 |
For a first offense, 4 to 6 weeks was the term served in the labor
discipline camp, and 6 to 8 weeks in the case of recurring default. Afterwards,
the men were either returned to their factories, or, if these declined to
reemploy them, they were handed over to the labor office for reassignment. The
purpose of the labor discipline camp was solely to accustom shirkers and idlers
(under supervision) to proper work, and here too maltreatment was of course
forbidden. If repeated service in a labor discipline camp proved futile, and
the person concerned still refused to work in regular employment, the
Duesseldorf Regional Office could, with the permission of the Reich Security
Main Office Berlin, order transfer to a concentration camp, or the deputy at
the labor office could apply to the public prosecutor to institute criminal
proceedings for breach of contract. In such cases the courts imposed prison
sentences 3-12 months.
When, through the intensified air attacks, the
transport situation became worse and worse, and the difficulties of
transporting the shirkers into the Hunswinkel labor discipline camp increased,
the Duesseldorf Regional Office ordered all larger factories employing
foreigners to establish special camps, as sort of police detention camps for
the better supervision and control of idlers.
Here the idlers were kept
under guard and also had to work under supervision (group employment).
Regulations pertaining to housing and guards were issued by the Duesseldorf
State Police main office; these applied also to transfers to the camp, and if I
remember correctly, the regulations were the same as for a labor discipline
camp. The order for the Duesseldorf Regional Office district was, that guards
had to be provided by the works police. Here, too, maltreatment was of course
forbidden.
When the Duesseldorf State Police Regional Office ordered
the principal firms of its district to establish special camps in order to
simplify labor discipline camp procedure, Duesseldorf instructed me to inform
Mr. von Buelow, the counterintelligence agent, that Messrs. Krupp too must
establish such a camp. This was an unquestionable order and it was by no means
up to the firms to decide whether or not to comply with it. The orders I
received, it was repeatedly pointed out, counted as military commands, and we
fell under the military jurisdiction administered by SS and Police courts.
Mr. von Buelow showed no inclination to establish such a camp when I
notified him, according to my instructions, of the pertinent order of the
Duesseldorf Regional Office. He expressed doubt and declared that this would be
incompatible with the prestige of Krupp, and that there was no material for the
construction of a camp, too much having been lost in air raids.
|
1079 |
. 
