11 Dec.
45
THE PRESIDENT: That is right. You have not begun to
read it yet.
MR. DODD: I propose to read from the fourth page of the English text,
Paragraph 2 at the top of the page, particularly the last two sentences
of the paragraph; and in the German text the passage is found in Page
10, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly, it is as follows:
"As things were, the recruiting of
manpower had to be accomplished by means of more or less forceful
methods, such as the instances when certain groups appointed by the
labor offices caught church and movie-goers indiscriminately and
transported them into the Reich. That such methods only undermine the
people's willingness to work and the people's confidence to such a
degree that it cannot be checked even with terror, is just as clear as
the consequences brought about by a strengthening of the political
resistance movement."
That
is the end of the quotation. We say that Polish farmland was confiscated
with the aid of the SS and was distributed to German inhabitants or held
in trust for the German community, and the farm owners were employed as
laborers or transported to Germany against their will. We refer to
Document Number 1352-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-176. This
document is a report of the SS, and it bears the title "Achievement
of Confiscations of Polish Agricultural Enterprises with the Purpose of
Transferring the Poles to the Old Reich and Employing them as
Agricultural Workers."
I wish to read from the first page of the English text beginning with
the fifth paragraph; and in the German text it appears on Page 9,
Paragraph 1 on that page. Quoting:
"It is possible without difficulty to
accomplish the confiscation of small agricultural enterprises in the
villages in which larger agricultural enterprises have been already
confiscated and are under the management of the East German
Corporation for Agricultural Development."
And then passing down three sentences, there is this statement which I
quote:
"The former owners of Polish farms
together with their families will be transferred to the Old Reich by
the employment offices for employment as farm workers. In this way
many hundreds of Polish agricultural workers can be placed at the
disposal of agriculture in the Old Reich in the shortest and simplest
manner. In this way, to begin with, the most pressing shortage now
felt in a very disagreeable manner, especially in the root-crop
districts, will be quickly removed."