 |
4. I was aware of the fact that from the year 1942 on, workers were
recruited in occupied countries on an involuntary basis. The Plenipotentiary
General for Special Questions of Chemical Production had permanent
representatives in Paris, Brussels, The Hague, Amsterdam, Milan, Yugoslavia,
Greece, and Bratislava, whose primary function was the recruitment of labor for
Germany on a voluntary basis. After the German labor allocation authorities
[Arbeitseinsatzbehoerden] recruited French workers involuntarily, the local
representatives of the Plenipotentiary General for Special Questions of
Chemical Production together with the plants, made train escorts available.
5. The transfer of labor to Germany as a part of the Francolor
arrangement came under my jurisdiction as Plenipotentiary General for Special
Questions of Chemical Production. I am aware of at least one case in which
transports of workers brought in under the plan for recruiting foreign workers
were in transit for weeks. The workers were hungry, tired, freezing, and
without sufficient clothing.
6. It was my intention to use prisoners of
war for construction rather than production work. I saw prisoners of war at
work in Heydebreck and Gendorf. My office was informed that prisoners of war
were taken from chemical plants and used to work on fortifications. In at least
one instance, I negotiated directly with the armed forces [Wehrmacht] in regard
to prisoners of war whose working conditions I wanted to
improve.* |
| |
| [Paragraphs 7 and 8, here omitted, discuss the employment of
concentration camp inmates at Auschwitz. See subsection P 1, below]
|
| |
9. Handloser, Mueller, Eckardt, and Loehr were my
representatives in the offices of the Plenipotentiary General For Special
Questions of Chemical Production in Paris, Belgium, Milan, and Yugoslavia,
respectively. They traveled frequently to examine labor conditions. They
belonged to IG and their salaries were paid by IG. 10. The welfare of the
foreign workers employed by I. G. Farben was part of the responsibility of the
Vorstand. Christian Schneider had the primary responsibility as chairman of the
Social Welfare Commission [Sozialausschuss]. I discussed labor conditions with
Christian Schneider. Whenever the foreign workers in individual IG plants were
underfed, their efficiency was impaired. I visited plants throughout the entire
chemical industry, and one of the first steps was always an inspection of the
foreign workers' quarters to ascertain their living conditions.
11. I
had the natural feeling that the use of foreign workers by force was not
lawful. The detailed legal international agreements were not known to me to
this extent. |
__________
* This paragraph is
discussed in the extracts from Krauch's testimony reproduced in section F1,
below.
574 |
. 
