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A. No, I thought that for the mineral oil program one could continue
on a volunteer basis just as well as before.
Q. Didn't your office
receive reports that thousands of laborers in 1942 were being made available to
your office for distribution to the mineral oil plants of the G. B. Chem?
A. I think so.
Q. Is it your contention that those were
voluntary workers?
A. They were workers who came under the labor
conscription law passed by the French Vichy government. We had the same labor
service in Germany. Whether you follow such an obligation voluntarily or
involuntarily is up to the conduct of the individual.
Q. Well, the
Frenchman didn’t have very much opportunity, after the Vichy government
passed this law, as to whether he came to the firm which brought him to Germany
for you, or not, did he? He didn't have much choice after that law.
A.
Under that law it was not possible, either in Germany or in France, to choose
one’s place of work. That was not possible for a German worker either.
Q. You mean the French workers were under the same compulsion to report
to the labor office and be assigned, whether to Germany or whether to France.
He had no more choice in the matter, is that right?
A. That is correct.
Q. Now, did these foreign firms which did recruiting for you and
brought blocks of workers to Germany at your suggestion — did these
foreign firms inform you as to whether or not these people came to work for
them because they were forced to work, or didn't they report to you about that?
A. I think that the workers liked to go to the foreign firms, because
there they were given contracts, which they liked better than doing any
compulsory work on the basis of the Vichy law of compulsory work in Germany.
Q. In 1944, Dr. Krauch, when German officials were recruiting Italians
forcibly in large numbers, were you aware that there was great resistance by
the Italians to this recruitment and that the Italian Police did not
sufficiently insure the recruitment of these workers, so that a decision was
made that thousands of German Policemen be sent to Italy?
A. I know
that that was a suggestion on the part of the labor authorities down there.
Q. Quite apart from who made the original suggestion, you were one of
six persons who were present when it was agreed in Germany that ten thousand
German Police officials were to be sent to Italy to guarantee the recruiting
campaign in Italy, is that not correct? |
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