Eighteenth Day:
Wednesday, 12th December, 1945
[Page 298]
MR. DODD: May it please the Tribunal, I should like to
report to the Tribunal this morning with reference to the
questions which arose yesterday afternoon concerning three
documents.
After adjournment we found that Document 2220-PS was in the
defendants' Information Centre in photostatic form, and that
the two other documents, being respectively two entries from
the Frank diary, were also there but in a different form.
The Frank diary consists of some 40 odd volumes which we, of
course, were not able to photostat, so we had placed instead
in the defendants' room the excerpts. As a matter of fact,
we had placed the entire document book there.
DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for defendant Frank): Yesterday
the prosecution showed documents concerning the defendant
Frank. The documents concerned were 2233-PS-A and 2233-PS-B,
Exhibits USA 173 and 174. These are not ordinary documents,
but excerpts from the diary of Frank. Six weeks ago I
applied in writing to have this diary, which consists Of 42
heavy, thick volumes, submitted to me. I first made this
request on 2nd September, the second time on 16th November,
the third time on 18th November and the fourth time on 3rd
December.
In spite of this I have not received this diary, and I
should like to ask the Tribunal that this diary be submitted
to me as soon as possible, if for no other reason, because
evidence is involved which the defendant Frank before his
arrest handed over to the officer who was to arrest him so
that it could be used as evidence for his defence.
I am not in a position to work through all this material in
a few days, and I should like to ask the Tribunal that this
diary be put at my disposal without delay.
In this connection I should like to call the attention of
the Tribunal to another point. The Tribunal has already
granted that the four long speeches delivered by defendant
Frank in Germany in 1942, which led to his dismissal from
his offices by Hitler, should be put at my disposal. The
General Secretary of the Tribunal gave me notice of this as
early as the 4th December. Unfortunately I have not received
copies of these speeches up to this day. I should be very
grateful therefore if the Tribunal will make certain that
decisions of the Tribunal are being carried out and that the
documents be submitted to me.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will look into these matters
with the General Secretary of the Tribunal, and doubtless it
will be able to arrange that you should have these documents
submitted to you in the defendants' counsel Information
Centre.
[Page 299]
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Mr. Dodd.
MR. DODD: May I refer briefly to the discussion that we were
engaged in yesterday in order to pick up the train of
thought.
I wish to remind the Tribunal that we were discussing or had
just completed a discussion of Document L-61, which had to
do with a letter written by the defendant Sauckel to the
residents of the "Landes" Employment Offices. I had read two
excerpts from that letter.
Referring to the letter, we say that the Nazi campaign of
force and terror and abduction was described in another
letter to the defendant Frank, which we wish to refer to as
Document 1526-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: Before you pass from that, Mr. Dodd, has
either the original or the photostatic copy been shown to
Sauckel's counsel?
MR. DODD: Oh, yes, sir. A photostatic copy was in the
defendants' Information Centre, and after adjournment
yesterday we got the original and handed it to him here in
this room.
THE PRESIDENT: And he saw it?
MR. DODD: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
MR. DODD: This Document, 1526-PS, Exhibit USA 178, is a
letter written by the Chairman of the Ukrainian Main
Committee, at Cracow, in February, 1943. I wish to read from
the third page of the English text, beginning with the
second paragraph. The same passage in the German text at
Page 2, Paragraph 5. I quote:-
The wild and ruthless man-hunt as exercised 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, to be seized anywhere and at any
time by members of the police, suddenly and
unexpectedly, and to be brought into an assembly camp.
None of his relatives knows what has happened to him,
and only months later one or the other gets news of his
fate by a postcard." [Page 300]
Now, Document R-124, Exhibit USA 179. This document consists
of excerpts from minutes of the meetings of this Central
Planning Board, and minutes of conferences between the
defendant Speer and Hitler. Only the excerpts, of course,
from these minutes upon which we rely are being offered in
evidence. I would say to the Tribunal, however, that the
balance of the minutes are available, or can or be made
available if the Tribunal so desires.
This deputy of Sauckel, his name being Timm, made a
statement at the 36th conference of the Central Planning
Board, and it appears on Page 14, Paragraph 2, of the
English text of Document R-124, and on Page 10, Paragraph 2,
of the German text:-
On the 5th October, 1942, for example, the defendant Sauckel
wrote to the defendant Rosenberg, stating that two million
foreign labourers were required, and that the majority of
these would have to be drafted from the recently Occupied
Eastern Territories and especially from the Ukraine.
I wish to refer at this point to Document 017-PS, which will
be Exhibit USA 180. This letter from the defendant Sauckel
to the defendant Rosenberg I wish to quote in full. It
begins by saying:-
[Page 301]
I have the intention to visit Party Member Koch shortly
and I would be grateful to you if you could inform me as
to where and when I could meet him for a personal
discussion. But I ask that the procurement be taken up
at once with every possible pressure and the commitment
of all powers, especially those of the experts of the
labour offices. All the directives which had limited
temporarily the procurement of Eastern labourers are
annulled. The Reich procurement for the next months must
be given priority over all other measures.
I do not ignore the difficulties which exist for the
execution of this new requirement, but I am convinced
that with the ruthless commitment of all resources, and
with the full co-operation of all those interested, the
execution of the new demands can be accomplished by the
fixed date. I have already communicated the new demands
to the Reichskommissar Ukraine by mail. In reference to
our long-distance phone call of today I will send you
the text of the Fuehrer's decree at the beginning of
next week."
On the 17th March, 1943, the defendant Sauckel wrote again
to the defendant Rosenberg, and on this occasion he demanded
the importation of another 1,000,000 men and women from the
Eastern territories within the following four months. I wish
to refer at this point to Document 019-PS, which will be
Exhibit USA 181. Quoting that letter in full:-
I ask you sincerely, dear Party Member Rosenberg, to
assist him to your utmost on account of the pressing
urgency of his mission. I thank you for the hitherto
good reception accorded to Peuckert. He himself has been
charged by me with the absolute and completely
unreserved co-operation with all bureaux of the Eastern
territories. In particular the labour supply for German
agriculture, and likewise for the most urgent armament
production programmes ordered by the Fuehrer make the
rapid importation of approximately one million men and
women from the Eastern territories within the next four
months imperative. Starting 15th March, the daily
shipment must have reached 5,000 female and male workers
respectively, while by the beginning of April this
number has to be stepped up to 10,000. This is a
requisite of the most urgent programmes, and the spring
tillage and other agricultural tasks are not to suffer
to the detriment of the nutrition and of the Armed
Forces. I have foreseen the allotment of the draft
quotas for the individual territories in agreement with
your experts for the labour supply as follows:-
[Page 302]
General Commissariat White Ruthenia.......500
Total .................................................................5,000
Starting 1st April, 1943, the daily quota is to be
doubled, corresponding to the doubling of the entire
quota. I hope to visit personally the Eastern
territories towards the end of the month, and ask you
once more for your kind support."
MR. DODD: The Plenipotentiary for the Arbeitseinsatz?
THE PRESIDENT: No, the General Commissar.
MR. DODD: His name is not known to us. He was apparently a
local functionary in the Party.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
MR. DODD: The defendant Sauckel also visited Riga, in
Latvia, to assert his demands, and the purpose of this visit
is described in Document 2280-PS, which will be Exhibit USA
183. This document is a letter from the Reich Commissar for
the Ostland to the Commissioner General in Riga and it is
dated 3rd May, 1943. I wish to read from Page 1 of the
English text, beginning with the first paragraph:-
Sauckel asked the German Army for assistance in the
recruitment and deportation of civilian labour from the
Eastern territories. We refer now to Document 3010-PS, which
will be Exhibit USA 184.
[Page 303]
MR. DODD: No, sir. We say it is a letter from the
Reichskommissar for the Ostland to the Commissioner General
in Riga, but we do not know their names specifically at the
time of the writing of the letter.
THE PRESIDENT: You do not know who the Reichskommissar of
the Eastern territories was?
MR. DODD: We only know him by that title, "The
Reichskommissar for the Ostland."
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
MR. DODD: Lohse, I am now informed, was his name. I
understood that we did not know it.
THE PRESIDENT: All right.
MR. DODD: Referring to this Document 3010-PS, it is a secret
organisation order of the Army Group South, dated 17th
August, 1943. I wish to read from the first page of the
English text, the first two paragraphs, as follows:-
The Reich Minister for Armament and Munitions approved
this order.
According to this order by the Plenipotentiary General
for Labour Employment (B.G.A.) you have to recruit and
to transport to the Reich immediately all labour force
in your territory born during 1926 and 1927. The decree
relative to labour duty and labour employment in the
theatre of operations of the newly occupied Eastern
territory of 6th February, 1943, and the executive
orders therefore are the authority for the execution of
this measure. Enlistment must be completed by 30th
September, 1943, at the latest." [
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(Part 1 of 9)
"The general nervousness is still more enhanced by the
wrong methods of finding labour which have been used
more and more frequently in recent months.
I wish to turn to enclosure 5 on Page 8 of this document,
which I quote:-
"In November of last year an inspection of all males of
the age groups 1910 to 1920 was ordered in the area of
Zaleschozyki (district of Czortkow). After the men had
appeared for inspection, all those who were chosen were
arrested at once, loaded into trains and sent to the
Reich. Such recruiting of labourers for the Reich also
took place in other areas of this district. Following
some interventions the action was then stopped."
The resistance of the Polish people to this enslavement
programme and the necessity for increased force were
described by the defendant Sauckel's deputy, one Timm, at a
meeting of the Central Planning Board, which was, by the
way, Hitler's war-time planning agency. It was made up of
the defendant Speer, Field Marshal Milch and State Secretary
Korner. The
"Especially in Poland the situation at the moment is
extraordinarily serious. It is well known that violent
battles occurred just because of these actions. The
resistance against the administration established by us
is very strong. Quite a number of our men have been
exposed to increased dangers, and it was only in the
last two or three weeks that some of them were shot
dead, e.g., the head of the Labour Office of Warsaw who
was shot in his office, and yesterday again, another
man. This is how matters stand at present, and the
recruiting itself, even if done with the best will,
remains extremely difficult unless police reinforcements
are at hand."
Deportation and enslavement of civilians reached
unprecedented levels in the so-called Eastern Occupied
Territories. These wholesale deportations resulted directly
from labour demands made by the defendant Sauckel on the
defendant Rosenberg, who was the Reich Minister for the
Eastern Occupied Territories, and his subordinates, and also
on the Armed Forces - a demand made directly on the Armed
Forces by the defendant Sauckel.
"The Fuehrer has worked out new and most urgent plans
for the armament industry which require the quick
mobilisation of two million more foreign labour forces.
The Fuehrer therefore has granted me, for the execution
of my decree Of 21st March, 1942, new powers for my new
duties, and has especially authorised me to take
whatever measures I think are necessary in the Reich,
the Protectorate, the General Government, as well as in
the occupied territories, in order to assure at all
costs an orderly mobilisation of labour for the German
armament industry. The additional labour forces required
will have to be drafted for the majority from the
recently Occupied Eastern Territories, especially from
the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Therefore, the
Reichskommissariat Ukraine must furnish:-
I should like to remind the Tribunal that we referred
previously, yesterday afternoon, to this Reichskommissar,
Gauleiter, Party Member Koch, and we quoted him as stating,
the Tribunal will recall: "We are the master race. We must
be hard," and so forth.
225,000 labour forces by 31st December, 1942, and
225,000 more by 1st May, 1943.
"After a protracted illness my Deputy for Labour Supply
in the occupied Eastern territories, State Councillor
Peuckert, is going there to regulate the supply both for
Germany and the territories themselves.
The defendant Sauckel did travel to the East. He travelled
to Kauen in Lithuania to press his demands. We offer in
evidence Document 204-PS, which will be Exhibit USA 182.
This document is a synopsis of a report of the City
Commissioner of Kauen and minutes of a meeting in which the
defendant Sauckel participated. I read from the second page
of the English text, beginning with the first paragraph. The
same passage appears in the German text at Page 5, Paragraph
2. Quoting directly as follows:-
Daily quota starting 15th March, 1943 .....People
Economic Inspection Centre . . ......................500
Reichs Commissariat Ukraine . .................3,000
Economic Inspection South . . ....................1,000
"In a lecture in which the Plenipotentiary for the
Arbeitseinsatz, Gauleiter Sauckel, made on 18th July,
1943, in Kauen, and in an official conference following
it, between Gauleiter Sauckel and the General Commissar,
the pool of labour in the Reich was again brought up
urgently; Gauleiter Sauckel again demanded that
Lithuanian labour be furnished in greater volume for the
purpose of the Reich."
THE PRESIDENT: Who was the General Commissar, Rosenberg?
"Following the basic statements of the Plenipotentiary
General for manpower, Gauleiter Sauckel, on the occasion
of his visit to Riga, on 21st April, 1943, it was
decided in view of the critical situation and in
disregard of all adverse considerations, that a total of
183,000 workers have to be supplied from the Eastern
territories to the Reich territory. This task must
definitely be accomplished within the next four months
and at the latest must be completed by the end of
August."
Here again we are not informed as to the name and identity
of the Reich Commissar for the Ostland.
"The Plenipotentiary General for Labour Employment
ordered the recruitment and employment of all born
during the two years 1926 and 1927 for the whole of the
newly occupied Eastern territory in Decree AZ. VI A
5780.28 (Enclosure I), copy of which is enclosed.