Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression [Page 875]
In general terms, the basic elements of the Nazi foreign
labor policy consisted of mass deportation and mass
enslavement. It was a policy of underfeeding and overworking
foreign laborers, of subjecting them to every form of
degradation and brutality. It was a policy which compelled
foreign workers and prisoners of war to manufacture
armaments and to engage in other operations of war directed
against their own countries. It was, in short, a policy
which constituted a flagrant violation of the laws of war
and the laws of humanity.
Fritz Sauckel and Albert Speer are principally responsible
for the formulation of this policy and for its execution.
Sauckel, the Nazi's Plenipotentiary General for Manpower,
directed the recruitment, deportation, and allocation of
foreign civilian labor. Sanctioning and directing the use of
force as a means of recruitment, he was responsible for the
mistreatment of the enslaved millions. Speer -- as
Reichsminister for Armaments and Munitions, Director of the
Organization Todt, and member of the Central Planning Board
-- bears responsibility for the determination of the numbers
of foreign slaves required by the German war machine, for
the decision to recruit by force, and for the use and brutal
treatment of foreign civilians and prisoners of war in the
manufacture of armaments and munitions, in the construction
of fortifications, and in active military operations.
Hermann Goering, as Plenipotentiary General for the Four
Year Plan, is also responsible for all the crimes involved
in the Nazi slave labor program. In addition, Alfred
Rosenberg as Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern
Territories, Hans Frank a Governor General of the Government-
General of Poland, Artur Seyss-Inquart as Reichskommissar
for the Occupied Netherlands, and Wilhelm Keitel as chief of
the OKW share responsibility for the recruitment by force
and terror and for the deportation to Germany of the
citizens of the areas overrun or
subjugated by the Wehrmacht.
I. PLANNING FOR THE USE OF SLAVE LABOR
The use of vast numbers of foreign workers was planned
before Germany went to war and was an integral part of the
conspiracy for waging aggressive war. On 23 May 1939 a
meeting was held in Hitler's study at the Reichs
Chancellery. Goering,
[Page 876]
Raeder, and Keitel were present. According to the minutes of
this meeting, (L-79) Hitler stated that he intended to
attack Poland at the first suitable opportunity. He further
stated:
"*** If fate brings us into contact with the West, the
possession of extensive areas in the East will be
advantageous. We shall be able to rely upon record
harvests, even less in time of war than in peace.
"The population of non-German areas will perform no
military service, and will be available as a source of
labor". (L-79)
The slave labor program was designed to achieve two
purposes. The primary purpose was to satisfy the labor
requirements of the Nazi war machine by compelling foreign
workers, in effect, to make war against their own countries
and its allies. The secondary purpose was to destroy or
weaken peoples deemed inferior by the Nazi racialists, or
deemed potentially hostile by the Nazi planners of world
supremacy. These purposes were expressed by the conspirators
themselves. In Sauckel's Labor Mobilization Program (016-PS)
which he sent to
Rosenberg on 20 April 1942, Sauckel declared:
"*** The aim of this new, gigantic labor mobilization
is to use all the rich and tremendous sources,
conquered and secured for us by our fighting Armed
Forces under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, for the
armament of -the Armed Forces and also for the
nutrition of the Homeland. The raw materials as well as
the fertility of the conquered territories and their
human labor power are to be used completely and
conscientiously to the profit of Germany and their
allies." (016-PS)
The theory of the "master race," which underlay the
conspirators' labor policy in the East, was expressed in the
following words by Erich Koch, Reichskommissar for the
Ukraine, at a meeting of the National Socialist Party on 5
March 1943 in Kiev:
"1. We are the master race and must govern hard but
just ***.
"2. I will draw the very last out of this country. I
did not come to spread bliss. I have come to help the
Fuehrer. The population must work, work, and work again
*** for some people are getting excited, that the
population may not get enough to eat. The population
cannot demand that, one has only to remember what our
heroes were deprived of in Stalingrad *** We definitely
did not come here to give out manna. We have come here
to create the basis for victory.
[Page 877]
"3. We are a master race, which must remember that the
lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a
thousand times more valuable than the population here".
(1130-PS)
And in a speech delivered to a group of SS Generals on 4
October 1943 at Posen, Himmler stated:
*** What happens to a Russian, to a Czech, does not
interest me in the slightest. What the nations can
offer in the way of good blood of our type, we will
take, if necessary by kidnapping their children and
raising them here with us. Whether nations live in
prosperity or starve to death interests me only in so
far as we need them as slaves for our Kultur:
otherwise, it is of no interest to me. Whether 10,000
Russian females fall down from exhaustion while digging
an anti-tank ditch interests me only in so far as the
anti-tank ditch for Germany is finished ***." (1919-PS)
A Top Secret memorandum prepared for the Ministry of the
occupied Eastern Territories on 2 June 1944, and approved by
Rosenberg, contains the following plans:
"The Army Group 'Center' has the intention to apprehend
40-5,000 youths at the ages of 10 to 14 who are in the
Army territory-and to transport them to the Reich ***."
"It is intended to allot these juveniles primarily to
the German trades as apprentices to be used as skilled
workers after 2 years' training. This is to be arranged
through the Organization Todt which is especially
equipped for such a task through its technical and
other set-ups. This action is being greatly welcomed by
the German trade since it represents a decisive measure
for the alleviation of the shortage of apprentices."
*******
"1. This action is not only aimed at preventing a
direct reinforcement of the enemy's military strength,
but also at a reduction of his biological
potentialities as viewed from the perspective of the
future. These ideas have been voiced not only by the
Reichsfuehrer of the SS but also by the Fuehrer.
Corresponding orders were given during last year's
withdrawals in the southern sector ***." (031-PS)
Rosenberg's approval is at the end of the document:
"regarding the above -- Obergruppenfuehrer Berger
received the memorandum on June 14. Consequently the
Reichsminister has approved the Action." (031-PS)
The
original plaintext version
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Volume
I Chapter X
The Slave Labor Program
The Illegal Use of Prisoners of War, and
The Special Responsibility of Sauckel and Speer Therefor