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“'Superseded,” as the Keitel decree was then already known
in the shape of a draft. This assumption is all the more justified, because OKW
was at that time located in the Fuehrer Headquarters in East Prussia, which
involved a further delay in the handling of the matter.
Apart from
this, I want to point out the following:
A few months before the month
of October 1041, I took part in the drafting of an application submitted to the
Chief OKW, Field Marshal Keitel, by the Group “International Law” of
the section Foreign Countries/Counterintelligence (Chief: Admiral Canaris by
this application, we aimed at a modification of the regulations of
international law dealing with the treatment of Russian prisoners of war. In
consequence, I consider it impossible that General Thomas, of all people,
raised objections against the employment of Russian prisoners of war in war
industry. At that time, it was rather Reich Minister Todt who was the
leading exponent in all armament matters. He visited the Eastern Front several
times during that period, and I assume that it was Todt who — based on his
own impressions and on his knowledge of the manpower shortage in German
industry — suggested to Hitler to fall back on the Russian prisoners of
war; in other words, I assume that he was the originator of the Keitel decree.
3. In view of the fact that I was, during the war, repeatedly concerned
with the legal problems involved in the Hague Rules on Land Warfare, I feel
entitled to submit the following considerations referring to the questions
whether or not it was legal to use Russian prisoners of war for employment in
industry:
According to the legal terminology prevailing in Germany
before and during the war, armaments industry — with regard to
which it is in dispute whether prisoners of war may be employed — included
all plants in which war equipment of any kind whatsoever was produced. However,
the term “war equipment” means only those types of equipment which
were produced according to special designs furnished by the Wehrmacht, and for
the delivery of which definite time limits were established. According to this
definition, mines, steel mills, plants producing aluminum, cellulose, gasoline,
et cetera, are not armaments plants, the reason being that, although they are
indispensable for the armament industry. they do not produce war equipment but
only products available, in the normal market, materials to be processed, or
energy. Even in war time. these plants were indispensable for private industry
as well, in as much as they supply it with its normal requirements at the same
time, and they were termed “plants essential for war economy and
general economy” [Kriegsund lebenswichtige Betriebe]. This definition
also served for the. delimitation of the jurisdiction of the Wehrmacht on the
one hand and the Reich Ministry of Economics on the other hand. The
“armament plants” were managed by the Armament Commands of the
Wehrmacht, |
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