Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression In order to meet these demands, the Nazi conspirators made
terror, violence, and arson the staple instruments of their
policy of enslavement. Twenty days after Sauckel's demands
of 5 October 1942, a high official in Rosenberg's Ministry
by the name of Braeutigam, in a Top Secret memorandum dated
25 October 1942 described measures taken to meet these
demands:
"*** We now experienced the grotesque picture of having
to recruit millions of laborers from the Occupied
Eastern Territories, after prisoners of war have died
of hunger like flies, in order to fill the gaps that
have formed within Germany. Now the food question no
longer existed. In the prevailing limitless abuse of
the Slavic humanity 'recruiting' methods were used
which probably have their origin in the blackest
periods of the slave trade. A regular manhunt was
[Page 886]
inaugurated. Without consideration of health or age the
people were shipped to Germany where it turned out
immediately that more than 100,000 had to be sent back
because of serious illnesses and other incapabilities
for work." (294-PS)
Rosenberg on 21 December 1942 wrote to Sauckel, the
instigator of these brutalities, as follows:
"The reports I have received show, that the increase of
the guerilla bands in the occupied Eastern Regions is
largely due to the fact that the methods used for
procuring laborers in these regions are felt to be
forced measures of mass deportations, so that the
endangered persons prefer to escape their fate by
withdrawing into the woods or going to the guerilla
bands." (018-PS)
An attachment to Rosenberg's letter, consisting of parts
excerpted from letters of residents of the Occupied Eastern
territories by Nazi censors, relates that:
"At our place, new things have happened. People are
being taken to Germany. On Dec. 5, some people from the
Kowkuski district were scheduled to go, but they didn't
want to and the village was set afire. They threatened
to do the same thing in Borowytschi, as not all who
were scheduled to depart wanted to go. Thereupon 3
truck loads of Germans arrived and set fire to their
houses. In Wrasnytschi 12 houses and in Borowytschi 3
houses were burned.
"On Oct. 1 a new conscription of labor forces took
place. From what has happened, I will describe the most
important to you. You can not imagine the bestiality.
You probably remember what we were told about the
Soviets during the rule of the Poles. At that time we
did not believe it and now it seems just as incredible.
The order came to supply 25 workers, but no one
reported. All had fled. Then the German militia came
and began to ignite the houses of those who had fled.
The fire became very violent, since it had not rained
for 2 months. In addition the grain stacks were in the
farm yards. You can imagine what took place. The people
who had hurried to the scene were forbidden to
extinguish the flames, beaten and arrested, so that 7
homesteads burned down. The policemen meanwhile ignited
other houses. The people fell on their knees and kiss
their hands, but the policemen beat them with rubber
truncheons and threaten to burn down the whole village.
I don't know how this would have ended if I Sapurkany
had not intervened. He promised that there would be
laborers by morning. During the fire the
[Page 887]
militia went through the adjoining villages, seized the
laborers and brought them under arrest. Wherever they
did not find any laborers, they detained the parents,
until the children appeared. That is how they raged
throughout the night in Bielosirka. The workers which
had not yet appeared till then, were to be shot. All
schools were closed and the married teachers were sent
to work here, while the unmarried ones go to work in
Germany. They are now catching humans like the dog-
catchers used to catch dogs. They are already hunting
for one week and have not yet enough. The imprisoned
workers are locked in at the schoolhouse. They cannot
even go out to perform their natural functions, but
have to do it like pigs in the same room. People from
many villages went on a certain day to a pilgrimage to
the monastery Potschaew. They were all arrested, locked
in, and will be sent to work. Among them there are
lame, blind and aged people". (018-PS)
Rosenberg, nevertheless, countenanced the use of force in
order to furnish slave labor to Germany and admitted his
responsibility for the "unusual and hard measures that were
employed. The transcript of an interrogation of Rosenberg
under oath on 6 October 1945, contains the following
admissions:
"*** Q. You recognized, did you not, that the quotas
set by Sauckel could not be filled by voluntary labor,
and you didn't disapprove of the impressment of forced
labor; isn't that right ?
"A. I regretted that the demands of Sauckel were so
urgent that they could not be met by a continuation of
voluntary recruitment and thus I submitted to the
necessity of forced impressment."
*******
"Q. The letters that we have already seen between you
and Sauckel, do not indicate, do they, any disagreement
on your part with the principle of recruiting labor
against their will; they indicate, as I remember, that
you were opposed to the treatment that was later
accorded these workers; that you did not oppose their
initial impressment.
*******
"A. That is right. In those letters I mostly discussed
the possibility of finding the least harsh methods of
handling the matter; whereas, in no way, I placed
myself in opposition to the orders that he was carrying
out for the Fuehrer." (3719-PS)
Moreover, in a letter dated 21 December 1942 Rosenberg
[Page 888]
" *** Even if I do not close my eyes to the necessity
that the numbers demanded by the Reichs Minister for
weapons and ammunition as well as by the agricultural
economy justify unusual and hard measures, I have to
ask, due to the responsibility for the occupied Eastern
Territories which lies upon me, that in the
accomplishment of the ordered tasks such measures be
excluded, the toleration and prosecution of which will
some day be held against me, and my collaborators."
(018-PS)
Arson was used as a terror device in the Ukraine to enforce
conscription measures. One instance is reported in a
document from an official of the Rosenberg Ministry dated 29
June 1944, enclosing a copy-of a letter from Paul Raab, a
district commissioner in the territory of Wassilkow, to
Rosenberg. Raab's letter reads as follows:
"According to a charge by the Supreme Command of the
Armed Forces I burned down a few houses in the
territory of Wassilkow/Ukr. belonging to insubordinate
people ordered for work-duty
(Arbeitsensatzpflichtigen). This accusation is true."
*******
"During the year 1942, the conscription of workers was
accomplished by way of propaganda. Only very rarely was
force necessary. Only in August 1942, measures had to
be taken against 2 families in the villages Glewenka
and Salisny-Chutter, each of which were to supply one
person for labor. Both were requested in June for the
first time, but didn't obey although requested
repeatedly. They had to be brought up by force, but
succeeded twice to escape from the collecting camp, or
when being on transport. Before the second arrest, the
fathers of both of the men were taken into custody, to
be kept as hostages and to be released only when their
sons would show up. When, after the second escape, re-
arrest of both the fathers and boys was ordered, the
police patrols ordered to do so, found the houses to be
empty."
*******
"That time I decided to take measures to show the
increasingly rebellious Ukrainian youth that our orders
have to be followed. I ordered the burning down of the
houses of the fugitives."
*******
"After the initial successes, a passive resistance of
the population started, which finally forced me to
start again on
[Page 889]
making arrests, confiscations, and transfers to labor
camps. After a while a transport of people, obliged to
work, overran the police in the railroad station in
Wassilkow and escaped. I saw again the necessity for
strict measures. A few ring leaders, which of course
escaped before they were found in Plissezkoje and in
Mitnitza. After repeated attempts to get hold of them,
their houses were burned down."
*******
"My actions against fugitive people obliged to work
(Arbeitseinsatzpflichtige), were always reported to
district commissioner Doehrer, in office in Wassilkow,
and to the general commissioner (Generalkommissar) in
Kiew. Both of them know the circumstances and agreed
with my measures, because of their success." (254-PS)
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
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Volume
I Chapter X
Violent Methods of Deportation for Slave Labor
(Part
1 of 2)