The question of administration (Executive) thus was not one of 263-A mass recruiting, but of being consistent.
One must finally proceed to establish examples, the passive resistance would quickly change into active cooperation. One ought also not to shrink back from proceeding with drastic moans against the administrative heads (Behordenleiter) themselves who sabotage the labor commitment. Not the small refractory offenders should be punished, but the responsible administrative heads. In addition to these compulsory measures, other means too must be applied. The thought should be taken for the removal of a great part of the remaining exceptional Italian harvest in order to improve thereby the rations of the German and foreign workers. A special problem was presented by the entirely insuffcient alimentation of the Italian military internees who were almost starving. The Fuehrer should be asked to have the statute for these military internees gradually altered. No inconsiderable working energies would be released thereby.
"Reichsleiter Dr. Ley underscored these statements and suggested the establishment of a searching office made up of all German forces in the extra German territories, that would carry out the ruthless enrollings in large areas.
"Against these proposals, doubts were expressed:
"Reichsminister Funk anticipates from ruthless raids considerable disturbances of the production in the extra-German territories. The same opinion is held by the Chief of the military administration of Italy. Stqatssekretaer Dr. Landfried, who considers the German forces comprised in the executive body as too small and fears that the Italian population will escape the seizure in great numbers and will flee into uncontrollable regions.
"Reichsminister Speer stated that he had an interest both in spurring on an increased labor recruiting for the Reich and also in the maintaining of the production in the extra-German territories. Up to the present 25 to 30 percent of the German war production had been furnished by the occupied "Western territories and Italy, by Italy alone 12½ percent.
"The Fuehrer recently decided that this production must be maintained as long as possible, in spite of the difficulties already existing, especially in the field of transportation.
The executive is well in a position in the opinion of Reich Minister Speer, to seize sufficient foreign workers with its present strength, as a relatively small number of executive men are sufficient for this purpose. All that is needed are stricter orders, but no violent measures nor large scale raids may be carried out. One should, rather, proceed with clean methods step by step.
"For the military commander in France, the military administration chief Dr. Michol referred to the statements of State Secretary Dr. Landfried and advanced the opinion that the situation in France was similar. The calling up of entire age classes is prepared in France, but has not yet begun, as the German military authorities have not yet been able to give their consent. The good will of the highest French authorities cannot be doubted but it is in part lacking among the lower and middle authorities. These and the persons willing to work expose themselves, with a loyal attitude toward the German authorities, to reprisals by the French population.
"Ambassador Abetz confirms these statements. The application of severe measures, such as the shooting of French functionaries, into the Marquis. In these territories, in which the Wehrmacht is employed anyway, some 10,000 more workers would doubtless be seized. Then those same German forces could be employed for executive measures, which would also turn up large numbers of workers. In Paris, the evacuation of which was considered 100,000 to 200,000 workers could be seized. In this connection, entire plant communities might be transplanted.
"The chief of the security police Dr. Kaltenbrunner declared himself willing, when asked by the GBA, to place the security police at his disposal for this purpose, out pointed out their numerical weakness. For all of France he had only 2,400 men available. It was question be whether entire age classes could be seized with these weak forces. In his opinion, the Foreign office must exercise a stronger influence on the foreign governments.
"State Secretary von Steengracht (Foreign Office) commented on this. The agreements made with the foreign governments were entirely sufficient. The governments had always been willing, on the request of the Foreign Office, to issue the corresponding orders. If these orders were not carried out, this was due to the inadequate executive of the foreign governments themselves. In France this was bad for political reasons, being reduced to a minimum. In Italy there was no longer an executive in actuality. The Foreign Office was willing at any time, he said, to exercise stronger pressure on the foreign governments, but did not expect too much from that. State Secretary von Steengracht asked Ambassador Rahn to comment on this for Italy.
"Ambassador Rahn believes that there is still a sufficient number of workers in Italy, so that in theory 1 million could still be taken out, although 2/3 of the Italian territory had been lost with respect population also. He had always been in favor of the system of drafting age classes. This was, until before the fall of Rome, in general successful, as can be seen from the fact that 200,000 Italians could be seized for military purposes. Since that time the situation in Italy has become extremely difficult, however, since the fall of Rome was an enormous shock to the Italian people. The German authorities, had attempted to intercept the effects and united the entire executive in the person of Marshal Graziani. At present, however, the use of violent methods on A large scale is not possible since that would cause complete disorder and interruption of production. The best example for this is the retaliatory action ordered by the Fuehrer because of the strikes in Turin, through which 10% of the personnel were to be seized as unwilling to work. 4,000 German forces were collected for this purpose. The result was that the food supply to Turin was cut off by the resistance movement and the supply of energy was interrupted, so that 250,000 workers had to starve. This could not be justified in view of the considerable contribution to the war of the Italian armament industry.
General Field Marshal Kesselring declared that a continuation of forced obligations would cause nor only the loss 266- A of the armament production in the upper Italian area, but the loss of the entire theater of war.
In the face of this statement the hardest political will must keep silent. The only thing which could happen would be the execution of the forced obligations in the rebellious area proper. Ambassador Rahn believes the following practical suggestions could be carried out:
"The recruitment of volunteers is to be continued.
"To a limited extent plants are to be transferred to the Reich with machinery and workers.
"The transmittal of salary savings of the Italian workers in Germany to their homeland, which is not operating well, is to be safeguarded.
For this purpose an automatic procedure is to be introduced which Ambassador Rahn had already proposed in another connection.
"The system of the induction of ago classes will be reintroduced when the German military authorities consider the time ripe.
"In answer to the reported remark of General Field Marshal Kesselring, General Warliment (OKW) commented that this remark was unknown to the OKW. The OKW's approval of this standpoint could therefore not yet be assumed.
"Gauleiter Sauekel declared that all these proposals were inadequate since they were net suited to set into motion the masses of manpower which he needed. The execution of all these proposals had already been tried in practice since the labor commitment authorities had at no time limited themselves to the method. He still had to call it seriously damaging to the execution of the labor commitment that his far-reaching competencies and powers had been made the subject of discussion. Wheat heneeded, as already said, was "elbow room".
"At the suggestion of Reich Minister Dr. Lammers, Gauleiter Sauckel declared himself willing to set up several programmatic demands on which he wants to vote with the participants and which than are to be submitted to the Fuehrer with a request for acknowledgment and legalization. A written formulation will follow. For the time being the GBA present his demands as follows:
"The proposals of General Warliment will be discussed directly among the participants and will be executed together.
"The GBA receives permission to establish national security and recruitment machinery for labor commitments, which will operate on the basis of orders and directives of the GBA without need of interference by other offices.
"The regulations made by the French and Italian authorities in regard to German labor commitment are to be fortified by concrete execution regulations which guarantee the most active collaboration of foreign authorities in the acquisition of manpower.
"Reich Minister Dr. Lammers, having made these statements closed the meeting by pointing out that he would leave the further treatment of the problem, as proposed, to those concerned."
I request that we recess, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: I was just about to suggest it. The Tribunal will recess for fifteen minutes.
(A recess was taken)
MR. DENNEY: If Your Honors, please, at this time we would like to offer as an additional part to our 124, which we are now distributing to the Court and defense counsel, is to be placed in the rear of Document Book 1B.
THE PRESIDENT: 1B, Mr. Denney
MR. DENNEY: I am sorry, 3B. It is an additional Central Planning Board report. It has to do with the 30th meeting. Actually only the first two pages are necessary. The second page has to deal with the 31st, so it will only be the first two pages. They will be counted pages 42 and 43 of Document Book 3B; which is Exhibit 48-B in evidence; these are offered merely for the first paragraph on the page 42 which says first the copy of the results of the 30th meeting of the Central Planning Board on January 26, 1943. The first paragraph provides: "Reichsminister Speer informed the meeting that Field Marshal Milch, on account of special duties entrusted to him by the Fuehrer, was prevented for some time from being present at the meetings, and has asked him to act as his representative in the Central Planning during his absence".
We would like also to direct the Court's attention, without reading the matters in question, to two other portions of Exhibit 56, in evidence, which is 3819-PS, the 1 st volume--or the 1 st document in Volume 21. The first appearing on page 68, which is page 131 of the German book B, being a letter from Saukel to Hitler, dated Paris 17 March 1944; and the second which is on page 72 of Your Honors' Document look, and page 123 of the German Book B, being a letter from Speer to Hitler, dated 5 April 1944. This again has to do with this same business of procurement of labor for the year 1946I believe the Court his enough before them on this subject without going into the altercation between Saukel and Speer. On the other matter, however, I did want to call Your Honors' attention to the matter in passing.
The next document is F-824 which appears on page 82, which is the first page in Document Book 2C. This is offered as Prosecution Exhibit number 57. This appears in the German book at page 136. It is an order of Field Marshal von Kluge, Commander-in-Chief West, dated 25 July 1944. This letter again shows to what extent the power of this Central Planning Board in the recruitment of labor was carried. We have heard them talk of the Wehrmacht, we have seen representatives of the Wehrmacht at their meetings, and now we see the Wehrmacht itself in passing out an order based on labor recruitment. It is to be noted at the top that the subject is "Procurement of labor in the West.
"Chief of the OKW is ordered: The communication of 8th July for General Field Marshal von Kluge, addressed to the Reich Minister for Armament and War Production, crossed with my order of the same day."
"From this it is evident that, by order of the Fuehrer, with reference to the suspension of contradictory orders, the wishes of the Plenipotentiary for labor and of Reich Minister Speer, must, on principle, be carried out. Further to my teletype, the following additional general instructions apply in future, as a result of the conference of ministers in the Reich Chancellery on with July, about which the Commander-in-Chief West will be informed by the Military Commander: Rejecting justified misgivings with regard to peace and security in the interior of the country, seizures must be carried out wherever the opportunities, referred to in my above mentioned teletype, offer themselves.
As the only limitation, the Ruehrer has ordered that no forcible means shall be employed against the population in the actual combat area as long as it shows itself prepared to assist the German armed forces. However recruiting of volunteers from among refugees from the combat zone is to be carried out vigorously. Moreover, every means is justified to seize as much labor as possible, apart from the powers granted to the armed forces.
"In order to render as effective as possible the measures which have been introduced, the army is further to be instructed in general as to the necessity of the organizations for conscription of labor in order to put an end to the open and covert resistance which has arisen in many instances. The field commanders and the offices of the Military administration must give wide support to the representative of the Plenipotentiary for labor and to refrain from encroaching on his sphere of activity.
"In accordance with this, Commander-in-Chief West has reported the following to the Chief of the OKW on 12 May 1944:
'I have authorized the execution of the Sauckel-LavalAgreement of 12 May in spite of misgivings because of interior security. I will issue more explicit directives for the execution of the measures in the combat zone in accordance with OKW/WFST/AU. Signed, the Commander-inChief West, von Kluge, General Field Marshal."
Now, this is the only one of these orders that we have been able to find, but it is to be presumed that they were probably issued by other theaters. As I say, this is the only one we have.
I neglected to offer the decree which establishes the Central Planning Board, which is 1510-PS and appears at Page 32 of your Honors' document book 2A. I think Your Honors arc thoroughly familiar with what the Board did, what its powers were from other documents which have been read, but we offer this at this time as Exhibit 56.
271a This appears at page 51 of the German Book 2A page 40I beg your pardon, at page 32 to 39.
actually this is a Decree of October 29, 1943 concerning the dividing of tasks in tic War Economy. It is a Speer Decree and generally outlines what that pertains to. I have already offered the Decree establishing the Board. This particular Decree establishes the so-called Planning Board within the Central Planning Board --- the Planning Office and your Honors have had some material on that before this time. This is this complete document. The document immediately before that in Book 2A, which is NOKW269 which is an outline of the defendant's life which he has prepared maybe in Book B in your Honor's book. I am not sure. There was some trouble in the binding. In my copy it appears at page 29 and 30 in Book 2A. NOKW 269 at the top.
THE PRESIDENT: It is on page 29.
MR. DENNEY: In tho German it nay be in Book A.
DR. BERGOLD: No. Book B.
MR. DENNEY: This is an English translation. Actually this was prepared by tho defendant in English. I believe that is correct, is it not true, Dr. Bergold? This was prepared by the defendant in English?
DR. BERGOLD: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Is it Exhibit No. 59, Mr. Denney?
MR. DENNEY: Exhibit 59, yes, if your Honors please. I think that document speaks for itself and there is no reason to road any part of it in tho record. Then there is another document 1666-PS which appears at page 48 of your Honors Document Book 2 3 which is at page 85 to 87 of tho German book.
THE PRESIDENT: The number again , please, Mr. Denney?
MR. DENNEY: No. 1666-PS, if your Honors please. We offer this as exhibit 60 -1666-PS.
It is on page 48 of Document Book 2 3, page 85 to 87 of the German Book. Page 48 and 49 of your honor's Book. It is Hitler's order to Sauckel giving authority to get out an Ordinance implement and is signed by Scoring as Reichsmarshal.
272(a) The order is dated 21 Larch 1942, and the order implementing i signed "by Goering is dated 27 Larch 1942.
How, at page 99 Document Book 3 C, which is -
THE PRESIDENT: 2 C, Mr. Denney, you mean?
MR. DENNEY: 2 C, yes, sir, at page 174 of the German Book. Document NONA 247 which we offer as Prosecution's Exhibit No. 61.
Exhibit 61, which is Document NONW, No. 247 is a Goering Directive from Berlin - June - There is no date after -- on the copy which I have. I think it can be presumed that it is 1944 in view of the contents of the document, entitled "Authorization". As your Honors will recall, it was in June that the first landings were effected across the English Channel on territory then held by the German Army.
"The war situation calls for the utmost intensification of the armament capacity of the German Air Force within the shortest time. The goal of the measures to be taken has to be the fourfold of the present production in all branches of Air Force Armament. I commission the State Secretary of the Aivation Ministry, General Field Marshal Milch with the speediest execution of this intensification of armament ordered by the Fuehrer. To secure the attainment of the end at which we aim I confer herewith the most extensive power of authority on General Fieldmarshal Milch within the spheres defined a s follows:
Shutting-down and seizure of factories, decisions about expropriations and forced leases, seizure and expropriation of construction material in agreement with the GB-Construction, erection of auxiliary buildings exempted from restricting provisions of the building police, of the office for the supervision of industry, of Air Raid Protection, social institutions etc.
as far as these provisions arc incompatible with the fast completion of the building projects.
Confiscation, expropriation and renting of machinery of all kinds and its distribution to the armament factories of the Luftwaffe. Forced transfer of workers who are unemployed or employed in industry of any kind whatsoever, this not only for the erection of buildings but also for allocation to Luftwaffe Armament factories.
Confiscation of raw materials is absolutely essential for the Luftwaffe program; only superfluous raw materials may then be distributed in the manner as now. This refers especially to light metals and gasoline.
Removal and transfer of key personnel of the entire armament industry irrespective of existing contracts under private law, cancellations of, or changes in, existing powers of authorization, and issue of now powers, creation of industrial associations, patent associations, merger of companies, creation of now companies, separation of uneconomically working firms and their co-ordination or subordination to better managed firms.
Deviation from existing regulations about the financing of the war and premiums in cases whore the utmost intensification of output con not be achieved otherwise. In this connection due consideration has to be given to the economical situation and to the financial capacity of the firms involved.
All decisions of, and all measures taken by my plenipotentiary on the basis of this authorization have to be regarded as if they wore ordered by me.
Those decrees and measures have priority in respect to all other official directions and decrees as far as these arc not compatible with the speediest execution of the intensification of the production capacity."
DR. BERGOLD: If you please I should like to ask Mr. Denney to find out whether this order - this decree was signed as there is no signature on the German copy.
274 a
THE PRESIDENT: Did you got that, Mr. Denney?
MR. DENNEY: I think what he asked is whether this was signed because there is no signature shown on the German copy.
INTERPRETER: He wanted to know whether the signature was on the German original. It is not on the German copy.
MR. DENNEY: If Your Honors please, I believe the copy which we have was not signed.
DR. BERGOLD: Thank you.
MR. DENNEY: If Your Honors please, at this time I would respectfully request that we adjourn. There arc some of these papers which I would like to re-arrange slightly.
This in substance presents all except an interrogation and some excepts of the transcript from the initial case and an affidavit or two. We now have all of tho documents except these which appear in Book 2, A, 3 and C in evidence. We have worked this morning until four o'clock endeavoring to ct the next document book ready. It isn't as yet ready. It has to do with the Jaogerstab which, roughly takes in the activities of the defendant from the period of March until approximately August of 1944. We hope to got this ready for tonight and I don't knew whether or jot Dr. Bergold is willing to waive the 24 hour service on it. If he is we may be able to finish it tonight and probably proceed in the morning. Dr. Bergold has told me that he has to be a witness in court in an automobile accident case to which he was a witness. I believe the court is in Furth and tomorrow morning he is going to request that the defendant's brother again be allowed to act as counsel.
THE PRESIDENT: That permission, of course, will be granted. We might ask Dr. Bergold now. If you do not receive the next document back until tomorrow morning will you raise the objection that you have not had the required 24 hour notice or will you be willing to proceed?
MR. DENNEY: I might state for Dr. Bergold's information that this book contains principally items having to do with meetings or the Jaogerstab; if that's any help to you.
DR. BERGOLD: The Tribunal: It is far from no to cause any kind of difficulties and I know myself that when my turn comes I also often have to ask for the cooperation and kindness of the prosecution and naturally I am ready to continue negotiations without keeping to the 24 hour period I merely beg to take the liberty of being absent tomorrow during the first half as I have boon summoned to court and according to German law must follow this summons.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it's understood, Dr. Bergold, that you are excused from attending the Tribunal tomorrow as long as you arc required to be a witness in the other Court.
DR. BERGOLD: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: I take it also then that you will not object to proceeding tomorrow naming with a now document bock.
DR. BERGOLD: No, that's agreeable to no.
THE PRESIDENT: Let no take this opportunity also to advise both counsel that the members cf this Tribunal have been asked to go to Berlin on Thursday se that tomorrow will be the last sessions cf the court this week. No will return in time to resume sessions on Monday at the usual hour but both counsel will have Thursday Friday, Saturday and Sunday in which to adjust themselves and perhaps get a little sleep. No will recess now until 9:30 tomorrow morning.
MR. DENNEY: Thank you, your Honor.
THE MARSHAL: All persons will arise. The Tribunal will recess until 0930 tomorrow.