The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)
Nuremberg, war crimes, crimes against humanity

The Trial of German Major War Criminals

Sitting at Nuremberg, Germany
December 3 to December 14, 1945

Seventeenth Day: Tuesday, 11th December, 1945
(Part 2 of 2)


[Page 291]

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, and you were telling us how the defendant Rosenberg was implicated.

[Page 292]

MR. DODD : Yes. On the last page of that document, the original bears a note in ink, and in the mimeographed copy it is typewritten:
"Regarding the above Obergruppenfuehrer Berger received the memorandum on 14th June. Consequently the Reich Minister has approved the action."
One page back on that same document, from the first paragraph, four sentences down, the sentence begins:
"The Minister has approved the execution of the high action in the Army Territories, under the conditions and provisions arrived at in talks with Army Group Centre."
The purposes of the Slave Labour Programme which we have just been describing, namely the strengthening of the Nazi war machine and the destruction or weakening of peoples deemed inferior by the Nazi conspirators, were achieved, we repeat, by the impressment and deportation of millions of persons into Germany for forced labour. It involved the separation of husbands from their wives and children from their parents, and the imposition of conditions unfit for human existence, with the result that countless numbers were killed.

Poland was the first victim. The defendant Frank, as Governor of the Government General of Poland, announced that under his programme 1,000,000 workers were to be sent to Germany, and he recommended that police surround Polish villages and seize the inhabitants for deportation.

I wish to refer to Document 1375-PS, which is Exhibit USA 172. This document is a letter from the defendant Frank to the defendant Goering and it is dated the 25th January, 1940. I wish to quote from the first page of the English text, starting with the first paragraph, and in the German text, again, it appears at Page 1 of the first paragraph, and, quoting directly:-

"In view of the present requirements of the Reich for the defence industry, it is at present fundamentally impossible to carry on long term economic policy in the Government General. Rather, it is necessary so to steer the economy of the Government General that it will, in the shortest possible time, accomplish results representing the maximum that can be obtained from the economic strength of the Government General for the immediate strengthening of our capacity for defence.

In particular the following performances are expected of the total economy of the Government General."

I wish to pass on a little bit in this text to the second page and particularly to Paragraph (g) of the English text. In the German text, the same passage appears on Page 3 in Paragraph (g). I am quoting directly again:-
"Supply and transportation of at least one million male and female agricultural and industrial workers to the Reich - among them at least 750,000 agricultural workers of whom at least 50 per cent. must be women - in order to guarantee agricultural production in the Reich and as a replacement for industrial workers lacking in the Reich."
The methods by which these workers were to be supplied were considered by the defendant Frank, as revealed in the document to which we now refer.

It is an entry in the defendant Frank's own diary, to which we have assigned our Document 2233-PS-A, and which we offer as Exhibit USA 173. The portion which I shall read is the entry for Friday, 10th May, 1940. It appears

[Page 293]
in the document book as 2233-PS-A, on the third page, in the centre of the page. Just above are the words "Page 23", Paragraph 1, to the left, just above it:-
"Then the Governor General deals with the problem of the Compulsory Labour Service of the Poles. 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. Because of these measures a certain disquietude had developed which, according to individual reports, was spreading very much, and which might produce difficulties everywhere. General Field Marshal Goering some time ago pointed out in a long speech the necessity to deport into the Reich a million workers. The supply so far was 160,000. However, great difficulties had to be overcome. Therefore it would be advisable to consult the district and town chiefs in the execution of the compulsion, so that one could be sure from the start that this action would be reasonably successful. The arrest of young Poles when leaving church service or the cinema would bring about an increasing nervousness among them. Generally speaking, he had no objections at all if the rubbish, capable of work yet often loitering about, were snatched from the streets. The best method for this, however, would be the organisation 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."
I should like to refer to another entry in the diary of the defendant Frank, and I offer in evidence an extract from the entry made on 16th March, 1940, which appears in the document book as 2233-PS-B, and it is Exhibit USA 174. I wish particularly to quote from the third page of the English text:-
"The Governor General remarks that he had long negotiations in Berlin with the representatives of the Reich Ministry for Finance and the Reich Ministry for Food. An urgent demand was made there that Polish farm workers should be sent to the Reich in greater numbers. He has made the statement in Berlin that he, if it is demanded from him, could naturally exercise force in such a manner as to order the police to surround a village, and get the men and women in question out by force, and then send them to Germany. One can however also work in another way, besides these police measures, by retaining the unemployment compensation of those workers in question."
THE PRESIDENT: Why is it that this document is dated the 16th March, 1943

MR. DODD: That is clearly an error in the translation - I am sorry, your Honour. It is the 16th March, 1940. It is a mistake in the mimeographing.

The instruments of force and terror used to carry out this programme reached into many phases of Polish life. German labour authorities raided churches and theatres, seized those present and shipped them back to Germany. This appears in a memorandum to Himmler, which we offer in evidence as Document 2220-PS, and it becomes Exhibit USA 175. This memorandum is dated the 17th April, 1943, and it was written by Dr. Lammers, the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, and deals with the situation in the Government General of Poland.

[Page 294]

DR. SERVATIUS (Counsel for defendant Sauckel): I should like to call the attention of the Court to the fact that the last three documents which have just been read were not made available to me beforehand. They did not appear in the original list of documents, and when checking the later list I could not find them either.

I therefore request that the reading of these documents be held in abeyance until I have had an opportunity to peruse them, and to discuss the matter with my client.

Perhaps I may, at the same time, lodge an additional complaint. I received some interrogation material in German the day before yesterday. My client, when asked, told me that they are not transcripts of the interrogation in the real sense of the word; that he was interrogated in German; that an interpreter translated his deposition into English, and that this was taken down.

THE PRESIDENT: I did not hear what you said last. I heard what you said about the three last documents not being available to you, and you went on to say something about interrogations.

DR. SERVATIUS: With regard to the interrogation document - as I shall call it - which was submitted to me I should like to make the following complaint. These documents cannot have the value of evidence as they were not presented to the defendant for approval; he did not sign them, nor were they read to him. They are transcripts in English, a language which the defendant understands but little or not at all.

I have also ascertained that another interrogation document, concerning the defendant Speer, contains statements detrimental to my client's interests, statements which are evidently incorrect too, as I established after talking to him.

I should like to have an opportunity of discussing the matter with the representatives of the prosecution, in order to clear up these differences and to decide whether I can agree to the use of these documents. For the time being I must object to use being made of these documents, which are to be presented by the prosecution today, or tomorrow at the latest.

THE PRESIDENT: As I understand it, you said to us that the last three documents were not available to you and that they were not in the original list. Is that right?

DR. SERVATIUS: Not available so far. I should like to have an opportunity to peruse these documents beforehand. They are being read here prior to my even having seen them.

THE PRESIDENT: And then you went on to deal with the interrogations which have not been put into evidence.

DR. SERVATIUS: It is, however, probable that the material will be put into evidence today, and I wish to take the opportunity of calling the Court's attention to the fact that I wish to discuss the matter with the prosecution beforehand, in case the material should be used during tomorrow's proceedings. Meanwhile I must object to this material being used as evidence.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, do you know what the circumstances are about these three documents which have not been supplied.

MR. DODD: I do not, your Honour. They have been placed in the defendants' Information Centre and they partly have been in the information list. It may be that through some oversight these entries of this diary were neglected.

[Page 295]

DR. SERVATIUS: I have these documents in my hand; they are not numbered. The first document concerning Sauckel begins on Page 10, question and answer on Pages 11, 12. It is, therefore, not a coherent document, but consists of fragments of a transcript, the origin of which I should like to investigate.

THE PRESIDENT: Counsel for the prosecution will supply you with these documents at the adjournment this afternoon. With reference to the interrogation, if they propose to use any interrogation in the trial tomorrow, they can also supply you with any documents which are material to that interrogation.

DR. SERVATIUS: I agree to that.

MR. DODD: I believe I was referring to Document 2220-PS.

THE PRESIDENT: That is right. You have not begun to read it yet.

MR. DODD: I propose to read from the fourth page of the English text, Paragraph 2 at the top of the page, particularly the last two sentences of the paragraph; and in the German text the passage is found in Page 10, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly, it is as follows:-

"As things were, the utilisation of manpower had to be enforced by means of more or less forceful methods, such as the instances when certain groups appointed by the Labour Offices caught churchgoers and cinema audiences here and there, and transported them into the Reich. That such methods undermine the people's willingness to work and the people's confidence to such a degree that it cannot be checked even with terror, is just as clear as the consequences brought about by a strengthening of the political resistance movement."
That is the end of the quotation. We say that Polish farmland was confiscated with the aid of the S.S. and was distributed to German inhabitants or held in trust for the German community, and the farm owners were employed as labourers, or transported to Germany against their will. We refer to Document 1352-PS, which becomes Exhibit USA 176. This document is a report of the S.S., and it bears the title "Achievement of Confiscations of Polish Agricultural Enterprises with the Purpose to Transfer the Poles to the Old Reich and to Employ Them as Agricultural Workers."

I wish to read from the first page of the English text beginning with the fifth paragraph; and in the German text it appears on Page 9, Paragraph 1. Quoting:-

"It is possible without difficulty to accomplish the confiscation of small agricultural enterprises in the villages in which larger agricultural enterprises have been already confiscated, and are under the management of the East German Corporation for Agricultural Development."
And then passing down three sentences, there is this statement which I quote:-
"The former owners of Polish farms, together with their families, will be transferred to the old Reich by the employment agencies, for employment as farm workers. In this way many hundreds of Polish agricultural workers can be placed at the disposal of agriculture in the old Reich in the shortest and simplest manner. In this way the most pressing shortage, that which is now felt especially in the root-crop districts, would be overcome."

[Page 296]

Pursuant to the directions of the defendant Sauckel, his agents and the S.S. men deported Polish men to Germany without their families, thereby accomplishing one of the basic purposes of the programme, the supplying of labour for the German war effort, and at the same time, weakening the reproductive potential of the Polish people.

I wish to refer directly to Document L-61, which becomes Exhibit USA 177. This document is a letter from the defendant Sauckel to the Presidents of the "Landes" Employment Offices. It is dated 26th November, 1942, and I want to read from the first paragraph of that letter, which states as follows:-

"In agreement with the Chief of the Security Police and the S.D., Jews who are still in employment are, from now on, to be evacuated from the territory of the Reich and are to be replaced by Poles, who are being deported from the Government General."
Passing to the third paragraph of that same letter, we find this statement.
"The Poles who are to be evacuated as a result of this measure will be put into concentration camps and put to work whether they are criminal or asocial elements. The remaining Poles where they are suitable for labour will be transported without family into the Reich, particularly to Berlin, where they will be put at the disposal of the labour allocation offices, to work in armament factories instead of the Jews who are to be replaced."
THE PRESIDENT: Who is the Chief of the Security Police, mentioned in the second paragraph?

MR. DODD: The Chief of the Security Police was Heinrich Himmler. He was also the Reichsfuehrer of the S.S.

DR. SERVATIUS : I would like to add something with regard to this document. The defendant Sauckel denies knowledge of it, and the place of issue, not mentioned during the reading of this document, is relevant. This document, according to its letterhead, was written at 36 Saarland Strasse, a place which has never been the office of defendant Sauckel.

The second point is; this document was not signed by the defendant Sauckel, and contrary to the statement in the document list classifying it as an original letter, it is merely a copy marked "Signed Sauckel". The usual certification of the signature customary for all documents is missing. I should like the prosecution to take note of this, so that I can refer to this document in the defence later.

THE PRESIDENT : If the procedure which the Tribunal has laid down has been carried out, either the original document or a photostat copy will be in your Information Centre, and you can then compare or show to your client either the photostat or the original.

DR. SERVATIUS: I have done this, and only object to the fact that this document is being read with the exclusion of some parts which I consider important. If this letter is being read here it will have to be read in its entirety, and with parts considered essential by me, and, of course, we also attach importance to the kind of signature.

THE PRESIDENT : Will you repeat that.

DR. SERVATIUS: I beg that the letter be read in its entirety if it is to be used here; namely, with its complete heading and the signature of the

[Page 297]

defendant, such as it is. The certification of the signature is missing, a fact from which my client draws certain conclusions in his favour.

THE PRESIDENT: You will have an opportunity, after adjournment, of seeing this document, and you have been told already that you can refer, when your turn comes to present your defence, to the whole of any document. It is inconvenient to the Tribunal to have many interruptions of this sort, and if you wish to refer to the whole document, you will be able to do so at a later stage.

DR. SERVATIUS: I draw the conclusion therefrom that it is admissible to present parts of a document instead of a complete document. Do I understand the Court correctly ?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly. You can put in a part or the whole of the document when your turn comes. We will adjourn now; but, Mr. Dodd, you will satisfy this counsel for the defence as to the reason why he had not got these documents.

MR. DODD: Yes, I will.

THE PRESIDENT: And you will make them available to him and ensure that he has an opportunity of seeing the original of this document so that he can check the signature.

MR. DODD: We will have and furnish a photostat of the document, and I will see that the original is available to him.

THE PRESIDENT: All right, we will adjourn now.

(The Tribunal adjourned until 1000 hours, on 12th December, 1945.)


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