Archive/File: imt/ tgmwc/judgment/j-defendants-speer
Last-Modified: 1997/09/22

                          Judgment
                           of the
               International Military Tribunal
                           For The
             Trial of German Major War Criminals

                           London
               His Majesty's Stationery Office
                            1951
                                                            
                                                  [Page 122]

Mr. BIDDLE:

                            SPEER

Speer is indicted under all four Counts. Speer joined the
Nazi Party in 1932. In 1934 he was made Hitler's architect
and became a close personal confidant. Shortly thereafter he
was made a department head in the German Labor Front and the
official in charge of capital construction on the staff of
the deputy to the Fuehrer, positions which he held through
1941. On 5th February, 1942, after the death of Fritz Todt,
Speer was appointed Chief of the Organisation Todt and Reich
Minister for Armaments and Munitions (after 2nd September,
1943, for Armaments and War Production). The positions were
supplemented by his appointments in March and April, 1942,
as General Plenipotentiary for Armaments and as a member of
the Central Planning Board, both within the Four Year Plan.
Speer was a member of the Reichstag from 1941 until the end
of the war.

Crimes against Peace

The Tribunal is of opinion that Speer's activities do not
amount to initiating, planning, or preparing wars of
aggression, or of conspiring to that end. He became the head
of the armament industry well after all of the wars had been
commenced and were under way. His activities in charge of
German armament production were in aid of the war effort in
the same way that other productive enterprises aid in the
waging of war; but the Tribunal is not prepared to find that
such activities involve engaging in the common plan to wage
aggressive war as charged under Count One or waging
aggressive war as charged under Count II.

                                                  [Page 123]

War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity

The evidence introduced against Speer under Counts Three and
Four relates entirely to his participation in the slave
labor program. Speer himself had no direct administrative
responsibility for this program. Although he had advocated
the appointment of a General Plenipotentiary for the
Utilization of Labor because he wanted one central authority
with whom he could deal on labor matters, he did not obtain
administrative control over Sauckel. Sauckel was appointed
directly by Hitler, under the decree of 21st March, 1942,
which provided that he should be directly responsible to
Goering, as Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan.

As Reich Minister for Armaments and Munitions and General
Plenipotentiary for Armaments under the Four Year Plan,
Speer had extensive authority over production. His original
authority was over construction and production of arms for
the OKW. This was progressively expanded to include naval
armaments, civilian production and finally, on 1st August,
1944, air armament. As the dominant member of the Central
Planning Board, which had supreme authority for the
scheduling of German production and the allocation and
development of raw materials, Speer took the position that
the Board had authority to instruct Sauckel to provide
laborers for industries under its control and succeeded in
sustaining this position over the objection of Sauckel. The
practice was developed under which Speer transmitted to
Sauckel an estimate of the total number of workers needed.
Sauckel obtained the labor and allocated it to the various
industries in accordance with instructions supplied by
Speer.

Speer knew when he made his demands on Sauckel that they
would be supplied by foreign laborers serving under
compulsion. He participated in conferences involving the
extension of the slave labor program for the purpose of
satisfying his demands. He was present at a conference held
during 10th August and 12th August, 1942, with Hitler and
Sauckel, at which it was agreed that Sauckel should bring
laborers by force from occupied territories where this was
necessary to satisfy the labor needs of the industries under
Speer's control. Speer also attended a conference in
Hitler's headquarters on 4th January, 1944, at which the
decision was made that Sauckel should obtain "at least 4
million new workers from occupied territories" in order to
satisfy the demands for labor made by Speer, although
Sauckel indicated that he could do this only with help from
Himmler.

Sauckel continually informed Speer and his representatives
that foreign laborers were being obtained by force. At a
meeting of 1st March, 1944 Speer's deputy questioned Sauckel
very closely about his failure to live up to the obligation
to supply 4 million workers from occupied territories. In
some cases Speer demanded laborers from specific foreign
countries. Thus, at the conference of 8/10-12/1942 Sauckel
was instructed to supply Speer with "a further million
Russian laborers for the German armament industry up to and
including October, 1942". At a meeting of the Central
Planning Board on 22nd April, 1943, Speer discussed plans to
obtain Russian laborers for use in the coal mines, and
flatly vetoed the suggestion that this labor deficit should
be made up by German labor.

Speer has argued that he advocated the reorganisation of the
labor program to place a greater emphasis on utilization of
German labor in war production in Germany and on the use of
labor in occupied countries in local production of consumer
goods formerly produced in Germany. Speer took steps in this
direction by establishing the so-called "blocked industries"
in the occupied territories which were used to produce goods
to be shipped to

                                                  [Page 124]

Germany. Employees of these industries were immune from
deportation to Germany as slave laborers and any worker who
had been ordered to go to Germany could avoid deportation if
he went to work for a blocked industry. This system,
although somewhat less inhumane than deportation to Germany,
was still illegal. The system of blocked industries played
only a small part in the over-all slave labor program,
although Speer urged its cooperation with the slave labor
program, knowing the way in which it was actually being
administered. In an official sense, he was its principal
beneficiary and he constantly urged its extension.

Speer was also directly involved in the utilization of
forced labor, as Chief of the Organisation Todt. The
Organisation Todt functioned principally in the occupied
areas on such projects as the Atlantic Wall and the
construction of military highways, and Speer has admitted
that he relied on compulsory service to keep it adequately
staffed. He also used concentration camp labor in the
industries under his control. He originally arranged to tap
this source of labor for use in small out-of-the-way
factories; and later, fearful of Himmler's jurisdictional
ambitions, attempted to use as few concentration camp
workers as possible.

Speer was also involved in the use of prisoners of war in
armament industries but contends that he utilized Soviet
prisoners of war only in industries covered by the Geneva
Convention.

Speer's position was such that he was not directly concerned
with the cruelty in the administration of the slave labor
program, although he was aware of its existence. For
example, at meetings of the Central Planning Board he was
informed that his demands for labor were so large as to
necessitate violent methods in recruiting. At a meeting of
the Central Planning Board on 10/30/1942, Speer voiced his
opinion that many slave laborers who claimed to be sick were
malingerers and stated: "There is nothing to be said against
SS and police taking drastic steps and putting those known
as slackers into concentration camps." Speer, however,
insisted that the slave laborers be given adequate food and
working conditions so that they could work efficiently.

In mitigation it must be recognized that Speer's
establishment of blocked industries did keep many laborers
in their homes and that in the closing stages of the war he
was one of the few men who had the courage to tell Hitler
that the war was lost and to take steps to prevent the
senseless destruction of production facilities, both in
occupied territories and in Germany. He carried out his
opposition to Hitler's scorched earth program in some of the
Western countries and in Germany by deliberately sabotaging
it at considerable personal risk.

Conclusion: The Tribunal finds that Speer is not guilty on
Counts One and Two, but is guilty under Counts Three and
Four.

Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor