Chapter VII: Front Matter (7)

The nonpayment of wages for the compulsory labor of Soviet citizens had already been provided for in this so-called Göring’s Green File. It was presupposed that the problem of payment was reduced to the question of providing the workers with food. The fascist slave owners were only interested in maintaining the working potential of the people and nothing more—Page 18 of the Russian text of the Green File. This is the back of Page 83 of the document book. . .

THE PRESIDENT: This document has already been read into the record.

GEN. ZORYA: I think that this particular part of the document has not been read into the record. This is a document of the Soviet Prosecution, which was published completely for the first time in the note of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, V. M. Molotov, in May 1942.

THE PRESIDENT: If you say that it has not yet been read into the record, please go on.

GEN. ZORYA: On Page 18 of the Russian text of the Defendant Göring’s Green File it is mentioned at least three times that food was to be the only payment. I do not wish to take more time of the Tribunal with this document, but will proceed with my presentation.

Defendant Göring, who signed this directive for the plunder of the Soviet Union—for how else could we refer to the above-mentioned document—continued to organize forced labor in the temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union.

As evidence I present to the Tribunal Exhibit Number USSR-386 (Document Number USSR-386), a document which discloses this phase of the Defendant Göring’s activity. This document, or to be precise, these two documents are the record of the conference of 7 November 1941, on “Allocation of Russians,” in which Göring participated, and a covering letter to this record.

One hundred copies of the document were originally prepared and mailed to the 14 addresses which are listed, as Your Honors may see, on Page 5 of the Russian text of the document, at the end of the covering letter.

The covering letter attached to the record bears the signature of the Chief, Military Administration, Economic Staff East, Dr. Rachner. The minutes of the conference in question have been written by one Von Normann who was evidently an official of the same organization.

I think it will promote clarification if I read into the record certain parts of these minutes. I quote Page 6 of the Russian text of the document which corresponds to Pages 95 and 96 of the document book:

“Conference of 7 November 1941 on the allocation of Russian
manpower. The Reich Marshal gave the following directives for
the utilization of Russian manpower:

“I. Russian labor has demonstrated its capacity for production
in building up the gigantic industry of Russia. It must now be
successfully allocated in the Reich. In the face of such an
order of the Führer, objections are of secondary importance. The
disadvantages that may result from the employment of Russian
labor must be reduced to a minimum, and this is primarily the
concern of the counterintelligence service (Abwehr) and the
Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei).

“II. Russians in the operational zone. The Russians are to be
used primarily in the construction of roads and railroads, for
clearing work, clearing out mine fields, and in the construction
of air fields. The German construction battalions are largely to
be dissolved (for example in the Air Force). German skilled
workmen belong in war industry. Digging and stone breaking is
not their work. The Russian is there for that.

“III. Russians in the territories of the Reich commissioners and
of the Government General. Here the same principle applies as in
the second paragraph. In addition, increased use in agriculture;
if machines are lacking, manpower must produce what the Reich
will have to demand in the agrarian sector from the Eastern
territories. Further local manpower should be made available for
the ruthless exploitation of the Russian coal deposits.

“IV. Russians in the territory of the Reich, including the
Protectorate. The number to be employed is to be determined by
the need. Need is to be decided from the standpoint that foreign
workers who eat much and produce little are to be sent away from
the Reich and that in the future the German woman is not to be
used as extensively in the field of labor as hitherto. Along
with Russian prisoners of war, free Russian manpower is also to
be utilized.”

I shall now omit one page of this document and refer to Page 7. In the middle of the page there is Section B, entitled “The Free Russian Worker.”

My colleague, Colonel Pokrovsky, already mentioned the fact that the Hitlerites considered the civilian population as prisoners of war. This gave them the opportunity to increase for propaganda purposes the number of the allegedly captured Red Army soldiers in their reports on military operations, on the one hand, and to draw on them for manpower, on the other hand.

The section to which I just referred begins as follows, “Employment and treatment is not actually to be other than that given to Russian prisoners of war.” It should here be noted that the minutes of the conference end with the following statement by Göring—you will find this excerpt on Page 98 of the document book:

“Enlistment of workers and the utilization of prisoners of war
are to be carried on in a uniform manner, and they must be
organizationally combined.”

Coming back to Page 7 of the same minutes we come across the following eloquent statement by Göring on the subject of labor conditions for Russian workers and particularly their wages. . .

THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now.

[_A recess was taken._]

THE PRESIDENT: General Zorya, can you tell the Tribunal whether you think you will be able to finish the presentation of your documents this afternoon?

GEN. ZORYA: My intention is to finish my presentation today.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.

GEN. ZORYA: I would like to read into the record statements by Göring which concern the labor conditions of Russian workers and particularly their wages, from the document I have just presented:

“In connection with the labor conditions of the free Russians it
is to be kept in mind that:

“1. He may receive a little pocket money. . . .

“3. Since his labor is available to the employer cheaply,
financial compensation from the employer is to be given
attention.”

To clarify the above statement the Defendant Göring makes further the following suggestion—I quote on Page 8 of the Russian text of the document, Paragraph B, Subparagraph 6:

“The allocation of Russians must under no circumstance be
allowed to prejudice the wage problem in the eastern
territories. Every financial measure in this sphere must proceed
from the standpoint that lowest wages in the East—according to
a specific Führer decree—are a prerequisite for the equal
distribution to balance war costs and the clearing of war debts
by the Reich at the end of the war.

“Infractions are subject to the severest penalties.”

This is followed by two lines which are of interest, not only because they incriminate the Defendant Göring for introducing the system of forced labor. Having expressed himself so categorically against the “prejudice of the wage problem in the eastern territories,” Göring stated at the same conference as follows—Page 98 of the document book, “The same applied in substance to every encouragement of ‘social aspirations’ in the Russian colonial territory.”

The covering letter appended to the minutes of the meeting consists of comments which really do not add anything new to the facts already presented to the Tribunal. Therefore I shall not quote this letter.

The next document which I consider necessary to submit to the Tribunal and which I beg you to accept as evidence under Exhibit Number USSR-379 (Document Number UK-82) is a decree issued by the Defendant Göring on 10 January 1942. I will quote only the first 18 lines of this decree, which are on Page 100 of the document book:

“In the coming months the employment of manpower will acquire
still greater importance. On the one hand, the recruiting
situation of the Armed Forces necessitates the release of all
members of the younger age groups for this task. On the other
hand, urgent armament production and other phases of the war
economy, and also of agriculture, must be provided with the
manpower urgently needed by them. For this, the utilization of
prisoners of war, especially from Soviet Russia, plays an
important role.

“The measures that will be necessary in this field in the future
promise success only under unified leadership, and I shall use
every means to attain it.

“For that reason I have now granted my manpower
commission—which had already been dealing with all the manpower
questions of the Four Year Plan—the unlimited power to direct
. . . the entire manpower program.”

Later on, Your Honors, the criminal activity of the fascist conspirators in organizing and extending the system of forced labor acquired such magnitude that on 21 March 1942 Hitler issued a decree creating a special department under the Defendant Sauckel, who developed these activities on a large scale. I shall not dwell any longer on these historical facts as they have already been covered by our American, English, and French colleagues.

The vital bond between fascism and the system of forced labor is especially apparent when we consider the part played in this field not only by the fascist government machine but by the fascist Party itself. I should like to submit to the Tribunal a few documents which illustrate this fact.

I present to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-365 (Document Number USSR-365) a printed edition entitled, “Report of the Delegate of the Four Year Plan—Plenipotentiary for the Allocation of Labor.” This document is on Page 101 of the document book. The copy of the report, which I present, has the order Number 1 and it is dated 1 May 1942. The first page of the report contains Hitler’s decree of 21 March 1942, appointing Sauckel to this post. On the second page there is an order of the Defendant Göring dated 27 March of the same year, explaining the duties of the Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor within the framework of the Four Year Plan organizational structure. And on the third page of this report there is a program prepared by Sauckel for the “Führer’s birthday” in 1942.

Your Honors, the above-mentioned documents have already been submitted to the Tribunal by the Prosecution of the United States. But I wish to draw your attention to Page 17 of the Russian translation of this document, where you will find an order of the Defendant Sauckel, dated 6 April 1942: Order Number 1. This order is presented for the first time and is entitled, “Concerning Appointment of Gauleiter as Commissioners for the Allocation of Labor in the Gaue. This order begins as follows—I quote Page 118 of the document book:

“I hereby appoint the Gauleiter of the NSDAP my commissioners
for allocation of labor in the Gaue administered by them.

“A. Their tasks are:

“1) The achievement of smooth co-operation between all offices
set up by the State, the Party, the Wehrmacht, and the economic
authorities to deal with questions of manpower; and by means of
this, the regulation of different interpretations and claims in
such a way as to utilize manpower to the best possible effect.”

I omit some points.

“4) Investigation of the results obtained by utilizing the labor
of all foreign male and female workers. Special regulations will
be issued with regard to these.

“5) Investigation of the correct feeding, housing, and treatment
of all foreign workers and prisoners of war engaged in work.”

In his program for the allocation of labor, presented—as I have already pointed out—for Hitler’s birthday in 1942, the Defendant Sauckel wrote—this part of the program was not read into the record by the United States Prosecution; it is on Page 105 of the document book:

“IV. The Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor will,
therefore, with a very small personal staff of his own choice,
make exclusive use of existing institutions set up by the Party,
State, and industry, and the goodwill and co-operation of all
will assure the quickest success of his measures.

“V. The Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor has, therefore,
with consent of the Führer and in agreement with the Reich
Marshal of Greater Germany and the Chief of the Party
Chancellery, appointed all the Gauleiter of Greater Germany as
his commissioners in the Gaue of the National Socialist Labor
Party (NSDAP).

“VI. The commissioners for allocation of labor will use the
competent offices of the Party in their Gaue. The chiefs of the
highest competent State and economic offices in their Gaue will
advise and instruct the Gauleiter in all-important questions
relative to labor allocation.

“Especially important for that purpose are the following: The
President of the State Labor Office, the Trustee for Labor, the
State Peasant Leader, the Gau Economic Adviser, the Gau Trustee
of the German Labor Front, the Gau Women’s Leader, the District
Hitler Youth Leader, the highest representative of the Interior
and General Administration, especially if the Office for
Agriculture falls within his jurisdiction.

“VII. The most elevated and most essential task of the Gauleiter
of the NSDAP in their capacity of commissioners in their Gaue is
to secure the maximum agreement between all offices dealing with
questions of manpower in their Gau.”

In this document Sauckel addressed himself to the Gauleiter asking them repeatedly to give him all possible assistance in every respect. I would like to draw Your Honors’ attention to only one of Sauckel’s assertions in this document. He mentions the decision of Hitler to send to the Reich “in order to help the German peasant women, four or five hundred thousand selected, healthy, and strong girls from the eastern territories,” thus to relieve German women and girls of labor duty. Apparently in order to explain the advantage of this measure, Sauckel wrote, “Please trust me as an old and fanatical National Socialist Gauleiter when I say that in the end the decision could not be different.”

The importance of the part played by the fascist Party in the organization of compulsory slave labor and how far this Party went into the matter, is shown by the following document which I am submitting to the Tribunal as evidence, Exhibit Number USSR-383 (Document Number USSR-383). This document is a letter of the Defendant Sauckel, dated 8 September 1942, and is entitled, “Special Action of the Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor for the Purpose of Procuring Female Workers from the East for the Benefit of Town and Country Households with Many Children.”

In the course of my presentation I shall have the opportunity to refer once more to this document. In the meantime I wish to draw your attention to the passage which has direct bearing on the role of the fascist Party in this measure. On Page 3 of the Russian text of the document, which I hereby submit, there is a section entitled, “Viewpoints for Selecting Households.”

THE PRESIDENT: Does it matter whether these women were brought into a house where they ought not to have been brought and whether a particular German housewife was entitled to a woman worker or not? The whole point, it would seem, is whether they were deported—and forcibly deported.

GEN. ZORYA: Mr. President, I just had it in view to abridge this passage which you mentioned. But now I am talking about something else. I would like to show the part which the fascist Party played in organizing slave labor inside Germany and in particular in the distribution of those Soviet women who were transported for this purpose to Germany. Here are two short documents which I consider necessary to submit to the Tribunal. As for the rest, which concerns the regime which has already been described sufficiently by the United States and British Prosecutions, I do not intend to dwell upon it and contemplated cutting down this part to the minimum.

I wish to dwell on this part of the document which says that applications for obtaining an eastern woman worker for household duties, are to be examined by the Labor Department which would decide whether there is a real need for the worker and are then to be forwarded for final approval to the corresponding leader of NSDAP. Should the district leader object to granting a woman worker to the household, the Labor Department declines to send an eastern woman worker to the applicant and accordingly declines the permission for the employment of such. The refusal need not be motivated, and the decision is final.

You may find this on Page 129 of the document book. It is followed by the application form. You will find this in the appendix to Exhibit Number USSR-383 (Document Number USSR-383). This application form contains a brief questionnaire about the family which would like to employ a domestic worker in the household. This application form also contains the reply form of the corresponding fascist Party organization whether it recommends or not the use of an eastern slave in this household.

I request the Tribunal to pay attention to the appendix to Exhibit Number USSR-383. This appendix is entitled, “Memo for Housewives Regarding Employment of Eastern Woman Workers in Urban and Rural Households.” This memo has already been mentioned by Mr. Dodd. I will not dwell upon it in detail, but will only draw the attention of the Tribunal to the subtitle which is on Page 133.

I beg Your Honors to pay attention to the subtitle of this slave owner’s memo.

The statement between brackets announces that this memo is published by the Plenipotentiary for the Allocation of Labor in agreement with the chief of the Party Chancellery and other corresponding authorities. It is difficult to state it more precisely. Millions of foreign slaves were languishing in Germany. A German could become a slave-owner with the sanction and under the supervision of the fascist Party. Apparently this also constituted one of the elements of the New Order in Europe.

I deem it indispensable to refer also to the order of the Defendant Göring, dated 27 March 1942. I do not submit this document, as it is already at the disposal of the Tribunal, having been presented by the United States Prosecution:

“The Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor, in order to carry
out his tasks, herewith receives the power which the Führer has
given me to issue directives to the superior Reich authorities
and to their subordinate offices, to Party authorities and to
Party organizations and attached units.”

This order of the Defendant Göring does not only determine the special part of the fascist Party in the execution of the compulsory labor system, but also emphasizes the extraordinary powers of Defendant Sauckel in this field.

The documents to which I have been referring thus far give grounds for the Soviet Prosecution to assert that within the general framework of the fascist State the fascist Party was the center of all measures for the organization of compulsory slave labor.

I would like now to turn to the part taken by the German High Command in the organization of compulsory labor and deportation into slavery of Soviet people. With this object in view, I submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-367 (Document Number USSR-367), an OKH document regarding—I am using the words of the document itself—the “Enlistment of Russian Manpower for the Reich.” I beg the Tribunal to refer to Page 138 of the document book in which this document is to be found.

First of all, let us look at the source from which this document emanates. In the upper left-hand corner of the first page you will find, “High Command of the Army, General Staff of the Army, Quartermaster General, Office of Military Administration, (EC) Number II 3210/42—secret.” In the upper right-hand corner: “Headquarters, High Command of the Army, 10 May 1942,” and again the stamp “secret.” After the title it states:

“Subject: OKH, Gen Qu/Ec/II, Number 2877/42, secret, 25 April
1942; OKH, Gen Qu/Section Mil. Adm. Number 3158/1942, secret, 6
May 1942.”

Therefore, the document which I intend to quote here originates from the OKH and is based on orders previously issued by the OKH. At the end of the document there is a list of addresses to which it was distributed. I will not quote this list in full, but it leaves no doubt as to who were the executors of the orders contained in the above document. These executors were the military authorities.

Let us now turn to the contents of the submitted document. First of all, what induced the OKH when it issued this letter? The reply to this question is contained in the first paragraph of our document, which I shall now read into the record. I abridge the quotation:

“The Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor appointed by the
Führer, Gauleiter Sauckel . . . in consideration of the
increased armament requirements of the Reich and in order to
secure the manpower requirements of the German war and armament
economy, has ordered that the enlisting and transferring into
the Reich of Russian manpower be speeded up and considerably
increased.

“For the execution of this recruiting action . . . influence of
the military and local administrative authorities (field
Kommandantura, local Kommandantura, I A—organization of the
Economic Staff East, district administrations, town mayors, _et
cetera_) . . . is necessary. This is a task of decisive
importance for the outcome of the war. The labor situation of
the Reich makes it necessary that the ordered measures are
carried out on a priority basis and in a large scale manner.
This must be the chief task of all organizations.”

The next two paragraphs of the quoted document, part of which is entitled, “Priority of Manpower Needs in the Armed Forces and Economy in the East,” contain the following statement—I quote Page 139 of your document book which runs:

“The immediate manpower needs of the Army must be satisfied in
the highest priority inasmuch as the need is actually
inescapable . . . and unalterable. The scale of the needs of the
Army is to be determined by the armies, the commanders of the
front areas, and the Wehrmacht commanders. However, in
consideration of the urgent labor needs of the Reich . . . the
severest standard is to be applied, and especially the scale of
the troops’ own manpower needs is to be most carefully
examined.”

THE PRESIDENT: Isn’t it sufficient to say that this document provides for the speeding up of the mobilization of manpower and slave labor for the purposes of the necessities of the Reich? Does it do anything more than that?

GEN. ZORYA: Yes, you are quite right, Mr. President. It would be enough if we add that this document contains the demand not only to accelerate the mobilization of manpower but also the demand for immediate participation by the military authorities who had to arrange a suitable machinery in the form of suitable officers.

I pass on to the next document which I submit to the Tribunal.

It would be a mistake to think that the OKH gave orders only of such general character. In July 1941 the Defendant Keitel learned that the subdepartments of the Organization Todt in the Lvov district paid the local workers a wage of 25 rubles. This fact made Keitel indignant. Todt immediately received an appropriate reprimand. And so we come to the next document, which I present to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-366 (Document Number USSR-366).

The Reich Minister directly refers, in this document, to the fact that Field Marshal Keitel expressed his displeasure that the subdepartments of the Organization Todt in the suburbs of Lvov paid the local workers wages of 25 rubles and that the subdepartments of the O.T. were making use of the factories.

Todt declares that during his last trip he had explained in detail to all members of the staff that the rules for the allocation of labor in Russian territory were different from those in Western Europe. Further in this document Todt categorically prohibits the paying of any sums of money at all. He concludes this document in the following terms:

“No compensation shall be given to the firms for payments not in
conformity with the above principles.

“This order is to be brought to the attention of all subordinate
labor allocation offices and to all firms.

“Signed: Dr. Todt.”

The German Government and the High Command ordered the use of peaceful Soviet citizens for work which endangered life. This was mentioned by Göring at a conference on 7 November 1941. I now submit to the Tribunal Exhibit Number USSR-106 (Document Number USSR-106), which contains the translation of the Führer’s directive, signed by him on 8 September 1942. This directive concerns the allocation of labor for the construction of fortifications on the Eastern Front. This document comes from the German archives captured by the Allied armies in the West. The covering letter to this document states that this document “is top secret, and that copies of it will be sent to staffs and divisions and are to be returned to the Army staffs and destroyed.”

On the second page of the document, we find Hitler’s order. I read it into the record:

“HQu, 8 September 1942.

“The heavy defensive battles in the area of Army Groups Center
and North induce me to fix my views on some fundamental tasks of
the defense.”

The next Paragraphs, 1 and 2 on Pages 1 to 7, concern general principles of defense, which do not interest us today. On Page 148 of the document book is the following passage which I read into the record:

“The enemy carries on construction to a far greater extent than
do our own troops. I know that it will be argued that the enemy
has at his disposal more labor for construction of such
positions. But it is therefore an absolute necessity at exactly
this point to make use, with ruthless energy, especially of
prisoners of war and the population for these tasks. Only in
this respect is the Russian superior to us in his brutal way. By
this means, however, the German soldier, too, can be spared to a
large extent from labor on defensive works behind the front
lines, in order that he may be kept free and fresh for his real
duties. Frequently the necessary ruthlessness which the present
fateful battle demands is not yet being employed here, for in it
not a victory but the existence and survival of our people is
contested. Besides, it is in all circumstances still always more
humane to drive the Russian population to work, with every
means, as it has always been accustomed to be driven, than to
sacrifice our most precious possession, our own blood.”

This order is signed by Hitler.

Units of the Red Army also captured a decree issued by the German occupation authorities, which referred to an order of the General Staff about forced labor in combat zones. I submit this document as Exhibit Number USSR-407 (Document Number USSR-407), and I deem it necessary to quote a few sentences from Page 149 of the document book:

“Decree: In accordance with the regulations of the Chief of the
OKW, dated 6 February 1943, regarding transfer for labor in the
combat zone of the newly occupied eastern territory, all women
born in 1924 and 1925 are hereby summoned for labor in Germany.

“Point V of this order provides that: . . . those who do not
present themselves on the given dates shall be held responsible
as saboteurs in accordance with military laws.”

I am summarizing this section.

The High Command of the German Armed Forces and the Defendant Keitel took a direct part in the execution of this system of forced slave labor. For the realization of this criminal objective they used on a large scale from bottom to top, the entire machinery of the military administration.

Your Honors, I beg to refer to the next document which I am now presenting as Exhibit Number USSR-381 (Document Number USSR-381).

THE PRESIDENT: General, was that last order that you gave us Keitel’s order? It is signed apparently by the Chief of the General Staff of the Military Command.

GEN. ZORYA: This is not an order of Keitel. This document which was submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-381 is entitled “Instruction to the Economic Offices, ‘Section Labor,’ on the Organization of Labor Allocation in the East.”

THE PRESIDENT: I thought you said that was by Keitel.

GEN. ZORYA: The preceding document which was submitted to the Tribunal was actually one of Keitel’s orders, but now I wish to speak of this instruction. I beg Your Honors to pay attention to the date on which this instruction was issued, namely 26 January 1942. In this instruction, on Page 150 of the document book, it is stated that the hopes which the Reich Marshal had placed in the office for the allocation of labor must be justified at all costs:

“The task of the economic organizations and the office for the
allocation of labor in the East consists in bridging, during the
coming months, the gaps in the economy which arose owing to the
departure into the army of men of younger conscription age due
to the universal enlistment of Russian manpower. This is of
decisive importance for the war and must therefore be achieved.
If the number of volunteers does not come up to expectations,
then the enlistment measures already ordered should be
reinforced by all available means.”

The United States Prosecution has submitted to the Tribunal a document of the Soviet Prosecution, Exhibit Number USSR-381 (Document Number USSR-381), entitled, “Memo on the Treatment of Foreign Civilian Workers in the Reich.”

I do not wish to quote this document again, but consider it necessary only to show. . .

DR. OTTO NELTE (Counsel for Defendant Keitel): The President has just now asked about the Document Number USSR-407 and the prosecutor has presented it here as a document of Keitel. I have only just now found this document. If it is a question of the same document that I have marked as USSR-407, then it is signed by a local commander and by a chief of the labor office.

Is this document the same as that presented to you as USSR-407?

THE PRESIDENT: I have already pointed out, have I not, that it was not by Keitel?

DR. NELTE: Yes, Sir. But the Prosecutor has thereupon repeatedly said that this Document 407 represents an order by Keitel. That is why I wanted to clarify it.

GEN. ZORYA: Perhaps the Tribunal will allow me to clarify this matter. Apparently a misunderstanding arose through faulty translation. I said that troops of the Red Army had seized a German order, and added that the order had been issued by the German occupational authorities—you can verify this by looking up the stenographic record—which referred to an order of Keitel regarding forced labor in the combat zones. This order begins with the following words, “In accordance with the regulations of the Chief of the OKW, dated 6 February 1943, transfer for labor in the combat zone,” and so forth. I shall not quote any further.

If I may beg the Tribunal to consider once more a document which I have already submitted previously, that is, the document of the High Command of the Army, Number II/3210/42, it is because this order refers to corresponding orders of the General Staff of the Army on questions of allocation of labor in the East. This order of the occupational authorities, which I submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-407, refers to one of these orders. It states quite clearly, “In accordance with the regulations of the Chief of the OKW.” That is why I submitted this document.

THE PRESIDENT: I am afraid I really don’t understand you. What I have got in the translation before me is this, “The units of the Red Army captured a copy of the German decree which mentioned Keitel’s order on forced labor in the combat zone,” and continues further that those persons refusing to work shall be apprehended as saboteurs. This document is submitted as Exhibit USSR something or other.

It may be useful to read a few excerpts of it, “By order of the Chief of the General Staff of the Military Command, of 6 February 1943, concerning the compulsory labor service . . . in the combat zone”—and then it goes on to deal with persons who don’t present themselves being considered saboteurs.

Well, I thought you were saying that the Chief of the General Staff of the Military Command was Keitel. He was the Chief of the OKW. Are you still saying that he was the Chief of the Military Command?

GEN. ZORYA: I quote only that which is in the document: “In accordance with the regulations of the Chief of the General Staff of the Military Command.” That is in the document, and I do not wish to add anything.

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think it is worth taking any more time over it.

GEN. ZORYA: I will now go back to that document which was submitted to the Tribunal by the United States Prosecution and which was entitled, “Memo for the Treatment of Foreign Civilian Laborers in the Reich.” I will not quote this document in detail; I would like to stress only that it established a special regime for Eastern Workers. They lived in camps surrounded by guards and under supervision of a camp commander. The latter forbade a normal life for workers from the East. They were thus forbidden to visit churches or public places and they were obliged to wear special insignia—a rectangle with pale blue edges, and in the middle the word “Ost” in white letters on the dark blue background.

In the memorandum to housewives regarding the employment of women from the East in town and rural households it was stated that—Page 131 of the document book:

“Every foreigner judges the standard of our entire people by the
personal and political conduct of the individual. The foreign
workers must see in the housewife and the members of her family
worthy representatives of the German people.”

I proceed further:

“If, in exceptional cases, German and eastern female domestic
workers are employed in the same household, the German domestic
workers must be given mainly tasks of serving the family and
must also be given the supervision of the Eastern woman worker.
The German living in the household must always have precedence.”

General conditions of work did not apply to the women workers from the East. Their labor was regulated only by the discretion of their masters. This was expressed in Paragraph 4 of the same memorandum. I quote:

“Eastern women workers are employed in the households in a
special labor relation. German regulations on working conditions
and on labor protection refer to them only insofar as this is
specifically decreed.”

The character of these special instructions can be seen in Paragraph 9, Section B of the memorandum, which states quite openly:

“No claim to leisure time is given. Eastern women domestic
workers may leave the household only when on duty connected with
the needs of the household. . . . Visiting the theaters,
restaurants, cinemas, and similar . . . institutions is
forbidden.”

Paragraph 10 of the memorandum states:

“Eastern female domestic workers are enlisted for indefinite
time.”

Paragraph 12 of the memorandum states that:

“Germans may not share a room with the Eastern woman worker.”

Paragraph 14 states that:

“Clothing as a rule cannot be supplied.”

These two documents just mentioned by me, “Memo on the Treatment of Foreign Civilian Laborers” and “Memorandum for Housewives on the Employment of Eastern Female Workers,” reflect the inhuman conditions of work for the forcibly mobilized Soviet citizens. The Soviet Prosecution has at its disposal numerous documents, the testimonies of persons who themselves experienced the terror of fascist slavery. The enumeration of all these documents would take too much time. The Soviet Government had at its disposal, already in the early phases of the war against fascist Germany, many proofs of the crimes of the fascist conspirators in this field.

The first document of this kind published by the Soviet Government is the note of the People’s Commissar of Foreign Affairs, Molotov, dated 6 January 1942, which was presented to the Tribunal by the Soviet Prosecution as Exhibit Number USSR-51(2), (Document USSR-51(2)) and this note stated that:

“The peaceful citizens forcibly deported for compulsory labor
were proclaimed ‘prisoners of war’ by the German authorities and
treated as such as far as their maintenance is concerned. It has
been established by reports of Staffs of the German Army that
peasants and other peaceful citizens seized by the Germans and
deported for compulsory labor were automatically put on the list
as prisoners of war. Thus the number of prisoners of war was
artificially and unlawfully increased.

“In the vicinity of the town of Plavsk, in the region of Tula, a
camp was established where Soviet war prisoners and the civilian
population from neighboring villages were interned at the same
time. The Soviet citizens were there subjected to inhuman
tortures and sufferings. There were young boys and girls, women,
and old men among them. Their only food consisted of two
potatoes and some barley grits each day. The death rate reached
25 to 30 persons daily.

“After the occupation of Kiev, the Germans drove into slave
labor all the civilian population from 11 to 60 years of age,
irrespective of their profession, their sex, state of health, or
nationality.

“People who were too ill to stand on their feet were fined by
the Germans for every day of work they missed.

“In Kharkov the German invaders decided to make the local
Ukrainian intellectuals an object of their mockery. On 5
November 1941 all actors were ordered to appear at the
Shevtshenko Theater for registration. When they had gathered,
they were surrounded by German soldiers who harnessed them to
carts and drove them along the most frequented streets to the
river for water.”

The second document of the Soviet Government was the Foreign Commissar’s note, dated 27 April 1942. This note is submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit USSR-51 (Document Number USSR-51). Section 3 of this note is entitled, “Installation of a Regime of Slavery and Bondage in the Occupied Territories of the Soviet Union and Deportation of Civilian Population as Prisoners of War.” This note states that:

“In the Ukraine and Bielorussia the Germans introduced a 14- or
16-hour workday, in most cases without any compensation and in
some cases with ridiculously low wages.

“In the secret instructions entitled, ‘On Current Tasks in the
Eastern Regions,’ captured by Red Army troops at the beginning
of March 1942, the chief of the Military Economic Inspectorate
Central Front, Lieutenant General Weigang, admits that:

“‘It has proved impossible to maintain industrial production
with the labor of semi-starved and semi-clad people,’ that ‘the
devaluation of money and the commodity crisis coincide with a
dangerous lack of confidence in the German authorities on the
part of the local population,’ and that ‘this constitutes a
danger to the peace in the occupied regions which cannot be
permitted in the rear of the combat troops.’ The German general
in this document presumes to call these occupied regions ‘our
new eastern colonial possession.’

“Acknowledging that the complete collapse of industrial
production in the occupied districts has led to mass
unemployment, the German General Weigang issued the following
orders for speeding up the forcible dispatch of the Russian,
Ukrainian, Bielorussian, and other workers to Germany.

“‘Only the shipping to Germany of some millions of Russian
workers and only the inexhaustible reserves of healthy and
strong people in the Occupied Eastern Territories . . . can
solve the urgent problem of manpower shortage and therewith meet
the lack of labor in Germany.’

“In an order . . . seized by units of the Red Army, recruiting
the entire civilian population of the occupied districts for all
kinds of heavy labor was ordered; and it was stated that this
forced labor was not to be paid for; and it was insolently
declared that by this unpaid labor the population would atone
for its guilt for the acts of sabotage already committed as well
as for the acts of sabotage which might be committed by them in
the future.

“In Kaluga, on 20 November 1941, an announcement was posted,
signed by the German commandant, Major Portatius, which ran as
follows:

“‘1. Citizens who do poor work or do not work the specified
number of hours will be subject to a monetary fine. In the event
of nonpayment, delinquents will be subjected to corporal
punishment.

“‘2. Citizens who have received a work assignment and who have
not reported for work will be subject to corporal punishment and
will receive no food rations from the municipality.

“‘3. Citizens evading work in general will, in addition, be
expelled from Kaluga. Citizens shirking work will be attached to
labor detachments and columns, and billeted in barracks. They
will be used for heavy labor.’”

This note indicated also that land would be transferred to German landowners. This was established by a land law which was promulgated at the end of April 1942 by the Hitlerite Gauleiter Alfred Rosenberg.

I pass on to the next note of People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov which was published a year after the note dated 27 April 1942.

On 11 May 1943 the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Molotov, sent to all Ambassadors and Ministers of all the countries with which the U.S.S.R. had diplomatic relations a note, “Concerning the Wholesale Forcible Deportation of Peaceful Soviet Citizens to German Fascist Slavery and Concerning the Responsibility Borne for this Crime by German Authorities and Individuals.” This note is submitted to the Tribunal as evidence as Exhibit Number USSR-51(4) (Document Number USSR-51(4)).

I consider it necessary to read a few quotations from this note. On Page 165 of the document book there is a reference to a declaration of Göring of 7 November 1941, which has already been mentioned by me. I will not again repeat all that Göring said at that conference. I will only stress that Göring issued a blood-thirsty order “not to spare the Soviet people deported into Germany and to handle them in the most cruel manner under any excuse.” This order is included in section IV-A7 of the above-mentioned note. It reads as follows:

“In applying measures for the maintenance of order, the main
principle must be swiftness and severity. Only the following
forms of punishment must be employed, without intermediary
grades: deprivation of food and death by sentence of field
court-martial.”

On 31 March 1942 Sauckel issued the following order by telegraph:

“The enlistment, for which you are responsible, must be speeded
up by every available means, including the stern application of
the principle of labor service.”

The Soviet Government is in possession of the complete text of a report by the Chief of the Political Police and Security Service with the Chief of the SS in Kharkov, headed, “The Situation in the City of Kharkov from 23 July to 9 September 1942.”

“The recruiting of labor power”—states this document—“is
causing the competent bodies disquietude, for the population is
displaying extreme reluctance to go to work in Germany. The
situation at present is that everybody does his utmost to evade
enlistment. Voluntary departure to Germany has long been
entirely out of the question.”

Your Honors, I must stress that the Defendant Sauckel, as Plenipotentiary for the Allocation of Labor, actively pursued criminal activity, as it is pointed out in the note of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, which I just presented. On 31 March 1942 Sauckel sent to his subordinate departments a telegraphic instruction regarding the utilization of Russians and the work of the enlistment committee. I submit this telegram of Sauckel to the Tribunal as evidence, Exhibit Number USSR-382 (Document Number USSR-382). In this telegram Sauckel writes:

“The rate of mobilization must be increased immediately and
under all circumstances to insure, in the shortest possible
time, that is to say, by April, that a three-fold increase in
the number of dispatched workers is achieved.”

Sauckel’s efforts were appreciated by the Defendant Göring at the time when he was Delegate for the Four Year Plan. I refer now to the conference which Göring held on 6 August 1942. This protocol has been submitted by the Soviet Prosecution to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-170 (Document Number USSR-170). I beg you to refer to Pages 12 and 13 of this document, Page 184 of the document book. Göring came forth with the following words,

“I have to say one thing to this. I do not wish to praise the
Gauleiter Sauckel; he does not need it.”

THE PRESIDENT: All this was read the other day. The actual words were read yesterday.

GEN. ZORYA: I am quite sure, Mr. President, that my colleague, who read into the record this document, did not read this particular passage.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but I still think that he read this excerpt which you have got set out in your document, “I do not wish to praise Gauleiter Sauckel; he does not need it.” He certainly referred to the excerpt which you have just summarized about Lohse.

GEN. ZORYA: I do not wish to argue but I had the information that this excerpt had not been read into the record. If you like, I will not read this passage into the record.

THE PRESIDENT: Maybe you are right. I don’t know.

GEN. ZORYA: Then, I will read it into the record very briefly:

“I do not wish to praise Gauleiter Sauckel; he does not need it.
But what he has done in such a short time to collect workers so
quickly from the whole of Europe and supply them to our
undertakings is a unique achievement. I must tell that to all
these gentlemen; if each of them used in their sphere of
activity a tenth of the energy used by Gauleiter Sauckel, the
tasks laid upon them would indeed easily be carried out. This is
my sincere conviction and in no way fine words.”

I return again to the note of the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, V. M. Molotov, dated 11 May 1943. This note further gives data concerning the number of Soviet people who were deported to Germany. This note states that the deportation of Soviet people to German slavery was accompanied nearly everywhere by bloody repressive measures against Soviet citizens seeking refuge from slave merchants who were hunting for them. It has been established that in Gjatsk 75 peaceful inhabitants of the town were shot and that in Poltava 65 railroad men were hanged. The same thing in other towns also—executions, shootings, and hangings were carried out on the same scale.

THE PRESIDENT: I understood from you at the beginning of your speech that you were going to finish this afternoon your presentation. It is now 5 minutes past 5. Is there any chance of your finishing today?

GEN. ZORYA: If I had not been interrupted by Defense Counsel for 10 minutes in connection with a discussion about the order of the German occupational authorities, I would have finished my statement.

THE PRESIDENT: How long do you think will it take you now?

GEN. ZORYA: A maximum of 10 minutes.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

GEN. ZORYA: The note states that the Soviet citizens in the territories captured by the Germans are, with growing frequency and organization, offering courageous resistance to the slave owners. The growth of the partisan movement in connection with the resistance the Soviet citizens are offering to forcible transportation into German slavery is admitted with alarm in a number of secret reports from German army and police administrations.

This note quotes further a number of testimonies of Soviet people who had escaped German slavery. I will only quote one of these testimonies of Kolkhoz member Varvara Bakhtina of the village of Nikolayevka, Kursk region, who stated:

“In Kursk we were pushed into cattle wagons, 50 to 60 persons in
each wagon. Nobody was permitted to leave. Every now and then
the German sentry hustled and punched us. In Lgov we had to get
out and be examined by a special commission there. In the
presence of the soldiers we were compelled to undress quite
naked and have our bodies examined. The nearer we got to
Germany, the fewer were the people left in the train. From Kursk
they took 3,000 persons but at nearly every station the sick and
those dying from hunger were thrown out. In Germany we were put
into a camp with Soviet prisoners of war. This was in a forest
section surrounded by a high barbed-wire fence. Four days later
we were taken to different places. I, my sister Valentina, and
13 other girls were sent to an armament factory.”

The third section of this report describes further the treatment under which the Soviet workers lived in German slavery. This part of the report also mentions the statement made by Göring concerning Russian workers. Göring states in the above-mentioned directives:

“The Russian is not fastidious and, therefore, it is easy to
feed him without affecting our food stocks to any appreciable
degree. He must not be spoiled or allowed to get accustomed to
German food.”

Finally the note quotes a number of letters from home to the German soldiers on the Eastern Front, which describe the humiliation to which the Soviet workers were subjected. I will quote a passage from one of such letters. A letter from his mother in Chemnitz was found on the body of Wilhelm Bock, killed German private, of the 221st German Infantry Division. This letter reads:

“Many Russian women and girls are working at the Astra Works.
They are compelled to work 14 and more hours a day. Of course,
they receive no pay whatever. They go to and from the factory
under escort. The Russians literally drop from exhaustion. The
guards often whip them. They have no right to complain about the
bad food or ill-treatment. The other day my neighbor obtained a
servant. She paid some money at an office and was given the
opportunity to choose any woman she pleased from a number here
from Russia.”

Letters also mention mass suicides of Russian women and men.

The note ends with a declaration of the Soviet Government, which states that it places responsibility for atrocities in this domain on the leading Hitlerite clique and the High Command of the German fascist Army:

“The Soviet Government also places full responsibility for the
above enumerated crimes upon the Hitlerite officials who are
engaged in recruiting, abducting, transporting in camps, selling
into slavery, and inhumanly exploiting peaceful Soviet civilians
who have been forcibly transported from their native land to
Germany. . . . The Soviet Government holds that stern
responsibility should be borne by such already exposed criminals
as . . . Fritz Sauckel and . . . Alfred Rosenberg.”

And finally the note points out:

“The Soviet Government expresses the conviction that all the
Governments concerned are unanimous on the point that the Hitler
Government and its agents must bear full responsibility and
receive stern punishment for the monstrous crimes they have
committed, for the privation and suffering they have inflicted
upon millions of peaceful citizens who have been forcibly
deported into German fascist slavery.”

This is the end of People’s Commissar Molotov’s note. Kindly allow me to close my statement also with these words.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now adjourn.

[_The Tribunal adjourned until 23 February 1946 at 1000 hours._]

SIXTY-SIXTH DAY
Saturday, 23 February 1946

_Morning Session_

THE PRESIDENT: Before we deal with the applications, I am going to read the Tribunal’s order upon Dr. Stahmer’s memorandum of 4 February 1946 and the Prosecution’s motion of the 11th of February 1946. This is the order:

The Tribunal makes no order with regard to Paragraphs 2 to 5 of the Prosecution’s motion as to the evidence of the defendants, dated the 11th of February 1946.

With regard to Paragraphs 2 and 7 of Dr. Stahmer’s memorandum on defense procedure, dated the 4th of February 1946, the Tribunal makes the following order:

1. The defendants’ cases will be heard in the order in which the defendants’ names appear in the Indictment.

2. (a) During the presentation of a defendant’s case, defendant’s counsel will read documents, will question witnesses, and will make such brief comments on the evidence as are necessary to insure a proper understanding of it.

(b) The defendant’s counsel may be assisted in the courtroom by his associate counsel or by another defendant’s counsel. Such other counsel may help the defendant’s counsel in handling documents, _et cetera_, but shall not address the Tribunal or examine witnesses.

3. Documentary evidence.

(a) Defendant’s counsel will hand to the General Secretary the original of any document which he offers in evidence if the original is in his possession. If the original is in the possession of the Prosecution, counsel will request the Prosecution to make the original of the document available for introduction in evidence. If the Prosecution declines to make the original available, the matter shall be referred to the Tribunal.

(b) Should the original of any such document be in the possession of the Tribunal, defendant’s counsel will hand to the General Secretary a copy of the whole or relevant part of such document, together with a statement of the document number and the date upon which it was received in evidence.