Archive/File: imt/nca/nca-01/nca-01-10-slaves-05
Last-Modified: 1996/06/12

   Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume One, Chapter Ten

        5. CONDITIONS OF DEPORTATION AND SLAVE LABOR

The Nazi conspirators were not satisfied to tear 5,000,000
persons from their families, their homes, and their country.
They insisted that these 5,000,000 wretches, while being
deported to Germany or after their arrival, be degraded,
beaten, and permitted to die for want of food, clothing, and
adequate shelter. Conditions of deportation are vividly-
described in a report to Rosenberg concerning treatment of
Ukrainian labor (054-PS):

     "The starosts esp. 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 worker. often are not given any
     time to pack their luggage, etc., many skilled workers
     arrive at the Collecting Center for Skilled Workers
     with equipment entirely insufficient (without shoes,
     only two dresses, no eating and drinking utensils, no
     blankets, etc.) In particularly extreme cases new
     arrivals therefore have to be sent back again
     immediately to get the things most necessary for them.
     If people do not come along a once, threatening and
     beating of skilled workers by the above mentioned
     militia is a daily occurrence and is 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
     (place Sozolinkow, district Dergatschi). 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
     
                                                  [Page 896]
                                                            
     and the Ukrainian population. The same, however, can
     not be said of some of the administrative agencies. To
     illustrate this be it mentioned, that a woman once
     arrived being dressed with barely more than a shirt."

     "*** On the basis of reported incidents, attention must
     be called to the fact that it is irresponsible 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 in order to get drinking
     water, to wash, and in order to relieve themselves.
     Cars have been showed in which people had made holes so
     that they could take care of the calls of nature. When
     nearing bigger stations persons should, if possible,
     relieve themselves far from these stations."
     
     "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 helped 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 decency,
     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 Kiewerce. Such
     incidents in complete disregard of the honor and
     respect of the Greater German Reich may still occur
     again here or there." (054-PS)
     
Sick and infirm citizens 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
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. Thus, the report continues:
     
     "*** Very depressing for the morale of the skilled
     
                                                  [Page 897]
                                                            
     workers and the population is the effect of those
     persons shipped back from Germany for having become
     disabled or not having been fit for labor commitment
     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 longer period of time. Those returning
     transports are insufficiently cared for. Nothing but
     sick, injured or weak people, mostly 50-60 to a car,
     are usually escorted by 3 men. There is neither
     sufficient care or food. The returnees made frequently
     unfavourable but 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 specialist workers resp. the whole transport
     to Germany. Several transport leaders of the 62nd and
     the 63rd in particular reported thereto in detail. In
     one case the leader of the transport of skilled workers
     observed with own eyes how a person who died of hunger
     was unloaded from a returning transport on the side
     track. (1st Lt. Hofman of the 63rd transport Station
     Darniza). Another time it was reported that 3 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. According to the
     reports of the transport commanders one gets the
     impression that these persons unable to work are
     assembled, penned into the wagons and are sent off
     provided only by a few men escort, 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." (054-PS)

Mothers in childbirth shared cars with those infected with
tuberculosis or venereal diseases. Babies when born were
hurled out of windows. Dying persons lay on the bare floors
of freight cars without even the small comfort of straw.
These conditions are revealed in an interdepartmental report
prepared by Dr. Gutkelch in Rosenberg's Ministry, dated 30
September 1942, from which the following quotation is taken:

     "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 laborers had stopped. Because of the
     corpses in the trainload of returning laborers, a
     catastrophe might have been
     
                                                  [Page 898]
                                                            
     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." (084-PS)

Some aspects of Nazi transport were described by Sauckel
himself in a decree which he issued on 20 July 1942, (2241-
PS). The original decree is published in section B1a, page
48e of a book entitled "Die Beschaeftigung von
auslaendischen Arbeitskraeften in Duetschland." The decree
reads, in part, as follows:

     "According to reports of transportation commanders
     (Transportleiters) presented to me, the special trains
     provided by the German railway have frequently been in
     a really deficient condition. Numerous windowpanes 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." (2241-
     PS)

Many of the foregoing documents, it will be noted, consist
of complaints by functionaries of the Rosenberg ministry or
by others concerning the conditions under which foreign
workers were recruited and compelled to live. These
documents establish not only the facts therein recited, but
also show that the Nazi conspirators had knowledge of such
conditions. Notwithstanding their knowledge of these
conditions, however, the Nazi conspirators continued to
countenance and assist in the enslavement of a vast number
of citizens of occupied countries.

Once within Germany, slave laborers were subjected to
treatment of an unusually brutal and degrading nature. The
character of Nazi treatment was in part made plain by the
conspirator's own statements. Sauckel declared on one
occasion:

     "All the men must be fed, sheltered and treated in such
     a way as to exploit them to the highest possible extent
     at the lowest conceivable degree of expenditure." (016-
     PS)

Force and brutality as instruments of production found a
ready adherent in Speer who, in the presence of Sauckel,
said at a meeting of the Central Planning Board:

     "We must also discuss the slackers. Ley has ascertained
     that the sicklist decreased to one-fourth or one-fifth
     in fac-
     
                                                  [Page 899]
                                                            
     tories where doctors are on the staff who are examining
     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 round." (R-124)

At a later meeting of the Central Planning Board, Field
Marshall Milch agreed that so far as workers were concerned,

     "The list of the shirkers should be entrusted to
     Himmler's trustworthy hands." (R-124) Milch made
     particular reference to foreign workers by stating:
     
     "It is therefore not possible to exploit fully all the
     foreigners unless we compel them by piece-work or we
     have the possibility of taking measures against
     foreigners who are not doing their bit." (R-124)

The policy as actually executed was even more Draconian than
the policy as planned by the conspirators. Impressed workers
were underfed and overworked. They were forced to live in
grossly overcrowded camps where they were held as virtual
prisoners and were otherwise denied adequate shelter. They
were denied adequate clothing, adequate medical care and
treatment and, as a result, 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 inhuman indignities.

An example of this mistreatment 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. A memorandum upon
Krupp stationery to Mr. Hupe, director of the Krupp
Locomotive Factory in Essen, dated 14 March 1942, states:

     "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 at all places of
     work where Russians are employed." (D-316)

The condition of foreign workers in Krupp workers camps is
described in detail in an affidavit executed in Essen,
Germany, on 15 October 1945 by Dr. Wilhelm Jager, who was
the senior camp doctor. Dr. Jager makes the following
statement:

     "*** Conditions in all these camps were extremely
     
                                                  [Page 900]
                                                            
     bad. The camps were greatly overcrowded. In some camps
     there were twice as many people in a barrack as health
     conditions permitted. At Kramerplatz, 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 cm, but the bunks in these camps were separated by a
     maximum of 20-30 cm.

     "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
     in comparable jobs received only 2,000 calories. The
     eastern workers were given only 2 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, when 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 clothing of the eastern workers was likewise
     completely inadequate. They worked and slept in the
     same clothing in which they had arrived from the east.
     Virtually all of them had no overcoats and were
     compelled, therefore, to use their blankets as coats in
     cold and rainy weather. In view of the shortage of
     shoes many workers were forced to go to work in their
     bare feet, even in the winter. Wooden shoes were given
     to some of the workers, but their quality was such as
     to give the workers sore feet. Many workers preferred
     to go to work in their bare feet rather than endure the
     suffering caused by the wooden shoes. Apart from the
     wooden shoes, no clothing of any kind was issued to the
     workers until the latter part of 1943, when a single
     blue suit was issued to some of them. To my knowledge,
     this represented the sole issue of clothing to the
     workers from the time of their arrival until the
     American forces entered Essen.
     
     "Sanitary conditions were exceedingly bad. At
     Kramerplatz, where approximately 1,200 eastern workers
     were crowded into the rooms of an old school, the
     sanitary conditions were
     
                                                  [Page 901]
                                                            
     atrocious in the extreme. Only 10 childrens' toilets
     were available for the 1,200 inhabitants. At
     Dechenschule, 15 childrens' toilets were available for
     the 400-500 eastern workers. Excretion contaminated the
     entire floors of these lavatories. There-were also few
     facilities for washing. The supply of bandages,
     medicine, surgical instruments, and other medical
     supplies at these camps was likewise altogether
     insufficient. As a consequence, only the very worst
     cases were treated.

     "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
     T. B. rate among them was 4 times the normal rate of (2
     percent eastern workers, German .5 percent). At
     Dechenschule approximately 2 1/2 percent of the workers
     suffered from open T. B. These were all active T. B.
     cases. The Tartars and Kirghis 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 Hunher-Oedem, Nephritis, and
     Shighakruse.
     
     "It was the general rule that workers were compelled to
     go to work unless a camp doctor had prescribed that
     they were unfit for work. At Seumannstrasse,
     Grieperstrasse, Germanistrasse, Kapitanlehmannstrasse,
     and Dechenschule, there was no daily sick call. At
     these camps, the doctors did not appear for two or
     three days. As a consequence, workers were forced to go
     to work despite illnesses."
                           *******
     "Camp Humboldstrasse has been inhabitated by Italian
     prisoners of war. After it had been destroyed by an air
     raid, the Italians were removed and 600 Jewish females
     from Buchenwald Concentration Camp were brought in to
     work at the Krupp factories. Upon my first visit at
     Camp Humboldstrasse, I found these females suffering
     from open festering wounds and other diseases.
     
     "I was the first doctor they had seen for at least a
     fortnight. There was no doctor in attendance at the
     camp. There was
     
                                                  [Page 902]
                                                            
     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 meagre
     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 a Mr. Green 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 de-
     louse 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
     Labour Exchange in Essen and from there, they were sent
     to a camp at Friedrichsfeld. Among persons who were
     returned over to the Labour Exchange were aggravated
     cases of tuberculosis, malaria, neurosis, career 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 who no longer of any
     use to Krupp were sent.
     
     "My colleagues and I reported all of the foregoing
     matters to Mr. Ihh, Director of Friedrich Krupp A. G.
     Dr. Wiels, personal physician of Gustav Krupp von
     Bohlen und Halbach, Senior Camp Leader Kupke, and at
     all times to the health department. Moreover, I know
     that these gentlemen personally visited the camps.
     
     "(Signed) Dr. Wilhelm Jager." (D-288)

The conditions just described were not confined to the Krupp
factories but existed throughout Germany. A report of the
Polish Main Committee to the Administration of the
Government-General of Poland, dated 17 May 1944, describes
in similar terms the situation of Polish workers in Germany
(R-103):

                                                  [Page 903]
                                                            
     "The 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 linen. 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 fourth grade of rations
     -- is absolutely insufficient to maintain the energies
     spent in heavy work. 3.5 kg. of bread weekly and a thin
     soup at lunch time, cooked with swedes or other
     vegetables without any meat or fat, with a meager
     addition of potatoes now and then is a hunger ration
     for a heavy worker.
     
     "Sometimes punishment consists of starvation which is
     inflicted, i.e. for refusal to wear the badge, 'East'.
     Such punishment has the result that workers faint at
     work (Klosterteich Camp, Gruenheim, Saxony). The
     consequence is complete exhaustion, an ailing state of
     health and tuberculosis. The spreading of tuberculosis
     among the Polish factory workers is a result of the
     deficient food rations meted out in the community camps
     because energy spent in heavy work cannot be replaced
     ***.
     
     "The call for help which reaches us, brings to light
     starvation and hunger, severe stomach 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 are not available in the
     mass camps. ***"
                           *******
     "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 unwanted results in these children ***.
     An indication of the awful conditions this may lead to
     is given by the fact that in the camps for Eastern
     workers -- (camp for Eastern workers, 'Waldlust', Post
     Office Lauf, Pegnitz) -- there are cases of 8-year old
     delicate and undernourished children put to forced
     labor and perishing from such treatment.
     
                                                  [Page 904]
                                                            
     "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. ***"
     
     "If, under these bad 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 practice and religious
     care from the life of the Polish workers, the
     prohibition of church attendance at a time 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."
     (R-103)

Particularly harsh and brutal treatment was reserved for
workers imported from the conquered Eastern territories.
They lived in bondage, were quartered in stables with
animals, and were denied the right of worship and the
pleasures of human society. A document entitled "Directives
on the Treatment of Foreign Farmworkers of Polish
Nationality", issued by the Minister for Finance and Economy
of Baden on 6 March 1941, describes this treatment (EC-68):
     
     "The agencies of the Reich Food Administration
     (Reichsnaehrstand) State Peasant Association of Baden
     have received the result of the negotiations with the
     Higher SS and Police Officer in Stuttgart on 14
     February 1941, with great
     
                                                  [Page 905]
                                                            
     satisfaction. Appropriate memoranda have already been
     turned over to the District Peasants' Associations.
     Below, I promulgate the individual regulations, as they
     have been laid down during the conference and how they
     are now to be applied accordingly:
     
     "1. Fundamentally, farmworkers of Polish nationality no
     longer have the right to complain, and thus no
     complaints may be accepted any more by any official
     agency.
     
     "2. The farmworkers of Polish nationality may not leave
     the localities in which they are employed, and have a
     curfew from 1 October to 31 March from 2000 hours to
     0600 hours, and from 1 April to 30 September from 2100
     hours to 0500 hours.
     
     "3. The use of bicycles is strictly prohibited.
     Exceptions are possible for riding to the place of work
     in the field if a relative of the employer or the
     employer himself is present.
     
     "4. The visit of churches, regardless of faith, is
     strictly prohibited, even when there is no service in
     progress. Individual spiritual care by clergymen
     outside of the church is permitted.
     
     "5. Visits to theaters, motion pictures or other
     cultural entertainment are strictly prohibited for
     farmworkers of Polish nationality.
     
     "6. The visit of restaurants is strictly prohibited to
     farmworkers of Polish nationality except for one
     restaurant in the village, which will be selected by
     the Rural Councilor's office (Landratsamt), and then
     only one day per week. The day, which is determined as
     the day to visit the restaurant, will also be
     determined by the Landratsamt. This regulation does not
     change the curfew regulation mentioned above under No.
     2.
     
     "7. Sexual intercourse with women and girls is strictly
     prohibited, and where it is established, it must be
     reported.
     
     "8. Gatherings of farmworkers of Polish nationality
     after work is prohibited, whether it is on other farms,
     in the stables, or in the living quarters of the Poles.
     
     "9. The use of railroads, buses or other public
     conveyances by farmworkers of Polish nationality is
     prohibited.
     
     "10. Permits to leave the village may only be granted
     in very exceptional cases, by the local police
     authority (Mayor's office). However, in no case may it
     be granted if he wants to visit a public agency on his
     own, whether it is a labor
     
                                                  [Page 906]
                                                            
     office or the District Peasants Association or whether
     he wants to change his place of employment.
     
     "11. Arbitrary change of employment is strictly
     prohibited. The farmworkers of Polish nationality have
     to work daily so long as the interests of the
     enterprise demands it, and as it is demanded by the
     employer. There are no time limits to the working time.
     
     "12. Every employer has the right to give corporal
     punishment toward farmworkers of Polish nationality, if
     instructions and good words fail. The employer may not
     be held accountable in any such case by an official
     agency.
     
     "13. Farmworkers of Polish nationality should, if
     possible, be removed from the community of the home and
     they can be quartered in stables, etc. No remorse
     whatever should restrict such action.
     
     "14. Report to the authorities is compulsory in all
     cases, when crimes have been committed by farmworkers
     of Polish nationality, which are to sabotage the
     enterprise or slow down work, for instance
     unwillingness to work, impertinent behavior; it is
     compulsory even in minor cases. An employer, who loses
     his Pole who must serve a longer prison sentence
     because of such a compulsory report, will receive
     another Pole from the competent labor office on request
     with preference.
     
     "15. In all other cases, only the state police is still
     competent. "For the employer himself, severe punishment
     is contemplated if it is established that the necessary
     distance from farmworkers of Polish nationality has not
     been kept. The same applies to women and girls. Extra
     rations are strictly prohibited. Noncompliance to the
     Reich tariffs for farmworkers of Polish nationality
     will be punished by the competent labor office by the
     taking away of the worker." (EC-68)

The women of the conquered territories were led away against
their will to serve as domestics. Sauckel described this
program as follows:

     "*** In order to relieve considerably the German
     housewife, especially the mother with many children and
     the extremely busy farmwoman, and in order to avoid any
     further danger to their health, the Fuehrer also
     charged me with procurement of 400,000 -- 500,000
     selected, healthy and strong girls from the territories
     of the East for Germany." (016-PS)

                                                  [Page 907]
                                                            
Once captured, these Eastern women, by order of Sauckel,
were bound to the household to which they were assigned,
permitted at the most three hours of freedom a week, and
denied the right to return to their homes. The decree issued
by Sauckel containing instructions for housewives concerning
Eastern household workers, provides in part, as follows:

     "*** There is no claim for free time. Female domestic
     workers from the East may, on principle, leave the
     household only to take care of domestic tasks. As a
     reward for good work, however, they may be given the
     opportunity to stay outside the home without work for 3
     hours once a week. This leave must end with the onset
     of darkness, at the latest at 20 00 hours. It is
     prohibited to enter restaurants, movies, or other
     theatres and similar establishments provided for German
     or foreign workers. Attending church is also
     prohibited. Social events may be arranged for Eastern
     domestics in urban homes by the German Workers' Front,
     for Eastern domestics in rural homes by the Reich Food
     Administration with the German Women's League
     (Deutsches Frauenwerk). Outside the home, the Eastern
     domestic must always carry her work card as a personal
     pass.
     
     "10. Vacations, Return to Homes.
     
     "Vacations are not granted as yet. The recruiting of
     Eastern domestics is for an indefinite period." (3044-B-
     PS)

At all times the shadow of the Gestapo and the concentration
camp hovered over the enslaved workers. As with the other
major programs of the Nazi conspirators, Himmler's black-
shirted SS formations were the instruments employed for
enforcement. A secret order dated 20 February 1942, issued
by Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler to SD and security police
officers spells out the violence which was applied against
the Eastern workers. (3040-PS):

     "III. Combatting violations against discipline.
     
     "(1) According to the equal status of the manpower from
     the original Soviet Russian territory with prisoners of
     war, a strict discipline must be exercised in the
     quarters and at the working place. Violations against
     discipline, including work refusal and loafing at work,
     will be fought exclusively by the secret State police.
     The smaller cases will be settled by the leader of the
     guard according to instruction of the State police
     administration offices with measures as provided for in
     the enclosure. To break acute resistance, the guards
     shall be permitted to use also physical power against
     the manpower. But this may be done only for a cogent
     cause.
     
                                                  [Page 908]
     
The manpower should always be informed about the fact that
they will be treated decently when conducting themselves
with discipline and accomplishing good work.

     "(2) In severe cases, that is in such cases where the
     measures at the disposal of the leader of the guard do
     not suffice, the State police office has to act with
     its means. Accordingly, they will be treated, as a
     rule, only with strict measures, that is with transfer
     to a concentration camp or with special treatment.
     
     "(3) The transfer to a concentration camp is done in
     the usual manner.
     
     "(4) In especially severe cases special treatment is to
     be requested at the Reich Security Main Office, stating
     personnel data and the exact history of the act.
     
     "(5) Special treatment is hanging. It should not take
     place in the immediate vicinity of the camp. A certain
     number of manpower from the original Soviet Russian
     territory should attend the special treatment; at that
     time they are warned about the circumstances which led
     to this special treatment.
     
     "(6) Should special treatment be required within the
     camp for exceptional reasons of camp discipline, this
     is also to be requested."

     "VI. Sexual Intercourse.
     
     "Sexual intercourse is forbidden to the manpower of the
     original Soviet Russian territory. By means of their
     closely confined quarters they have no opportunity for
     it. Should sexual intercourse be exercised
     nevertheless -- especially among the individually
     employed manpower on the farms -- the following is
     directed:
     
     "(1) For every case of sexual intercourse with German
     countrymen or women, special treatment is to be
     requested for male manpower from the original Soviet
     Russian territory, transfer to a concentration camp for
     female manpower.
     
     "(2) When exercising sexual intercourse with other
     foreign workers, the
     conduct of the manpower from the original Soviet
     Russian territory is
     to be punished as severe violation of discipline with
     transfer to a
     concentration camp."
                           *******
     "VIII. Search.
     
     "(1) Fugitive workers from the original Soviet Russian
     territory are to be announced principally in the German
     search
						    [Page 909]
     book (Fanndungsbuch). Furthermore, search measures are to
     be decreed locally.
     "(2) When caught, the fugitive must receive special
     treatment***." (3040-PS)

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