 |
this system had failed to produce enough workers to maintain the
volume of production deemed necessary for the prosecution of the war. The
compulsory deportation of laborers to Germany was then begun and, on 21 March
1942, Fritz Sauckel was appointed Plenipotentiary General for the Utilization
[Allocation] of Labor, with authority over "all available manpower, including
that of workers recruited abroad, and of prisoners of war." From that time on,
the Nazi slave-labor program was prosecuted with unrelenting cruelty and
persistence. The IMT said that “Manhunts took place in the streets, at
motion picture houses, even at churches and at night in private
houses”¹ of occupied countries, to meet the ever-increasing demands
of the Reich for human labor. At least 5,000,000 persons were forcibly deported
from the occupied territories to Germany to support its war efforts.
The vast reservoir of slave laborers utilized by the Nazis included
involuntary foreign workers, concentration-camp inmates, and prisoners of war.
Many of these were used in activities connected with military operations
against their own countries, in direct violation of express international law,
as well as in general industry and in agricultural pursuits. The plan under
which this comprehensive scheme was implemented and administered is disclosed
by the following quotation from the IMT judgment: |
| |
“A Sauckel decree dated 6
April 1942, appointed the Gauleiters as Plenipotentiaries for Labor
Mobilization for their Gaue [districts] with authority to coordinate all
agencies dealing with labor questions in their Gaue, with specific authority
over the employment of foreign workers, including their conditions of work,
feeding, and housing. Under this authority the Gauleiters assumed control over
the allocation of labor in their Gaue, including the forced laborers from
foreign countries. In carrying out this task the Gauleiters used many party
offices within their Gaue, including subordinate political
leaders.”² |
| On 20 April 1942 Sauckel issued the following instructions concerning
the treatment of laborers: |
| |
“All the men must be fed,
sheltered and treated in such a way as to exploit them to the highest possible
extent at the lowest conceivable degree of
expenditure.” |
| During the course of the war the main Farben plants, in common with
German industry generally, suffered a serious labor depletion, on account of
demands of the military for men to serve in the armed forces. Charged with the
responsibility of meeting fixed production quotas, Farben yielded to the
pressure of the Reich Labor Office and |
__________
¹ Trial of the
Major War Criminals, volume 1, page
259.
²
Ibid.
³ Ibid., page
245
1173 |
. 
