Chapter XXV: Section III: of the order deals with the relations with certain other (5)

In the Ukraine area, arson was indeed used as a terror instrument to enforce these conscription measures; and we refer now to Document Number 254-PS, which is Exhibit USA-188. This document is from an official of the Rosenberg Ministry and was also found in the Rosenberg file. It is dated June 29, 1944 and encloses a copy of a letter from one Paul Raab, a district commissioner in the territory of Wassilkov, to the Defendant Rosenberg. I wish to quote from Raab’s letter, Page 1, starting with Paragraph 1 of the English text which reads as follows:

“According to a charge by the Supreme Command of the Army, I
burned down several houses . . . in the territory of Wassilkov,
Ukraine, belonging to insubordinate people ordered to labor
service—this accusation is true.”

Passing now to the third paragraph:

“During the year of 1942 the conscription of workers was
accomplished nearly exclusively by way of propaganda. Only
rarely was force necessary. But in August 1942, measures had to
be taken against two families in the villages of Glevenka and
Soliony-Shatior, each of which were to supply one person for
labor. Both had been requested in June for the first time but
had not obeyed, although requested repeatedly. They had to be
brought in by force, but succeeded twice in escaping from the
collecting camp in Kiev or while in transit. Before the second
arrest, the fathers of both of the workers were taken into
custody as hostages to be released only when their sons
appeared. When, after the second escape, the re-arrest of both
the young men and the fathers was ordered, the police patrols
detailed to do this, found the houses empty.”

Passing to Paragraph 4, it is stated, and I quote directly:

“At that time I decided at last to take measures to show the
increasingly rebellious Ukrainian youth that our orders have to
be followed. I ordered the burning of the houses of the two
fugitives.”

Would Your Honor like to have the rest of that paragraph?

THE PRESIDENT: I think you should read the next few lines.

MR. DODD: “The result was that in the future people obeyed,
willingly, orders concerning labor obligations. However, the
practice of burning houses has not become known for the first
time by my actions, but was suggested in a secret letter from
the Reich Commissioner for Allocation of Labor specifically as a
coercive measure in case other measures should fail. This harsh
punishment was acceptable to the local population . . .”

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): The Commissioner for Labor, Mr. Dodd—you just said, “an order from the Commissioner of Labor.” Who was that?

MR. DODD: Well, we have discussed this matter previously to our appearance here today. The document does not identify him by name. We are not sure. The Defendant Sauckel was called Plenipotentiary General for Labor, and we think we can’t go much further, and say we don’t know. It just does not appear.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Thank you.

MR. DODD: Reading that last sentence again:

“This harsh punishment was acceptable to the local population
because previous to this step both families had ridiculed on
every hand the duty-conscious people who sent their children
partly voluntarily to the labor allocation.”

Turning to Paragraph 2 on Page 2, beginning about two-thirds of the way through the paragraph, I wish to read as follows—in the German text it appears at Page 3, Paragraph 1:

“After initial successes, a passive resistance of the population
started, which finally forced me to turn again to arrests,
confiscations, and transfers to labor camps. After a whole
transport of conscripted laborers overcame the police at the
railroad station in Wassilkov and escaped, I saw again the
necessity for strict measures. A few ring-leaders, who of course
had long since escaped, were located in Plissezkoje and in
Mitnitza. After repeated attempts to get hold of them, their
houses were burned down.”

And finally, I wish to pass to the last paragraph on Page 3 of that same document. In the German text it appears at Page 5, Paragraph 7. Quoting from that last paragraph on the third page:

“My actions toward fugitive labor draftees were always reported
to District Commissioner Döhrer, of the Wassilkov office, and to
the Commissioner General in Kiev. Both of them knew the
circumstances and agreed with my measures because of their
success.”

That is the end of that part of the quotation.

That Generalkommissar in Kiev, as we indicated yesterday and again this morning, was the man Koch—we quoted his statement about the master race.

Another document confirms arson as an instrument of enforcing this labor program in the village of Bielosersk in the Ukraine in cases of resistance to forced labor recruitment. Atrocities committed in this village are related in Document Number 018-PS, which is already in evidence as Exhibit USA-186. But in addition there is Document Number 290-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-189. This document consists of correspondence originating within the Rosenberg ministry, which was, of course, the office headquarters of the Defendant Rosenberg; and it is dated the 12th day of November 1943. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text, starting with the last line, as follows:

“But even if Müller had been present at the burning of houses in
connection with the Reich conscription in Bielosersk, this
should by no means lead to the removal of Müller from office. It
is mentioned specifically in a directive of the Commissioner
General in Luck, of 21 September 1942, referring to the extreme
urgency of national conscription, that farms of those who refuse
to work are to be burned and their relatives are to be arrested
as hostages and brought to forced labor camps.”

The SS troops were directed to participate in the abduction of these forced laborers and also in the raids on villages, burning of villages, and were directed to turn the entire population over for slave labor in Germany.

We refer to Document Number 3012-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-190. This document is a secret SS order and it is dated the 19th day of March 1943. I wish to quote from Page 3 of the English text starting with the third paragraph. In the German text it appears at Page 2, Paragraph 3. It says, and I quote it:

“The activity of the labor offices, that is, of recruiting
commissions, is to be supported to the greatest extent possible.
It will not be possible always to refrain from using force.
During a conference with the chief of the labor allocation
staffs, it was agreed that whatever prisoners could be released
should be put at the disposal of the commissioner of the labor
office. When searching villages or when it becomes necessary to
burn down villages, the whole population will be put at the
disposal of the commissioner by force.”

THE PRESIDENT: Shouldn’t you read Number 4 which follows it?

MR. DODD: Number 4 says:

“As a rule, no more children will be shot.”

I might say to Your Honor that parts of these documents are going to be relied on for other purposes later and it sometimes may appear to the Tribunal that we are overlooking some of these excerpts, but nevertheless I am grateful to have them called to our attention because they are most pertinent to these allegations as well.

From the community of Zhitomir where the Defendant Sauckel appealed for more workers for the Reich, the Commissioner General reported on the brutality of the conspirator’s program, which he described as a program of coercion and slavery. And I now refer to Document Number 265-PS, which is Exhibit USA-191. This document is a secret report of a conference between the Commissioner General of Zhitomir and the Defendant Rosenberg in the community of Vinnitza on the 17th of June 1943. The report itself is dated the 30th of June 1943 and is signed by Leyser. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text, beginning with the last paragraph; and in the German text it appears at Page 2, Paragraph 3. Quoting it directly:

“The symptoms created by the recruiting of workers are, no
doubt, well known to the Reich Minister through reports and his
own observations. Therefore I shall not repeat them. It is
certain that a recruitment of labor in the true sense of the
word can hardly be spoken of. In most cases it is nowadays a
matter of actual conscription by force.”

Passing now to Page 2 of that same document, and to Paragraph 1, line 11—in the German text it appears at Page 3, Paragraph 2—it says; and I quote it directly:

“But as the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor
explained to us the gravity of the situation, we had no
alternative. I consequently have authorized the commissioners of
the areas to apply the severest measures in order to achieve the
imposed quota. That a lowering of morale is coupled with this
needs no further proof. It is nevertheless essential to win the
war on this front too. The problem of labor mobilization cannot
be handled with gloves.”

The recruitment measures which we have been discussing enslaved so many citizens of occupied countries that whole areas were depopulated.

I now wish to refer to our Document Number 3000-PS, which is Exhibit USA-192. This document is a partial translation of a report from the chief of Main Office III with the High Command in Minsk, and it is dated the 28th day of June 1943. It was sent to Ministerialdirektor Riecke, who was a top official in the Rosenberg Ministry. I wish to read from Page 1 of the English text, starting with the second paragraph, as follows:

“Thus recruitment of labor for the Reich, however necessary, had
disastrous effects, for the recruitment measures in the last
months and weeks were absolute manhunts, which have an
irreparable political and economic effect . . . . From . . .
White Ruthenia approximately 50,000 people have been obtained
for the Reich so far. Another 130,000 are to be taken.
Considering the 2,400,000 total population . . . the fulfillment
of these quotas is impossible. . . . Owing to the sweeping
drives of the SS and police in November 1942, about 115,000
hectares of farmland . . . are not used, as the population is
not there and the villages have been razed. . . .”

We have already referred to the conspirators’ objective of permanently weakening the enemy through the enslavement of labor and the breaking up of families; and we invite the Tribunal’s attention to Document 031-PS, which is in evidence as Exhibit USA-171, for we desire to emphasize that the policy was applied in the Eastern Occupied Territories with the Defendant Rosenberg’s approval of a plan for the apprehension and deportation of 40,000 to 50,000 youths of the ages of 10 to 14. Now the stated purpose of this plan was to prevent a reinforcement of the enemy’s military strength and to reduce the enemy’s biological potentialities. We have already quoted from Page 3 of the English text of that document to establish that the Defendant Rosenberg approved that plan, the so-called Hay Action plan. We referred to it yesterday afternoon.

Further evidence of the conspirators’ plan to weaken their enemies, in utter disregard of the rules of international law, is contained in Document Number 1702-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-193. This document is a secret order, issued by a rear area military commandant to the district commissar at Kasatin, dated the 25th of December 1943. I quote from Page 3 of the English text at Paragraph 1. In the German text it appears at Page 12, Paragraph 1.

“The able-bodied male population between 15 and 65 years of age
and the live stock are to be shipped back from the district east
of the line Belilovka-Berditchev-Zhitomir (exclusive of these
places).”

This program, which we have been describing, and the brutal measures that it employed were not limited to Poland and the Occupied Eastern Territories but covered and cursed Western Europe as well. Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Belgians, Italians, all came to know the yoke of slavery and the brutality of their slavemasters.

In France these slavemasters intensified their program in the early part of 1943, pursuant to instructions which the Defendant Speer telephoned to the Defendant Sauckel at 8 o’clock in the evening on the 4th day of January 1943 from Hitler’s headquarters. I now refer to Document Number 556(13)-PS, which is Exhibit USA-194. This document, incidentally, is a note for his own files, signed by the Defendant Sauckel, dated the 5th of January 1943. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text, Paragraph 1 as follows:

“On 4 January 1943 at 8 p.m. Minister Speer telephones from the
Führer’s headquarters and communicates that on the basis of the
Führer’s decision, it is no longer necessary to give special
consideration to Frenchmen in the further recruiting of
specialists and helpers in France. The recruiting can proceed
with vigor and with sharpened measures.”

To overcome resistance to his slave labor program, the Defendant Sauckel improvised new impressment measures which were applied to both France and Italy by his own agents and which he himself labelled as grotesque. I now refer to Document Number R-124, which is Exhibit USA-179, and particularly Page 2 and Paragraph 2 of the English text; in the German text it appears at Page 8, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly from that page and that paragraph a statement made by Sauckel on 1 March 1944 at a meeting of the Central Planning Board:

“The most abominable point against which I have to fight is the
claim that there is no organization in these districts properly
to recruit Frenchmen, Belgians, and Italians and to dispatch
them to work. So I have even proceeded to employ and train a
whole staff of French and Italian agents of both sexes who for
good pay, just as was done in olden times for ‘shanghaiing,’ go
hunting for men and dupe them, using liquor as well as
persuasion in order to dispatch them to Germany.

“Moreover, I have charged several capable men with founding a
special labor allocation organization of our own, and this by
training and arming, under the aegis of the Higher SS and Police
Führer, a number of indigenous units; but I still have to ask
the munitions ministry for arms for these men. For during the
last year alone several dozens of high-ranking labor allocation
officials of great ability have been shot. All these means must
be used, grotesque as it may sound, to refute the allegation
that there is no organization to bring labor to Germany from
these countries.”

This same slave labor hunt proceeded in Holland, as it did in France, with terror and abduction. I now refer to Document Number 1726-PS, which is Exhibit USA-195. This document is entitled, “Statement of the Netherlands Government in View of the Prosecution and Punishment of the German Major War Criminals.” I wish to quote from enclosure “h,” entitled “Central Bureau for Statistics—The Deportation of Netherlands’ Workmen to Germany.” It is Page 1 of the English text, starting with the first paragraph; and in the German text it appears at Page 1, also Paragraph 1. Quoting it directly, it reads as follows:

“Many big and medium-size large business concerns, especially in
the metal industry, were visited by German commissions who
selected workmen for deportation. This combing-out was called
the ‘Sauckel action,’ so named after its leader, who was charged
with the procurement, of foreign workmen for Germany.

“The employers had to cancel the contracts with the selected
workmen; and the latter were forced to register at the labor
offices, which then took charge of the deportation under
supervision of German ‘Fachberater.’

“Workmen who refused—relatively few—were prosecuted by the
Sicherheitsdienst—the SD. If captured by this service, they
were mostly lodged for some time in one of the infamous
prisoners’ camps in the Netherlands and eventually put to work
in Germany.

“In these prosecutions the Sicherheitsdienst was supported by
the German police service, which was connected with the labor
offices and was composed of members of the NSB and the like.

“At the end of April 1942 the deportation of workers started on
a grand scale. Consequently, in the months of May and June, the
number of deportees amounted to not less than 22,000 and 24,000
respectively, of which many were metal workers.

“After that the action slackened somewhat, but in October 1942
another peak was reached (2,600). After the big concerns, the
smaller ones had, in their turn, to give up their
personnel. . . .

“This changed in November 1944. The Germans then started a
ruthless campaign for manpower, passing by the labor offices.
Without warning they lined off whole quarters of the towns,
seized people in the streets or in the houses and deported them.

“In Rotterdam and Schiedam where these raids took place on 10
and 11 November, the number of people thus deported was
estimated at 50,000 and 5,000, respectively.

“In other places where the raids were held later, the numbers
were much lower, because one was forewarned by the events. The
exact figures are not known as they have never been published by
the occupants.

“The people thus seized were put to work partly in the
Netherlands, partly in Germany.”

A document found in the OKH files furnishes further evidence of the seizure of workers in Holland; and I refer to Document Number 3003-PS, which is Exhibit USA-196. This document is a partial translation of the text of a lecture, delivered by one Lieutenant Haupt of the German Wehrmacht, concerning the situation of the war economy in the Netherlands. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text, starting with the fourth line of Paragraph 1—quoting that directly, which reads as follows:

“There had been some difficulties with the Arbeitseinsatz, that
is, during the man-catching action, which became very noticeable
because it was unorganized and unprepared. People were arrested
in the streets and taken out of their homes. It has been
impossible to carry out a uniform exemption procedure in
advance, because for security reasons the time for the action
had not been previously announced. Certificates of exemption,
furthermore, were to some extent not recognized by the officials
who carried out the action. Not only workers who had become
available through the stoppage of industry, but also those who
were employed in our installations producing things for our
immediate need were apprehended or did not dare to go into the
streets. In any case it proved to be a great loss to us.”

I might say to the Tribunal, that the hordes of people displaced in Germany today indicate, to a very considerable extent, the length to which the conspirators’ labor program succeeded. The best available Allied and German data reveal that, as of January 1945, approximately 4,795,000 foreign civilian workers had been put to work for the German war effort in the Old Reich; and among them were forced laborers of more than 14 different nationalities. I now refer to Document Number 2520-PS, Exhibit USA-197, which is an affidavit executed by Edward L. Deuss, an economic analyst.

At the top of the first page there are tables setting forth the nationality and then the numbers of the various nationals and other groupings or prisoners of war and politicals, so-called. The workers alone total, according to Mr. Deuss who is an expert in the field, the 4,795,000 figure to which I have just referred. In the second paragraph of this statement of Deuss, I should like to read for the record and quote directly:

“I, Edward L. Deuss, for 3 years employed by the Foreign
Economic Administration, Washington, as an economic analyst in
London, Paris, and Germany, specializing in labor and population
problems of Germany during the war, do hereby certify that the
figures of foreign labor employed in the Old Reich have been
compiled on the basis of the best available German and Allied
sources of material. The accompanying table represents a
combination of German official estimates of foreigners working
in Germany in January 1945, and of American, British, and French
figures of the number of foreigners actually discovered in the
Old Reich since 10 May 1945.”

Only a very small proportion of these imported laborers came to Germany on a voluntary basis. At the March 1, 1944 meeting of this same Central Planning Board, to which we have made reference before, the Defendant Sauckel himself made clear the vast scale on which free men had been forced into this labor slavery. He made the statement, and I quote from Document Number R-124, which is in evidence as Exhibit USA-179 and from which I have quoted earlier this morning. I wish to refer to Page 11 of that document, the middle paragraph, Paragraph 3. In the German text it appears at Page 4, Paragraph 2—the Defendant Sauckel speaking—and I quote directly from that document:

“Out of 5 million foreign workers who arrived in Germany, not
even 200,000 came voluntarily.”

The Nazi conspirators were not satisfied just to tear 5 million odd persons from their children, from their homes, from their native land. But in addition, these defendants, who sit today in this courtroom, insisted that this vast number of wretched human beings who were in the so-called Old Reich as forced laborers must be starved, given less than sufficient to eat, often beaten and maltreated, and permitted to die wholesale for want of food, for want of even the fundamental requirements of decent clothing, for the want of adequate shelter or indeed sometimes just because they produced too little.

Now these conditions of deportation are vividly described in Document Number 054-PS, which is a report made to the Defendant Rosenberg concerning the treatment of Ukrainian labor. I wish to refer to Document Number 054-PS, which bears the Exhibit Number USA-198. Before quoting from it directly—according to this report the plight of these hapless victims was aggravated because many were dragged off without opportunity to collect their possessions. Indeed, men and women were snatched from bed and lodged in cellars pending deportation. Some arrived in night clothing. Brutal guards beat them. They were locked in railroad cars for long periods without any toilet facilities at all, without food, without water, without heat. The women were subjected to physical and moral indignities and indecencies during medical examinations.

I refer how specifically to this Document Number 054-PS, which consists of a covering letter to the Defendant Rosenberg, first of all, and is signed by one Theurer, a 1st lieutenant in the Wehrmacht, to which is attached a copy of a report by the commandant of the collecting center for Ukrainian specialists at Kharkov; and it also consists of a letter written by one of the specialists in the Rosenberg office—no, by one of the workers, not in the Rosenberg office, but one of the specialists they were recruiting, by the name of Grigori. I wish to quote from the report at Page 2, starting at Paragraph 4 of the English text—and in the German text it appears at Page 3, Paragraph 4. Quoting directly from that page of the English text:

“The _starosts_, that is village elders, are frequently
corruptible; they continue to have the skilled workers, whom
they drafted, dragged from their beds at night to be locked up
in cellars until they are shipped. Since the male and female
workers often are not given any time to pick up their luggage
and so forth, many skilled workers arrive at the collecting
center for skilled workers with equipment entirely insufficient
(without shoes or change of clothing, no eating and drinking
utensils, no blankets, _et cetera_). In particularly extreme
cases, therefore, new arrivals have to be sent back again
immediately to get the things most necessary for them. If people
do not come along at once, threatening and beating of skilled
workers by the above-mentioned local militia become a daily
occurrence and are reported from most of the communities. In
some cases women were beaten until they could no longer march.
One bad case in particular was reported by me to the commander
of the civil police here (Colonel Samek) for severe punishment
(village of Sozolinkov, district of Dergatchi). The
encroachments of the _starosts_ and the militia are of a
particularly grave nature because they usually justify
themselves by claiming that all that is done in the name of the
German Armed Forces. In reality, the latter have conducted
themselves throughout in a highly understanding manner toward
the skilled workers and the Ukrainian population. The same,
however, cannot be said of some of the administrative agencies.
To illustrate this, be it mentioned that a woman once arrived
dressed with barely more than a shirt.”

Passing now to Page 4 of this same document, starting with the 10th line of the third paragraph, and in the German text it appears at Page 5, Paragraph 2. Quoting directly again:

“On the basis of reported incidents, attention must be called to
the fact that it is inexcusable to keep workers locked in the
cars for many hours, so that they cannot even take care of the
calls of nature. It is evident that the people of a transport
must be given an opportunity from time to time, to get drinking
water, to wash, and to relieve themselves. Cars have been shown
in which people had made holes so that they could attend to the
calls of nature. When nearing bigger stations, persons should,
if possible, relieve themselves far from these stations.”

Turning to Page 5 of the same document, Paragraph 12—in the German text it appears at Page 6, Paragraph 1:

“The following abuses were reported from the delousing stations:

“In the women’s and girls’ shower rooms, services were partly
performed by men, or men would mingle around or even help with
the soaping, and vice versa there were female personnel in the
men’s shower rooms. Men also for some time were taking
photographs in the women’s shower rooms. Since mainly Ukrainian
peasants were transported in the last months, as far as the
female portion of these are concerned, they were mostly of a
high moral standard and used to strict modesty; they must have
considered such a treatment as a national degradation. The
above-mentioned abuses have been, according to our knowledge,
settled by the intervention of the transport commanders. The
reports of the photographing were made from Halle; the reports
about the former were made from Kiwerce. Such incidents,
altogether unworthy of the dignity and prestige of the Greater
German Reich may still occur here or there.”

Sick and infirm people of the occupied countries were taken indiscriminately with the rest. Those who managed to survive the trip into Germany but who arrived too sick to work were returned like cattle together with those who fell ill at work, because they were of no further use to the Germans. The return trip took place under the same terrible conditions as the initial journey, and without any kind of medical supervision. Death came to many and their corpses were unceremoniously dumped out of the cars, with no provision for burial.

I quote from Page 3, Paragraph 3 of Document Number 054-PS. In the German text it appears at Page 2, Paragraph 3. Quoting directly:

“Very depressing for the morale of the skilled workers and the
population is the effect of those persons shipped back from
Germany who had become disabled or had been unfit for employment
from the very beginning.

“Several times already transports of skilled workers on their
way to Germany have crossed returning transports of such
disabled persons and have stood on the tracks alongside of each
other for a long period of time. These returning transports are
insufficiently cared for. Nothing but sick, injured, or weak
people, mostly 50 to 60 in a car usually escorted by 3 to 4 men.
There is neither sufficient care nor food. The returnees made
frequently unfavorable—if also surely exaggerated—statements
relative to their treatment in Germany and on the way. As a
result of all this and of what the people could see with their
own eyes, a psychosis of fear was evoked among the skilled
workers, that is, the whole transport to Germany. Several
transport leaders, of the 62d and 63d transports, in particular,
reported on it in detail. In one case the leader of the
transport of skilled workers observed with his own eyes how a
person who had died of hunger was unloaded from a returning
transport on the side track (1st Lieutenant Hofmann of the 63rd
Transport Station, Darniza). Another time it was reported that
three dead had to be deposited by the side of the tracks on the
way and had to be left behind unburied by the escort. It is also
regrettable that these disabled persons arrive here without any
identification. From the reports of the transport commanders,
one gets the impression that these unemployable persons are
assembled, penned into the wagons, and sent off provided only by
a few men escorts and without special care for food and medical
or other attendance. The labor office at the place of arrival as
well as the transport commanders confirm this impression.”

Incredible as it may seem, mothers in the throes of childbirth shared cars with those infected with tuberculosis or venereal diseases. Babies, when born, were hurled out of these car windows; and dying persons lay on the bare floors of freight cars without even the small comfort of straw.

I refer to Document Number 084-PS, which is Exhibit USA-199. This document is an interdepartmental report, prepared by Dr. Gutkelch, in the Defendant Rosenberg’s Ministry, and it is dated the 30th of September 1942. I wish to quote from Page 10 of the English text, starting with the fourth line from the top of the page. In the German text it appears at Page 22, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly from that paragraph:

“How necessary this interference was is shown by the fact that
this train with returning laborers had stopped at the same place
where a train with newly recruited Eastern Workers had stopped.
Because of the corpses in the trainload of returning laborers, a
catastrophe might have been precipitated had it not been for the
mediation of Mrs. Miller. In this train women gave birth to
babies who were thrown out of the windows during the journey,
people having tuberculosis and venereal diseases rode in the
same car, dying people lay in freight cars without straw, and
one of the dead was thrown on the railway embankment. The same
must have occurred in other returning transports.”

Some aspects of the Nazi transport were described by the Defendant Sauckel himself in a decree which he issued on the 20th of July 1942; and I refer specifically to Document Number 2241(2)-PS, which is Exhibit USA-200. I ask that the Tribunal take judicial notice of the original decree, which is published in Section BIa, at Page 48e of a book entitled _Die Beschäftigung von ausländischen Arbeitskräften in Deutschland_. I quote from Page 1, Paragraph 2, of the English text; and I am quoting directly:

“According to reports of transportation
commanders”—Transportleiter—“presented to me, the special
trains provided by the German railway have frequently been in a
really broken-down condition. Numerous window panes have been
missing in the coaches. Old French coaches without lavatories
have been partly employed so that the workers had to fit up an
emptied compartment as a lavatory. In other cases, the coaches
were not heated in winter so that the lavatories quickly became
unusable because the water system was frozen and the flushing
apparatus was therefore without water.”

The Tribunal will unquestionably have noticed or observed that a number of the documents which we have referred to—and which we have offered—consist of complaints by functionaries of the Defendant Rosenberg’s Ministry, or by others, concerning the conditions under which foreign workers were recruited and lived. I think it is appropriate to say that these documents have been presented by the Prosecution really for two purposes, or for a dual purpose; to establish, first, the facts recited therein, of course, but also to show that these conspirators had knowledge of these conditions and that notwithstanding their knowledge of these conditions, these conspirators continued to countenance and assist in this enslavement program of a vast number of citizens of occupied countries.

Once within Germany, slave laborers were subjected to almost unbelievable brutality and degradation by their captors; and the character of this treatment was in part made plain by the conspirators’ own statements, as in Document Number 016-PS, which is in evidence as Exhibit USA-168; and I refer to Page 12, Paragraph 2 of the English text. In the German text it appears at Page 17, Paragraph 4. Quoting directly:

“All the men must be fed, sheltered, and treated in such a way
that they produce to the highest possible extent at the lowest
conceivable degree of expenditure.”

Force and brutality as instruments of production found a ready adherent in the Defendant Speer who, in the presence of the Defendant Sauckel, said at a meeting of the Central Planning Board—and I refer to Document Number R-124, which is already in evidence and which has been referred to previously. It bears the Exhibit Number USA-179. I refer particularly to Page 42 of that Document R-124, and Paragraph 2 of that Page 42. The Defendant Speer, speaking at that meeting, stated:

“We must also discuss the slackers. Ley has ascertained that the
side list decreased at once to one-fourth or one-fifth in
factories where doctors are on the staff who examine the sick
men. There is nothing to be said against SS and police taking
drastic steps and putting those known as slackers into
concentration camps. There is no alternative. Let it happen
several times and the news will soon go around.”

At a later meeting of the Central Planning Board, Field Marshal Milch agreed that so far as workers were concerned—and again I refer to Document Number R-124 and to Page 26, Paragraph 2, in the English text, and in the German text at Page 17, Paragraph 1. Field Marshal Milch, speaking at a meeting of the Central Planning Board when the Defendant Speer was present, stated; and I am quoting directly:

“The list of the shirkers should be entrusted to Himmler
. . . .”

Milch made particular reference to foreign workers again in this Document Number R-124 at Page 26, Paragraph 3—in the German text it appears at Page 18, Paragraph 3—when he said; and I am quoting him directly:

“It is therefore not possible to exploit fully all the
foreigners unless we compel them by piece-work wages and have
the possibility of taking measures against foreigners who are
not doing their bit.”

The policy as actually executed was even more fearful than the policy as expressed by the conspirators. Indeed, these impressed workers were underfed and overworked; and they were forced to live in grossly overcrowded camps where they were held as virtual prisoners, and were otherwise denied adequate shelter, adequate clothing, adequate medical care and treatment. As a consequence, they suffered from many diseases and ailments. They were generally forced to work long hours, up to and beyond the point of exhaustion. They were beaten and subjected to all manner of inhuman indignities.

An example of this maltreatment is found in the conditions which prevailed in the Krupp factories. Foreign laborers at the Krupp works were given insufficient food to enable them to perform the work required of them.

I refer to Document Number D-316, which is Exhibit USA-201. This document was found in the Krupp files. It is a memorandum upon the Krupp stationery to a Herr Hupe, a director of the Krupp locomotive factory in Essen, Germany, dated the 14th of March 1942. I wish to refer to Page 1 of the English text, starting with Paragraph 1, as follows; and I am quoting directly:

“During the last few days we established that the food for the
Russians employed here is so miserable that the people are
getting weaker from day to day.

“Investigations showed that single Russians are not able to
place a piece of metal for turning into position, for instance,
because of lack of physical strength. The same conditions exist
in all other places of work where Russians are employed.”

The condition of foreign workers in Krupp workers’ camps is described in detail in an affidavit executed in Essen, Germany, by Dr. Wilhelm Jäger, who was the senior camp doctor. It is Document Number D-288, which is Exhibit USA-202.

“I, Dr. Wilhelm Jäger, am a general practitioner in Essen,
Germany, and its surroundings. I was born in Germany on 2
December 1888 and now live at Kettwig, Sengenholz 6, Germany.

“I make the following statement of my own free will. I have not
been threatened in any way and I have not been promised any sort
of reward.

“On the 1st of October 1942, I became senior camp doctor in the
Krupp’s workers’ camps for foreigners and was generally charged
with the medical supervision of all Krupp’s workers’ camps in
Essen. In the course of my duties it was my responsibility to
report upon the sanitary and health conditions of the workers’
camps to my superiors in the Krupp works.

“It was a part of my task to visit every Krupp camp which housed
foreign civilian workers, and I am therefore able to make this
statement on the basis of my personal knowledge.

“My first official act as senior camp doctor was to make a
thorough inspection of the various camps. At that time, in
October 1942, I found the following conditions:

“The Eastern Workers and Poles who worked in the Krupp works at
Essen were kept at camps at Seumannstrasse, Grieperstrasse,
Spenlestrasse, Heegstrasse, Germaniastrasse,
Kapitän-Lehmannstrasse, Dechenschule, and Krämerplatz.”—When
the term “Eastern Workers” is hereinafter used, it is to be
taken as including Poles.—“All of the camps were surrounded by
barbed wire and were closely guarded.

“Conditions in all of these camps were extremely bad. The camps
were greatly overcrowded. In some camps there were twice as many
people in a barrack as health conditions permitted.

“At Krämerplatz the inhabitants slept in treble-tiered bunks,
and in the other camps they slept in double-tiered bunks. The
health authorities prescribed a minimum space between beds of 50
centimeters, but the bunks in these camps were separated by a
maximum of 20 to 30 centimeters.

“The diet prescribed for the Eastern Workers was altogether
insufficient. They were given 1,000 calories a day less than the
minimum prescribed for any German. Moreover, while German
workers engaged in the heaviest work received 5,000 calories a
day, the Eastern Workers with comparable jobs received only
2,000 calories. The Eastern Workers were given only two meals a
day and their bread ration. One of these two meals consisted of
a thin, watery soup. I had no assurance that the Eastern
Workers, in fact, received the minimum which was prescribed.
Subsequently, in 1943, I undertook to inspect the food prepared
by the cooks; I discovered a number of instances in which food
was withheld from the workers.

“The plan for food distribution called for a small quantity of
meat per week. Only inferior meats rejected by the veterinary,
such as horse meat or tuberculin-infested, was permitted for
this purpose. This meat was usually cooked into a soup . . . .

“The percentage of Eastern Workers who were ill was twice as
great as among the Germans. Tuberculosis was particularly
widespread among the Eastern Workers. The tuberculosis rate
among them was four times the normal rate (Eastern Workers, 2
percent; German, 0.5 percent). At Dechenschule approximately 2.5
percent of the workers suffered from open tuberculosis. The
Tartars and Kirghises suffered most; as soon as they were
overcome by this disease they collapsed like flies. The cause
was bad housing, the poor quality and insufficient quantity of
food, overwork, and insufficient rest.

“These workers were likewise afflicted with spotted fever. Lice,
the carrier of this disease, together with countless fleas,
bugs, and other vermin, tortured the inhabitants of these camps.
As a result of the filthy conditions of the camps nearly all
Eastern Workers were afflicted with skin disease. The shortage
of food also caused many cases of Hunger-Oedema, Nephritis and
Shiga-Kruse.

“It was the general rule that workers were compelled to go to
work unless a camp doctor had certified that they were unfit for
work. At Seumannstrasse, Grieperstrasse, Germaniastrasse,
Kapitän-Lehmannstrasse, and Dechenschule there was no daily sick
call. At these camps the doctors did not appear for 2 or 3 days.
As a consequence workers were forced to go to work despite
illness.

“I undertook to improve conditions as much as I could. I
insisted upon the erection of some new barracks in order to
relieve the overcrowded conditions of the camps. Despite this,
the camps were still greatly overcrowded but not as much as
before. I tried to alleviate the poor sanitary conditions in
Krämerplatz and Dechenschule by having some emergency toilets
installed; but the number was insufficient, and the situation
was not materially altered . . . .

“With the onset of heavy air raids in March 1943, conditions in
the camps greatly deteriorated. The problem of housing, feeding,
and medical attention became more acute than ever. The workers
lived in the ruins of their former barracks. Medical supplies
which were used up, lost, or destroyed were difficult to
replace. At times the water supply at the camps was completely
shut off for periods of 8 to 14 days. We installed a few
emergency toilets in the camps, but there were far too few of
them to cope with the situation.

“During the period immediately following the March 1943 raids
many foreign workers were made to sleep at the Krupp factories
in the same rooms in which they worked. The day workers slept
there at night, and the night workers slept there during the
day, despite the noise which constantly prevailed. I believe
that this condition continued until the entrance of American
troops into Essen.

“As the pace of air raids was stepped up, conditions became
progressively worse. On 28 July 1944 I reported to my superiors
that:

“‘The sick barracks in camp Rabenhorst are in such a bad
condition one cannot speak of a sick barracks any more. The rain
leaks through in every corner. The housing of the sick is
therefore impossible. The necessary labor for production is in
danger because those persons who are ill cannot recover.’

“At the end of 1943 or the beginning of 1944—I am not
completely sure of the exact date—I obtained permission for the
first time to visit the prisoner-of-war camps. My inspection
revealed that conditions at these camps were worse than those I
had found at the camps of the Eastern Workers in 1942. Medical
supplies at such camps were virtually non-existent. In an effort
to cure this intolerable situation, I contacted the Wehrmacht
authorities whose duty it was to provide medical care for the
prisoners of war. My persistent efforts came to nothing. After
remonstrating with them over a period of 2 weeks, I was given a
total of 100 aspirin tablets for over 3,000 prisoners of war.

“The French prisoner-of-war camp in Nöggerathstrasse had been
destroyed in an air raid attack and its inhabitants were kept
for nearly half a year in dog kennels, urinals, and in old
bakehouses. The dog kennels were 3 feet high, 9 feet long, and 6
feet wide. Five men slept in each of them. The prisoners had to
crawl into these kennels on all fours. The camp contained no
tables, chairs, or cupboards. The supply of blankets was
inadequate. There was no water in the camp. Such medical
treatment as there was, was given in the open. Many of these
conditions were reported to me in a report by Dr. Stinnesbeck,
dated 12 June 1944, in which he said:

“‘. . . There are still 315 prisoners in the camp. One hundred
seventy of these are no longer in barracks but in the tunnel in
Grunertstrasse under the Essen-Mülheim railway line. This tunnel
is damp and is not suitable for continued accommodation of human
beings. The rest of the prisoners are accommodated in 10
different factories in the Krupp works. The medical attention is
given by a French military doctor who takes great pains with his
fellow countrymen. Sick people from Krupp factories must be
brought to sick call. This inspection is held in the lavatory of
a burned-out public house outside the camp. The sleeping
accommodation of the four French orderlies is in what was the
men’s room. In the sick bay there is a double-tier wooden bed.
In general the treatment takes place in the open. In rainy
weather it is held in the above-mentioned small room. These are
insufferable conditions. There are no chairs, tables, cupboards,
or water. The keeping of a register of sick people is
impossible. Bandages and medical supplies are very scarce,
although the badly wounded from the factory are very often
brought here for first aid and have to be bandaged here before
being transported to the hospital. There are many loud and
lively complaints about food which the guard personnel confirms
as being justified. Illness and loss of manpower must be
reckoned with under these conditions . . . .’

“In my report to my superiors at Krupps, dated 2 September 1944,
I stated . . . .

“Camp Humboldtstrasse has been inhabited by Italian military
internees. After it had been destroyed by an air raid, the
Italians were removed and 600 Jewish females from Buchenwald
concentration camp were brought to work at the Krupp factories.
Upon my first visit at Camp Humboldtstrasse, I found these
persons suffering from open festering wounds and other ailments.

“I was the first doctor they had seen for at least a fortnight.
There was no doctor in attendance at the camp. There were no
medical supplies in the camp. They had no shoes and went about
in their bare feet. The sole clothing of each consisted of a
sack with holes for their arms and head. Their hair was shorn.
The camp was surrounded by barbed wire and closely guarded by SS
guards.

“The amount of food in the camp was extremely meager and of very
poor quality. The houses in which they lived consisted of the
ruins of former barracks and they afforded no shelter against
rain and other weather conditions. I reported to my superiors
that the guards lived and slept outside their barracks as one
could not enter them without being attacked by 10, 20, and up to
50 fleas. One camp doctor employed by me refused to enter the
camp again after he had been bitten very badly. I visited this
camp with Mr. Gröne on two occasions and both times we left the
camp badly bitten. We had great difficulty in getting rid of the
fleas and insects which had attacked us. As a result of this
attack by insects of this camp I got large boils on my arms and
the rest of my body. I asked my superiors at the Krupp works to
undertake the necessary steps to delouse the camp so as to put
an end to this unbearable vermin-infested condition. Despite
this report, I did not find any improvement in sanitary
conditions at the camp on my second visit a fortnight later.

“When foreign workers finally became too sick to work or were
completely disabled, they were returned to the labor exchange in
Essen and from there they were sent to a camp at Friedrichsfeld.
Among persons who were returned to the labor exchange were
aggravated cases of tuberculosis, malaria, neurosis, cancer
which could not be treated by operation, old age, and general
feebleness. I know nothing about conditions at this camp because
I have never visited it. I only know that it was a place to
which workers were sent who were no longer of any use to Krupp.

“My colleagues and I reported all of the foregoing matters to
Mr. Ihn, director of Friedrich Krupp AG.; Dr. Wiele, personal
physician of Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach; senior camp
leader Kupke; and sometimes to the Essen health department.
Moreover, I know that these gentlemen personally visited the
camps.”—signed—“Dr. Wilhelm Jäger.”

THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now until 2 o’clock.

[_A recess was taken until 1400 hours._]

_Afternoon Session_

MR. DODD: May it please the Tribunal, we had just completed the reading of the affidavit executed by Dr. Wilhelm Jäger at the noon recess. The conditions which were described in this affidavit were not confined to the Krupp factories alone but existed throughout Germany; and we turn to a report of the Polish Main Committee made to the Administration of the General Government of Poland, Document Number R-103, Exhibit Number USA-204. This document is dated the 17th of May 1944 and describes the situation of the Polish workers in Germany, and I wish to refer particularly to Page 2 of the English translation, starting with Paragraph 2; in the German text it appears at Page 2, Paragraph 2 also. In quoting from the document, it reads:

“The state of cleanliness of many overcrowded camp rooms is
contrary to the most elementary requirements. Often there is no
opportunity to obtain warm water for washing; therefore, the
cleanest parents are unable to maintain even the most primitive
standard of hygiene for their children or often even to wash
their only set of underclothing. A consequence of this is the
spreading of scabies which cannot be eradicated . . . .

“We receive imploring letters from the camps of Eastern Workers
and their prolific families beseeching us for food. The quantity
and quality of camp rations mentioned therein—the so-called
class 4—is absolutely insufficient to compensate the energy
spent in heavy work. Three and one half kilograms of bread
weekly and a thin soup at lunch time, cooked with kohlrabi or
other vegetables without any meat or fat, with a meager addition
of potatoes now and then, is a starvation ration for a heavy
worker.

“When, on top of that, starvation is sometimes inflicted as
punishment—for refusal to wear the badge ‘East’, for
example—the result is that workers faint at their work
(Klosterteich Camp, Grünheim, Saxony). The consequence is
complete exhaustion, an ailing state of health, and
tuberculosis. The spreading of tuberculosis among the Polish
factory workers is due to the deficient food rations meted out
in the community camps which are insufficient to restore the
energy spent in heavy work . . . .

“The call for help which reaches us brings to light privation
and hunger, severe stomach and intestinal trouble, especially in
the case of children, resulting from the insufficiency of food
which does not take into consideration the needs of children.
Proper medical treatment or care for the sick is not available
in the mass camps.”

We now refer to Page 3 of this same document and particularly to the first paragraph. In the German text it appears at Page 5, Paragraph 1:

“In addition to these bad conditions, there is lack of
systematic occupation for and supervision of these hosts of
children which affects the life of prolific families in the
camps. The children, left to themselves without schooling or
religious care, must run wild and grow up illiterate. Idleness
in rough surroundings may and will create undesirable results in
these children . . . . An indication of what these awful
conditions may lead to is given by the fact that in the camps
for Eastern Workers (‘Waldlust,’ Lauf, post office, Pegnitz)
there are cases of 8-year-old, delicate, and undernourished
children put to forced labor and perishing from such treatment
. . . .

“The fact that these bad conditions dangerously affect the state
of health and the vitality of the workers is proved by the many
cases of tuberculosis found in very young people returning from
the Reich to the General Government as unfit for work. Their
state of health is usually so bad that recovery is out of the
question. The reason is that a state of exhaustion resulting
from overwork and a starvation diet is not recognized as an
ailment until the illness betrays itself by high fever and
fainting spells.

“Although some hostels for unfit workers have been provided as a
precautionary measure, one can only go there when recovery may
no longer be expected (Neumarkt in Bavaria). Even there the
incurables waste away slowly, and nothing is done even to
alleviate the state of the sick by suitable food and medicines.
There are children there with tuberculosis whose cure would not
be hopeless and men in their prime who, if sent home in time to
their families in rural districts, might still be able to
recover . . . . No less suffering is caused by the separation of
families when wives and mothers of small children are away from
their families and sent to the Reich for forced labor.”

And finally, from Page 4 of the same document, starting with the first paragraph—in the German text it appears at Page 7, Paragraph 4:

“If, under these conditions, there is no moral support such as
is normally based on regular family life, then at least such
moral support which the religious feelings of the Polish
population require should be maintained and increased. The
elimination of religious services, religious practices, and
religious care from the life of the Polish workers, the
prohibition of church attendance when there is a religious
service for other people, and other measures show a certain
contempt for the influence of religion on the feelings and
opinions of the workers.”