The Mazal Library

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NUERNBERG MILITARY TRIBUNAL
Volume V · Page 115

[in…] formed that this agreement exists concerning the raising of these babies. * * *

"I have already asked SS Oberfuehrer Langoth to inform Gauleiter Eigruber of this condition and to ask him to assure sufficient nourishment of these babies until your opinion is obtained. I consider the manner in which this matter is treated at present as impossible.

"There exists only one way or the other. Either one does not wish that these children remain alive — then one should not let them starve to death slowly and take away so many liters of milk from the general food supply; there are means by which this can be accomplished without torture and pain. Or one intends to raise these children in order to utilize them later on as labor. In this case they must be fed in such a manner that they will be fully usable as workers. * * *"

A decree emanating from Himmler's office, and previously quoted, shows that an Eastern worker was unable to resist the forcible taking of her child, and it was decreed that although, in the case of racially valuable children, the child could not be taken without the consent of the mother, in the same breath the decree voices the mandate that "she has to be made to consent".

The defendant Hofmann, as chief of RuSHA, was fully conversant with this atrocious program. He was sent copies of suggestions adopted by Himmler, as well as Himmler's decision to introduce a pompous sounding name for assembly centers for foreign children. Not only did he have knowledge, but he issued instructions, which coincided exactly with Himmler's ideas and views. On 24 March 1944, in a letter of instructions marked "Secret" dealing with the "treatment of the pregnant foreign working women and of children born of foreign female workers in the Reich", he said, "If the evaluations indicate that the children are good from the viewpoint of race and hereditary health, they are transferred to the care of the NSV in children's homes for foreign children or in private families. In negative cases children are sent to institutions for foreign children". There can be no doubt Hofmann actively participated in this criminal program.

Hildebrandt, who succeeded Hofmann as chief of RuSHA, is equally guilty with Hofmann in this specific charge. On 25 August 1943, Hildebrandt sent to all RuS leaders Kaltenbrunner's decree of 27 July 1943 giving basic instructions on the treatment of children born to foreign workers. In an accompanying letter dealing with the subject, "treatment of pregnant foreign workers and of children born in the Reich to foreign female workers", Hildebrandt emphatically issued instructions, and stated in part:

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