Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression
Individual Responsibility Of Defendants

Gustav Krupp Von Bohlen Und Halbach

(Part 10 of 15)

[Page 795]

(2) The prisoners of war and foreign workers at the Krupp factories were forced to live in grossly overcrowded hutted camps and otherwise were denied adequate shelter.

(a) In a sworn statement, Dr. Jaeger, senior camp doctor of the Krupp workers' camps, has stated with respect to the Krupp camps at which the eastern workers and Poles were kept:

"Conditions in all these camps were extremely bad. The camps were greatly overcrowded. In some camps there were over twice as many people in a barrack as health conditions permitted-''

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"Sanitary conditions were exceedingly bad. At Kramerplatz, where approximately 1,200 eastern workers were crowded into the rooms of an old school, the sanitary conditions were atrocious in the extreme. Only 10 children's toilets were available for the 1,200 inhabitants. At Dechenschule, 15 children's toilets were available for the 400-500 eastern workers. Excretion contaminated the entire floors of these lavatories. There were also very few facilities for washing."

(b) Statistics upon the Krupp camps compiled by Krupp officials in 1942 for the Essen health authorities show that in the Krupp Seumannstrasse camp 1784 beds were compressed into a ! surface area of 7844 square meters; in the Krupp Bottropertrasse camp 874 beds were crowded into a surface area of 3585 square meters; and that in other Krupp camps the congestion was even greater (D-143).

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(c) In a memorandum dated 12 June 1944, Dr. Stinnesbeck, a doctor retained by the Krupp works, reported, with respect to the Krupp prisoner of war camp at Noggerathstrasse that:

"315 prisoners are still accommodated in the camp. 170 of these are no longer in barracks but in the tunnel in Grunerstrasse under the Essen-Mulheim railway line. This tunnel is damp and is not suitable for continued accommodation of human beings. The rest of the prisoners are accommodated in 10 different factories in Krupps works." (D-335)

(d) In a special medical report marked "strictly confidential", dated 2 September 1944, concerning the same prisoner of war camp, Dr. Jaeger

"The P. O. W. camp in the Noggerathstrasse is in a frightful condition. The people live in ash bins, dog kennels, old baking ovens and in self-made huts." (D-339).

(3) The prisoners of war and foreign workers at the Krupp factories were denied adequate clothing.

(a) Dr. Jaeger, senior camp doctor in Krupps' workers' camps, has stated under oath:

"The clothing of the eastern workers was likewise completely inadequate. They worked and slept in the same clothing in which they had arrived from the east. Virtually all of them had no overcoats and were compelled, therefore, to use their blankets as coats in cold and rainy weather. In view of the shortage of shoes, many workers were forced to go to work in their bare feet, even in the winter. Wooden shoes were given to some of the workers, but their quality was such as to give the workers sore feet. Many workers preferred to go to work in their bare feet rather than endure the suffering caused by the wooden shoes. Apart from the wooden shoes, no clothing of any kind was issued to the workers until the latter part of 1943, when a single blue work suit was issued to some of them. To my knowledge, this represented the sole issue of clothing to the workers from the time of their arrival until the American forces entered Essen." (D-288)

(b) In a memorandum to Mr. Ihn, a Krupp director, dated 20 October 1942, Dr. Wiehle, head of the Krupp hospital in Essen, wrote:

"It has already been pointed out several times at conferences that the clothing for Eastern workers, men and women, is not sufficient. With regard to the cold weather, the camp

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physician today called our attention to the fact that the number of colds is going up because of the question of insufficient clothing.

"Many of the men and women still have to go barefooted. They have no underwear and it often happens that people who wear foot bandages because of injuries walk barefooted on these bandages." (D-271; see also D-355, D-312)

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