Chapter M: HERZOG: Under the heading “Gauleiter Sauckel,” I read—it is on Page

16 of the document:

“Sauckel objected very emphatically when it was said that the
inmates of concentration camps and the Hungarian Jews
constituted the best manpower on constructional work. This is
not true to fact, because they produce on an average 65 to 70
percent of the work of a normal worker; never 100 percent.
Besides, it is unworthy to put the German worker and the German
moral conception of work in the same category as this pack of
traitors. To an inmate of a concentration camp and to a Jew,
work is not a mark of nobility. Things cannot be permitted to
reach the point where inmates of concentration camps and Jews
become articles in demand. It is absolutely essential that all
concentration camp inmates and Jews working on building sites be
kept apart from the remainder of the workers, including
foreigners.

“Gauleiter Sauckel ended by pointing out that as a matter of
fact he did not object to the employment of Jews and
concentration camp inmates, but only to such exaggerations as
mentioned above.”

I would ask you, Sauckel, you who yesterday described your own life as a workman, what you meant when you said: “To an inmate of a concentration camp and to a Jew work is not a mark of nobility.”

SAUCKEL: I want to say most emphatically that this paragraph is a very condensed and free rendering, and not a shorthand report. I raised an objection because I assumed that inmates of concentration camps would be traitors. My only object was that these people should not be taken to the same places of work as the other workers, the Jews either. But I did not employ them; that was the business of the Reichsführer SS. I was speaking at a conference of leaders and in the interests of workers with a clean record and the other foreign workers. I objected to their being put to work together.

M. HERZOG: I ask you this question again. What did you mean when you said: “To an inmate of a concentration camp and to a Jew work is not a mark of nobility?”

SAUCKEL: By that I meant that the work of men who had been found guilty of offenses should not be compared with the work of free workers with a clean record. There is a difference if I employ prisoners in custody or if I employ free workers, and I wanted to see the two categories separated.

M. HERZOG: So that Jews were prisoners in custody, were they not?

SAUCKEL: In this case the Jews were prisoners of the Reichsführer SS. Actually, I regret the expression.

M. HERZOG: You dispute, therefore, that this phrase is an expression of the hostility which you showed to Jews for instance?

SAUCKEL: At that time I was, of course, against these Jews, but I was not concerned with their employment. I was against these workers, whose employment was the concern of the Reichsführer SS, being put with the other workers.

M. HERZOG: Did you ever conduct any propaganda against the Jews?

SAUCKEL: I conducted propaganda against the Jews with regard to their holding positions in the Reich which I considered should have been occupied by Germans.