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his
failure to live up to the obligation to supply 4
million workers from occupied territories. In
some cases Speer demanded laborers from specific
foreign countries. Thus, at the conference of
10-12 August 1942 Sauckel was instructed to
supply Speer with "a further million
Russian laborers for the German armament
industry up to and including October 1942".
At a meeting of the Central Planning Board on 22
April 1943 Speer discussed plans to obtain
Russian laborers for use in the coal mines, and
flatly vetoed the suggestion that this labor
deficit should be made up by German labor.
Speer
has argued that he advocated the reorganization
of the labor program to place a greater emphasis
on utilization of German labor in war production
in Germany and on the use of labor in occupied
countries in local production of consumer goods
formerly produced in Germany. Speer took steps
in this direction by establishing the so-called
"blocked industries" in the occupied
territories which were used to produce goods to
be shipped to Germany. Employees of these
industries were immune from deportation to
Germany as slave laborers and any worker who had
been ordered to go to Germany could avoid
deportation if he went to work for a blocked
industry. This system, although somewhat less
inhumane than deportation to Germany, was still
illegal. The system of blocked industries played
only a small part in the over-all slave labor
program, although Speer urged its cooperation
with the slave labor program, knowing the way in
which it was actually being administered. In an
official sense, he was its principal beneficiary
and he constantly urged its extension.
Speer
was also directly involved in the utilization of
forced labor, as Chief of the Organization Todt.
The Organization Todt functioned principally in
the occupied areas on such projects as the
Atlantic Wall and the construction of military
highways, and Speer has admitted that he relied
on compulsory service to keep it adequately
staffed. He also used concentration camp labor
in the industries under his control. He
originally arranged to tap this source of labor
for use in small out-of-the-way factories; and
later, fearful of Himmler's jurisdictional
ambitions, attempted to use as few concentration
camp workers as possible.
Speer was
also involved in the use of prisoners of war in
armament industries but contends that he
utilized Soviet prisoners of war only in
industries covered by the Geneva Convention.
Speer's position was such that he was not
directly concerned with the cruelty in the
administration of the slave labor program
although he was aware of its existence. For
example, at meetings of the Central Planning
Board he was informed that his demands for labor
wore so large as to necessitate violent methods
in recruiting. At a meeting of the Central
Planning Board on 30 October 1942, Speer
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