Eighteenth Day:
Wednesday, 11th December, 1945
[Page 324]
MR. DODD: Well, so far as we are aware, it was a committee
apparently set up by the Nazi State when it occupied Poland,
to work in some sort of co-operation with it during the days
of the occupation. We do not know the names of the members,
and we have not any more specific information.
THE PRESIDENT : Is it a captured document?
MR. DODD : It is a captured document, yes, sir. All of the
documents that I am presenting in connection with this case
are, excepting the Netherlands Government's report and one
or two other official reports, the Dois affidavit and such
other matters. That particular document, it has just been
called to my attention, was captured by the United States
Third Army.
Particularly harsh and brutal treatment was reserved for
workers imported from the conquered Eastern territories. As
we have illustrated, they did indeed
[Page 325]
Illustrative of this treatment is Document EC-68, Exhibit
USA 205. This Document, EC-68, bears the title "Directives
on the Treatment of Foreign Farmworkers of Polish
Nationality", issued by the Minister for Finance and Economy
of Baden, Germany, on 6th March, 1941. We do not know his
name, nor have we been able to ascertain it.
Quoting from the English text of this document from the
beginning:-
1. Fundamentally, farmworkers of Polish nationality no
longer have the right to complain, and thus no
complaints may be accepted any more by any official
agency.
2. The farmworkers of Polish nationality may not leave
the localities in which they are employed, and have a
curfew from 1st October to 31st March from 2000 hours to
0600 hours, and from 1st April to 30th September from
2100 hours to 0500 hours.
3. The use of bicycles is strictly prohibited.
Exceptions are possible for riding to the place of work
in the field if a relative of the employer or the
employer himself is present.
4. The visit to churches, regardless of faith, is
strictly prohibited, even when there is no service in
progress. Individual spiritual care by clergymen outside
of the church is permitted.
5. Visits to theatres, motion pictures, or other
cultural entertainment are strictly prohibited for
farmworkers of Polish nationality.
6. The visit to restaurants is strictly prohibited to
farmworkers of Polish nationality, except for one
restaurant in the village, which will be selected by the
Rural Councillor's office (Landratsamt), and then only
one day per week. The day to visit the restaurant will
also be determined by the Landratsamt. This regulation
does not change the curfew regulation mentioned above
under No. 2.
7. Sexual intercourse with women and girls is strictly
prohibited, and wherever it is established, it must be
reported.
8. Gatherings of farmworkers of Polish nationality after
work is prohibited, whether it is on other farms, in the
stables, or in the living quarters of the Poles.
9. The use of railroads, buses or other public
conveyances by farmworkers of Polish nationality is
prohibited.
10. Permits to leave the village may only be granted in
very exceptional cases, by the local police authority
(Mayor's office). However, in no case may it be granted
if the applicant wants to visit a public agency on his
own, whether it is a labour office or the District
Peasants Association or whether he wants to change his
place of employment.
[Page 326]
12. Every employer has the right to give corporal
punishment to farmworkers of Polish nationality, if
instructions and good words fail: The employer may not
be held accountable in any such case by an official
agency.
13. Farmworkers of Polish nationality should, if
possible, be removed from the community of the home, and
they can be quartered in stables, etc. No remorse
whatever should restrict such action.
14. Report to the authorities is compulsory in all cases,
when crimes have been committed by farmworkers of Polish
nationality, such as sabotage of the enterprise or
slowing down work, for instance, unwillingness to work,
or impertinent behaviour; it is compulsory even in minor
cases. An employer who loses his Pole through the latter
having to serve a long prison sentence because of such a
compulsory report, will receive another Pole from the
competent labour office on preferential request.
15. In all other cases, only the State Police are still
competent.
For the employer himself, severe punishment is
contemplated if it is established that the necessary
distance from farmworkers of Polish nationality has not
been kept. The same applies to women and girls. Extra
rations are strictly prohibited. Non-compliance with the
Reich tariffs for farmworkers of Polish nationality will
be punished by the competent labour office by the
removal of the workers." [Page 327]
As a reward for good work, however, they may be given
the opportunity to stay outside the home without work
for three hours once a week. This leave must end with
the onset of darkness, at the latest at 2000 hours.
It is prohibited to enter restaurants, movies, or other
theatres, and similar establishments provided for
German, or foreign workers. Attending church is also
prohibited. Special events may be arranged for Eastern
domestics in urban homes by the German Workers' Front,
for Eastern domestics in rural homes by the Reich Food
Administration with the German Women's League. Outside
the home, the Eastern domestic must always carry her
work card as a personal pass. Vacations, return to
homes, are not granted as yet. The recruiting of Eastern
domestics is for an indefinite period."
On the subject of the slave labourers, a secret order dated
2oth February,1942, issued by Reichsfuehrer S.S. Himmler to
S.D. and Security Police Officers concerning Eastern
workers, spells out the violence which was applied against
them. I offer this order in evidence. It is our Document
3040-PS, which is Exhibit USA 207, and I ask this Court to
take judicial notice of the original order, which is
published in the "Allgemeine Erlassammlung," Part II,
Section 2-A, III, small letter "f", Pages 15 to 24. I wish
to quote from Page 3 of the English text starting with
Paragraph III, in the German text it appears in Section 2-A,
III, "f", at Page 19 of the publication as follows:-
[Page 328] [Page 329]
The defendants Sauckel, Speer and Keitel succeeded in the
enforcement of foreign labour to construct military
fortifications. Thus, citizens of France, Holland and
Belgium were compelled against their will to engage in the
construction of the "Atlantic Wall", and we refer to our
Document 556-PS-2, which is Exhibit USA 194. This is a
Hitler order dated 8th September, 1942, and it is initialled
by the defendant Keitel.
Quoting the order directly:-
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(Part 6 of 9)
"The agencies of the Reich Food Administration, State
Peasant Association of Baden, have received the result
of the negotiations with the Higher S.S. and Police
Officers in Stuttgart on 14th February, 1941, with great
satisfaction. Appropriate memoranda have already been
turned over to the District Peasants Associations.
Below, I promulgate the individual regulations, as they
have been laid down during the conference, and how they
are now to be applied accordingly:
The women of the conquered territories were led away against
their will to serve as domestics, and the defendant Sauckel
described this programme in his own words, which appear in
Document 016-PS, already offered in evidence as Exhibit USA
168, and particularly Page 7, fourth paragraph of the
English text; in the German text it appears on Page 10,
Paragraph 1, and I quote directly:-
"In order to relieve considerably the German housewife,
especially the mother with many children, and the
extremely busy farmwoman, and in order to avoid any
further danger to their health, the Fuehrer also charges
me with the procurement of 400,000-500,000 selected,
healthy and strong girls from the territories of the
East, for Germany."
Once captured, once forced to become labourers in Germany,
or workers in Germany, these Eastern women, by order of the
slavemaster, defendant Sauckel, were bound to the household
to which they were assigned, permitted at the most three
hours of freedom a week, and denied the right to return to
their homes.
I now refer to Document 3044 (b)-PS. That is Exhibit USA
2o6. The document is a decree issued by the defendant
Sauckel containing instructions for housewives concerning
Eastern household workers, and I ask that the Court take
judicial notice of the original decree which appears on
Pages 592 and 593 of the second volume of a publication of
the Zentralverlag of the N.S.D.A.P., entitled "Verfuegungen, Anordnungen und Bekanntgaben", and I quote
from the first paragraph of the English translation of a
portion of the decree as follows:
"There is no claim for free time. Female domestic
workers from the East may, on principle, leave the
household only to take care of domestic tasks.
Always over these enslaved workers was the shadow of the
Gestapo, and the torture of the concentration camps. Like
other major programmes of the Nazi conspirators, the black-
shirted guards of the S.S., and Himmler's methods of dealing
with people were the instruments employed for enforcement.
"III. Combating violations against discipline. - (1)
According to the equal status of labourers from the
original Soviet Russian territory with prisoners of war,
a strict discipline must be exercised in the quarters
and at the working place. Violations against discipline,
including work refusal and loafing at work, will be
fought exclusively by the Secret State Police. The
smaller cases will be settled by the leader of the guard
according to instruction of the State Police
administration offices, with measures as provided for in
the enclosure. To break acute resistance, the guards
shall be permitted to use also physical compulsion
against the labourers. But this may be done only for a
cogent cause. The manpower should always be informed
about the fact that they will be treated decently when
conducting themselves with discipline and accomplishing
good work. In severe cases, that is in such cases where
the measures at the disposal of the leader of the guard
do not suffice, the State police office has to act with
its means. Accordingly, they will be treated, as a rule,
only with strict measures, that is, with transfer to a
concentration camp, or with special treatment. The
transfer to a concentration camp is to be done in the
usual manner. In especially severe cases special
treatment is to be requested at the Reich Security Main
Office, stating personal data, and the exact facts.
And I turn now to Page 4 of the original text, Paragraph VI;
in the German text it appears at Section 2-A, VI, "f", on
Page 20.
"VI. Sexual intercourse. - Sexual intercourse is
forbidden to labourers of the original Soviet Russian
territory. By means of their closely confined quarters
they have no opportunity for it. For every case of
sexual intercourse with men or women of the German race,
special treatment is to be requested for male labour
from the original Soviet Russian territory, and, for
female labour, transfer to a concentration camp."
And finally from Page 5 of the same document, Paragraph
VIII, and in the German text it appears at Section 2-A,
VIII, "f", at Page 21:-
"VIII. Search. - Fugitive workers from the original
Soviet Russian territory are to be announced primarily
in the German search book. Furthermore, search measures
are to be decreed locally. When caught the fugitive must
receive special treatment."
We have said to this Tribunal more than once that the
primary purpose of the entire slave labour programme was, of
course, to compel the people of the occupied country to work
for German war economy. The decree by which defendant
Sauckel was appointed Plenipotentiary General for manpower
reveals that the purpose of the appointment was to
facilitate acquisition of the manpower required for German
war industries, and in particular the armaments industry, by
centralising under Sauckel responsibility for the
recruitment and allocation of foreign labour and prisoners
of war in these industries. I refer to the document bearing
our Number 1666-PS, Exhibit USA 208. This document is a
decree signed by Hitler, Lammers, and the defendant Keitel,
and it is dated 21st March, 1942, appointing the defendant
Sauckel the Plenipotentiary General for the utilisation of
labour. I ask that the Court take judicial notice of the
original decree, which is published at Page 179, Part I, of
the 194z Reichsgesetzblatt; referring to the English text
starting at Paragraph 1, as follows, and quoting directly:-
"In order to secure the manpower requisite for war
industries as a whole, and particularly for armaments,
it is necessary that the utilisation of all available
manpower, including that of workers recruited abroad,
and of prisoners of war, should be subject to a uniform
control, directed in a manner appropriate to the
requirements of war industry, and further that all still
incompletely utilised manpower in the Greater German
Reich, including the Protectorate, and in the Government
General, and in the occupied territories should be
mobilised. Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel
will carry out this task within the framework of the
Four Year Plan, as Plenipotentiary General, for the
utilisation of labour. In that capacity he will be
directly responsible to the Commissioner for the Four
Year Plan. Section III (Wages) and Section V
(Utilisation of Labour) of the Reich Labour Ministry,
together with their subordinate authorities, will be
placed at the disposal of the Plenipotentiary General
for the accomplishment of his task."
"After one year's activity as Plenipotentiary for the
Direction of Labour, I can report that 3,638,056 new
foreign workers were given to the German war economy
from 1st April of last year to 31st March of this year.
The 3,638,056 are distributed amongst the following
branches of the German war economy. Armament-
1,568,801."
Still further evidence of this steady use of this enslaved
foreign labour is found again in a report of the Central
Planning Board, to which we have referred so many times this
morning and yesterday. Another meeting of this Central
Planning Board was held on 16th February, 1944, and I refer
to our Document R-124, which contains the minutes of this
meeting of the Central Planning Board, and which has been
already offered in evidence as Exhibit USA 179, and I want
to refer particularly to Page 26, Paragraph 1 of the English
text of Document R-124. It is at Page 16, in Paragraph 2, of
the German text:-
"The armament industry employs foreign workmen to a
large extent; according to the latest figures-40 per
cent."
Moreover, our Document 2520-PS, which is in evidence as
Exhibit USA 197, records that, according to Speer Ministry
tabulations, as Of 31st December, 1944, approximately two
million civilian foreign workers were employed directly in
the manufacture of armaments and munitions (end products or
components). That the bulk of these workers had been forced
to come to Germany against their will is made clear by
Sauckel's statement which I previously quoted from Paragraph
3 of Page 11 of Document R-124. We quoted it this morning,
the statement being that of five million foreign workers
only two hundred thousand or less came voluntarily.
"The extensive coastal fortifications which I have
ordered to be erected in the area of Army Group West
make it necessary that in the occupied territory all
available workers should be committed and should give
the fullest extent of their productive capacities. The
previous allotment of domestic workers is insufficient.
In order to increase it I order the introduction of
compulsory labour and the prohibition of changing the
place of employment without permission of the
authorities in the occupied territories. Furthermore,
the distribution of food and clothing ration cards to
those subject to labour draft should in the future
depend on the possession of a certificate of employment.
Refusal to accept an assigned job, as well as abandoning
the place of work without the consent of the authorities
in charge, will result in the withdrawal of the food and
clothing ration cards. The G.B.A. (Deputy General for
Arbeitseinsatz) in agreement with the military
commander, as well as the Reich Commissar, will issue
the corresponding decrees for execution."