 |
Q. Did you ever discover any evidence that there was likely to be a
revolt among them toward January 1945?
A. No, I never heard of anything
of this nature, anything of this kind.
Q. Did you ever see any conduct
on the part of them, or any of them, that would indicate that it was necessary
to discipline them with steel switches?
A. No, there were no such
people there.
Q. Do you know whether or not the defendant Kupke
distributed among the guards or the foremen steel switches in these plants in
which the eastern workers were employed, or billeted?
A. I never heard
of that.
Q. You were the spokesman of the eastern workers I understand.
A. Yes.
Q. One further question. How did these workers arrive,
were they under guard when they got there?
A. When they arrived at the
station one member of the Krupp plant police was there who showed them the way
to the camp.
Q. Had they been guarded on the train en route to Essen?
A. I know nothing about that.
Q. Did you ever know about any of
these camps being patrolled by armed guards — any of the camps around
Essen?
A. Yes, the guards which had night duty were always armed, I
didn't notice that in the daytime.
Q. Do you mean the guards around the
camps were armed? A. I know nothing about whether there were guards around the
camp. I always saw one guard, he was near the office. |
| |
| * * * * * |
| |
Q. Witness, did you learn from your weekly visits to these camps
among the Slays whether or not they, or any of them, came voluntarily or
involuntarily? What I want to know is whether or not any of these foreign
workers were brought to Germany involuntarily.
A. They came
voluntarily.
Q. All of the eastern workers in Essen during your stay
there, so far as you know, and so far as you could judge from your conversation
with them, came voluntarily?
A. May I be quite frank?
Q. Well,
that is what I want you to be.
A. The terrible distress of the past few
years in Russia was so great that when I talked to these workers they told me,
“Please don’t get excited Mr. Arbatoff, many more volunteers will
come after us to work here.”
Q. Now, Mr. Witness, I didn’t
ask you that. I just asked you |
1029 |
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