Chapter V: Front Matter (5)

“Principally it can be said regarding the administration of the
Government General: This territory in its entirety is booty for
the German Reich, and thus it will not do for this territory to
be exploited in separate individual parts; but the territory in
its entirety shall be economically used and its entire economic
worth redound to the benefit of the German people.”

Reference is made to Exhibit Number USA-297, if any further support of an early policy of ruthless exploitation is deemed necessary by the Tribunal. In addition, the decree permitting sequestration in the Government General heretofore pointed out to the Tribunal (_Verordnungsblatt für das Generalgouvernement_, Number 6, 27 January 1940, Page 23), which decree was signed by the Defendant Frank, permitted and empowered the Nazi officials to engage in wholesale seizure of property. This was made the easier by the undefined criteria of the decree. The looting of the Government General under this and other decrees has already been presented to the Tribunal on 14 December 1945, under the subject heading, “Germanization and spoliation of occupied territories,” and the Tribunal is respectfully referred to that portion of the record and in particular to that segment dealing with the Government General.

The Defendant Frank mentioned mass arrests and mass shooting and the application of collective responsibility as the fourth reason for the apparent deterioration of the attitude of the entire Polish people. In this, too, he is to blame, for it was no part of Defendant Frank’s policy that reprisal should be commensurate with the gravity of the offense. He was, on the contrary, an advocate of the most drastic measures. At a conference of district political leaders at Kraków, on 18 March 1942, Frank stated his policy. This extract is from the diary and is our Document 2233(r)-PS and will be found at Page 49 in the document book. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-608. The German text may be found in the diary volume for 1942, Part I, Pages 195 and 196. I quote Frank’s statement:

“Incidentally, the struggle for the achievement of our aims will
be pursued cold-bloodedly. You see how the state agencies work.
You see that we do not hesitate at anything, and stand dozens of
people up against the wall. This is necessary because a simple
reflection tells me that it cannot be our task at this period,
when the best German blood is being sacrificed, to show regard
for the blood of another race; for out of this, one of the
greatest dangers may arise. One already hears today in Germany
that prisoners of war, for instance, in Bavaria or Thuringia,
are administering large estates entirely independently, while
all the men in a village fit for service are at the front. If
this state of affairs continues, then a gradual retrogression of
Germanism will result. One should not underestimate this danger.
Therefore, everything revealing itself as a Polish power of
leadership must be destroyed again and again with ruthless
energy. This does not have to be shouted abroad; it will happen
silently.”

And on 15 January 1944 Defendant Frank assured the political leaders of the NSDAP that reprisals would be made for German deaths. These remarks are to be found in the Frank diary, in our Document 2233(bb)-PS at Page 60 in the document book, the second quote on that page, the original of which I offer in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-295. The German text appears in the loose-leaf volume of the diary covering the period from 1 January 1944 to 28 February 1944, and appears at Page 13. Frank says quite simply—“I have not hesitated to declare that when a German is shot, up to 100 Poles shall be shot too.”

The whole tragic history of slave-labor and recruitment of workers has been placed before this Tribunal in great detail. When the Defendant Frank refers to these methods as his fifth reason for disaffection in Poland in his report to Hitler, he once more cites policies which he executed. Force, violence, and economic duress were all supported by him as means for recruiting laborers for deportation to slavery in Germany. This was an announced policy, and I have already alluded to Exhibit Number USA-297, which contains verification of this fact.

While in the very beginning recruitment of laborers in the Government General may have been voluntary, these methods soon proved inadequate. In the spring of 1940 the question of utilizing force came up and the matter was discussed at an official meeting at which the Defendant Seyss-Inquart was also present. I refer to the Frank diary and our Document 2233(n)-PS, which the Tribunal will find at Page 43 in the document book. I offer the original in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-614. The German text appears in the diary volume for 1940, Part II, at Page 333. I quote the conference report:

“The Governor General stated that all means in the form of
proclamations, _et cetera_, not having succeeded, one is led to
the conclusion that the Poles, out of malevolence and with the
intention of harming Germany by not putting themselves at its
disposal, refuse to enlist for labor service. Therefore, he asks
Dr. Frauendorfer if there are any other measures not as yet
employed to win the Poles on a voluntary basis.

“Reichshauptamtsleiter Dr. Frauendorfer answered the question in
the negative.

“The Governor General emphasized the fact that he will now be
asked to take a definite attitude towards this question.
Therefore, the question will arise whether any form of coercive
measures should now be employed.

“The question put by the Governor General to SS Lieutenant
General Krüger as to whether he sees possibilities of calling
Polish workers by coercive means, is answered in the affirmative
by SS Lieutenant General Krüger.”

In May 1940, at an official conference—and this record is already before the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USA-173—Defendant Frank stated that compulsion in recruitment of labor could be exercised, that Poles could be snatched from the streets and that the best method would be organized raids.

As in the case of persecution of the Jews, the forced labor program in the Government General is almost beyond belief. I refer to the Frank diary and to our Document 2233(w)-PS, which will be found at Page 53 in the document book, the original of which I offer into evidence as Exhibit Number USA-607. This excerpt is a record, if the Court please, of a discussion between the Defendant Sauckel and the Defendant Frank at Kraków on 18 August 1942; and it appears in the diary volume for 1942,