Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression The Nazi conspirators were not satisfied to tear 5,000,000
persons from their families, their homes, and their country.
They insisted that these 5,000,000 wretches, while being
deported to Germany or after their arrival, be degraded,
beaten, and permitted to die for want of food, clothing, and
adequate shelter. Conditions of deportation are vividly-
described in a report to Rosenberg concerning treatment of
Ukrainian labor (054-PS):
"The starosts esp. village elders are frequently
corruptible, they continue to have the skilled workers,
whom they drafted, dragged from their beds at night to
be locked up in cellars until they are shipped. Since
the male and female worker. often are not given any
time to pack their luggage, etc., many skilled workers
arrive at the Collecting Center for Skilled Workers
with equipment entirely insufficient (without shoes,
only two dresses, no eating and drinking utensils, no
blankets, etc.) In particularly extreme cases new
arrivals therefore have to be sent back again
immediately to get the things most necessary for them.
If people do not come along a once, threatening and
beating of skilled workers by the above mentioned
militia is a daily occurrence and is reported from most
of the communities. In some cases women were beaten
until they could no longer march. One bad case in
particular was reported by me to the commander of the
civil police here (Colonel Samek) for severe punishment
(place Sozolinkow, district Dergatschi). The
encroachments of the starosts and the militia are of a
particularly grave nature because they usually justify
themselves by claiming that all that is done in the
name of the German Armed Forces. In reality the latter
have conducted themselves throughout in a highly
understanding manner toward the skilled workers
[Page 896]
and the Ukrainian population. The same, however, can
not be said of some of the administrative agencies. To
illustrate this be it mentioned, that a woman once
arrived being dressed with barely more than a shirt."
"*** On the basis of reported incidents, attention must
be called to the fact that it is irresponsible to keep
workers locked in the cars for many hours so that they
cannot even take care of the calls of nature. It is
evident that the people of a transport must be given an
opportunity from time to time in order to get drinking
water, to wash, and in order to relieve themselves.
Cars have been showed in which people had made holes so
that they could take care of the calls of nature. When
nearing bigger stations persons should, if possible,
relieve themselves far from these stations."
"The following abuses were reported from the delousing
stations:
"In the women's and girls' shower rooms, services were
partly performed by men or men would mingle around or
even helped with the soaping; and vice versa, there
were female personnel in the men's shower rooms; men
also for some time were taking photographs in the
women's shower rooms. Since mainly Ukrainian peasants
were transported in the last months, as far as the
female portion of these are concerned, they were mostly
of a high moral standard and used to strict decency,
they must have considered such a treatment as a
national degradation. The above mentioned abuses have
been, according to our knowledge, settled by the
intervention of the transport commanders. The reports
of the photographing were made from Halle; the reports
about the former were made from Kiewerce. Such
incidents in complete disregard of the honor and
respect of the Greater German Reich may still occur
again here or there." (054-PS)
Sick and infirm citizens of the occupied countries were
taken indiscriminately with the rest. Those who managed to
survive the trip into Germany, but who arrived too sick to
work, were returned like cattle, together with those who
fell ill at work, because they were of no further use to the
Germans. The return trip took place under the same
conditions as the initial journey, and without any kind of
medical supervision. Death came to many, and their corpses
were unceremoniously dumped out of the cars with no
provision for burial. Thus, the report continues:
"*** Very depressing for the morale of the skilled
[Page 897]
workers and the population is the effect of those
persons shipped back from Germany for having become
disabled or not having been fit for labor commitment
from the very beginning. Several times already
transports of skilled workers on their way to Germany
have crossed returning transports of such disabled
persons and have stood on the tracks alongside of each
other for a longer period of time. Those returning
transports are insufficiently cared for. Nothing but
sick, injured or weak people, mostly 50-60 to a car,
are usually escorted by 3 men. There is neither
sufficient care or food. The returnees made frequently
unfavourable but surely exaggerated statements relative
to their treatment in Germany and on the way. As a
result of all this and of what the people could see
with their own eyes, a psychosis of fear was evoked
among the specialist workers resp. the whole transport
to Germany. Several transport leaders of the 62nd and
the 63rd in particular reported thereto in detail. In
one case the leader of the transport of skilled workers
observed with own eyes how a person who died of hunger
was unloaded from a returning transport on the side
track. (1st Lt. Hofman of the 63rd transport Station
Darniza). Another time it was reported that 3 dead had
to be deposited by the side of the tracks on the way
and had to be left behind unburied by the escort. It is
also regrettable that these disabled persons arrive
here without any identification. According to the
reports of the transport commanders one gets the
impression that these persons unable to work are
assembled, penned into the wagons and are sent off
provided only by a few men escort, and without special
care for food and medical or other attendance. The
Labor Office at the place of arrival as well as the
transport commanders confirm this impression." (054-PS)
Mothers in childbirth shared cars with those infected with
tuberculosis or venereal diseases. Babies when born were
hurled out of windows. Dying persons lay on the bare floors
of freight cars without even the small comfort of straw.
These conditions are revealed in an interdepartmental report
prepared by Dr. Gutkelch in Rosenberg's Ministry, dated 30
September 1942, from which the following quotation is taken:
"How necessary this interference was is shown by the
fact that this train with returning laborers had
stopped at the same place where a train with newly
recruited Eastern laborers had stopped. Because of the
corpses in the trainload of returning laborers, a
catastrophe might have been
[Page 898]
precipitated had it not been for the mediation of Mrs.
Miller. In this train women gave birth to babies who
were thrown out of the windows during the journey,
people having tuberculosis and venereal diseases rode
in the same car, dying people lay in freight cars
without straw, and one of the dead was thrown on the
railway embankment. The same must have occurred in
other returning transports." (084-PS)
Some aspects of Nazi transport were described by Sauckel
himself in a decree which he issued on 20 July 1942, (2241-
PS). The original decree is published in section B1a, page
48e of a book entitled "Die Beschaeftigung von
auslaendischen Arbeitskraeften in Duetschland." The decree
reads, in part, as follows:
"According to reports of transportation commanders
(Transportleiters) presented to me, the special trains
provided by the German railway have frequently been in
a really deficient condition. Numerous windowpanes have
been missing in the coaches. Old French coaches without
lavatories have been partly employed so that the
workers had to fit up an emptied compartment as a
lavatory. In other cases, the coaches were not heated
in winter so that the lavatories quickly became
unusable because the water system was frozen and the
flushing apparatus was therefore without water." (2241-PS)
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp.
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Volume
I Chapter X
Conditions of Deportation & Slave Labor
(Part 1 of 4)