One Hundred and Forty-Fifth Day:
Monday, 3rd June, 1946 [Page 255]
DR. SERVATIUS: Mr. President, the witness Jager is to appear
in about half an hour. I shall read some other documents
from my document book, if it please the Tribunal.
In the last session I had read all documents from the first
document book with the exception of Document 16, which I
left out by mistake. It is a leaflet for Eastern workers. I
need not read it, but I shall only refer to it. I have
submitted as Exhibit No. I the "Manual for Labour
Employment" and in this exhibit we find the following
documents which I have in part read and shall in part read
now: Documents 12, 13, 15, 22, 28, 58A, 67A, 82, 83, 85, 86
and 88.
Then I have submitted Exhibit 2, "Special Publications of
the Reich Labour Journal," namely, "Conditions for the
Employment of Eastern Workers as well as of Soviet Russian
Prisoners of War," which contain the following documents: 6,
32, 36, 39, 47 and 52.
Then as Exhibit 3 I have submitted the "Manifesto for
Employment of Labour," Document 84.
Then, as Exhibit 4, "Labour Laws, Collection of Texts of
German Labour Laws," which contains Documents 16, 31 and 49.
As Exhibit 5 I submitted a book "Fritz Sauckel's Battle
Speeches"; that is Document 95.
As Exhibit 6 "National Socialist Governmental Activity in
Thuringia" has been submitted; it is contained in Document
96.
Exhibit 7, "National Socialist Governmental Activity in
Thuringia in the Years 1933-1934," is contained in Document
97.
I have once more submitted as Exhibit 8 the article entitled
"Europe works in Germany," which has already been submitted
as Exhibit RF-5.
Then I shall submit an affidavit by the son of Fritz
Sauckel, Dieter Sauckel, which is very short. It refers to
the evacuation of the camp Buchenwald, which Sauckel is said
to have ordered. I shall read the eight lines of the
affidavit:
"I swear to the truth of the preceding statement for the
purpose of having it submitted to the International
Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.
I am ready to swear upon oath to the truth of my
statement. Schonau, 22nd March, 1946. Dieter Sauckel."
In Exhibit USA 206, which has been submitted already, the
following documents of Volume 2 are contained which I shall
read later: Nos. 7, 10, 14, 18, 19, 27 and 41.
[Page 256]
THE PRESIDENT: Are they in your document book?
DR. SERVATIUS: Yes. They are short excerpts from the
official law gazettes; in each case the decisive passages
have been extracted.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Servatius, I think it would be convenient
if you gave their exhibit numbers, if they are in your book,
but I do not quite understand how you are arranging these.
You told us that No. 1 contained a great many other numbers.
Now is number one the exhibit number?
DR. SERVATIUS: No. 1 is the exhibit number and this exhibit
contains these documents with the numbers they have in the
document book.
THE PRESIDENT: In the books?
DR. SERVATIUS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I understand. So that you are only
submitting - up to the present you have only got so far as
nine exhibits.
DR. SERVATIUS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: And then you are going to give these various
laws which you have in your books additional exhibit
numbers. They will be 10 to . . .
DR. SERVATIUS: I did not know whether it was necessary to
submit these copies of the Reichlieu as exhibits. As far as
I know they have already been submitted because they are an
official collection of laws from the Reichsgesetzblatt of
1942 and 1940. Of course, I can take out these individual
issues and submit them here.
THE PRESIDENT: Would it not be best if you submitted them
as, say, Exhibit 10, and then told us the numbers in your
books which are contained in No. 10?
DR. SERVATIUS: Then it would be necessary to submit the
original text of the collection of laws. I wanted to avoid
that.
THE PRESIDENT: We can take judicial notice of them.
DR. SERVATIUS: I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of
them. I shall point out in what volumes these documents can
be found.
In Reichsgesetzblatt, 1942, Documents 8, 11 and 17 are
contained.
Reichsgesetzblatt, 1940, contains Document 45.
Reichsgesetzblatt, 1943, contains Document 21 ....
THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute. Which was the first
Reichsgesetzblatt, the one which contained 8, 11 and 17?
DR. SERVATIUS: I942.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh yes.
DR. SERVATIUS: The second was Reichsgesetzblatt, 1940, with
Document 45.
The third was Reichsgesetzblatt, 1943, with Document 27.
The fourth is Reichsarbeitsblatt (Reich Labour Gazette),
Document 33 ....
THE PRESIDENT: What year, though?
DR. SERVATIUS: 1940, Reichsarbeitsblatt, Document 33. The
fifth is Reichsarbeitsblatt, 1942, which contains Documents
9, 35, 40, 46, 50, 57, 64A.
The sixth, Reichsarbeitsblatt, 1943, contains Documents 20,
23, 37, 42, 43, 44, 48, 54, 55, 60, 60A, 67, 62, 64 and 68.
And the last, Reichsarbeitsblatt, 1944, has Documents 26,
30, 38, 58, 59, 65, 67 and 89.
I shall now briefly go through the document books. I begin
with Document Book 2, Document 32, "Orders and Decrees
concerning the Employment
[Page 257]
In the next document, 33, there is a decree of the Reich
Minister of Labour, "Use of Prisoners of War in Places of
Work." There those types of work for which these prisoners
of war are being used are listed in detail. Among the types
of work the manufacture of arms is not included; included
are work in factories, agriculture and forestry; work on
roads, canals and dams of importance for the war; work in
brick-yards; and so forth, as can be read in detail.
In Document 35 we can see how the employment of prisoners of
war took place, that is, the co-operation between the
prisoner of war camp and the contractors, and that a
contract regulated in detail the conditions under which the
employment of prisoners of war took place. It can be seen
from this that Sauckel's labour recruitment had nothing to
do with that.
In Document 36 we find a circular decree concerning the
treatment of prisoners of war, a memorandum concerning the
treatment of prisoners of war, which was drawn up jointly by
the OKW and the Ministry for Public Enlightenment and
Propaganda:
Document 37 deals with the question of an improved status,
namely, the transfer to civilian worker status of prisoners
of war for work of importance to the war in Germany. It
shows that they get compensations, that is to say a
financial compensation, to maintain a separate household. It
shows that these workers were treated like civilian workers.
The next document, No. 38, is along the same lines and deals
with visits of their relatives to French, Belgian and Dutch
prisoners of war and to Italian military internees in the
Reich. It says there:
Document 39 is a memorandum about general conditions which
are valid for the employment of prisoners of war in labour.
It deals with the working hours:
Then there follows an excerpt about housing and other
accommodations in camps. It is Document 40 which decrees, on
the basis of Sauckel's Order No. 9, the inspection of
housing, food, heating and upkeep of the camps by camp
artisans. It is dated 14th July, 1942. It says:
[Page 258]
Then there is Document 18, a memorandum for plant
supervisors and Eastern workers, which contains camp rules.
The introduction says:
DR. SERVATIUS: Document 41 shows that caring for the Eastern
workers was especially the task of the German Labour Front,
which is explained here in detail.
Document 42 deals with the same subject. It stresses above
all industrial inspection and says that for the care of
foreign workers all necessary measure: have to be taken
immediately and all shortcomings remedied at once; the
inspection officials and the offices have to regulate that
together with the Labour Front It is administered by Reich
Labour Minister Seldte, not by Sauckel, which make: it
evident that Sauckel had not become the Labour Minister.
In Document 43 there are explanations of the camp
regulations, to which I shall refer in detail later. But in
Document 43 I should like to stress again the position of
the Industrial Inspection Office. Here the question of
responsibility for hygienic conditions and the extermination
of vermin is regulated, and it says at the end:
Document 44 contains details of sleeping quarters, their
size, number of beds; and the dispensation of medical care;
signed again by the Reich Labour Minister Franz Seldte, and
not by Sauckel.
The next group of documents deals with food. Document 45 is
the meat inspection law which treats the question of how far
meat of inferior quality is fit for consumption. That law
too has a certain importance with regard to the witness.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Servatius, as to the inspection of meat,
we do not require any further information about it.
DR. SERVATIUS: No. 46 shows merely that the foreign workers
received them food ration cards when away from the camp.
Document 47 is a decree by the Reich Minister for Food and
Agriculture and shows that he was responsible for
determining the food quotas. The document also gives the
rations. I mention only a few: for the ordinary worker,
2,600 grams of bread per week. That increases, and it can be
read, if there are question; of importance ....
THE PRESIDENT: Page 128 shows that prisoners of war are
employed in the armament industry, does it not? Page 128.
[Page 259]
THE PRESIDENT: 128 in English, Page 128, lines 4 to 12,
treatment of the sick: "All prisoners of war and Eastern
workers, male and female, who are employed in the armament
industry ...."
DR. SERVATIUS: It says there: "All prisoners of war or
Eastern workers who are employed in the armament industry."
Armament industry does not only mean manufacture of weapons.
Document 48 only refers to a law - I see the translation
department has left out a short paragraph but I can do
without that. The heading indicates the subject. It refers
to the taking along of food for the trip to the home
country. It thus concerns supplies on the trip home.
Document 49 shows an arrangement by which additional food
and care can be given, and special diets in the hospitals;
that was also taken care of.
In the next group questions of wages are dealt with. The
first decree is Document 50.
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(Part 1 of 9)
"Between 4th and 7th April, 1945, approximately, I was
present when my father, Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel, had a
conference in his study. At this occasion the question of
the Buchenwald camp was discussed and the following was
decided: A certain number of guards should remain in the
camp until the arrival of the enemy, in order to hand
over to the latter the camp prisoners." - this is
Document Book 94, Page 247 -
I submit this as Exhibit 9.
"Treatment of prisoners of war: Prisoners of war must be
treated in such a way that their full-production capacity
may benefit industry and economy; to insure that
sufficient nourishment is necessary."
This I wanted to underline.
"Visits to French, Belgian and Dutch prisoners of war are
permitted only to wives, parents, children and brothers
and sisters who work in Germany or have their homes in
Alsace or Lorraine, and then only on Sundays and
holidays."
This shows that actually the prisoner of war status had
ceased.
"The daily working hours, including the time of marching
to and from work, should not be excessive."
And in another passage it says:
"The prisoners of war have a right to a continuous rest
period of twenty-four hours, to be granted, when
possible, on Sundays."
Under paragraph 7 it is stated that neither the employer nor
his relatives nor his employees are entitled to inflict
punishments on prisoners of war.
"By August 10th, 1942, an inspection of all industrial
establishments which employ foreign labour must be
carried out by all labour offices in their respective
districts to find out whether they have duly carried out
regulations and decrees governing housing, feeding and
treatment of all foreign male and female workers and
prisoners of war. It is my desire that the offices of
the NSDAP and the DAF participate in this check-up to an
appropriate extent. Where shortcomings are discovered,
the manager of the establishment is to be given a period
of time within which those shortcomings are to be
remedied."
"All establishments are to make provisions that camps and
billets can be heated when cold weather sets in and that
the necessary fuel is ordered in time."
The decree states at the end that workmen are to be employed
in the camps who are to take care of the upkeep of the camps
and be paid by the industrial establishments.
"In response to a wish of the General Plenipotentiary for
Labour Employment, Gauleiter Sauckel, I recommend that
the officials convince themselves from time to time that
the regulations, issued with respect to the employment of
Eastern workers are being adhered to within the
establishments."
That shows that control was emphasized here once again.
The camp rules then go on to say:
"Eastern workers, you are finding in Germany wages and
bread, and you are safeguarding by your work the
maintenance of your family ...."
MR. BIDDLE: Could you not summarize these documents more
shortly?
"The supervisory authority in accordance with the new
regulation is the Industrial Inspection Office."
This is important for the medical supervision which in the
final analysis is taken care of by the State Industrial
Inspection Office, just as the witness has explained in
regard to the question of responsibility.