 |
[Ger…] many was gradually forced to make its entire manpower
available for armament purposes and other necessities of the struggle. Other
European countries experienced a similar development. I shall submit to the
Court the basic legal provisions in this respect. Even in non-totalitarian
states, the conception of compulsory labor service prevailed more and more
during and after the war. As the war progressed and the requirements of the
troops increased, the manpower available in Germany by no means sufficed to
cover the demands of industry and agriculture. The government therefore decided
to cover these requirements by utilizing the population of countries occupied
by German troops, or that of other European countries. This was done at first
by voluntary recruitment and later by so-called labor conscription. I shall
present documents to show the methods by which this was done. Everywhere the
details of procurement and treatment of foreign workers were regulated by laws
or decrees or international treaties. Nor were provisions for welfare and
leisure overlooked.
In view of this comprehensive program, the smallest
details of which were subject to official regulation, the average German
entrepreneur in all fields of economy never entertained the thought that there
was anything illegal or criminal or inhumane in employing foreign workers,
provided he took proper and good care of them in accordance with the respective
regulations. Hundreds of thousands, yes, even millions of farmers, craftsmen,
and industrialists were in the same position. With the increasing effectiveness
of modern technical warfare on land, at sea, and in the air, the life of the
people came to be directed and regulated in all details by government measures.
It would hardly have occurred to any one of these German businessmen to check
the legality of these events on the basis of traditional German conceptions of
international and public law, and it would have been most difficult to do so in
National Socialist Germany during the war, owing to the secret location and
transfer of many libraries. In any case, he would not have been able to refute
the general conceptions outlined above. Within the scope of presentation of
evidence I shall deal briefly with this [situation] and its historic reasons.
Perhaps the argument will be put forth that these Germans might have been
taught better by a study of foreign systems of international law.
This
leads me to the last and most important point which I shall discuss when
presenting my evidence, and which excludes the culpability of the individual
private industrialist and farmer in connection with the employment of foreign
labor. In this modern, so-called "total" economic war, production —
regardless of its type — carried out by the manager of a large industrial
or agricultural |
264 |
. 
