13 Dec.
45
obtaining foreign labor as well as
domestic labor in response to your requests and that a large part of
the foreign labor was forced labor?
"A: Yes.
"Q: So that, simply by way of illustration, suppose that on
January 1, 1944 you require 50,000 workers for a given purpose; would
you put in a requisition for 50,000 workers, knowing that in that
50,000 there would be forced foreign workers?
"A: Yes."
The
Defendant Speer has also stated under oath that he knew at least as
early as September of 1942 that workers from the Ukraine were being
forcibly deported for labor into Germany. Likewise he knew that the
great majority of the workers of the western occupied countries were
slave laborers forced against their will to come to Germany; and again
referring to his interrogation of this 18th day of October 1945, and
beginning with the fourth Paragraph from the bottom of Page 5 of the
English text, Paragraph 10 on Page 6 of the German text, we find this
series of questions and answers:
"Q: When did you first find out then
that some of the manpower from the Ukraine was not coming voluntarily?
"A: It is rather difficult to answer this here, that is, to name
a certain date to you. However, it is certain that I knew that at some
particular point of time the manpower from the Ukraine did not come
voluntarily.
"Q: And does that apply also to the manpower from other occupied
countries; that is, did there come a time when you knew that they were
not coming voluntarily?
"A: Yes.
"Q: When, in general, would you say that time was without
placing a particular month of the year?
"A: As far as the Ukraine situation goes, I believe that they
did not come voluntarily any more after a few months, because immense
mistakes were made in their treatment by us. I should say offhand that
this time was either in July, August, or September of 1942."
Turning to Paragraph 11 on Page 6 of the English text of this same
interrogation and Page 7 and Paragraph 8 of the German text, we find
this series of questions and answers quoting:
"Q: But many workers actually did
come from the west to Germany, did they not? "
A: Yes.
"Q: That means then, that the great majority of the workers that
came from the western countries the western occupied countries
came against their will to Germany?