 |
| compulsory labor laws were enacted in the occupied countries. As
stated in the International Military Tribunal judgment, the following
appears:¹ |
| |
“Sauckel’s
instructions, too, were that foreign labor should be recruited on a voluntary
basis, but also provided that ‘where, however, in the occupied
territories, the appeal for volunteers does not suffice, obligatory service and
drafting must under all circumstances be resorted to.’ Rules requiring
labor service in Germany were published in all the occupied territories.”
|
Wholesale man hunts were conducted and able-bodied men were shipped
to Germany as “convicts” without having been charged or convicted of
any offense. Many were confined in a penal camp for 3 months during which time
they were required to work for industrial plants. If their conduct met with
approval they were graduated to the status of so-called “free” labor.
This was a misnomer as they were detained under compulsion. As applied to the
Krupp firm particularly, the taking of slave labor to Dechenschule and
Neerfeldschule penal camps will be discussed later, as well as their treatment
while there and while employed by the Krupp firm. The western slave laborers
employed by the Krupp firm were procured in various ways. Some had signed
contracts under compulsion; some because of their special skills had been
ordered to go to Germany, and others had been taken because they belonged to a
particular age group. Some of those who had endeavored to evade compulsory
service referred to as “convicts,” with others picked up in manhunts,
were required to go to Germany and work for the Krupp firm. Subordinates of the
defendant Lehmann were sent to occupied countries to secure workers. Lehmann
went to Paris in 1942 “to take part in the negotiations concerning group
recruitments.” In October 1942 Hennig, an employee of the Krupp firm, was
sent to France to assist in “the selection of the drafted individuals for
Krupp.” The number of French workers employed by the Krupp firm in the
Cast Steel Factory at Essen rose from 293 as of October 1942, to 5,811 in March
1943.
In a report made by the defendant Lehmann and dated 21 December
1942, concerning his recent trip to Paris for the purpose of obtaining French
labor to be “recruited” he said (D-196, Pros. Ex. 888)
:² |
| |
“All authorities concerned
in Paris and in the rest of France repeatedly stressed the very great
importance of good accom- […modations] |
__________
¹ Trial of the Major
War Criminals, op. cit. supra, volume I. page 245.
² Reproduced in
part above in section VIII B 1.
1397 |
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