battles have
occurred just because of these actions. The resistance against
the administration established by us is very strong. Quite a
number of our men have been exposed to increased dangers; and
just in the last 2 or 3 weeks some of them have been shot dead,
for example, the head of the Labor Office of Warsaw, who was
shot in his office 14 days ago, and yesterday another man again.
This is how matters stand at present; and the recruiting itself
even if done with the best will, remains extremely difficult
unless police reinforcements are at hand.”

Deportation and enslavement of civilians reached unprecedented levels in the so-called Eastern Occupied Territories. These wholesale deportations resulted directly from labor demands made by the Defendant Sauckel on the Defendant Rosenberg, who was the Reich Minister for the Eastern Occupied Territories, and his subordinates, and also on the Armed Forces—a demand made directly on the Armed Forces by the Defendant Sauckel.

On the 5th of October 1942, for example, the Defendant Sauckel wrote to the Defendant Rosenberg, stating that 2 million foreign laborers were required and that the majority of these would have to be drafted from the recently occupied Eastern territories and especially from the Ukraine.

I wish to refer at this point to Document 017-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-180. This letter from the Defendant Sauckel to the Defendant Rosenberg I wish to quote in full. It begins by saying:

“The Führer has worked out new and most urgent plans for
armament which require the quick mobilization of two million
more foreign workers. The Führer therefore has granted me, for
the execution of his decree of 21 March 1942, new powers for my
new duties, and has especially authorized me to take whatever
measures I think are necessary in the Reich, the Protectorate,
the Government General, as well as in the occupied territories,
in order to assure, at all costs, an orderly mobilization of
labor for the German armament industry.

“The additional required labor forces will have to be drafted,
for the most part, from the recently occupied Eastern
Territories, especially from the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.
Therefore, the Reichskommissariat Ukraine must furnish 225,000
workers by 31 December 1942 and 225,000 more by 1 May 1942.

“I ask you to inform Reich Commissioner, Gauleiter, Party Member
Koch at once about the new situation and requirements and
especially to see that he supports personally in every possible
way the execution of this new order.

“I intend to visit Party Member Koch shortly and I would be
grateful if he could inform me as to where and when I could meet
him for a personal discussion. Just now though, I ask that the
recruiting be taken up at once with all energy and the use of
every factor, especially the experts of the labor offices. All
directives which temporarily limited the procurement of Eastern
Workers are annulled. The Reich procurement for the next months
must be given priority over all other measures . . . .

“I do not ignore the difficulties which exist for the execution
of this new order, but I am convinced that with the ruthless use
of all resources and with the full co-operation of all concerned
the execution of the new demands can be accomplished by the date
fixed. I have already communicated the new demands directly to
the Reich Commissioner for the Ukraine by teletype. In reference
to our phone-call of today, I will send you the text of the
Führer’s decree at the beginning of next week.”

I should like to remind the Tribunal that we have referred previously, yesterday afternoon, to this Reichskommissar, Gauleiter, Party Member Koch; and we quoted him as stating, the Tribunal will recall, “We are the master race. We must be hard,” and so forth.

On the 17th day of March 1943, the Defendant Sauckel wrote again to the Defendant Rosenberg; and on this occasion he demanded the importation of another 1 million men and women from the Eastern Territories within the following 4 months. I wish to refer at this point to Document Number 019-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-181. Quoting that letter in full:

“After a protracted illness, my deputy for labor allocation in
the Occupied Eastern Territories, State Councillor Peuckert, is
going there to regulate the allocation of labor both for Germany
and the territories themselves.

“I ask you sincerely, dear Party Member Rosenberg, to assist him
to your utmost on account of the pressing urgency of Peuckert’s
mission. I may thank you already at this moment for the good
reception accorded to Peuckert up to this time. He himself has
been charged by me to co-operate fully and unreservedly with all
bureaus of the Eastern Territories.

“Especially the labor allocation for German agriculture and
likewise the most urgent armament production programs ordered by
the Führer, make the fastest importation of approximately 1
million men and women from the Eastern Territories within the
next 4 months, a necessity. Starting 15 March the daily shipment
must reach 5,000 female or male workers, while from the
beginning of April this number has to be stepped up to 10,000,
if the most urgent programs and the spring tillage and other
agricultural tasks are not to suffer to the detriment of food
and of the Armed Forces.

“I have provided for the allotment of the draft quotas for the
individual territories, in agreement with your experts for labor
supply, as follows:

“Daily quota starting 15 March 1943: From General kommissariat,
White Ruthenia—500 people; Economic Inspection, Center—500
people; Reichskommissariat, Ukraine—3,000 people; Economic
Inspection, South—1,000 people; total—5,000 people.

“Starting 1 April 1943, the daily quota is to be doubled
corresponding to the doubling of the entire quota. I hope to
visit personally the Eastern Territories towards the end of the
month, and ask you once more for your kind support.”

The Defendant Sauckel did travel to the East. He travelled to Kovno in Lithuania to press his demands. We offer in evidence Document Number 204-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-182. This document is a synopsis of a report of the City Commissioner of Kovno and minutes of a meeting in which the Defendant Sauckel participated. I wish to read from the second page of the English text, beginning with the first paragraph. The same passage appears in the German text at Page 5, Paragraph 2. Quoting directly as follows:

“In a lecture which the Plenipotentiary General for the
Allocation of Labor, Gauleiter Sauckel, gave on 18 July 1943 in
Kovno, and in an official conference following it between
Gauleiter Sauckel and the General Commissioner, the precarious
labor situation in the Reich was again urgently presented for
discussion. Gauleiter Sauckel again demanded that Lithuanian
labor be furnished in greater volume for the purposes of the
Reich.”

THE PRESIDENT: Who was the General Commissar? Rosenberg?

MR. DODD: The Plenipotentiary for the Arbeitseinsatz?

THE PRESIDENT: No, the General Commissar.

MR. DODD: His name is not known to us. He was apparently a local functionary in the Party.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

MR. DODD: The Defendant Sauckel also visited Riga, in Latvia, to assert his demands; and the purpose of this visit is described in Document Number 2280-PS, bearing Exhibit Number USA-183. This document is a letter from the Reich Commissar for the Ostland to the Commissioner General in Riga, and it is dated the 3rd of May 1943. I wish to read from Page 1 of the English text, beginning with the first paragraph:

“Following the basic statements of the Plenipotentiary General
for Allocation of Labor, Gauleiter Sauckel, on the occasion of
his visit to Riga on the 21st of April 1943, it was decided, in
view of the critical situation and in disregard of all adverse
considerations, that a total of 183,000 workers would have to be
supplied from the Ostland to the Reich territory. This task
absolutely must be accomplished within the next 4 months and at
the latest must be completed by the end of August.”

Here again we are not informed as to the name and identity of the Reich Commissar for the Ostland.

Sauckel asked the German Army for assistance in the recruitment and deportation of civilian labor from the Eastern Territories. We refer now to Document Number 3010-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-184.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, were you saying that it was not known from whom that document emanated?

MR. DODD: No, Sir. We say it is a letter from the Reichskommissar for the Ostland to the Commissioner General in Riga, but we don’t know their names specifically at the time of the writing of the letter.

THE PRESIDENT: You don’t know who the Reichskommissar of the Eastern Territories was?

MR. DODD: We don’t know him by that title, “The Reichskommissar for the Ostland.”

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

MR. DODD: Lohse, I am now informed, was his name. I understood that we did not know it.

THE PRESIDENT: All right.

MR. DODD: Referring to this Document 3010-PS, this document is a secret operational order of the Army Group South dated the 17th day of August 1943. I wish to read from the first page of the English text, the first two paragraphs, as follows:

“The Plenipotentiary General for Allocation of Labor, in Decree
Az. VI A 5780.28, a copy of which is enclosed (Enclosure 1), has
ordered the mustering and calling-up of two complete age classes
for the whole newly occupied Eastern Territory. The Reich
Minister for Armament and Munitions has approved this order.

“According to this order by the Plenipotentiary General for
Allocation of Labor”—GBA—“you have to recruit and to transport
to the Reich immediately all labor forces in your territory born
during 1926 and 1927. The decree of 6 February 1943 relative to
labor duty and labor employment in the theater of operations of
the newly occupied Eastern Territory and the executive orders
issued on this subject are the authority for the execution of
this measure. Enlistment must be completed by 30 September 43 at
the latest.”

We say it is clear that the demands made by the Defendant Sauckel resulted in the deportation of civilians from the Occupied Eastern Territories. The Defendant Speer has recorded conferences with Hitler on 10, 11, and 12 August 1942; and this record is contained in Document R-124, which is already in as Exhibit USA-179. I now wish to quote from Page 34 of that same document in Paragraph 1 of the English text. In the German text it appears at Page 23, Paragraph 2. Quoting directly:

“Gauleiter Sauckel promises to make Russian labor available for
the fulfillment of the iron and coal program and reports that,
if required, he will supply a further million Russian laborers
for the German armament industry up to and including October
1942. So far he has already supplied 1,000,000 for industry and
700,000 for agriculture. In this connection the Führer states
that the problem of providing labor can be solved in all cases
and to any extent. He authorizes Gauleiter Sauckel to take all
necessary measures. He would agree to any compulsory measures in
the East as well as in the Occupied Western Territories if this
question could not be solved on a voluntary basis.”

In order to meet these demands of 1,700,000—100,000 here and there—the Nazi conspirators made terror and violence and arson, as we said yesterday, fundamental instruments of their labor enslavement policy. Twenty days after the Defendant Sauckel’s demands of the 5th of October 1942, a top official in the Defendant Rosenberg’s Ministry described the measures taken to meet these demands. I wish to refer now to Document Number 294-PS, which is Exhibit Number USA-185. This document is a top-secret memorandum, dated the 25th of October 1942, signed by one Bräutigam. I wish to quote from Page 4 of the English text starting with the last paragraph, as follows—in the German text it appears at Page 8, Paragraph 2—quoting directly:

“We now experienced the grotesque picture of having to recruit,
precipitately, millions of laborers from the Occupied Eastern
Territories, after prisoners of war had died of hunger like
flies, in order to fill the gaps that have formed within
Germany. Now suddenly the food question no longer existed. In
the customary limitless disregard for the Slavic people,
‘recruiting’ methods were used which probably have their
precedent only in the blackest periods of the slave trade. A
regular manhunt was inaugurated. Without consideration of health
or age, the people were shipped to Germany where it turned out
immediately that more than 100,000 had to be sent back because
of serious illness and other incapability for work.”

The Defendant Rosenberg wrote, himself, concerning these brutalities, to the instigator of them, the Defendant Sauckel; and we refer now to Document Number 018-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-186.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, from where did that top-secret document come?

MR. DODD: It came from the files of the Defendant Rosenberg.

This document, 018-PS, is a letter from the Defendant Rosenberg to the Defendant Sauckel; and it is dated the 21st day of December 1942, with attachments. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text, starting at the middle of the second paragraph which reads as follows:

“The reports I have received show that the increase of the
guerilla bands in the Occupied Eastern Territories is largely
due to the fact that the methods used for procuring laborers in
these regions are felt to be forced measures of mass
deportations, so that the endangered persons prefer to escape
their fate by withdrawing into the woods or going to the
guerilla bands.”

Passing now to Page 4 of the same English text, there is an attachment to Rosenberg’s letter consisting of parts excerpted from letters of residents of the Occupied Eastern Territories—excerpted by Nazi censors apparently. In the German text it appears at Page 6, Paragraphs 1 and 2. Starting the quotation:

“At our place, new things have happened. People are being taken
to Germany. On October 5 some people from the Kowkuski district
were scheduled to go, but they did not want to and the village
was set on fire. They threatened to do the same thing in
Borowytschi, as not all who were scheduled to depart wanted to
go. Thereupon three truckloads of Germans arrived and set fire
to their houses. In Wrasnytschi 12 houses and in Borowytschi 3
houses were burned.

“On October 1 a new conscription of labor forces took place. Of
what happened, I will describe the most important to you. You
cannot imagine the bestiality. You probably remember what we
were told about the Soviets during the rule of the Poles. At
that time we did not believe it and now it seems just as
incredible. The order came to supply 25 workers, but no one
reported. All had fled. Then the German police came and began to
ignite the houses of those who had fled. The fire burned
furiously, since it had not rained for 2 months. In addition the
grain stacks were in the farm yards. You can imagine what took
place. The people who had hurried to the scene were forbidden to
extinguish the flames, were beaten and arrested, so that six
homesteads were burned down. The policemen meanwhile ignited
other houses. The people fall on their knees and kiss their
hands, but the policemen beat them with rubber truncheons and
threaten to burn down the whole village. I do not know how this
would have ended if Sapurkany had not intervened. He promised
that there would be laborers by the next morning. During the
fire the police went through the adjoining villages, seized the
laborers, and brought them under arrest. Wherever they did not
find any laborers, they detained the parents until the children
appeared. That is how they raged throughout the night in
Bielosersk . . . .

“The workers who had not yet appeared by then were to be shot.
All schools were closed and the married teachers were sent to
work here, while the unmarried ones go to work in Germany. They
are now catching humans as the dogcatchers used to catch dogs.
They are already hunting for 1 week and have not yet enough. The
imprisoned workers are locked in the schoolhouse. They cannot
even go to perform their natural functions, but have to do it
like pigs in the same room. People from many villages went on a
certain day to a pilgrimage to the Poczajów Monastery. They were
all arrested, locked in, and will be sent to work. Among them
there are lame, blind, and aged people.”

Despite the fact that the Defendant Rosenberg wrote this letter with this attachment, we say he nevertheless countenanced the use of force in order to furnish slave labor to Germany and admitted his responsibility for the “unusual and hard measures” that were employed. I refer to excerpts from the transcript of an interrogation under oath of the Defendant Rosenberg on the 6th of October 1945, which is Exhibit USA-187, and I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text starting with the ninth paragraph.

THE PRESIDENT: You haven’t given us the PS number.

MR. DODD: It has no PS number.

THE PRESIDENT: I beg your pardon. Has a copy of it been given to Rosenberg’s counsel?

MR. DODD: Yes, it has been. It is at the end of the document book, if Your Honors please, the document book the Tribunal has.

DR. ALFRED THOMA (Counsel for the Defendant Rosenberg): In the name of my client, I object to the reading of this document for the following reasons:

In the preliminary hearings my client was questioned several times on the subject of employment of labor from the eastern European nations. He stated: that the Defendant Sauckel, by virtue of the authority he received from the Führer and by order of the Delegate for the Four Year Plan, had the right to give him instructions; that he (the Defendant Rosenberg) nevertheless demanded that recruiting of labor be conducted on a voluntary basis; that this was in fact carried out; and that Sauckel agreed, provided that the quota could be met. Rosenberg further stated that on several occasions in the course of joint discussions his Ministry demanded that the quota be reduced and that in part it was, in fact, reduced.

This document which is now going to be presented does not mention all these statements, it only contains fragments of them. In order to make it possible both for the Tribunal and the Defense to obtain a complete picture, I ask the Tribunal that the Prosecution be requested to present the entire records of the statements and, before submitting the document officially, to discuss the retranslation with the Defense so as to avoid misunderstandings.

THE PRESIDENT: I am not sure that I understand your objection. You say, as I understood it, that Sauckel had authority from Hitler. Is that right?

DR. THOMA: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: And that Rosenberg was carrying out that authority.

DR. THOMA: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: But all that counsel for the Prosecution is attempting to do at the moment is to put in evidence an interrogation of Rosenberg. With reference to that, you ask that he should put in the whole interrogation?

DR. THOMA: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we don’t know yet whether he intends to put in the whole interrogation or a part of it.

DR. THOMA: I know only one thing: I already have in my hand the document which the Prosecution wishes to submit and I can see from it that it contains only fragments of the whole interrogation. What in particular it does not contain is the fact that Rosenberg always insisted on voluntary recruiting only and that he continually demanded a reduction of the quota. That is not contained in the document to be submitted.

THE PRESIDENT: If counsel for the Prosecution reads a part of the interrogation, and you wish to refer to another part of the interrogation in order that the part he has read should not be misleading, you will be at liberty to do so when he has read his part of the interrogation. Is that clear?

DR. THOMA: Yes. But then I request the Tribunal to ask counsel for the Prosecution if the document which he intends to submit contains the whole of Rosenberg’s statement.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, were you going to put in the whole of Rosenberg’s interrogation?

MR. DODD: No, Your Honor, I was not prepared to put in the whole of Rosenberg’s interrogation, but only certain parts of it. These parts are available, and have been for some time, to counsel. The whole of the Rosenberg interrogation in English was given to Sauckel’s counsel, however, and he has the entire text of it, the only available copy that we have.

THE PRESIDENT: Has counsel for Rosenberg not got the entire document?

MR. DODD: He has only the excerpt that we propose to read into the record here at this time.

DR. THOMA: May I say something?

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, the Tribunal considers that if you propose to put in a part of the interrogation, the whole interrogation ought to be submitted to the defendant’s counsel, that then you may read what part you like of the interrogation, and then defendant’s counsel may refer to any other part of the interrogation directly if it is necessary for the purpose of explaining the part which has been read by counsel for the Prosecution. So before you use this interrogation, Rosenberg’s counsel must have a copy of the whole interrogation.

MR. DODD: I might say, Your Honor, that we turned over the whole interrogation to counsel for the Defendant Sauckel; and we understood that he would make it available to all other counsel for the Defense. Apparently, that did not happen.

DR. THOMA: Thank you, Mr. President.

DR. SERVATIUS: I received these documents from the Prosecution last night. They were in English; that is sufficient for me, but counsel for the other defendants are not all in a position to follow the English text, so that certain difficulties arise, and I must find time to interpret the document to my colleagues. But it would be desirable if the Prosecution could give us the German text, for the interrogation took place in German and was translated into English, so that the original German text should be available.

Those are the difficulties, and I would like to suggest that the German text be also handed to us as soon as possible.

MR. DODD: With reference to the so-called German text, the original is an English text. These interrogations were made through an interpreter and they were transcribed in English so that the original text is an English text, and that is what was turned over to the attorney for the Defendant Sauckel with the understanding that it would be made available to all other counsel.

THE PRESIDENT: But of course that doesn’t quite meet their difficulties because they don’t all of them speak English, or are not all able to read English, so I am afraid you must wait until Rosenberg’s counsel has got a copy of the entire interrogation in his own language.

MR. DODD: Very well.

Passing on beyond the document to which we have just referred—which we now withdraw in view of the ruling—and which we will offer at a later date after we have complied with the ruling of the Court, we have a letter dated the 21st of December 1942, which is Document 018-PS, and which bears Exhibit Number USA-186—which, by the way, is a letter from the Defendant Rosenberg to the Defendant Sauckel—and I wish to quote from Page 1, Paragraph 3 of the English text. In the German text it appears at Page 3, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly:

“Even if I in no way deny that the numbers demanded by the Reich
Minister for Armament and Munitions as well as by the
agricultural economy justify unusual and severe measures, I
must, because I am answerable for the Occupied Eastern
Territories, emphatically request that, in filling the quota
demanded, measures be excluded the consequences and our
toleration of which will some day be held against me and my
collaborators.”