Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression
[Page 644]
(5) Rigorous methods of recruiting workers. Force, violence,
and economic duress were all advocated by Frank as means for
recruiting laborers for deportation to slave labor in
Germany. Deportation of Polish laborers to Germany was an
integral art of the program announced by Frank for his
administration of the General Government (See EC-344-16 &
17), and as Governor General he authorized whatever degree
of force was required for the execution of his program.
Voluntary methods of recruitment soon proved inadequate. In
the spring of 1940 the question of utilizing force came up,
and the following discussion took place in the presence of
Seyss-Inquart:
"Reichshauptamtsleiter Dr. Frauendorfer answered this
question negatively.
"The General Governor emphasized the fact that he now
will be asked to take a definite attitude toward this
question. Therefore the question will arise whether any
form of coercive measures should now be
"The question put by the General Governor to SS
Lieutenant General [Obergruppenfuehrer] Krueger: does
he see possibilities of calling Polish workers by
coercive means, is answered in the affirmative by SS
Lieutenant General Krueger." (2233-N-PS)
At the same conference Frank declared that he was willing to
agree to any practical measures, and decreed that
unemployment
[Page 645]
compensation should be discontinued on 1 May 1940 as a means
of recruiting labor for Germany.
In March 1940 Frank assured the authorities in Berlin that
he was prepared to have villages surrounded and the people
dragged forcibly out. He reported that, in the course of his
negotiations in Berlin regarding the urgent demand for
larger numbers of Polish farm workers, he had stated:
At a conference of Department Heads of the General
Government on 10 May 1940 Frank laid down the following
principles for dealing with the problem of conscription
labor:
[Page 646]
Frank utilized starvation as a method of recruitment. At a
conference on 20 November 1942 the following plan was
agreed:
On 18 August 1942 Frank informed Sauckel that the General
Government had already supplied 800,000 laborers to Germany,
and that a further 140,000 would be supplied by the end of
the year. Regarding the quota for the next year he promised:
Six months after Frank promised Sauckel to resort to police
action to round up labor for deportation to Germany, the
Chairman of the Ukrainian Main Committee reported to Frank
that the program was being carried out as follows:
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Individual
Responsibility Of Defendants
Hans Frank
(Part 9 of 10)
"The Governor-General stated that the fact that all
means in form of proclamations etc. did not bring
success, leads to the conclusion that the Poles out of
malevolence, and guided by the intention of harming
Germany by not putting themselves at its disposal,
refuse to enlist for working duty. Therefore, he asks
Dr. Frauendorfer, if there are any other measures, not
as yet employed, to win the Poles on a voluntary basis.
"The General Governor is willing to agree to any
practical measure; however, he wishes to be informed
personally about the measures to be taken. One measure,
which no doubt would be successful, would be the
discontinuance of unemployment compensation for
unemployed workers and their transfer to public
welfare. Therefore, he decrees that, beginning 1 May,
claim for unemployment compensation will cease to exist
and only public welfare may be granted. For the time
being only men are to report and above those men living
in cities. There might be a possibility of combining
the moving of the 120,000 Poles from the Warthe
district with this measure." (2233-N-PS)
" if it is demanded from him, [he] could naturally
exercise force in such a manner, that he has the police
surround a village and get the men and women in
question out by force, and then send them to Germany.
But one can also work differently, besides these police
measures, by retaining the unemployment compensation of
these workers in question." (2233-B-PS)
"Upon the demands from the Reich it has now been
decreed that compulsion may be exercised in view of the
fact that sufficient manpower was not voluntarily
available for service inside the German Reich. This
compulsion means the possibility of arrest of male and
female Poles . . . . The arrest of young Poles when
leaving church services or the cinema would bring about
an ever-increasing nervousness of the Poles. Generally
speaking, he had no objection at all if the rubbish,
capable of work yet often loitering about, would be
snatched from the streets. The best method for this,
however, would be the organization of a raid, and it
would be absolutely justifiable to stop a Pole in the
street and to question him what he was doing, where he
was working, etc." (2233-A-PS)
"Starting 1 February 1942 the food ration cards should
not be issued to the individual Pole or Ukrainian by
the Nutrition Office [Ernaehrungsamt], but to the
establishments working for the German interest.
2,000,000 people would thus be eliminated from the non-
German, normal ration consuming contingent. Now, if
those ration cards are only distributed by the
factories, part of those people will naturally rush
into the factories. Labor could then be either procured
for Germany from them or they could be used for the
most important work in the factories of the General
Government." (2233-Y-PS)
" you can, however, next year reckon upon a higher
number of workers from the General Government, for we
shall employ the Police to conscript them." (2233-W-PS)
"The wild and ruthless man-hunt carried on everywhere
in towns and country, in streets, squares, stations,
even in churches, at night in houses, has badly shaken
the feeling of security of the inhabitants. Everybody
is exposed to the danger of being seized anywhere and
at any time by members of the police, suddenly and
unexpectedly, and being brought into an assembly camp.
None of his relatives knows what has happened to him,
only weeks or months later, one or the other gives news
of his fate by a postcard." (1526-PS)