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[accom…] modations for
French workers. Letters in which the French workers complain about bad
accommodations, treatment, food, and shortage of labor in the factories are
very harmful to the German recruiting program and are used by the opposition as
welcome propaganda. Factories against which such complaints are made may be
excluded from future allotments of workers.
“Unfortunately such
complaints have also been received concerning Krupp. Documentary proof will be
produced. Immediately everything possible must be done to refute these
complaints, and to insure that no justified grounds for complaints exist in the
future.” |
This clearly indicates that the expressed desire to improve the
living conditions of foreign workers was motivated by the fear that future
allotments of workers might not be had if the existing conditions continued. It
was not because of any sympathy for the workers
The defendant Lehmann
had a Krupp representative go to Holland in October 1942 who remained there for
2 years and reported regularly to Lehmann. The number of Dutch workers employed
by the Krupp firm in Essen rose from 33 in June 1942 to almost 1,700 in March
1943. Likewise, a representative of the Krupp firm was sent to Belgium. He was
in Liege from where Belgian workers were sent to Dechenschule.
In May
1941, a Dutch concern was required to transfer a group of its workers to work
for the Krupp firm at the Germaniawerke at Kiel. The Krupp firm benefited by
the program instituted to compel 30,000 workers skilled in the iron producing
trade to go to Germany. On 24 April 1942 at the time of the announcement of the
Sauckel operation, the Krupp firm filed a request for 1,300 skilled Dutch
workers, and another request was filed for a smaller number of skilled workers.
Some Dutch workers who refused to sign contracts and go to Germany were sent to
a camp maintained by the Gestapo in Holland. From there, they were shipped to
Germany under guard, and afterward many of them were employed as foreign labor
by the Krupp firm.
Dutch workers who attempted to escape from
compulsory service in the Krupp firm, were arrested, confined in the penal
camp, and returned to the Krupp firm. In September 1942, the Krupp firm wrote
to the Main Department of Social Administration at Amsterdam, complaining that
a large number of Dutch workers had not returned from leave. It was pointed out
that the service of these workers was to be secured by conscription, if
necessary, and it was requested that the workers be returned to
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1398 |
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