Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression "These workers were likewise afflicted with spotted
fever. Lice the carrier of this disease, together with
countless fleas, bugs and other vermin tortured the
inhabitants of these camps. As a result of the filthy
conditions of the camps nearly all eastern workers were
afflicted with skin disease. The shortage of food also
caused many cases of Hunher-Oedem, Nephritis, and
Shighakruse.
"It was the general rule that workers were compelled to
go to work unless a camp doctor had prescribed that
they were unfit for work. At Seumannstrasse,
Grieperstrasse, Germanistrasse, Kapitanlehmannstrasse,
and Dechenschule, there was no daily sick call. At
these camps, the doctors did not appear for two or
three days. As a consequence, workers were forced to go
to work despite illnesses."
*******
"Camp Humboldstrasse has been inhabitated by Italian
prisoners of war. After it had been destroyed by an air
raid, the Italians were removed and 600 Jewish females
from Buchenwald Concentration Camp were brought in to
work at the Krupp factories. Upon my first visit at
Camp Humboldstrasse, I found these females suffering
from open festering wounds and other diseases.
"I was the first doctor they had seen for at least a
fortnight. There was no doctor in attendance at the
camp. There was
[Page 902]
no medical supplies in the camp. They had no shoes and
went about in their bare feet. The sole clothing of
each consisted of a sack with holes for their arms and
head. Their hair was shorn. The camp was surrounded by
barbed wire and closely guarded by SS guards.
"The amount of food in the camp was extremely meagre
and of very poor quality. The houses in which they
lived consisted of the ruins of former barracks and
they afforded no shelter against rain and other weather
conditions. I reported to my superiors that the guards
lived and slept outside their barracks as one could not
enter them without being attacked by 10, 20 and up to
50 fleas. One camp doctor employed by me refused to
enter the camp again after he had been bitten very
badly. I visited this camp with a Mr. Green on two
occasions and both times we left the camp badly bitten.
We had great difficulty in getting rid of the fleas and
insects which had attacked us. As a result of this
attack by insects of this camp, I got large boils on my
arms and the rest of my body. I asked my superiors at
the Krupp works to undertake the necessary steps to de-
louse the camp so as to put an end to this unbearable,
vermin-infested condition. Despite this report, I did
not find any improvement in sanitary conditions at the
camp on my second visit a fortnight later.
"When foreign workers finally became too sick to work
or were completely disabled they were returned to the
Labour Exchange in Essen and from there, they were sent
to a camp at Friedrichsfeld. Among persons who were
returned over to the Labour Exchange were aggravated
cases of tuberculosis, malaria, neurosis, career which
could not be treated by operation, old age, and general
feebleness. I know nothing about conditions at this
camp because I have never visited it. I only know that
it was a place to which workers who no longer of any
use to Krupp were sent.
"My colleagues and I reported all of the foregoing
matters to Mr. Ihh, Director of Friedrich Krupp A. G.
Dr. Wiels, personal physician of Gustav Krupp von
Bohlen und Halbach, Senior Camp Leader Kupke, and at
all times to the health department. Moreover, I know
that these gentlemen personally visited the camps.
"(Signed) Dr. Wilhelm Jager." (D-288)
The conditions just described were not confined to the Krupp
factories but existed throughout Germany. A report of the
Polish Main Committee to the Administration of the
Government-General of Poland, dated 17 May 1944, describes
in similar terms the situation of Polish workers in Germany
(R-103):
[Page 903]
"The cleanliness of many overcrowded camp rooms is
contrary to the most elementary requirements. Often
there is no opportunity to obtain warm water for
washing; therefore the cleanest parents are unable to
maintain even the most primitive standard of hygiene
for their children or often even to wash their only set
of linen. A consequence of this is the spreading of
scabies which cannot be eradicated ***.
"We receive imploring letters from the camps of Eastern
workers and their prolific families beseeching us for
food. The quantity and quality of camp rations
mentioned therein the so-called fourth grade of rations
-- is absolutely insufficient to maintain the energies
spent in heavy work. 3.5 kg. of bread weekly and a thin
soup at lunch time, cooked with swedes or other
vegetables without any meat or fat, with a meager
addition of potatoes now and then is a hunger ration
for a heavy worker.
"Sometimes punishment consists of starvation which is
inflicted, i.e. for refusal to wear the badge, 'East'.
Such punishment has the result that workers faint at
work (Klosterteich Camp, Gruenheim, Saxony). The
consequence is complete exhaustion, an ailing state of
health and tuberculosis. The spreading of tuberculosis
among the Polish factory workers is a result of the
deficient food rations meted out in the community camps
because energy spent in heavy work cannot be replaced
***.
"The call for help which reaches us, brings to light
starvation and hunger, severe stomach intestinal
trouble especially in the case of children resulting
from the insufficiency of food which does not take into
consideration the needs of children. Proper medical
treatment or care for the sick are not available in the
mass camps. ***"
*******
"In addition to these bad conditions, there is lack of
systematic occupation for and supervision of these
hosts of children which affects the life of prolific
families in the camps. The children, left to themselves
without schooling or religious care, must run wild and
grow up illiterate. Idleness in rough surroundings may
and will create unwanted results in these children ***.
An indication of the awful conditions this may lead to
is given by the fact that in the camps for Eastern
workers -- (camp for Eastern workers, 'Waldlust', Post
Office Lauf, Pegnitz) -- there are cases of 8-year old
delicate and undernourished children put to forced
labor and perishing from such treatment.
[Page 904]
"The fact that these bad conditions dangerously affect
the state of health and the vitality of the workers is
proved by the many cases of tuberculosis found in very
young people returning from the Reich to the General-
Government as unfit for work. Their state of health is
usually so bad that recovery is out of the question.
The reason is that a state of exhaustion resulting from
overwork and a starvation diet is not recognized as an
ailment until the illness betrays itself by high fever
and fainting spells.
"Although some hostels for unfit workers have been
provided as a precautionary measure, one can only go
there when recovery may no longer be expected --
(Neumarkt in Bavaria) --. Even there the incurables
waste away slowly, and nothing is done even to
alleviate the state of the sick by suitable food and
medicines. There are children there with tuberculosis
whose cure would not be hopeless and men in their prime
who if sent home in time to their families in rural
districts, might still be able to recover.
"No less suffering is caused by the separation of
families when wives and mothers of small children are
away from their families and sent to the Reich for
forced labor. ***"
"If, under these bad conditions, there is no moral
support such as is normally based on regular family
life, then at least such moral support which the
religious feelings of the Polish population require
should be maintained and increased. The elimination of
religious services, religious practice and religious
care from the life of the Polish workers, the
prohibition of church attendance at a time when there
is a religious service for other people and other
measures show a certain contempt for the influence of
religion on the feelings and opinions of the workers."
(R-103)
Particularly harsh and brutal treatment was reserved for
workers imported from the conquered Eastern territories.
They lived in bondage, were quartered in stables with
animals, and were denied the right of worship and the
pleasures of human society. A document entitled "Directives
on the Treatment of Foreign Farmworkers of Polish
Nationality", issued by the Minister for Finance and Economy
of Baden on 6 March 1941, describes this treatment (EC-68):
"The agencies of the Reich Food Administration
(Reichsnaehrstand) State Peasant Association of Baden
have received the result of the negotiations with the
Higher SS and Police Officer in Stuttgart on 14
February 1941, with great
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Volume
I Chapter X
Conditions of Deportation & Slave Labor
(Part 3 of 4)