Chapter XVIII: Section 1: is necessary. The decision is binding upon courts and

administrative agencies. The competent authority (Article 12) must upon demand issue a certificate that approval is not necessary.

Article 16

1. All sorts of compulsory sales of objects are by this decree subject to sequestration may only be begun with the assent of the competent authority (Article 12). If one of the competent authorities according to Article 12 has assented, it has no influence upon further proceedings, if it has wrongly asserted its competence.

2. If it is to be feared that the debtor will escape the compulsory sale, or an immediate seizure is called for, for some other reason, then upon order of the court authorizing the compulsory sale the compulsory sale can be begun before issuance of the necessary approval, according to Section 1. It should, in this case, be limited to the measures permissible in the execution of an attachment and be continued from this point only when the approval has been issued. Upon demand of the competent authority (Article 12) the court authorizing a compulsory sale must order the lifting of the temporary attachment measures.

Article 17

1. If in the incorporated Eastern territories bankruptcy proceedings are opened on the property of a bankrupt, then the provisions of Article 16 are valid accordingly, for the liquidation of the property belonging to the estate of the bankrupt.

2. If the opening or discontinuance of bankruptcy proceedings in the incorporated Eastern territories depends upon whether the value of the bankrupt estate corresponds to the cost of the proceedings, then objects which according to this decree are subject to confiscation, shall only be regarded as belonging to the bankrupt estate, if the competent authority (Article 12) has agreed to their liquidation in bankruptcy proceedings.

Article 18

It can be publicly announced that property coming into consideration for sequestration is to be registered. The announcement of registration for agricultural property takes place in agreement with the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture.

Article 19

The competent authority (Article 12) can demand information of everybody for the carrying out of its tasks. Administrative agencies and courts must give it official help, especially they must question witnesses and experts upon its demand.

Article 20

1. Whoever undertakes to deprive the agencies indicated in Article 12 or those empowered to dispose of the property by said agencies or otherwise in any way undertakes to thwart, to evade, or to prejudice the effect of the sequestration in order to create a profit for himself or another, will be punished with imprisonment and fine or one of these penalties.

2. In aggravated cases the punishment will be confinement to a penitentiary. If the culprit acts out of insubordination against the political new order or the case is otherwise especially aggravated the sentence of death is to be given.

Article 21

1. Whoever intentionally or carelessly fails to fulfill or fulfills incorrectly, or incompletely, an obligation to report or give information incumbent upon him according to an executionary regulation issued to implement this law or a regulation issued according to Articles 18 and 19, will be punished with imprisonment and fine.

2. The criminal prosecution will be instituted only upon request of the competent authority (Article 12).

Article 22

1. The following remain unprejudiced:

_a._ The regulation for the securing of the necessary establishments for the fitting out of the Reich’s war harbor Gdynia of 21 December 1939 (RGBl I, 2475);

_b._ The decree on the public exploitation of agricultural and sylvicultural enterprises and real estate in the incorporated Eastern territories of 12 February 1940 (RGBl I, 355) with the provision that upon the undertaking subject to public exploitation the provisions of Articles 1, 2, 3, 4 Section 1, Articles 9, 11, 12 Section 1, Articles 14, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 23 of this decree will be applied;

_c._ The ordinance on the handling of enemy property of 15 Jan 1940 (RGBl I, 191) with the provision that property of the subjects of the former Polish State, who have their residence or permanent domicile in the territory of an enemy state, will be treated according to this decree, insofar as it is located in the Greater German Reich including the incorporated Eastern territories.

_d._ The decree on confiscation in the occupied former Polish territories (except Eastern Upper Silesia) of 5 Oct 1939, P. 25.

_e._ The decree on the employment of Jewish property of 3 Dec 1938 (RGBl I, 1709) with following:

1. The sequestration according to Article 2 and the regulation of a commissarial administration according to Articles 5 and 10 of this decree do not take place in the case of property of Jews, which the Jewish owners had already been ordered to sell on the basis of Articles 1 to 6 of the decree on the disposal of Jewish property at the time this law came into effect. The proceeds of this sale can be confiscated.

2. The approval according to Article 15 of this decree is not necessary insofar as a license is prescribed by Article 8 of decree on employment of Jewish property;

_f._ The decree of the Reich protector in Bohemia and Moravia on Jewish property of 21 June 1939 [Verordnungsblatt des Reichsprotektors in Boehmen und Maehren p. 45] and the decree of the Reich protector in Bohemia and Moravia on the removal of the Jews from the economy of the protectorate of 26 Jan 1940 [Verordnungsblatt des Reichsprotektors in Boehmen and Maehren P. 45] with the provision that the proceedings for the removal of Jews will also be carried out in regard to the property of subjects of the former Polish State according to these provisions, in agreement with the chief-trusteeship East; for the sequestration and confiscation the agencies named in Article 12 remain competent.

2. Furthermore all regulations conflicting with this one, issued since 28 August 1939 in the incorporated Eastern territories including the territory of the former Free City of Danzig, especially such regulations which grant the right to sequester, to install commissarial administrators or trustees, or to confiscate, become invalid.

3. The measures and legal transactions of the commissariat administrator undertaken with the approval of the competent agencies are not subject to the necessity of being approved according to the decree to assure the orderly development of the economy in the incorporated Eastern territories of 31 Jan 1940 (RGBl I, 255). In the case of property disposal an understanding will be established with the competent Reichs governor or provincial governor or the highest Reichs authority, which according to Article 3 Section 2 of the decree of 31 Jan 1940 have withheld their consent. If in cases of especial importance such an understanding cannot be established, then the commissioner for the four year plan will make the decision.

4. Measures of the competent authorities (Article 12) which have been taken before this decree became effective, are valid if they are in accordance with the provisions of this decree or with the law as it stood previously.

5. Insofar as sequestrations, confiscations, or the installation of commissarial administrators have been carried out by anyone else but the competent agencies (Article 12), their confirmation is to be applied for in writing. If the confirmation of them is not then forthcoming, the previously directed measures become null and void. The same is true if a decision is not reached on the confirmation before 31 October 1940. The competent agencies are authorized to prolong this period to a reasonable degree in individual cases.

6. The provisions of Section 5 are not valid for trustees, who at the time this law came into effect were installed according to Articles 2 and 6 of the decree on the employment of Jewish property of 3 Dec 1938 (RGBl I, 1709) for the temporary carrying on, transferral, or winding up of Jewish business undertakings or for the administration or transferral of other property of Jews. The legal position of these trustees remains unchanged.

Article 23

1. The commissioner for the four year plan will issue the necessary legal regulations for the carrying out of this law--for agriculture including subsidiary enterprises pertaining to agriculture--with the agreement of Reich commissar for the strengthening of German nationality and of the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture.

2. The commissioner for the four year plan in agreement with the Reich Minister of Finance and the Reich Minister for Economic Affairs can decree by means of legal regulations a simplified settlement, diverging from the provisions of the law as it stands, of the legal affairs of those persons whose property is subject to confiscation according to this decree.

3. The necessary administrative regulations for the carrying out of this decree will be issued by the commissioner for the four year plan--Chief Trusteeship East--in agreement with the competent authorities.

Article 24

1. This decree becomes effective one week after its proclamation.

2. The commissioner for the four year plan will fix the time of its becoming invalid.

Berlin, 17 September 1940

The chairman of the ministerial council
for the defense of the Reich and commissioner
for the four year plan

GOERING
Reichs Marshal

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1666-PS

1942 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 179

Decree of the Fuehrer concerning a plenipotentiary general for the
utilization of labor of 21 March 1942

In order to secure the manpower requisite for the war industries as a whole, and particularly for armaments, it is necessary that the utilization of all available manpower, including that of workers recruited [angeworbenen] 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 utilized manpower in the Great German Reich, including the Protectorate, and in the General Gouvernement and in the Occupied Territories, should be mobilized.

Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel will carry out this task within the framework of the Four Years Plan, as Plenipotentiary General for the utilization of labor. In that capacity he will be directly responsible to the Commissioner for the Four Years Plan.