Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression [Page 909]
The primary purpose of the slave labor program was to compel
the people of the occupied countries to work for the German
war economy. The decree appointing Sauckel Plenipotentiary-
General for Manpower declares the purpose of the appointment
to be to facilitate acquisition of the manpower required for
German war industries, and in particular the armaments
industry, by centralizing under Sauckel responsibility for
the recruitment and allocation of foreign labor and
prisoners of war in these industries (1666-PS). This decree,
signed by Hitler, Lammers and Keitel, and dated 21 March
1942, provides:
"In order to secure the manpower requisite for the war
industries as a whole, and particularly for armaments,
it is necessary that the utilization of all available
manpower, including that of workers recruited
(angeworbenen) abroad and of prisoners of war, should
be subject to a uniform control, directed in a manner
appropriate to the requirements of war industry, and
further that all still incompletely utilized manpower
in the Greater German Reich, including the
Protectorate, and in the General Government and in the
occupied territories should be mobilized.
"Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel will
carry out this task within the framework of the Four
Year Plan, as Plenipotentiary General, for the
utilization of labor. In that capacity he will be
directly responsible to the Commissioner for the Four
Year Plan.
"Section III (Wages) and Section V (Utilization of
labor) of the Reich Labor Ministry, together with their
subordinate authorities, will be placed at the disposal
of the Plenipotentiary General for the accomplishment
of his task." (1666-PS)
Sauckel's success can be gauged from a letter he wrote to
Hitler on 15 April 1943, containing a report on one year's
activities: "1. After one year's activity as Plenipotentiary
for the Direction of Labor, I can report that 3,638,056 new
foreign workers were given to the German war economy from 1
April of last year to 31 March this year.
"2. The 3,638,056 are distributed amongst the following
branches of the German war economy
Armament -- 1,568,801." (407-VI-PS)
[Page 910]
Further evidence of this use of enslaved foreign labor is
found in a report of a meeting of the Central Planning Board
on 16 February 1944, during which Field Marshal Milch
stated:
"The armament industry employs foreign workmen to a
large extent; according to the latest figures 40
percent." (R-124)
Moreover, according to tabulations of Speer's Ministry, as
of 11 February 1944 approximately two million civilian
foreign workers were employed directly in the manufacture of
armaments and munitions (end products or components). (2520-PS)
Sauckel, Speer, and Keitel also succeeded in forcing foreign
labor to construct military fortifications. Thus, citizens
of France, Holland, and Belgium were compelled against their
will to engage in the construction of the "Atlantic Wall".
Hitler, in an order dated 8 September 1942, initialed by
Keitel, decreed that:
"The extensive coastal fortifications which I have
ordered to be erected in the area of Army Group West
make it necessary that in the occupied territory all
available workers should be committed and should give
the fullest extent of their productive capacities. The
previous allotment of domestic workers is insufficient.
In order to increase it, I order the introduction of
compulsory labor and the prohibition of changing the
place of employment without permission of the
authorities in the occupied territories. Furthermore,
the distribution of food and clothing ration cards to
those subject to labor draft should in the future
depend on the possession of a certificate of
employment. Refusal to accept an assigned job, as well
as abandoning the place of work without the consent of
the authorities in charge, will result in the
withdrawal of the food and clothing ration cards. The
GBA (Deputy General for Arbeitseinsatz) in agreement
with the military commander as well as the Reich
Commissar, will issue the corresponding decrees for
execution." (556-2-PS)
Sauckel boasted to Hitler concerning the contribution of the
forced labor program to the construction of the Atlantic
Wall by Speer's Organization Todt (OT). In a letter to
Hitler dated 17 May 1943, Sauckel wrote:
"*** In addition to the labor allotted to the total
German economy by the Arbeitseinsatz since I took
office, the Organization Todt was supplied with new
labor continually. ***
"Thus, the Arbeitseinsatz has done everything to help
make possible the completion of the Atlantic Wall."
(407-VIII-PS)
Similarly, Russian civilians were forced into labor
battalions
[Page 911]
and compelled to build fortifications to be used against
their own countrymen. A memorandum of the Rosenberg Ministry
states that:
"*** men and women in the theaters of operations have
been and will be conscripted into labor battalions to
be used in the construction of fortifications ***."
(031-PS)
In addition, the Nazi conspirators compelled Prisoners of
War to engage in operations of war against their own country
and its Allies. At a meeting of the Central Planning Board
held on 19 February 1943, attended by Speer, Sauckel, and
Field Marshal Milch, the following conversation occurred:
"Sauckel: If any prisoners are taken, there, they will
be needed.
"Milch: We have made a request for an order that a
certain percentage of men in the antiaircraft artillery
must be Russians. 50,000 will be taken altogether;
30,000 are already employed as gunners. This is an
amusing thing that Russians must work the guns." (R-124)
(At this point a series of official German Army photographs
were offered in evidence. The first one shows Russian
Prisoners of War acting as ammunition bearers during the
attack upon Tschudowo. The second group consists of a series
of official German Army photographs taken in July and August
1941 showing Russian prisoners of war in Latvia and the
Ukraine being compelled to load and unload ammunition trains
and trucks and being required to stack ammunition.)
This use of prisoners of war was in flagrant disregard of
the rules of international law, particularly Article 6 of
the Regulations annexed to Hague Convention Number 4 of
1907, which provides that the tasks of prisoners of war
shall have no connection with the operations of war.
The
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Volume
I Chapter X
Use of Slave Labor in German War Industries
(Part 1 of 2)