Eighteenth Day:
Wednesday, 12th December, 1945
[Page 303] [Page 304]
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, from where did that top secret
document come?
MR. DODD: It came from the files of the defendant Rosenberg.
This Document, 018-PS, is a letter from the defendant
Rosenberg to the defendant Sauckel, and it is dated the 21st
December, 1942, with attachments. I wish to quote from Page
1 of the English text starting at the middle of the second
paragraph which
reads as follows:-
On 1st October a new conscription of labour forces took
place. I will describe the
most important events to you. You cannot imagine the
bestiality. You probably remember what we were told
about the Soviets during their rule of the Poles. We did
not believe it then, and
[Page 305]
THE PRESIDENT: You have not given us the PS number.
MR. DODD: It has no PS number.
THE PRESIDENT: I beg your pardon. Has a copy of it been
given to Rosenberg's counsel?
MR. DODD: Yes, it has been. It is at the end of the document
book, if your Honour pleases, the document book the Tribunal
has.
THE PRESIDENT: I see.
DR. ALFRED THOMA (Counsel for defendant Rosenberg): In the
name of my client, I object to the reading of this document
for the following reasons. My client has been asked in the
preliminary hearings several times about these questions
concerning employment of labour. He declared that the
defendant Sauckel, by virtue of plenary authority received
from the Fuehrer and by order of the Plenipotentiary for the
Four Year Plan, had the right to give him orders and that he
(the defendant Rosenberg), despite this, demanded a
recruitment of labour on a voluntary basis; that this was
carried through, and that Sauckel agreed, providing the
quota and the time
[Page 306]
This document which is going to be presented does not say
anything about all these statements. The document which is
to be presented contains only fragments of this declaration.
In order to give the Court a complete picture and in order
to give the defence the possibility of a complete survey, I
ask the Court to request the prosecution to present the
record of the entire declaration and then, before this
document is presented officially, to discuss the translation
with the defence in order to prevent misunderstandings.
THE PRESIDENT: I am not sure that I understand your
objection. You say, as I understood it, that Sauckel had
authority from Hitler; is that right?
DR. THOMA: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: And that Rosenberg was carrying out that
authority.
DR. THOMA: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: But all that counsel for the prosecution is
attempting to do at the moment is to put in evidence an
interrogation of Rosenberg. With reference to that, you ask
that he should put in the whole interrogation?
DR. THOMA: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we do not know yet whether he intends
to put in the whole interrogation or a part of it.
DR. THOMA: I know only one thing. I have the document which
the prosecution wishes to submit already in my hands, and I
can see that it contains only fragments of the whole
interrogation. What it particularly does not contain is the
fact that Rosenberg always insisted that only voluntary
recruitment be taken into consideration and that Rosenberg
desired a reduction of the quotas, This is not contained in
the document that is to be submitted.
THE PRESIDENT: If counsel for the prosecution reads a part
of the interrogation, and you wish to refer to another part
of the interrogation, in order that the part he has read
should not be misleading, you will be at liberty to do so,
when he has read his part of the interrogation; is that
clear?
DR. THOMA: Yes. Then I will request the Tribunal to ask
counsel for the prosecution if the document, which he
intends to submit, contains the whole of Rosenberg's
declaration.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, were you going to put in the whole
of Rosenberg's interrogation?
MR. DODD: No, your Honour, I was not prepared to put in the
whole of Rosenberg's interrogation, but only certain parts
of it. These parts are available, and have been for some
time, to counsel. The whole of the Rosenberg interrogation,
in English, was given to Sauckel's counsel, however, and he
has the entire text of it, the only available copy that we
have.
THE PRESIDENT: Has counsel for Rosenberg not got the entire
document?
MR. DODD: He has only the excerpt that we propose to read
into the record here at this time.
DR. THOMA: May I please speak?
[Page 307]
MR. DODD: I might say, your Honour, that we turned over the
whole interrogation to counsel for the defendant Sauckel,
and we understood that he would make it available to all
other defence counsel. Apparently, that did not happen.
DR. THOMA: Thank you, my Lord.
DR. SERVATIUS (Counsel for defendant Sauckel): Last night I
received from the prosecution these documents in English.
That, of course, is sufficient for me, but counsel for the
other defendants are not all in a position to follow the
English text, so that certain difficulties have arisen, and
I must have sufficient time to interpret these matters for
my colleagues. Or perhaps the prosecution could give us the
German text - for the interrogation took place in German and
was translated into English - so that the original German
text should be on hand.
Those are the difficulties, and I would like to have the
German translation as soon as possible.
MR. DODD: With reference to the so-called German text, the
original is an English text. These interrogations were made
through an interpreter and they were transcribed in English,
so that the original text is an English text, and that is
what was turned over to the attorney for the defendant
Sauckel with the understanding that it would be made
available to all other counsel.
THE PRESIDENT: But of course that does not quite meet their
difficulties because they do not all of them speak English,
or are not all able to read English, so I am afraid you must
wait until Rosenberg's counsel has got a copy of the entire
interrogation in his own language.
MR. DODD: Very well.
Passing on beyond the document which we have just referred
to, and which we now withdraw in view of the ruling, but
which we will offer at a later date after we have complied
with the ruling of the Court, we have a letter dated 21st
December, 1942, which is Document 018-PS, and which will be
Exhibit USA 186 - which, by the way, is a letter from the
defendant Rosenberg to the defendant Sauckel - and I wish to
quote from Page 1, Paragraph 3 of the English text. In the
German text it appears at Page 4, Paragraph 1. Quoting
directly:-
[Page 308]
MR. DODD: Yes, I did, your Honour. That was the date on the
document.
THE PRESIDENT: The mimeographed copy of the document I have
appears to have as date of the original document the 29th
June, 1945, and the date below is 7th June, 1944.
MR. DODD: We will get the original document.
I am sorry, your Honour. There are two errors here. The
document is dated the 29th June, 1944.
THE PRESIDENT: I see. And the enclosure is 7th June, 1944?
MR. DODD: Yes.
[
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(Part 2 of 9)
[MR. DODD continuies]
"Gauleiter Sauckel promises to make Russian labour
available for the fulfilment of the iron and coal
programme and reports that - if required - he can supply
a further million Russian labourers for the German
armament industry up to and including October, 1942. He
has already supplied 1,000,000 for the industry and
700,000 for agriculture. In this connection the Fuehrer
states that the problem of providing labour can be
solved in all cases and to any extent; he authorises
Gauleiter Sauckel to take all measures required. He
would agree to any necessary compulsion in the East as
well as in the West if this question could not be solved
on a voluntary basis."
In order to meet these demands of 1,700,000, 100,000 here
and there, the Nazi conspirators made terror, violence and
arson, as we said yesterday,
"We now experienced the grotesque picture of having to
recruit millions of labourers 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 man-hunt was 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."
The defendant Rosenberg wrote concerning these brutalities
to the instigator of them, the defendant Sauckel, and we
refer now to Document 018-PS, which is Exhibit USA 186.
"The report I have received shows that the increase of
the guerrilla bands in the occupied Eastern Regions is
largely due to the fact that the methods used for
procuring labourers 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 guerrilla
bands."
Passing now to Page 4 of the same English text, there is an
attachment to Rosenberg's letter consisting of parts
excerpted from letters of residents of the occupied Eastern
territories, excerpted by Nazi censors apparently. In the
German text it appears at Page 6, Paragraphs 1 and 2.
Starting the quotation:-
"At our place, new things have happened. People are
being taken to Germany. On 5th December, some people
from the Kowkuski district were scheduled to go, but
they did not 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
three truck loads of Germans arrived and set fire to
their houses. In Wrasnytschi, twelve houses and in
Borowytschi, three houses were burned.
Despite the fact that the defendant Rosenberg wrote this
letter with this attachment, we say he nevertheless
countenanced the use of force in order to furnish slave
labour to Germany and admitted his responsibility for the
"unusual and hard measures" that were employed. I refer to
excerpts from the transcript of an interrogation under oath
of the defendant Rosenberg on 6th October, 1945, which is
Exhibit USA 187, and I wish to quote from Page 1 of the
English text starting with the ninth paragraph.
"Even if I do not close my eyes to the necessity that
the numbers demanded by the Reich Minister for Armament
and Munitions, 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."
"According to a charge by the Supreme Command of the Armed
Forces - "
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, I thought you said the date of it
was 29th June, 1943.
"Answering to a charge by the Supreme Command of the
Armed Forces that I burned down a few houses in the
territory of Wassilkow, Ukraine, belonging to
insubordinate people ordered for work-duty, this
accusation is true."
Passing now to the third paragraph:-
"During the year of 1942, the conscription of workers
was accomplished by way of propaganda. Only very rarely
was force necessary. Only in August, 1942, did measures
have to be taken against two families in the villages
Glewenka and Salisny/Chutter, each of which were to
supply one person for labour. Both were requested in
June for the first time, but did not obey, although
requested repeatedly. They had to be brought up by
force, but succeeded twice in escaping from the
collecting camp, or when 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 should show up. When, after the second
escape, rearrest of both the fathers and boys was
ordered, the police patrols ordered to do so, found the
houses to be empty."
Passing to Paragraph 4, it is stated, and I quote directly:-
"That time I decided to take measures - "