8 Jan. 46

Plan office, addressed to various civilian and military authorities in the occupied territories, explaining that, and I quote, "any and all ... methods ... must be adopted" to force workers to go to Germany. I shall not read from our exhibit, if the Tribunal please, but I would like to offer in evidence Document 1183-PS as our Exhibit Number USA-585. This is a circular letter dated the 29th of .January 1942 of the Commissioner for the Four Year Plan.

It has been shown previously that on 21 March 1942 Hitler promulgated a decree appointing the Defendant Sauckel Plenipotentiary General for manpower, directing him to carry out his tasks within the framework of the Four Year Plan, and making him directly responsible to Göring as head of the Four Year Plan.

On 27 March 1942 the Defendant Göring issued his important enabling decree in pursuance of the decree of the Führer of 21 March 1942. The Tribunal has already judicially noted this decree, which is our Document 1666-PS.

Since the Defendant Sauckel. was an authority under the Four Year Plan, the Defendant Göring retains full responsibility for the enormous war crimes committed by Sauckel. as Plenipotentiary General for manpower. These crimes have been the subject of our presentations on slave labor, and on the illegal use of prisoners of war.

It was also proven during those presentations that the Nazi conspirators ordered prisoners of war to work under dangerous conditions and in the manufacturing and transportation of arms and munitions of war, in violation of the laws of war and of Articles 31 and 32 of the Geneva Convention of 27 July 1929 on prisoners of war. The Defendant Göring had a part in all these crimes.

At a conference on 7 November 1941, the subject of which was the employment of citizens of the Soviet Union, including prisoners of war, it appears from a memorandum signed by Körner, who was State Secretary to the Defendant Göring as Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan, that Göring gave certain ruthless directives for the use of Soviet citizens, both prisoners of war and free Soviet workers, as laborers. I refer to our Document 1193-PS which, with the permission of the Tribunal, I shall not offer in evidence at this time and which will be offered by the Soviet Prosecution.

In a set of top-secret notes of outlines laid down by Göring in what was apparently the same conference of 7 November 1941, which are already in evidence, the following facts appear:

1) That, of a total of 5 million prisoners of war, 2 million were employed in war industries;

2) That it was better to employ PW's than unsuitable foreign workers;