The concentration camps were also used to increase the supply of labor. Concentration camp commanders were ordered to work their prisoners to the limits of their physical power. During the latter stages of the war the concentration camps were so productive in certain types of work that the Gestapo was actually instructed to arrest certain classes of laborers so that they could be used in this way. Allied prisoners of war were also regarded as a possible source of labor. Pressure was exercised on non-commissioned officers to force them to consent to work, by transferring to disciplinary camps those who did not consent. Many of the prisoners of war were assigned to work directly related to military operations, in violation of Article 31 of the Geneva Convention. They were put to work in munition factories and even made to load bombers, to carry ammunition and to dig trenches, often under the most hazardous conditions. This condition applied particularly to the Soviet prisoners of war. On the 16th February 1943, at a meeting of the Central Planning Board, at which the defendants Sauckel and Speer were present, Milch said:
'We have made a request for an order that a certain percentage of men in the Ack-Ack artillery must be Russians; 50,000 will be taken altogether. 30,000 are already employed as gunners. This is an amusing thing, that Russians must work the guns.'
And on the 4th October 1943, at Posen, Himmler, speaking of the Russian prisoners, captured in the early days of the war, said:
'At that time we did not value the mass of humanity as we value it today as raw material, as labor. What, after all, thinking in terms of generations, is not to be regretted, but is now deplorable by reason of the loss of labor, is that the prisoners died in tens of hundreds of thousands of exhaustion and hunger.'
The general policy underlying the mobilization of slave labor was dictated by Sauckel on the 20th April 1942. He said:
'The aim of this new gigantic labor mobilization is to use all the 'rich and tremendous resources conquered and secured for us by our fighting armed forces under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, for the armament of the armed forces, and also for the nutrition of the Homeland.
The raw materials, as well as the fertility of the conquered countries and their human labor power, are to be used completely and conscientiously to the profit of Germany and her Allies.... All prisoners of war from the territory of the West, as well as the East, actually in Germany, must be completely incorporated into the German armament and nutrition industries.... Consequently it is an immediate necessity to use the human reserves of the conquered Soviet territory to the fullest extent. Should we not succeed in obtaining the necessary amount of labor on a voluntary basis, we must immediately institute conscription or forced labor.... The complete employment of all prisoners of war, as well as the use of a gigantic number of new foreign workers, men and women, has become an indisputable necessity for the solution of the mobilization of the labor programme in this war.'
Reference should also be made to the policy which was in existence in Germany by the summer of 1940, under which all aged, insane, and incurable people, "useless eaters," were transferred to special institutions where they were killed, and their relatives informed that they had died from natural causes. The victims were not confined to German citizens, but included foreign laborers, who were no longer able to work and were therefore useless to the German war machine. It has been estimated that at least some 275,000 people were killed in this manner in nursing homes, hospitals and asylums, which were under the jurisdiction of the defendant Frick, in his capacity as Minister of the Interior. How many foreign workers were included in this total it has been quite impossible to determine."
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Denney, does this Exhibit come from the findings of the judgment of the International Military Tribunal? In other words, this is the Tribunal speaking?
MR. DENNEY: Pages 16910 to pages 16917 on tho record--but it is the decision in the conclusion of the trial at the time they returned their decision.
Now, if your Honors please, I would like to offer an exhibit which appears in Book No. 2-A No. NO-1171 which we offer as Prosecution Exhibit No. 47. This is excerpts from the Hague Convention 18 October 1907 and an annex to tho Geneva Convention 27 July 1929 which appears at pages 2 to 5 of your Honors' Document Book and has the same page in the German Document Book.
This will become Prosecution Exhibit 47, Annex to Hague Convention No. IV of 18 October 1907, embodying the regulations respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, Adopted by that Convention; Treaty Series Number 539; 35 Stat. 2295; Malloy Treaties, Vol. II, 2281.
"Article 4:
"Prisoners of war are in the power of the hostile Government, but not of the individuals or corps who capture them.
"They must be humanely treated.
"All their personal belongings, except arms, horses, and military papers, remain their property.
"Article 5:
"Prisoners of war may be interned in a town, fortress, camp, or other place, and bound not to go beyond certain fixed limits; but they cannot be confined except as an indispensable measure of safety and only while the circumstances which necessitate the measure continue to exist.
"Article 6:
"The State may utilize the labour of prisoners of war according to their rank and aptitude, officers excepted. The tasks shall not be excessive and shall have no connection with the operations of the war.
"Article 7:
"The Government into whose hands prisoners of war have fallen is charged with their maintenance.
"In the absence of a special agreement between the belligerents, prisoners of war shall be treated as regards board, lodging, and clothing on the same footing as the troops of the Government who captured them.
"Article 23:
"In addition to the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially forbidden**** "(b) To kill or wound treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army.
* * * "(g) To destroy or seize the enemy's property, unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war.
"(h) To declare abolished, suspended, or inadmissible in a Court of law the rights and actions of the nationals of the hostile party.
"A belligerent is likewise forbidden to compel the nationals of the hostile party to take part in the operations of war directed against their own country, even if they were in the belligerent's service before the commencement of the war.
"Article 46:
"Family honour and rights, the lives of persons, and private property, as well as religious convictions and practices, must be respected.
"Private property cannot be confiscated.
"Article 52:
"Requisitions in kind and services shall not be demanded from municipalities or inhabitants except for the needs of the army of occupation. They shall be in proportion to the resources of the country, and of such a nature as not to involve the inhabitants in the obligation of taking part in military operations against their own country. * * *" "Annex to Geneva Convention of 27 July 1929; relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War; Treaty Series No. 846; 47 Stat.
233; Treaties, etc., Between the U.S. and other Powers, 1923-1937, Vol. IV, 5224.
"Article 2:
"Prisoners of war are in the power of the hostile Power, but not of the individuals or corps who have captured them.
"They must at all times be humanely treated and protected, particularly against acts of violence, insults and public curiousity.
"Measures of reprisal against them are prohibited.
"Article 3:
"Prisoners of war have the right to have their person and their honor respected. Women shall be treated with all the regard due to their sex.
"Prisoners retain their full civil status.
"Article 4:
"The power detaining prisoners of war is bound to provide for their maintenance.* * * "Article 6:"All effects and objects of personal use -- except arms, horses, military equipment and military papers -- shall remain in the possession of prisoners of war, as well as metal helmets and gas masks.
"Money in the possession of prisoners may not be taken away from them except by order of an officer and after the amount is determined. A receipt shall be given. Money thus taken away shall be entered to the account of each prisoner.
"Identification documents, insignia of rank, decorations and objects of value may not be taken from prisoners.
"Article 10:
"Prisoners of war shall be lodged in buildings or in barracks affording all possible guarantees of hygiene and healthfulness.
"The quarters must be fully protected from dampness, sufficiently heated and lighted. All precautions must be taken against danger of fire.
"With regard to dormitories -- the total surface, minimum cubic amount of air, arrangement and material of bedding -- the conditions shall be the same as for the troops at base camps of the detaining Power.
"Article 13:
"Belligerents shall be bound to take all sanitary measures necessary to assure the cleanliness and healthfulness of camps and to prevent epidemics.
"Prisoners of war shall have at their disposal, day and night, installations conforming to sanitary rules and constantly maintained in a state of cleanliness.
"Furthermore, and without prejudice to baths and showers with which the camp shall be as well provided as possible, prisoners shall be furnished with a sufficient quantity of water for the care of their own bodily cleanliness.
"It shall be possible for them to take physical exercise and enjoy the open air.
"Article 31:
"Labor furnished by prisoners of war shall have no direct relation with war operations. It is especially prohibited to use prisoners for manufacturing and transporting arms or munitions of any kind, or for transporting material intended for combatant units.
***" Now, if Your Honors please, we will be concerned for sometime with Books Nos.
3(a) and (b). We won't have anything in Book 2, (a), (b), and (c) for a while.
I might say about these books that in 3 (a) appears the document 124, R-124. It is a series of meetings; that is, excerpts from meetings of the Central Planning Board. They are not in order. There are also included the minutes of some six Hitler conferences, and in one or two instances the Central Planning Board meetings may be notes which are the results of the meetings.
This first volume, which is R-124, appearing in Document Book No. 3(a), was presented in toto to the International Military Tribunal as R-124. For Dr. Bergold's information, because I know he remembers the document, the Book 3(a) is exactly the same. The reason that there are more pages is that some pages had to be re-typed. The stencils had been used so much that some pages had to be re-typed, and therefore it now contains 47 pages, instead of the initial 44 which it contained at the time that it was put in evidence in case Number 1, but the book is exactly the same, with that exception.
Incidentally, this Document Book is numbered in English at the top of each page, if Your Honors will notice, 1 to 47, consecutively. Now, unfortunately, that is only maintained in volume (a). Volume (b) did not have that happen, and I will ask Your Honors at this time if they have put page numbers on the upper right hand corner of Volume (b).
THE PRESIDENT: There are page numbers at the lower right hand corner in Volume 3 (b).
MR. DENNEY: Three (b), yes, sir. Does it start off, sir -- with what page?
THE PRESIDENT: Page 45.
MR. DENNEY: Well, if Your Honor please, we will have to take those and re-number them because there are 47 pages in the first book, and they apparently did not correct them. I am very sorry. Perhaps we could adjourn now and, if I could take those books, we can correct them during the noon recess.
THE PRESIDENT: I am talking now about Book 3 (a).
MR. DENNEY: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: It is numbered up to Page 44, and then, following that, are two more pages, which would be 45 and 46.
MR. DENNEY: And then 47 is the first page in 3 (b).
THE PRESIDENT: No, unfortunately 45 is the first page.
MR. DENNEY: If we may have Your Honors' books, we will correct them at the noon recess. I am really sorry that this happened. Apparently they may have omitted some pages. I am not sure. Unfortunately we never see those before they are given to the Court. Today we got together with the interpreters and have given them the German pages throughout. It doesn't help Your Honors.
Sir, I would appreciate it very much if Your Honor would do that, because there should be 47 pages in the first book, I will check all of them and make sure that they are proper.
THE PRESIDENT: We will recess at this time and give you the opportunity of doing so.
(A recess was taken until 1330 hours.)
AFTERNOON SESSION
THE MARSHAL: Persons in the Court will arise.
The Tribunal is again in session.
MR. DENNEY: If your Honor, please, Dr. Gergold hasn't returned as yet.
THE PRESIDENT: We will wait for him.
In the meanwhile, Mr. Denney, in the books 3-A. and 3-B, have they been properly paged?
MR. DENNEY: If your Honor, please, they have been corrected. Because of a table which I have made out it was necessary to renumber the second book starting from Page 1, so that the pages appear as 3-A, 1 to 47, or 3-B, 1 to 41, and I shall try to guide Your Honor through the various pages as we go along. The pagination for the first book, I believe, has been placed in the upper right hand corner for your convenience, and that agrees with the small number which appears at the center of the page.
The reason that Page 22-A, in Book B appears is because of the fact that the affidavit by the interpreter was left out of one of the books, and hence it went along, 21, 22, and 23; and therefore when we came to numbering them in order that they would correspond with mine we gave your Honor page 22-A.
(At this point Dr. Bergold entered the Courtroom.)
Turning for a moment to Dr. Bergold's objection to the offer of the Sauckel interrogation this morning, which was Prosecution offer of the Document in evidence, 41-A, being P.S. 3721, the prosecution would like to stress at this time that, at the time the long No. 7 was written, and it was stated therein that interrogations were admissible, it certainly was within the knowledge of those propounding the law that certain defendants in Case No. 1 would shortly be dead, and it is respectfully submitted to the Court that Ordnance No. 7 after establishing the jurisdiction, then also proceeds to set forth the limitations, if any, on the receipt of evidence, and also to prescribe what shall be received.
160a We respectfully urge the Court that the interrogation is admisible, subject to such probative value as the Court wants to give it.
I would appreciate it if your Honor had that in mind when you confer with the other judges this afternoon.
THE PRESIDENT: What you say is true of any exhibit. The probative value is for judicial determination. You think the exhibit should be received and if worthless disregard it, but nevertheless receive it?
MR. DENNEY: Yes, sir.
We come now to the part of the proof which places the defendant in the very center of the Slave Labor Program.
We have shown that from the outset of the war and prior thereto, he was thoroughly informed in the Nazi plan for total War, which contemplated fall use of all human and material resources within the homeland, and within the countries that were to be conquered. We will show he was active in the project which carried out this master plan. We will show the board exercised jurisdiction in the matter of procurement, allocation and use. He carried out the master plan for requisition, allocation and use of human raw material for the human war machine. These are words we will have occasion to repeat as we introduce the documents, - requisition, allocation and use.
Our evidence will show that Milch, a member of the Central Planning Board, belonged to an organization which requisitioned, allocated, directed the supply of Slave Labor,--and here again we have another important word "Delong". He was one of two most essential men in the Planning Board that guided the decisions of that organization.
We will present to the Court excerpts from the minutes of some 12 meetings, and everyone of which Milch was present, starting with the first held in April 1942 and ending with the fifty-eighth held in May, 1944. Actually, he was at all but eight meetings, and we use the figure "eight" advisably. We are not sure, he may have been in some of those. There is no question that he was in everyone of these meetings which we introduce here. On occasions when Speer was not present Milch presided. We will show that he actively participated when the Central Planning Board was arriving at decisions with respect to the request, allocation and use of this labor.
161a We will show he was active in the formulation of the announcement of decisions of the Central Planning Board.
We will show the Board exercised jurisdiction in the matter of procurement, allocation and use of labor. Some of the labor in which it dealt was enforced in the occupied countries, some of them were prisoners of war and were allocated to occupations directly connected with the German War effort. Requisition, allocation, use, dominating voice, decisive influence, active participation, forced labor, illegal occupation, those are the words with which we are concerned, and these are the things with which he concerned himself.
In presenting this part of the case we decided a chronological presentation would be best suited for the Court. As I indicated earlier this morning the reason the exhibits are not in chronological order in the book is a matter of mechanics, when we were able to get some of them and when we were able to get some of them translated, plus the face the first 47 pages were all used in the first case, and it was found impossible to have them retyped, restenciled and rebound. Our proof and some of our remarks will be repetitive, but in this very repetition comes an accumulation which shows the extent of this defendant's involvement in the activities of this Board.
Now, if your Honor, please we would like to offer all of Book 3-A and 3-B, as Document R 124, and we will refer to the various meetings and reports of meetings, Hitler's conferences, and so forth, by their pages as we go through them. There is nothing in these two books safe a Schieber letter with Statutes of the Central Planning Board, which appears on pages 1, 2 and 3 of Book B, which are other than meetings of the Central Planning Board, reports of meetings and Hitler conferences.
The Hitler conferences, are notes, there are some five of them.
THE PRESIDENT: This then is Exhibit 48?
MR. DENNEY: Yes, Your Honor, please. This is offered as Prosecution Exhibit No. 48. We respectfully suggest that we refer to them as 48-A and 48-B, if your Honor approves. 48-A being for No. 3-A, and 48-B for No. 3-B.
I first direct your Honors' attention to Page 1 of book B, which is a letter by one Walter Schieber, dated Berlin, October 20, 1942. The Court's 162a attention is respectfully directed to the distribution which appears at the bottom of the page, "The highest Reich authorities, The Reich protector The Governor General, The Executive authorities in the occupied territories". The Reich protector, of course, refers to Bohemia, Moravia and the Governor General Poland, and "d" takes in everyone else that is acting in a capacity of an executive in an occupied territory.
"Enclosed I send for your information, statues of the Central Planning Board with the request to support the office of the "Central Planning Board" in every possible way in its work, and to direct, more particularly, your section chiefs and reporters to forward all information requested orally or by writing, in the shortest possible time. By this collaboration of your section chiefs and reporters, the building up of a larger machinery in the framework of the 'Central Planning Board' is to be avoided."
Turning then to page 2, "STATUTES OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD." "The Central Planning Board created by the Fuehrer and the Reichs Marschall in order to unify armament and war economy deals only with the decision of basic questions. Professional questions remain the task of the competent departments which in their fields remain responsible within the framework of the decisions made by the Central Planning Board.
"In order to have the conferences properly prepared and to have the execution of the decisions supervised, the Central Planning Board appoints an office. This office consists of the deputies appointed by each of three members of the Central Planning Board; one of these three deputies shall be appointed chief of the office.
"In accordance with the attached distribution of work the office appoints reporters. These reporters are at the disposal of all members of the Central Planning Board. The office appoints one reporter to keep the record.
"Office and reporters have to see to it, above all, and to draw the attention of the Central Planning Board, if necessary to the required measures, that:
"All decisive tasks of war economy are achieved quickly, without red-tape, and ruthlessly, by mutual adapting of all composing branches.
"All such work as is obviously without importance for winning the war, be discontinued.
"The office prepares the meetings of the Central Planning Board in such a manner that the members of the Central Planning Board have the agenda and the material of discussian 24 hours in advance. For this purpose the office conducts preliminary talks with the competent department, etc..
"On the strength of the record made by the reporter, the office sees to the execution of the decisions of the Central Planning Board by the competent agencies, and sees to it that the deadlines fixed are complied with.
"The members of the office keep the members of the Central Planning Board informed between the sessions.
164a "The distribution of work, dealing with incoming mail, etc.
is arranged by the office itself. The members of the office sign "By order" of the Central Planning Board.
"Reporters have to keep in constant touch with the departments, with regard to the sectors of work they are in charge of. In the regular sittings of the office they report on the progress made and on the measures which are required for the carrying on of the war economy, especially for the increase in production, for other improvements in the supply with raw materials, and for necessary changes in distribution. They do the preliminary work for the meetings of the board (see also 5A) and in their working sector they are primarily responsible for the execution, within the established time limits, of the decisions of the Central Planning Board.
"Berlin, 20 October 1942.
/s/ M i l c h (Typewritten) /s/ S p e e r (Typewritten) /s/ D o e r n e r (Typewritten)" That should be "Koerner (typewritten)". We then turn to page 21 in Document Book 3-B. This is a first conference of the Central Planning Board; it's headed "Berlin, 27 April 1942". Page 3105 of the German original; what page in your document book I don't know.
If Your Honor please, while the interpreters are locking for this, I might add that all of these originals are not available at this time to hand the Secretary, Judge Dixon, the reason being that some of them are bound up and some of them will have to be taken from the record in Case I. However, before we are through, we will deposit the originals or photostatic copies of them with Judge Dixon, and, if that's agreeable to the Court and Dr. Bergold, we can proceed on that basis. Dr. Bergold has copies of everything that we have, both in English and German, and Your Honors have a complete copy.
"Present: The three members: Speer, Milch, and Koerner. Furthermore: State Secretary Dr. Schulz-Fielitz, Munitions Ministry and Minister von Bormann, from the Four Year Plan.
"The Central Planning in the Four Years Plan (Decree of the Reich Marshal of Greater Germany of 22 April 1942) is a task for leaders. It encompasses only principles and executive matters. It makes unequivocal decisions and supervises the execution of its directives. The Central Planning does not rely on anonymous institutions, difficult to control, but always on individually and fully responsible persons who are free in the selection of their working methods and their collaborators, as far as there are no directives issued by the Central Planning." And then they go on to discuss the iron situation. I don't think that that needs to be read into the record. The next meeting with which we are concerned is the 11th meeting, which appears in "B" at pages 16 to 20 in the form of notes and in "A" at 41 and 42 in the form of a report.
Dr. Bergold, do you have, in Bock 3, notes on the 11th conference, Berlin, 24 July 1942?
DR. BERGOLD: Yes, sir.
MR. DENNEY: Reading, if Your Honor please, from the part in Book B, the notes - the meeting was held on the 22nd, the notes were prepared on the 24th. Noted present in the beginning were Speer, Milch, and Koerner. The five people present, including Director von Bohlen, were Roechling, Rohland, Dr. Langen, and Bergass. Also present were Gauleiter Sauckel, Plenipotentiary General for Labor, and then the last eight, members from the Reich Ministry of Armaments and Munitions.
Turning over to page 14, the last paragraph on the page, it appears at 3060 in the German original, the page directly following the page from which we were just reading, page 17. "Securing of food. A net influx of one million foreign workers is counted on." If Your Honor please, there was some typing on the exhibit which was in Dr. Bergold's book, which was made at the time the notes were originally translated into English, which have no part of the exhibit at all, and he was questioning as to whether or not they should be in English. They don't appear in the English: they have nothing to do with the case. They were just made for the convenience of the lawyers and translators using them at any prior date. 166 "Securing of food.
A net influx of one million foreign workers is counted on. This number was not reached in the past months. Even with an influx of more than one million in the coming months, the one million peak will actually not be surpassed in view of current departures of workers. Food for this one million is secured.
"To what extent an improvement of the food situation, through a sharper hold on the production outside of Germany, could be accomplished."
DR. BERGOLD: All the rest is missing in my document book, sir.
MR. DENNEY: Isn't it on the next page?
DR. BERGOLD: No, sir, it isn't.
MR. DENNEY: Well, we'll have to pass this at this time and --
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Denney, page 3061 is the original document also missing from our copies.
MR. DENNEY: Yes, sir, they're just excerpts that we've taken here. These minutes are many pages long and we're just taking the parts that we think are pertinent to the Court. They do go from 3060 to 3062. We've omitted 3061.
be THE PRESIDENT: Well, then the next page should/read at this time -
MR. DENNEY: Yes, Your Honor.