Archive/File: imt/nca/supp-b/nca-sb-02-pohl.08
Last-Modified: 1997/12/10

         Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression, Supplement B
      German Firms Which Used Concentration Camp Labor
                              
     Excerpts from Testimony of Oswald Pohl, taken at
     Nurnberg, Germany, 7 June 1946, 1400-1615, by Lt.
     Col. Smith W. Brookhart, Jr., IGD. Also present:
     Joseph Maier, Interpreter; Mabel A. Lesser,
     Reporter.
     
                                                 [Page 1593]
                                                            
Q. After your first meeting with Speer in 1943 on the labor
problems how often would you see him thereafter?

A. Perhaps two or three times, on which occasions I
discussed other matters with him, for instance, the
providing of wood for the construction of barracks.

                                                 [Page 1594]
                                                            
Q. How often did you communicate with him by phone or
letter?

A. I had very, very little to do with Speer altogether.

Q. Were you always able to meet his demands for labor?

A. We never received any requests from the office of Speer
directly because we received them from the individual firms.
But it did happen that his subordinate, Saur, called up and
suggested that more inmates be sent to this or that firm.

Q. What were the names of the firms?

A. There were thousands of firms. All the armament firms
that were in Germany came with their requests to us. Whether
it was the Steel Works down to the last factories, they came
with requests to us.

Q. I want the names of the principal firms.

A. The names of the main firms, as far as I recall them,
were: Heinkel, Messerschmitt, Salzgitter, Brabag-A.G., but
there were many, many more.

Q. How about Siemens-Schuchert?

A. I do not recall, that question I wish to leave open.

Q. I.G. Farben?

A. Yes, the I.G. Farben people had the Buna works in
Auschwitz.

Q. Krupp?

A. Yes, the Krupps had the Berta works in Breslau.

Q. Hermann Goering Werke?

A. The Salzgitter firm is a part of the Hermann Goering
Werke.

Q. What about Hermann Goering Werke Coal Mines?

A. I do not recall anything about that. I recall that I saw
the Salzgitter Werke and I saw the Berta Werke of Krupp's.

Q. Perhaps it will help you to recall if I mention Dr. Henie
of the Hermann Goering Coal Works at Brescze, who, with
permission, visited Auschwitz every year and who worked
2,000 inmates from that camp.

A. Yes, I recall him, that is quite true. Yes, there was a
labor camp.

Q. Perhaps you will recall more about Siemens-Schuchert if I
ask you about an agreement between yourself and Maurer of
your Division D(II).

A. Where should that have been?

Q. I am not sure of the location but it was an arrangement
made with your agreement.

A. It is entirely possible but I cannot say anything
definite at

                                                 [Page 1595]
                                                            
this moment. Perhaps it will come to me later. The SS was a
tremendous organization and I do not recall the details at
this moment. It is entirely possible, however, that an
agreement was made.

Q. Then on a more general basis can you tell us about the
problem in 1944 which arose after 100,000 inmates had been
promised for labor in Landsberg and Muehldorf and their
complex of camps in southern areas and about which Speer
complained to you that your Division D was unwilling to
furnish these workers?

A. They could not have delivered so many inmates. Where
should they take these 100,000 inmates from? I know about
Landsberg and Muehldorf; I was once in Muehldorf myself.
There were two huge subterranean warehouses which Speer had
established there and in both places there were labor camps
which had been filled by inmates from Dachau, I believe. but
I do not know about sending 100,000 inmates to these places
because there were only 30,000 inmates in Dachau. I do not
know how large the labor camps there were actually. The
labor camp in Muehldorf was rather large. I do not know
anything about the one in Landsberg. I was not there.

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