12 Dec.
45
care from the life of the Polish workers,
the prohibition of church attendance when there is a religious service
for other people, and other measures show a certain contempt for the
influence of religion on the feelings and opinions of the workers."
THE PRESIDENT: Can you tell us who the Polish Central Committee were —
or, I mean, how they were founded?
MR. DODD: Well, insofar as we are aware, it was a committee apparently
set up by the Nazi State when it occupied Poland to work in some sort of
co-operation with it during the days of the occupation. We don't know
the names of the members, and we haven't any more specific information.
THE PRESIDENT: Is it a captured document?
MR. DODD: It is a captured document, yes, Sir. All of the documents
that I am presenting in connection with this case are, excepting the
Netherlands Government's report and one or two other official reports,
the Deuss affidavit and such other matters, are captured documents. That
particular document, it has just been called to my attention, was
captured by the United States 3rd Army.
Particularly harsh and brutal treatment was reserved for workers
imported from the conquered Eastern territories. As we have illustrated,
they did indeed live in bondage, and they were subjected to almost every
form of degradation, quartered in stables with animals, denied the right
of free worship and the ordinary pleasures of human society.
Illustrative of this treatment is Document EC-68, bearing Exhibit
Number USA-205. This document, EC-68, bears the title, "Directives
on the Treatment of Foreign Farm Workers of Polish Nationality,"
issued by the Minister for Finance and Economy of Baden, Germany, on the
6th of March 1941. And we don't know his name, nor have we been able to
ascertain it.
Quoting from the English text of this document from the beginning:
"The agencies of the Baden State
Peasant Association of the Reich Food Administration, have received
the result of the negotiations with the Higher SS and Police Führer
in Stuttgart on 14 February 1941 with great satisfaction. Appropriate
memoranda have already been turned over to the District Peasants
Associations. Below I promulgate the individual regulations as they
have been laid down during the conference and the manner in which they
are now to be applied:
"1. On principle, farm workers of Polish nationality are no
longer granted the right to complain, and thus no complaints may be
accepted by any official agency.