12 Dec.
45
no alternative. I consequently have
authorized the commissioners of the areas to apply the severest
measures in order to achieve the imposed quota. That a lowering of
morale is coupled with this needs no further proof. It is nevertheless
essential to win the war on this front too. The problem of labor
mobilization cannot be handled with gloves."
The recruitment measures which we have been discussing enslaved so many
citizens of occupied countries that whole areas were depopulated.
I now wish to refer to our Document Number 3000-PS, which is Exhibit
USA-192. This document is a partial translation of a report from the
chief of Main Office III with the High Command in Minsk, and it is dated
the 28th day of June 1943. It was sent to Ministerialdirektor Riecke,
who was a top official in the Rosenberg Ministry. I wish to read from
Page 1 of the English text, starting with the second paragraph, as
follows:
"Thus recruitment of labor for the
Reich, however necessary, had disastrous effects, for the recruitment
measures in the last months and weeks were absolute manhunts, which
have an irreparable political and economic effect . . . . From . . .
White Ruthenia approximately 50,000 people have been obtained for the
Reich so far. Another 130,000 are to be taken. Considering the
2,400,000 total population . . . the fulfillment of these quotas is
impossible.... Owing to the sweeping drives of the SS and police in
November 1942, about 115,000 hectares of farmland . . . are not used,
as the population is not there and the villages have been razed . . .
. "
We have already referred
to the conspirators' objective of permanently weakening the enemy
through the enslavement of labor and the breaking up of families; and we
invite the Tribunal's attention to Document 031-PS, which is in evidence
as Exhibit USA-171, for we desire to emphasize that the policy was
applied in the Eastern Occupied Territories with the Defendant
Rosenberg's approval of a plan for the apprehension and deportation of
40,000 to 50,000 youths of the ages of 10 to 14. Now the stated purpose
of this plan was to prevent a reinforcement of the enemy's military
strength and to reduce the enemy's biological potentialities. We have
already quoted from Page 3 of the English text of that document to
establish that the Defendant Rosenberg approved that plan, the so-called
Hay Action plan. We referred to it yesterday afternoon.
Further evidence of the conspirators' plan to weaken their enemies, in
utter disregard of the rules of international law, is contained in
Document Number 1702-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-193. This
document is a secret order, issued by a