 |
| it impossible to give them the proper care, food, and protection they
should not have been required to work at all, especially in one of the most
dangerous places in all Europe. Instead what was required of the workers,
including the foreigners, is correctly described in the brief of the counsel
for the defendant Krupp as follows: |
| |
"The Cast Steel Factory was in
the very center of this inexorable struggle, and was most severely affected by
it. One workshop after the other went up in flames or was gutted. Every
breathing space was used to repair the damage and to maintain production. The
big raid of 5 March 1943, caused such extensive damage in the works, that the
production wage hours fell by 50 percent, and continued to fall from that date
onward almost without interruption. One third and more of the whole work was
devoted to the removal of damages and reconstruction."
|
It is further said in the same brief that “until the middle of
1943 it was attempted, as a matter of principle, to reconstruct destroyed huts
as quickly as possible. After that these efforts were limited to a few camps
only, which subsequently experienced up to five consecutive destructions and
reconstructions.”
In this connection it is proper to state that
the evidence affirmatively shows that the Krupp officials as well as the German
workers at that time had become convinced that the struggle was hopeless and
defeat for Germany was inevitable.
The rations for Italian military
internees were the same as those for western prisoners of war, but their diet
had very bad results. The evidence with respect to the status of these
internees is not very satisfactory. From what there is of it, it appears that
in the main they were Italian soldiers who surrendered with their arms to the
Germans in northern Italy after the Badoglio government came into power but
before it declared war on Germany. These Italians were first accorded the
status of prisoners of war, but later were forced to accept the status of
foreign workers. We do not regard it necessary for present purposes to resolve
this question one way or the other. In either view, it is obvious that they
were brought to Germany under compulsion and kept in a state of servitude while
employed in the armament industry in connection with a war against their own
country.
They were principally employed in four plants, two of them the
Gusstahlfabrik, Essen and the Friedrich-Alfred-Huette at Rheinhausen. A report
from the latter concern in February 1944, showed that a sickness rate of 11
percent including 70 cases of oedema and 100 [cases of] loss of weight. It is
also stated |
1389 |
. 
