Letter to the commissioners in the Ostland and Ukraine on the recruitment of 627000 agricultural and industrial workers for work in Germany, with compulsory measures to be used if voluntary recruitment is insufficient

The Reich Minister for the occupied Eastern territories III Economic Labor Policy and Social Administration File number 5782-460/42
Berlin W 35, 6 March 1942 Kurfuerstenstrasse 134
(a) To the Reich Commissioner for the Ostland Riga
(b) To the Reich Commissioner for the Ukraine Rowno
For information to the Commissioners General with copies to the District Commissioners Labor Division
Re: Recruiting of civilian workers from the occupied Eastern territories.
1. The Deputy for the Four-Year-Plan, Department Manpower, requested by decree of 24 February 1942—V a 5780 28/60 the procurement of 380,000 agricultural workers and 247,000 industrial workers from the occupied Eastern territories. The employment of these workers in the Reich is particularly urgent and cannot be delayed because of the coming spring cultivation and because of the requirements of the armament industry.
2. As shown in the attached statements, the Deputy for the Four-Year-Plan in agreement with me has divided the total requirements as indicated by the above figures between the territories of the Reich Commissioners and the Commissioners Gen-
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eral. In carrying out this decree it should be kept in mind that in any case the requirements of the Reich have priority over tbe local requirements for workers. Exceptions to this rule may be made if the tasks in question are urgently necessary for the interest of the war, as for instance construction jobs of the Organization Todt, supply of troops, requirements of agriculture, transportation of coal, reconstruction of electrical plants, etc.
3. The Labor Policy and Social Administration departments and their subordinate labor offices and social agencies with the support of and in agreement with the departments politics, press and propaganda, food and agriculture and the local district offices or their leaders respectively will be in charge of this task. Furthermore, the Deputy for the Four-Year-Plan will augment his recruiting commissions, or add new ones.
4. The Labor Policy and Social Administration departments, as well as their subordinate labor offices and social agencies have to take steps that all available manpower be registered. First, all the manpower has to be registered which is still available in large cities and which in the last years has migrated from the farms into the cities and were employed in industrial plants. Then workers who have migrated from the cities to the country, and who for reasons of food have taken refuge on the Sowchos and former Kolches, and who are dispensable. The district leaders have to take active part in the recruiting and making available of these workers.
5. Furthermore, the district offices have to supply food and, if the occasion arises, horses required for the transportation of the workers. If possible, a car with food is to be attached to every train leaving for the Reich to furnish an initial food supply for the workers, e.g., millet among other things.
6. The workers are to be recruited. Forced enlistment should be avoided, instead for political reasons the enlistment should be kept on a voluntary basis. In case the enlistment should not bring the required results and there should be a surplus of workers available use may be made, in extreme cases and in agreement with the General Commissioner, of the decree dated 19 December 1941 concerning the introduction of compulsory labor in the occupied Eastern territories. Promises which cannot be kept may not be given either in writing or verbally. Therefore, the proclamations (posters) and appeals in the press and over the radio may not contain any untrue information in order to avoid disappointment among the workers employed in the Reich and thus reactions against future recruiting in the occupied Eastern territories. Recruiting appeals are to be published only in agree-
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ment with the Labor Policy and Social Administration departments and press and propaganda.
7. The drafted workers are to be brought to designated collecting points (to district commissioners). In case of a. shortage of transportation, which is to be anticipated, the workers should be marched to their destination, their necessary baggage loaded on vehicles supplied by the respective towns or plants where the workers came from. Authorized assembly camps should be set up according to necessity.
8. The OKW—Chief of Transportation—promised to furnish every week a certain number of railroad trains for the transportation of workers into the Reich. Time tables will be issued soon.
9. Food rations must be furnished to the workers for the march to the collecting point and the following trip; as far as possible warm meals are to be provided by the Labor Administration at the collecting point and at the stopping points.
10. Delousing of workers and their baggage is to be carried out in installations provided for that purpose, and if necessary, additional delousing facilities should be set up or drawn from the Armed Forces.
Please transmit directives to your subordinate offices without delay and report to me urgently (by teletype) regarding the arrangements made. On account of the urgency of the matter the Commissioners General received their copies directly.
For the Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter
[signed] Alfred Meyer
[Stamp of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories]
Certified :
[signature illegible] Reg. official
Copy
Enclosure 2 to Va 5780. 28/60
Recruiting of Industrial Workers
Recruiting district [Oblast] Territories
Charkow ................
Saporoshje..............
Workers
20,000
15.000
10.000
Taganrog
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Molitopol ......-................................ 10,000
Druczkowka ..................................... 6,000
Kramatoskaja .................................. 20,000
Slawjansk ....................................... 4,000
Konstantinowka .................................. 10,000
Stalino ....................................... 50,000
Kiew ........................................ 30,000
Nikolaijew ...................................... 5,700
Kriwoj-Rog ............................... 7,000
Schostka ......................................... 8,000
Powno ............................................ 1,000
Prosskurow ...................................... 10,000
Dniepropetrowsk ............................ 6,200
Reval ..........—................................ 4,000
Riga ............................................. 2,000
Kauen ............................................ 2,000
Wilna .......................................... 2,000
Odessa .................................... 25,000
Total
247,900
Enclosure 1 to Va 5780. 28/60
Recruiting of Farm Labor Recruiting district (quota)
1. Economic District North (mainly Russian refugees)
2. General Commissariat of White Ruthenia and district of Minsk including Economic District Center
3. Reichs Commissariat Ukraine
Quota Kiew North-Soth ...................... 90,000
" Kamenez-Podolsk ........................ 60,000
" Shitomir ................................. 50,000
" Rowno .................................. 30,000
" Luzk ..................................... 30,000
" Brest .................................... 30,000
Total................380,000 [?]