dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MR. DODD: Yes, Sir; war industries, as we understand it. It was referred to many times by these defendants as the component parts of the plans. I also would like to call the attention of the Tribunal again to the "Minutes of the 36th Meeting of the Central Planning Board," Document R-124, from which we read a number of excerpts yesterday, and remind the Tribunal that in the report of the minutes of that meeting the Defendant Speer stated that, "Ninety thousand Russian prisoners of war employed in the whole of the armament industry are for the greater part skilled men." We should like, at this point, to turn to the special responsibility of the Defendant Speer and to discuss the evidence of the various crimes committed by Defendant Speer in planning and participating in the vast program of forcible deportation of the citizens of occupied countries. He was the Reich Minister of Armaments and Munitions and Chief of the Organization Todt, both of which positions he acquired on the 15th of February 1942; and by virtue of his later acquisition of control over the armament offices of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and the production of flees of the Ministry of Economics, the Defendant Speer was responsible for the entire war production of the Reich as well as for the construction of fortifications and installations for the Wehrmacht. Proof of the positions held by the Defendant Speer is supplied in his own statement as contained in Document 2980-PS, which has already been offered to the Tribunal and which bears Exhibit Number USA-18. The industries under the Defendant Speer's control were really the most important users of manpower in Germany; and thus, according to the Defendant Sauckel, Speer's labor requirements received unconditional priority over all other demands for labor. We refer to the transcript of the interrogation of the Defendant Sauckel on the 22d of September 1945. It is Exhibit USA-230. It is next to the last document in the document book. I wish to refer to Page 1 of that document, Paragraph 4.
MR. DODD: It is a brief reference, the last answer on the page. The question was asked of the Defendant Sauckel: "Q: Except for Speer, they would give the requirements in general for the whole field; but in Speer's work you would get them allocated by industry, and so on-is that right? "A: The others only got whatever was left. Because Speer told me once in the presence of the Fuehrer that I am here to work for Speer and that, mainly, I am his man." The Defendant Speer has admitted under oath that he participated in the discussions during which the decision to use foreign forced labor was made. He has also said that he concurred in the decision and that it was the basis for the program of bringing foreign workers into Germany by compulsion. I make reference to the interrogation of the Defendant Speer of the 18th of October 1945. It bears the Exhibit Number USA-220. We have already read from it; and I particularly refer to the bottom of Page 12 and the top of Page 13 of the English text: "Q: But is it clear to you , Mr. Speer, that in 1942 when the decisions were being made concerning the use of forced foreign labor, that you participated in the discussions yourself? "A: Yes. "Q: So that I take it that the execution of the program of bringing foreign workers into Germany by compulsion under Sauckel was based on earlier decisions that had been made with your agreement? "A: Yes, but I must point out that only a very small part of the manpower that Sauckel brought into Germany was made available to me; a far larger part of it was allocated to other departments that demanded them." This admission is confirmed by the minutes of Speer's conferences with Hitler on 10, 11, and 12 August 1942 in Document R-124, which has been offered here and from which excerpts have been read. Page 34 of that document, Paragraph 1 of the English text, has already been quoted, and those excerpts have been read before the Tribunal yesterday.
MR. DODD: The Tribunal will recall that the Defendant Speer related the outcome of his negotiations concerning the forcible recruitment of 1 minion Russian laborers for the German armaments industry; and this use of force was again discussed by Hitler and Defendant Speer on the 4th of January 1943 as shown by the excerpts read from the Document 556(13)-PS, where it was decided that stronger measures were to be used to accelerate the conscription of French civilian workers. We say the Defendant Speer demanded foreign workers for the industries under his control and used those workers with the knowledge that they had been deported by force and were being compelled to work. Speer has stated under oath in his interrogation of 18 October 1945, Page 5, Paragraph 9, of the English text, quoting it directly: "I do not wish to give the impression that I want to deny the fact that I demanded manpower and foreign labor from Sauckel very energetically." He has admitted that he knew he was obtaining foreign labor, a large part of which was forced labor; and referring again to that same interrogation of the 18th of October 1945, and to Pages 8 and 9 of the English text and Page 10 of the German text: "Q: So that during the period when you were asking for labor, it seems clear, does it not, that you knew you were obtaining foreign labor as well as domestic labor in response to your requests and that a large part of the foreign labor was forced labor? "A: Yes. "Q: So that, simply by way of illustration, suppose that on January 1, 1944 you require 50,000 workers for a specific purpose; would you put in a requisition for 50,000 workers , knowing that in that 50,000 there would be forced foreign workers? " A: Yes." The Defendant Speer has also stated under oath that he knew at least as early as September of 1942 that workers from the Ukraine were being forcibly deported for labor into Germany.
MR. DODD: Likewise he knew that the great majority of the workers of the western occupied countries were slave laborers forced against their will to come to Germany; and again referring to his interrogation of this 18th day of October 1945, and beginning with the fourth Paragraph from the bottom of Page 5 of the English text, Paragraph 10 on Page 6 of the German text, we find this series of questions and answers: "Q: When did you first find out then that some of the manpower from the Ukraine was not coming voluntarily? "A: It is rather difficult to answer this here, that is, to name a certain date to you. However, it is certain that I knew that at some particular point of time the manpower from the Ukraine did not come voluntarily. "Q: And does that apply also to the manpower from other occupied countries; that is, did there come a time when you knew that they were not coming voluntarily? "A: Yes. "Q: When, in general, would you say that time was without placing a particular month of the year? "A: As far as the Ukraine situation ages. I believe that they did not come voluntarily any more after a few months, because immense mistakes were made in their treatment by us. I should say offhand that this was either in July or August, or September of 1942." Turning to Paragraph 11 on Page 6 of he English text of this same interrrogation and Page 7 and Paragraph 8 of the German text, we find this series of questions and answers -- quoting: "Q: But many workers actually did come from the West to Germany, did they not? "A: Yes. "Q: That means then, that the great majority of the workers that came from the western countires -- the western occupied countries -- came against their will to Germany?
MR. DODD: "A: Yes." These admissions are borne out, of course, by other evidence, for as Document R-124 shows and as we have shown by the readings from it, in all countries conscription for work in Germany could be carried out only with the active assistance of the police; and the prevailing methods of recruitment had provoked such violence that many German recruiting agents had been killed. And again, at a meeting with Hitler to discuss the manpower requirements for 1944, which is reported in Document 1292-PS, Speer was informed by the Defendant Sauckel that the requirements-including Speer's requirement for 1,300,000 additional laborers-could be met only if German enforcement agents were furnished to carry out the enslavement program in the occupied countries. Now we say that notwithstanding this knowledge that these workers were conscripted and deported to Germany against their will, Speer nevertheless continued to formulate requirements for the foreign workers and requested their allocation to these industries which were subject to his control This is borne out by the minutes of the Central Planning Board as contained in Document R-124, and particularly Page 13, Paragraph 4 of the English text; and that is Page 6 and Paragraph 4 of the German text. Speer speaking: "Now the labor problem in Germany. I believe it is still possible to transfer some from the western territories. Only recently the Fuehrer stated he wishes to dissolve these foreign volunteers as he had the impression that the army groups were carting around with them a lot of ballast. Therefore, if we cannot settle this matter ourselves, we shall have to call a meeting with the Fuehrer to clear up the whole coal situation. Keitel and Zeitzler will be invited to attend in order to determine the number of Russians from the rear army territories who must be sent to us. However, I see another possibility: We might organize another drive to pick out workers for the mines from the Russian prisoners of war in the Reich.
MR. DODD: But this possibility is none too promising." At another meeting d the Central Planning Board the Defendant Speer rejected a suggestion that labor for industries under his control be furnished from German sources instead of from foreign sources. And again in this Document R-129, on Page 16, Paragraphs 3, 4, and 5 of the English text, and Page 12, Paragraphs 6 and 7 of the German text-I quote the Defendant Speer: "We do it that way: Kehrl collects the demands for labor necessary to complete the coal-and-iron plan and communicates the numbers to Sauckel. Probably there will be a conference at the Reich Marshal's in the next week, and an answer from Sauckel should have arrived by then. The question of recruitment for the armaments industry will be solved together with Weger." Kehrl speaking: "I wish to urge that the allotments to the mines should not be made dependent on the possibility of recruitment of men abroad. We were completely frustrated these last 3 months because this principle had been applied. We ended December with a deficit of 25,000 and we never get replacements. The number must be made up by men from Germany. "Speer: 'No, nothing doing.' " We say also that the Defendant Speer is guilty of advocating terror and brutality as a means of maximizing production by slave laborers. And again I refer to this Document R-124. At Page 42 there is a discussion concerning the supply and exploitation of labor. That excerpt has been read to the Tribunal before, and I simply refer to it in passing. It is the excerpt wherein Speer said it would be a good thing; the effect of it was that nothing could be said against the SS and the police taking a hand and making these men work and produce more. We say he is also guilty of compelling allied nationals and prisoners of war to engage in the production of armaments and munitions and in direct military operations against their own country.
MR. DODD: We say that as Chief of the Organization Todt he is accountable for its policies, which were in direct conflict with the laws of war; for the Organization Todt, in violation of the laws of war, impressed allied nationals into its service. Document L-191, Exhibit USA-231, is an International Labor Office study of the exploitation of foreign labor by Germany. We have only one copy of this document, this International Labor Office study, printed at Montreal, Canada, in 1945. We ask that the Tribunal take judicial notice of it as an official publication of the International Labor Office. I might say to the Tribunal, with some apology, that this arrived at a time when we were not able even to have the excerpt mimeographed and printed to place in your document book, so this is the one document which is missing from the document book which is in your hands. However, I should like to quote from Page 73, Paragraph 2, of this study by the International Labor Office. It is not long; it is very brief. I am quoting directly. It says: "The methods used for the recruitment of foreign workers who were destined for employment in the Organization did not greatly differ from the methods used for the recruitment of foreigners for deportation to Germany." "The Organization," by the way, is the Organization Todt. Going on with the quotation: "The main difference Divas that, since the principal activities of the Organization lay outside the frontiers of Germany, foreigners were not transported to Germany but had either to work in their own country or in some other occupied country. "In the recruitment drives for foreign workers for the Organization, methods of compulsion as well as methods of persuasion were used, the latter usually with very little result." Moreover, conscripted allied nationals were compelled by this same Organization Todt actually to engage in operations of war against their country.
MR. DODD: Document 407(VIII)-PS discloses that the foreign workers who were impressed into the Organization Todt through the efforts of the Defendant Sauckel did participate in the building of the Atlantic Wall fortifications. As chief of German war production, this Defendant Speer sponsored and approved the use of these prisoners of war in the production of armaments and munitions. This has been made plain by the evidence already discussed. To sum it up briefly finally we say that it shows first that after Speer assumed the responsibility for the armament production, his concern, in his discussions with his co-conspirators, was to secure a larger allocation of prisoners of war for his armament factories. That has been shown by the quotations from the excerpts of Document R-124, the minutes of the meeting of the Central Planning Board; and in this same meeting the Tribunal will recall that Speer complained because only 30 percent of the Russian prisoners of war were engaged in the armaments industry. We referred to a speech of Speer, Document, 1435-PS-we quoted from it -in which he said that 10,000 prisoners-of-war were put at the disposal of the armaments industry upon his orders. And finally, Speer advocated the returning of escaped prisoners of war to factories as convicts. That is shown again by Document R-124, Page 13, Paragraph 5, of the English text, where the Defendant Speer says that he has come to an arrangement . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, don't you think that we have really got this sufficiently now?
MR. DODD: Yes, Sir; I just...
THE PRESIDENT: We have Speer's own admission and any number of documents which prove the way in which these prisoners of war and other laborers were brought into Germany.
MR. DODD: Well I just wanted to refer briefly to that passage in that document, R-124, as showing that this defendant advocated having escaped prisoners of war returned to the munitions factories.
THE PRESIDENT: What page?
MR. DODD: Thirteen. I don't want to labor this responsibility of the Defendant Speer. I was anxious-or perhaps I should say we are all overanxious-to have the documents in the record and before the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: Which is the passage you want to refer to on Page 13?
MR. DODD: I just referred in passing to the statement which begins with the words, "We have to come to an arrangement with the Reichsfuehrer SS." And in the next to the last sentence it says: "The men should be put into the factories as convicts." Finally, with reference to the Defendant Speer, I should like to say to the Tribunal that he visited the concentration camp at Mauthausen and he also visited factories such as those conducted by the Krupp industries , where concentration camp labor was exploited under degrading conditions. Despite this first-hand knowledge of these conditions, both in Mauthausen and in the places where these forced laborers were at work in factories, he continued to direct the use of this type of labor in factories under his own jurisdiction.
THE PRESIDENT: How do you intend to prove it as to these concentration camps?
MR. DODD: I was going to refer the Tribunal to Page 9 of the interrogation of the 18th of October 1945; and I refer to Page 11, Paragraph 5, of the German text and Page 9, beginning with Paragraph 9, of the English text: "Q: But, in general, the use of concentration camp labor was known to you and approved by you as a source of labor? "A: Yes. "Q: And you knew also, I take it, that among the inmates of the concentration camps there were both Germans and foreigners? "A: I didn't think about it at that time. "Q: As a matter of fact, you visited the Austrian concentration camp personally did you not? "A: I did not-well, I was in Mauthausen once, but at that time I was not told just to what categories the inmates of the concentration camps belonged. "Q: But in general everybody knew, did they not, that foreigners who were taken away by the Gestapo or arrested by the Gestapo, as well as Germans, found their way into the concentration camps? "A: Of course, yes. I didn't mean to imply anything like that." And on Page 15 of this same interrogation, beginning with the 13th Paragraph of the English text and Page 20 in the German text, we find this question: "Q: Did you ever discuss, by the way, the requirements of Krupp for foreign labor? "A: It is certain that it was reported to me what lack Krupp had in foreign workers. "Q: Did you ever discuss it with any of the members of the Krupp firm? "A: I cannot say that exactly; but during the time of my activities I visited the Krupp factory more than once and it is certain that this was discussed, that is, the lack of manpower." Before closing I should like to take 2 minutes of the time of the Tribunal to refer to what we consider to be some of the applicable laws of the case for the assistance of the Tribunal in considering these documents which we have offered. We refer, of course, first of all, to Sections 6 (b) and 6 (c) of the Charter of this Tribunal.
MR. DODD: We also say that the acts of the conspirators constituted a flagrant violation of Articles 46 and 52 of the Regulations annexed to the Hague Convention Number IV of 1907. Article 46 seeks to safeguard the family honor, the rights and the lives of persons in areas under belligerent occupation. Article 52 provides in part that: "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." We say that these conspirators violated this article because the labor which they conscripted was not used to satisfy the needs of the army of occupation, but on the contrary, was forcibly removed from the occupied areas and exploited in the interest of the German war effort. Finally, we say that these conspirators-and particularly the Defendants Sauckel and Speer-by virtue of their planning, of their execution: and of their approval of this program, which we have been describing yesterday and today, the enslavement and the misuse of the forced labor of prisoners of war-that for this they bear a special responsibility for their Crimes against Humanity and their War Crimes.
THE PRESIDENT: Are you finishing, Mr. Dodd,
MR. DODD: Yes, I have concluded.
THE PRESIDENT: I should like to ask you why you have not read Document 3057-PS, which is Sauckel's statement.
MR. DODD: Yes. We had intended to offer that document. Counsel for the Defendant Sauckel informed me a day or two ago that his client maintained that he had been coerced into making the statement. Because we had not ample time to ascertain the facts of the matter, we preferred to withhold it, rather than to offer it to the Tribunal under any question of doubt.
THE PRESIDENT: He objects to it, and therefore you have not put it in?
MR. DODD: No, we did not offer it while there was any question about it.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
MR. DODD: Might I suggest to the Tribunal that a recess be taken at this time? I am sorry to have to say that I am due to be before the Tribunal for a little while-that is, I am sorry for the Tribunal-with the matters on the concentration camps.
THE PRESIDENT: You mean a recess now?
MR. DODD: If Your Honor pleases.
THE PRESIDENT: Certainly, yes; 10 minutes. [A recess was taken.]
MR. DODD: May it please the Tribunal, we propose to offer additional evidence at this time concerning the use of Nazi concentration camps against the people of Germany and allied Nationals. We propose to examine the purposes and the role of the concentration camp in the larger Nazi scheme of things. We propose to show that the concentration camp was one of the fundamental institutions of the Nazi regime, that it was a pillar of the system of terror by which the Nazis consolidated their power over Germany and imposed their ideology upon the German people, that it was really a primary weapon in the battle against the Jews, against the Christian church, against labor, against those who wanted peace, against opposition or non-conformity of any kind. We say it involved the systematic use of terror to achieve the cohesion within Germany which was necessary for the execution of the conspirators' plans for aggression We propose to show that a concentration camp was one of the principal instruments used by the conspirators for the commission, on an enormous scale, of Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes; that it was the final link in a chain of terror and repression which involved the SS and the Gestapo and which resulted in the apprehension of victims and their confinement without trial, often without charges, generally with no indication of the length of their detention. My colleagues will present full evidence concerning the criminal role of the SS and the Gestapo in this phase of Nazi terrorism, the concentration camp; but at this point I wish simply to point out that the SS, through its espionage system, tracked down the victims, that the criminal police and the Gestapo seized them and brought theta the camps, and that the concentration camps were administered by the SS. This Tribunal, we feel, is already aware of the sickening evidence of the brutality of the concentration camp from the showing of the moving picture.