Eighteenth Day:
Wednesday, 12th December, 1945
MR. DODD: Yes, I have.
THE PRESIDENT: I thought you ought to go on after that "The
result was ..." Do you see?
MR. DODD: "The result was that in the future the people
obeyed willingly."
[Page 309]
MR. DODD: No, I was just beginning to read it.
THE PRESIDENT: I beg your pardon.
MR. DODD : That is the fourth paragraph:
THE PRESIDENT: I think you should read the next few lines.
MR. DODD:
MR. DODD: Well, we have discussed this matter previous to
our appearance here today. The document does not identify
him by name. We are not sure. The defendant Sauckel was
called Plenipotentiary General for Labour, and we think we
cannot go much further, and must say we do not know. It just
does not appear.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Thank you.
MR. DODD: Reading that last sentence,
A few ring-leaders of course escaped before they were
found in Plisseskoje and in Mitmitza. After repeated
attempts to get hold of them, their houses were burned
down." [Page 310]
That Generalkommissar in Kiev, as we indicated yesterday and
again this morning, was the man Koch, concerning whom we
quoted his statement about the master race.
Another document confirms the arson as an instrument of
enforcing this labour programme in the village of Bieloserka
in the Ukraine in cases of resistance to forced labour
recruitment. Atrocities committed in this village are
related in Document 118-PS, which is already in evidence as
Exhibit USA 186. But in addition there is Document 290-PS
which is Exhibit USA 189. This document consists of
correspondence originating within the Rosenberg Ministry,
which was, of course, the office headquarters of the
defendant Rosenberg, and it is dated 12th November, 1943. I
wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text, starting with
the last line, as follows:-
Estates of those who refuse to work are to be burned,
and their relatives are to be arrested as hostages and
to be brought to forced labour camps."
We refer to Document 3012-PS, which is Exhibit USA 19o. This
document is a secret S.S. order and it is dated the 19th
March, 1943. I wish to quote from Page 3 of the English text
starting with the third paragraph. In the German text it
appears at Page 2, Paragraph 3. It says and I quote it:-
MR. DODD: No. 4 says:
From the community of Zhitomir, where the defendant Sauckel
appealed for more workers for the Reich, the Commissioner
General reported on the brutality of the conspirators'
programme, which he described as a programme of coercion and
slavery. And I now refer to Document 266-PS, which is
Exhibit USA 191. This document is a secret report of a
conference between the Commissioner General of Zhitomir and
the defendant Rosenberg in the community of Winniza on 17th
June, 1943. The report itself is dated 30th
[Page 311]
I now wish to refer to our Document 3000-PS, which is
Exhibit USA 192. This document is a partial translation of a
report from the Chief of Main Office III with the High
Command in Minsk, and it is dated 28th June, 1943. It was
sent to Ministerialdirektor Riecke, who was a top official
in the Rosenberg Ministry. I wish to read from Page 1 of the
English text, starting with the second paragraph, as
follows:-
Due to the sweeping drives of the S.S. and police in
November, 1942, about 115,000 hectares of farmland is
not used, as the population is not there and the
villages have been razed."
Further evidence of the conspirators' plan to weaken their
enemies, in utter disregard of the rules of International
Law, is contained in Document 1702-PS, which is Exhibit USA
193. This document is a secret order,
[Page 312]
In France these slave-masters intensified their programme in
the early part of 1943, pursuant to instructions which the
defendant Speer telephoned to the defendant Sauckel at 8
o'clock in the evening on the 4th January, 1943, from
Hitler's headquarters. I now refer to Document 556-PS 13,
which is Exhibit USA 194. This document, incidentally, is a
note from his own files, signed by the defendant Sauckel,
dated 5th January, 1943. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the
English text, Paragraph 1 as follows:-
Moreover, I charged some able men with founding a
special labour supply executive of our own, and this
they did by training, and arming, with the help of the
higher S.S. and Police Fuehrer a number of natives, but
I still have to ask the Munitions Ministry for arms for
the use of these men, for during the last year alone
several dozens of very able labour executive officers
have been shot dead. All these means I have to apply,
grotesque as it sounds, to refute the allegation there
was no executive to bring labour to Germany from these
countries." [Page 313]
The employers had to cancel the contract with the
appointed workmen temporarily, and the latter were
forced to register at the labour offices, which then
took care of the deportation under supervision of German
"Fachberater'.
Workmen who refused - relatively few - were prosecuted
by the 'Sicherheitsdienst' (S.D.). If captured by this
service, they were mostly lodged for some time in one of
the infamous prisoners' camps in the Netherlands and
eventually put to work in Germany.
In this prosecution the Sicherheitsdienst (S.D.) was
supported by the German Police Service, which was
connected with the labour offices, and was composed of
members of the N.S.D.A.P. and the like.
At the end of April, 1942, the deportation of working
labourers started on a grand scale. Consequently, in the
months of May and June, the number of deportees amounted
to not less than 22,000 and 24,000 respectively of which
number many were metal workers.
After that the action slackened somewhat, but in
October, 1942, another top figure was reached (26,000).
After the big concerns, the smaller ones had, in their
turn, to give up their personnel.
This changed in November, 1944. The Germans then started
a ruthless campaign for manpower, by-passing the labour
offices. Without warning, they lined off whole quarters
of the towns, seized people in the streets or in the
houses and deported them.
Rotterdam and Schiedam, where these raids took place on
10th and 11th November, the number of people thus
deported was estimated at 50,000 and 5,000 respectively.
In other places where the raids were held later, the
numbers were much lower, because one was forewarned by
what had happened. The exact figures are not known, as
they have never been published by the occupants.
The people thus seized were put to work partly in the
Netherlands, partly in Germany ..." [
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(Part 3 of 9)
THE PRESIDENT: Should not you read on at the top of that
Page 2? You had read, had not you, "I ordered the burning
down of the houses of the fugitives"?
"That time I decided to take measures to show the
increasingly rebellious Ukrainian youth that our orders
had to be followed. I ordered the burning down of the
houses of the fugitives."
Would your Honour like to have the rest of that paragraph?
"The result was that in the future people willingly
obeyed orders concerning labour obligations. However,
the measure of burning houses has not become known for
the first time by my actions, but was suggested in a
secret letter from the commissioner for the commitment
of labour as a forced measure in case other measures
should fail. This harsh punishment was accepted by the
population with satisfaction."
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): The Commissioner for Labour, Mr.
Dodd - you just said, "an order from the Commissioner of
Labour." Who was that?
"This harsh punishment was accepted by the population
with satisfaction previous to the measures, because both
families ridiculed all the other duty-anxious families
which sent their children partly voluntarily to the
labour commitment."
Turning to Paragraph 2 on Page 2, beginning about two-thirds
of the way through the paragraph, I wish to read as follows.
In the German text it appears at Page 3, Paragraph 1:-
"After the initial successes, a passive resistance of
the population started, which finally forced me to start
again making arrests, confiscations, and transfers to
labour 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.
Finally, I wish to pass to the last paragraph on Page 3 of
that same document. In the German text it appears at Page 5,
Paragraph 7. Quoting from that last paragraph on the third
page:-
"My actions against fugitive people obliged to work were
always reported to District Commissioner Dohrer, in
office in Wassilkow; and to the general-commissioner
(Generalkommissar) in Kiev. Both of them knew the
circumstances and agreed with my measures because of
their success."
"But even if Muller had been present at the burning of
houses in connection with the national conscription in
Bieloserka, this should by no means lead to his relief
from office. It is mentioned specifically in a directive
of the Commissioner General in Luck of 21st September,
1942, referring to the extreme urgency of the national
conscription.
The S.S. troops were directed to participate in the
abduction of these forced labourers and also in the raids on
villages, burning of villages, and were directed to turn the
entire population over for slave labour in Germany.
"The activity of the labour offices, that is, of
recruiting commissions, is to be supported to the
greatest extent possible. It will not be possible always
to refrain from using force. During a conference with
the Chief of the Labour Commitment Staffs, an agreement
was reached stating that whatever prisoners can be
released, should be put at the disposal of the
Commissioner of the Labour Office. When searching
villages, when it has become necessary to burn down
these villages, the whole population will be put at the
disposal of the Commissioner by force."
THE PRESIDENT: Should not you read No. 4 which follows it?
"As a rule, no more children will be shot."
I might say to your Honour that parts of these documents are
going to be relied on for other purposes later and it
sometimes may appear to the Tribunal that we are overlooking
some of these excerpts, but nevertheless I am grateful to
have them called to our attention because they are most
pertinent to these allegations as well.
"The symptoms created by the recruiting of workers are,
no doubt, well known to the Reich Minister through
reports and his own observations. Therefore I shall not
report them. It is certain that a recruitment of labour,
in this sense of the word, can hardly be spoken of. In
most cases it is nowadays a matter of actual
conscription by force."
Passing now to Page 2 of that same document, and to
Paragraph 1, Line 11 in the German text it appears at Page
3, Paragraph 2 - it says, and I quote it directly:-
"But as the Chief Plenipotentiary for the mobilisation
of labour explained to us the gravity of the situation
we had no other device. I consequently have authorised
the commissioners of the areas to apply the severest
measures in order to achieve the imposed quota. The
deterioration of morale, in conjunction with this, does
not need any further proof. It is nevertheless essential
to win the war on this front too. The problem of labour
mobilisation cannot be handled with gloves."
The recruitment measures which we have been discussing
enslaved so many citizens of occupied countries that whole
areas were depopulated.
"The recruitment of labour for the Reich, however
necessary, had disastrous effects. The recruitment
measures in the last months and weeks were absolute man-
hunts, which have an irreparable political and economic
effect. From White Ruthenia approximately 50,000 people
have been obtained for the Reich so far. Another 130,000
are to be obtained. Considering the 2.4 million total
population, these figures are impossible.
We have already referred to the conspirators' objective of
permanently weakening the enemy through the enslavement of
labour and the breaking up of families, and we invite the
Tribunal's attention to Document 031-PS, which is in
evidence as Exhibit USA 171, for we desire to emphasise that
the policy was applied in the Eastern Occupied Territories,
with the defendant Rosenberg's approval, of a plan for the
apprehension and deportation of 40,000 to 50,000 youths of
the ages of 10 to 14. Now, the stated purpose of this plan
was to prevent a reinforcement of the enemy's military
strength and to reduce the enemy's biological
potentialities. We have already quoted from Page 3 of the
English text of that document to establish that the
defendant Rosenberg approved that plan, the so-called high
action plan. We referred to it yesterday afternoon.
"1. The able-bodied male population between 15 and 65
years of age and the cattle are to be shipped back from
the district East of the line Belilowka-Berditschen-
Zhitomir."
This programme, which we have been describing, and the
brutal measures that it employed, were not limited to Poland
and the Occupied Eastern Territories but covered and cursed
Western Europe as well. Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Belgians,
Italians, all came to know the yoke of slavery and the
brutality of their slave-masters.
"1. On 4th January, 1943, at 8 p.m. Minister Speer
telephones from the Fuehrer's headquarters and
communicates that on the basis of the Fuehrer's
decision, it is no longer necessary to give special
consideration to Frenchmen in the further recruiting of
specialists and helpers in France. The recruiting can
proceed with emphasis and sharpened measures."
To overcome resistance to his slave labour programme, the
defendant Sauckel improvised new impressment measures which
were applied to both France and Italy by his own agents and
which he himself labelled as grotesque. I now refer to
Document R-124, which is Exhibit USA 179, and particularly
Page 2 and Paragraph 2 of the English text; in the German
text it appears at Page 2, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly
from that page and that paragraph a statement made by
Sauckel on 1st March, 1944, at a meeting of the Central
Planning Board:-
"The most abominable point made by my adversaries is
their claim that no executive had been provided within
these areas in order to recruit in a sensible manner the
Frenchmen, Belgians, and Italians and to dispatch them
to work. Thereupon, I even proceeded to employ and train
a whole batch of French male and female agents who for
good pay, just as was done in olden times for "shanghai-
ing", went hunting for men and made them drunk by using
liquor as well as words, in order to dispatch them to
Germany.
This same slave labour hunt proceeded in Holland as it did
in France, with terror and abduction. I now refer to
Document 1726-PS, which is Exhibit USA 195. This document is
entitled "Statement of the Netherlands
"Many large or reasonably large business concerns,
especially in the metal industry, were visited by German
commissions who appointed workmen for deportation. This
combing out of the concerns was called the "Sauckel-
action", so named after its leader, who was charged with
the appointment of foreign workmen in Germany.