Archive/File: imt/nca/supp-b/nca-sb-02-saukel.01
Last-Modified: 1997/12/08

         Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression, Supplement B
                     XI. Fritz Sauckel*
          Hitler Legalizes the Slave Labor Program
                              

     Excerpts from Testimony of Fritz Sauckel, taken at
     Nurnberg, Germany, 12 September 1945, 1015-1215,
     by Major John J. Monigan, Jr., CAC. Also present:
     Capt. Jesse F. Landrum, AGD, Court Reporter; Mr.
     Bernard Reymon, Interpreter.
     
     * See also Document 3721-PS, Vol. VI, p. 428; 3722-
     PS, Vol. VI, p. 459.
                                                 [Page 1441]
                                                            
A. I was then [1942] told by the Fuehrer and by various
Government agencies that the use of foreign workers within
the occupied territories would not go counter to the
conventions of The Hague. The Fuehrer set forth that those
countries had

                                                 [Page 1442]
                                                            
surrendered unconditionally and had governments which had
been shaped according to his desire. I then received a
definite order to mobilize workers in those countries and,
inasmuch as this could not be carried out through voluntary
methods, to use the same methods of compulsory conscription
which was enforced in Germany. The Fuehrer added that Soviet
Russia was not a party at all to the Hague Convention;
furthermore, that in the countries which had surrendered he
had left millions of war prisoners who had been immediately
released. If too great difficulties were created for him he
(Hitler) would be compelled to take back again those
prisoners of war. I had to satisfy myself with those
explanations of the Fuehrer and to carry out my task. I then
received the necessary powers and was placed under the
authority of Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering, in his capacity
as the head of the Four-year Plan. To carry out the
prescribed task, I received from the Labor Ministry two
departments: namely, Abteilung 3, which was the department
of salaries; and Abteilung 5, which was the department of
manpower. I was not entitled to set up new agencies, but was
to be in touch with and to apply to those new government
departments which were already in existence in the various
ministries and in the Wehrmacht. I could be assisted by
various other organizations. This could only be possible in
communicating with them, not in issuing to them any orders,
as I had no right to do so.

The first principle was that the foreign workers were to be
treated and paid in the same manner as the German workers.
The second principle was fair, just, and humane treatment.
This I have been able to carry out with all the people from
the West, South, and Southeast. These people were treated
and nourished and dealt with in the same manner as the
German working people. Restrictions, however, were placed on
me with regard to the Russian workers and partly the Polish
workers. The Russian workers by virtue of orders from the
Reichsfuehrer SS, which were approved by the Fuehrer and by
the Party itself, received, up to 1940, less than the other
foreign workers. This was justified on the following
grounds: The so-called Ostarbeiter (workers from the East)
contrary to what was the case with the foreign workers from
the West and South, and so on, had to pay no taxes and no
fees, no insurance, and no contributions to the DAF
[Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labor Front), headed by Dr.
Robert Ley.] Upon my representation and those of other
persons, we were told that if the Eastern workers, which
actually meant only the Russian workers, were paid at the
same rate as the other workers, they would actually enjoy
better treatment as

                                                 [Page 1443]
                                                            
they had less expense. With regard to food, they were placed
(the Eastern workers) on the same level as the German
civilians.

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