Nazi occupation policies for the USSR

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Post by David Thompson » 13 Oct 2004, 04:56

19420930 Document: *084-PS; Description: Interdepartmental report of Ministry for Occupied Eastern Territories, 9/30/1942, concerning status of Eastern laborers. (USA 199)

"Document 084-PS [translation]", in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume III: US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1947. pp. 130-146.
Berlin NW 7,
30 Sept.
Hegelplatz 2
Central Office [Zentralstelle] for Members of Eastern Nationals. In (ZO)

Concerning: Present Status of the question of Eastern Laborers.

The commitment and treatment of foreign laborers, who have been brought into the Reich from occupied Eastern territories, depicts a proceeding which will not only be of significant importance to the German war production and the securing of food, but also for the carrying out of German administrative interests in a former Soviet area. Two large fields of action are affected by the way in which the problems connected with the inclusion of millions of Eastern nationals in the Reich are solved: 1. Development of the war situation 2. The enforcement of the German claim to leadership in the East after the war.

When the call for labor in Germany was increased in 1/1942 among the occupied Eastern territories, this set up a situation among those classes of Russian and Ukrainian civilians concerned which had by all means the appearance of a risk. Even if one group (the volunteers) set excessive hopes on the journey into the Reich under the impression of irresponsible promises while the other (forced laborers) left their homes reluctantly or at least with misgivings because of memories of former Bolshevist deportations as well as planted anti-German rumors, the fact remains that the trip -to Germany had to be felt as journey into the unknown not only by the two concerned but also by those relatives who remained behind because of the isolation of the USSR from Europe for decades. The public judgment of the Reich and its leadership would be dependent upon the outcome of this measure taken by the German military and civilian authorities in the occupied Eastern territories. The employment in Germany offered an unusual opportunity to learn to know by personal experience, which no propaganda could replace. The greater German Reich was much slandered by the Soviet press, and the National Socialistic position to the working class and thus to gain a basis of comparison to the corresponding Communistic doctrines and methods. This meant no more nor less, than that the draft of Eastern laborers would be of importance in the development of political opinions among the Eastern nationals towards the power which was presently occupying the region which would aid measures taken to accomplish the recruitment, the housing etc., in the Reich, which should have been taken into consideration from the start, since in view of the necessity to keep the aid of the native inhabitants in the huge areas behind the front, factors which cannot be controlled by regulations or orders, namely the frame of mind, which is of war potential value, must be considered.

Instead of taking consideration of this, the drafting and the employment as well as the housing, treatment etc. of the so-called Eastern laborers has so far been taken care of exclusively according to labor, technical and the security police points of view, with the result that the headquarters responsible for this were able to report the due numerical fulfilment of the program as well as the security of the German nationality and of the businesses. At the time, however, facts had to be hushed which could have been avoided not only in the interests of German prestige and to the satisfaction of the occupied Eastern territories but which even today cost the lives of thousands of German soldiers by their efforts. The facts which up to the fall of 1942, have undergone only part or incomplete changes, among others, the following.

1. The concept of the workers from the occupied territories of the USSR was narrowed down to the labor- and social-legal term "Eastern Laborers". A labor condition among "Foreigners" was hereby created in a segregated "Employment under Special Conditions" which had to be looked upon by those affected, as degrading.

2. The drafting of Eastern workers and women workers often Occurred without the necessary examination of the capabilities of those concerned. so that 5-10 out of a hundred, sick and children, were transported along. On the other hand, in those places where no volunteers were obtained, instead of using the lawful employment obligations, coercive measures were used by the police (imprisonment, penal expedition, and similar measures.)

3. The employment in businesses was not undertaken by considering the occupation and previous training but according to the chance assignment of the individual to the respective transports or transient camps.

4. The billeting did not follow the policies according to which the other foreigners are governed, but just as for civilian prisoners in camps which were fenced in with barbed wire and were heavily guarded, from which no exit was permitted.

5. The treatment by the guards was on the average without intelligence and cruel so that the Russian and Ukrainian workers, in enterprises with foreign laborers of different nationalities, were exposed to the scorn of the Poles and the Czechs among other things.

6. The food and care was so bad and insufficient in the camps for the Eastern Laborers being employed in the industry and in the mines that the good average capability of the camp members dropped down shortly and many sicknesses and deaths took place.

7. Payment was carried out in the form of a ruling in which the industrial worker would keep on the average 2 or 3 RM each week and the farm laborers even less, so that the transfer of pay to their homes became illusory, not to mention the fact there had been no satisfactory procedure developed for this.

8. The postal service with their families was not feasible for months because of the lack of a precautionary ruling; so that instead of factual reports, wild rumors arrived in their countries,among other means by means of emigration.

9. The promises which had been made time and time again in the areas of enlistment stood in contradiction with those facts mentioned under 3-8.

Apart from the natural impairment of the frame of mind and capabilities which these measures, as well as conditions, brought with them, the result was that the Soviet propaganda took over the matter and evaluated it carefully. Not only the actual conditions and the letters which reached the country, in spite of the initial blockade, as well as the stories of fugitives and such, but also the clumsy publications in the German press of the legal rulings relative to the matter gave them enough to manipulate with. Commisar for Foreign Affairs Molotov in his note to the enemy powers referred already in 4/1942 to this, especially in para. III of this document in which among others it is stated:
"The German administration is treading under its feet the long recognized laws and customs governing war, in that it has given the orders to the troops to take into captivity all male civilians and in many places even the women, and to use against them those measures which the Hitlerites have introduced towards prisoners of war. This does not only mean slave labor for the captured peaceful inhabitants but in most cases it also means inescapable starvation or death through sickness, corporal punishments, and organized mass murders.

"The deportation of peaceful inhabitants to the rear, which has been widely practiced by the German-Fascist army, begins to take on a mass character. It is carried out under direct rulings of the German High Command (OKW) and its effects are especially cruel in the immediate rear areas during a retreat of the German army. In a series of documents, which have been found with the staffs of destroyed German units, there is a directive to the order of the High-Command under Nr. 2974/41 of 12/6/1942 which directs that all grown men are to be deported from occupied populated points into prisoner of war camps. From the order to the 37th Infantry Regiment of the 6th Division of 12/2/1941 under the heading "About the deportation of the Civilian Population" it can be deduced that for the period from the 4 to the 12 Dec the capture and forceful deportation of the total population of 7 villages to the German rear areas was planned, for which a carefully worked out plan was proposed.

"Sometimes all the inhabitants were deported, sometimes the men were torn away from their families or mothers were separated from their children. Only the smallest number of these deported people have been able to return to their home village. These returnees report terrible degradations, heaviest forced labor, abundant deaths among inhabitants because of starvation and tortures, and murder by the Fascists of all the weak, wounded, and sick."


Further, there are even today announcements in the Soviet newspapers as well as radio about the treatment of Eastern laborers which might have as an effect a strengthening of the moral power to resist in the Red Army. Further, there is mentioned the text of a letter which arrived in Ordshonikidsegrad from a Russian girl and which was published in a "Proclamation of the police administration of the North-Western Front of the Red army under the heading of "A Russian Girl in Cologne, attaching in connection with it an effective propaganda viewpoint about the "Fascist Forced Laborers" in Germany.
"Do you know", it goes on at the end of the proclamation, "that every one of us who goes to Germany will meet the same fate as Olga Selesnewa! Do not forget that the German monster will make each and every one of you, who has remained behind, a slave on your own soil or drag you to eternal forced labor in Germany! Dear brothers and sisters . . . Go to the partisan detachments! Injure the German occupants at every step. Hit the Hitler thieves everywhere and continuously. The Russian soil shall become their graves!"
The effects of this large scale documentary proven radio-press and leaflet propaganda, operating even into German administered territories, must be considered as one of the main reasons for this year's stiffening of the Soviet resistance as well as the threatening increase of guerilla bands up to the borders of the General Government.

In the meantime, after a betterment of the condition of the Eastern laborers had been insisted upon, not only by the main office for politics in the Reichs ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, which has been able to find support in the repeated requests by the High Command of the Armed Forces, but also by the gentleman charged with the responsibility for all labor employment as well as the Department of Labor Employment in the German Labor Movement, which has the supervision of the Eastern Laborersthose previously existing legal and police rulings have been mitigated and the conditions in the 8000-10000 camps in the Reich have, on the whole, been improved. Thus those fixed wages, which have been determined by the tables of compensation in a ruling of the Council of Ministers, upon which deductions were made up to 75, have been replaced by new tariffs. The Eastern Laborers were left free of duty according to it, and the taxes were paid in a form of an Eastern Laborer Tax by the owner of the enterprise (Ruling of Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich of 30/6/42). Thus after many months of negotiations, with the cooperation of the Central Economic Bank in Rowno, a salary transfer, in the form of a savings stamp procedure, was regulated. Thus, the ruling of the Reichs Chief of the SS of 20/2/42 prescribing barbed wire has been dropped by a supplementary ruling of 9/4/42 and at the same time in exceptional cases, groups were permitted to go out under German guards, of late, it has even been permitted under their own supervision. The food supply was adjusted by a special delivery letter of the Reichs Food minister dated 17/4/42, to a degree where the "Soviet Civilian Laborer", as well as the prisoners of war received a uniform ration. This was still not enough compared to the normal amount of food given to those employed in the industry and in the mines, besides it was still much less and worse than that for the Poles, but it was an improvement compared to former conditions. Furthermore e postal communication has been adjusted for those Eastern Laborers who come from the civilian administered as well as those who are from the regions directly to the rear of the army,-at least theoretically. On account of the burden placed on the censorship office for foreign countries the High Command of the Armed Forces has recently asked again for a reduction of this measure.

In spite of the improvements mentioned as well as others, -which in many cases can be traced back to the personal intervention of the Deputy General of Labor Employment, the total situation of the Eastern Laborer (sampling date: 10/1/1942) must still be considered unsatisfactory, namely, not only in respect to the differences in the treatment of industrial workers and farm laborers but in the differences found in the different States and enterprises. On the average there are still about 40 of the lodgings for Eastern laborers which would not meet the requirements even if all the wartime restrictions were considered. Among these are a frightening number of camps whose conditions are such as to destroy the success of the attempt of improving relationship and the corresponding radiating uplift of the morale within the Eastern territories. Not even to mention the fact that the marking OST (East), an identification ordered by the police, is being felt as degrading there remains such a quantity of grievances and problems that it would be impossible to relate them now. Only the following points are to be mentioned:

1. The Enlisting and Employing of persons of German Parentage, as Eastern laborers. Several observations made by the commission from the central office to inspect camps, as well as petitions which have reached them, show that persons of German parentage were enlisted, against regulations, as Eastern Laborers. Even if they are not recognized people of German Parentage according to the "RK-Festigung", they are, however persons of German descent and with German names, as Mr. Middelhauve could establish in a camp near Berlin. It is to be doubted that the branch offices of the sub-office for Germans living in foreign countries had enough qualified help who could separate these persons capable of becoming Germans again.

2. Enlisting and Employing as Eastern Laborers of Tartars from the Crimea. To increase the fighting numbers of the Tartar legions it would be indispensable to return all those Tartars, who have been employed in the Reich as Eastern Laborers, to their homes before the coming of winter; a similar report to the "GBA" is being prepared. Besides climatic reasons, the necessity for this return is to intensify the wine and tobacco growths in the Crimea by experienced help and at the same time, to prevent the invasion of Greek and Bulgarian planters and traders. To prepare this return as well as to deal with other Tartan problems a commissioner, namely a Crimean Tartar, has been installed by the "ZO". In the meantime, difficulties have arisen because of the effect of the furloughing of Tartan Eastern Laborers for participation in the Mohammedan festival during the 4th and 5/10/42 as well as the procurement of the meat and millet supply needed for this occasion. The authority in these and similar matters will have to be voiced, at the time of their return, by those White Ruthenian Tartars who have been selected for resettlement.

Enlisting and Employing as Eastern Laborers of Ukrainians from Transnistrian. During an inspection of the camps for munition workers at Topchin (Kreteltow) into which the Central Office was induced because of an escape which became known to them, it was found that the Eastern Laborers employed there were enlisted 1/1942 in Odessa. They do not come according to para. I of the Rulings of the Council of Ministers dated 30/6/42, under the category of Eastern Laborers. But will have to be termed, because of the fact that the State of "Transnistrian" was placed in the Fall of 1941 under Rumanian sovereignty, as stateless members of the Kingdom of Rumania. To clarify this point for all times, negotiations have been made with the GBA and the Foreign Office as well as the Feldzeuginspektion of the Office for General Affairs in the High-Command of the Army.

4. Employment of Skilled Laborers in Occupations foreign to their skills. Up until recently petitions have continually come to the publishers of camp newspapers to the Reichs Ministry for the occupied Eastern territories, to the German Workers Front and in error also to the bureau for foreign nationals in the Reich from Eastern laborers, men and women who are in occupations foreign to their skills or inferior to their skills, without the transfer proposals, which were approved by the central office as well as by other offices, having led to success -- except in rare cases. Gauleiter Sauckel, who has repeatedly disclosed -- the last time at the conference in Weimar on the 10 and 11/9/42 -- that the "inner arrangement" of the occupational employment would be his next point on the program, does not seem to be informed about the real conditions in which doctors, engineers, teachers, qualified skilled laborers and such are employed as unskilled workers, mechanics, as farmers, and farmers as industrial workers. In any case, one of his close associates, the Gauamtsleiter Orr Escher received the information about this which was given him by Dr. Thiell, in accordance with instructions of the Central Office, with unusual interest.

5. Separation in employment of members of one Family. The repeated separation of family members who have come to the Reich as Eastern Laborers and Eastern Women Workers (married couples, parents, brothers and sisters, and children) seems utterly contrary to the usual customs governing other employments of foreigners. The bringing together of those relatives who have been mistakenly separated during the transport is principally desired just as much as is the employment of family members in the same location. It does however, in practice, encounter some difficulties. In order to make possible at least the transfer of information from both parties, the Reichs Ministry for the occupied Eastern territories in 8/1942, in conjunction with the Reich Main office and Reich Security Service has allowed the limited publication of encoded advertisements seeking information. Besides this an agreement has been made in 9/1942 between the Central Office and the German Red Cross in accordance with which this organization will take over the communication between these Eastern Laborers separated in the Reich, keeping the place of employment secret however.

6. Disregarding the Nationality in Employment and Billeting. The plan of the Herr Reichsmarshall to create special "Enterprises for the Russians" could not be accomplished as yet on account of reasons of wartime economy. The demands for a joint employment by the members of Eastern nationalities, according to their racial background could not be carried out in practice to any great degree. In addition to the reasons of business, the usual variegated composition of the transports coming from the great realms of the Reichs Commissariate Ukraine opposed it. Basically a regrouping to racial membership might be possible after completion of an examination of this membership which would have to be made in conjunction with the issuance of employment permits for Eastern Laborers, especially when a group of foremen has been found among the Eastern Laborers based on partial pretraining independently of the solution to this question, the commissions from the Central Office will be striving to effect a rough sifting of the camps according to racial membership, and to house them accordingly in special barracks. The supplying of experienced interpreters for this job and then systematic instruction has been begun.

7. Distinctive, Mostly Insufficient Food Rations. The inadequate food ration for Eastern Laborers is important not only in the matter of performance but also politically, since the majority of the help coming from the occupied Eastern territories were previously accustomed to better rations. After using up all the food supplies which had been brought along, a general lowering of the ability to work and of the morale was noticeable. The written request to the Herr Reichs Food-Minister on the matter, to examine the food quotas in respect to the fact that the Eastern Laborer was in a worse position in the matter of nourishment than the Poles, was answered by a telephone communication from the respective Chief of Section, that to his knowledge the Russians were better off than the Poles. With this ignorance of the condition decisive measures could hardly be expected on the part of the Reichs Food Ministry. Nevertheless Gauleiter Sauckel has declared, in Weimar as a part of his program, that the feeding of the German as well as the foreign laborer inside of Germany would be shortly adapted to the requirements in accordance with their performance -- here he supported his program on an utterance of the Fuehrer. In connection with this a conference took place in the Reichs Food Ministry on 29/9/42 in which an improved food quota of the Eastern Laborer was decided upon. The decree which is being co-signed by the High Command of the Armed Forces and the GBA, [?] upon which the "Special Delivery Letter" of the 17/4/42 will be nullified, provides for laborers of all types an additional 1760 grams of potatoes, for workers in heavy industry and additional 200 grams, and for the group, to be newly instituted, of "overtime" and "night" workers a weekly 2600 grams of bread, 300 of meat, and 150 of fat. Besides this, instead of the tasteless bread made of turnips the usual kind will be delivered in the future. Even though a complete equality of food rationing with the other foreigners should be aspired to, this new measure, whose enforcement is imminent, will counteract the intestinal diseases and swelling of the stomach, as well as the sending of bread from relatives in the Ukraine, which can not be hindered on political grounds.

8. Partly insufficient, and Unjust Payment of Wages. The wage adjustments for Eastern laborers and Eastern women workers must still be considered unsatisfactory even after the new wage scales, by the ruling of the Council of Ministers dated 6/30/1942 as the lower evaluation of those agricultural workers who are quartered and fed free. The determining factor in keeping the net salary down is the necessity even today of maintaining the natural lower social level as compared to the German laborer, and to protect the German produce market as well -- as in the case of transfer accounts -- the enterprises in the domain of the Reichs Commissariate from an accumulation of surplus purchasing power. The Central Office took the viewpoint, in the conferences concerned with this matter, that it is far better to keep the wage level, as such, down than later to lower a nominally higher net salary to about half by means of the forced savings plan, reportedly proposed by the Reichs Finance Minister. The change of the hourly pay scale, as well as pay on contracts and pay by means of premiums is therefore closely connected with the success of the voluntary stamp savings plan, which was installed in 9/1942. This on the other hand will depend upon the fact that the saved amount, which has been sent to the respective home banks of the relatives in the form of savings books -- a system which has finally been introduced by the Herr Reichs Commissar for the Ukraine -- will at least be redeemable in cash to half of the amount shown, even if no interest is paid on it at the time. A change in the question of wages, considering that this is the first time in bank technological procedure that savings and transfer accounts have been joined together, would have prospects only if an eventual rearrangement does not materially raise the total wage increase of Eastern Laborers. A throttling measure would otherwise be necessary eventually which would shatter the trust in the honesty of the German social methods and would give irresponsible material to the Soviet propaganda. A way to correctness in the matter of pay within the limitations determined by this viewpoint, could be seen in the proposal of the Reichs Trustee Dr. Kimmich, who expounded it in a short report in Weimar on 11/9/42. In accordance with this a plan for arranging salaries should be carried out by the industries by inserting increasing measures for part time, apprenticeship, and instructional work, to bring into prominence the principle of pay according to performance even in the occupied territories. The foundation for the pay scale based on this will be the evaluation according to eight categories of difficulty in the performance of work, the use of which would exclude the evaluation of previous preparatory training (in the judging of differences) in favor of the success in performance. The complete stoppage of wages would thereby be abolished with finality and the offering of work premiums be made possible to foreign laborers. This, -- as Dr. Kimmich characterizes it, -- "Re-establishment of a just salary and contract" will have as an effect a general increase in performance which will be advertised as "The thanks of the German laborer to the combat soldier." Should these principles shortly be made obligatory in all the states, this would also bring, in connection with the measures of the project of occupational instruction, an improvement to the former Soviet specialist without having impaired the preeminence of the German specialist. The safeguarding of the superiority of the latter is in spite of the wartime needs among other things thereby guaranteed by the fact that the Herr Reichs Minister for armament and ammunition has been able to carry out through the High Command of the Armed Forces on 9/1942, that these 500000 German war industrial workers, who are going to be inducted during the winter half year, will only receive an eight week training, after that they will, however, be returned to their key-positions in the plants. How far the coming change of wage structure will affect not only the leading position of the German specialist as opposed to the Eastern Laborer but also the relationship between these and the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian workers is not to be seen in advance without further information. First of all, the Herr Reichs Minister of Finance will examine at the instigation of the Reichs Minister for the occupied Eastern Territories, if and in how far the increase of the so-called "Salary Equalizing Tax" as an addition to the Income Tax on the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian in the Reich in spite of the low rate of 15% will in many cases place them worse off than comparable Eastern Laborers. This would be all the less tolerable as the employment of Eastern Laborers in the General Territory of Estonia leads up to the opposite problems.

9. Insufficient Equipping of clothes and shoes. The clothing of almost all Eastern Laborers, men and women, must be considered as insufficient. Transports were arriving even in the last days of the month of September whose occupants did not carry any winter clothing with them. The recruiting agents seem to leave the workers in the opinion that there is no winter in Germany and moreover, that the Eastern Laborers would receive everything they need. In view of the coming cold months and of the inadequacy of many quarters a catastrophe must arise on account of the existing lack of clothing and shoes, if a successful remedy is not found immediately. The main difficulties in the supplying of missing equipment, which has already led in our large industrial plant to the loss of 10% of its employees,lies in the fact that the clothing set aside from the collection of textile goods, does not even come close to covering the demand and that the available booty as well as confiscated goods in occupied territories will not be-handed out by the competent management without the delivery of the existing ration cards. Since the Eastern Laborer does not possess the latter this could then only be carried out if the enterprises would requisition the needed clothing for the German workers and would offer those to the Eastern Laborers, unfortunately however, deducting it from their wages from time to time. The sending of clothing, coats and shoes by the families of Eastern laborers by means of individual shipment can not be carried out without further directives on account of the necessity of delousing the garments at the border, wherefore a measure was proposed after previous negotiations of the Central office with the deputy of the Generalarbeitsfuehrer Kretschman at the GBA under the direction of the Reichs Ministry for the occupied Eastern territories; in accordance with this measure collective addresses will be sent to the occupied territories by the enterprises in collaboration with the censorship office and special collection offices set up there. The success of this action must remain in doubt at present. During the meeting in Weimar it was then announced that from 1/1943 on, uniform work clothes will be made of cellulose material which, however, will not be of very good quality and would look baggy after a short wear.

Independently of this creation of work clothes, which naturally can not be considered a costume or uniform, the Central Office has made it one of its tasks to help with the action to provide clothes to help decrease to a minimum the expected lowering of performance, loss of morale, increased escapes, and cases of freezing.

10. Insufficient Supervision of the Eastern Laborers Employed in Agriculture. According to ruling No. 4 of the Deputy General for Labor of 5/7/1942, the supervision of those Eastern workers and women workers employed in agriculture is delegated to the Reichs Food Administration. Practical supervision in the rural areas by the state, regional and
local authorities of the Reichs Peasant Leader must be considered as illusory with respect to the lack of knowledge and to the insufficient knowledge of these people as well as to the fact that the seizing of Eastern Laborers in the midst of all the foreign workers in the rural areas can only be carried out with difficulty. To inform at least the rural superintendent of the principles which govern the treatment of the Eastern laborers, the publication department of the Reichs Food Administration has, in accord with the Reichs Minister for occupied Eastern territories sent out guiding instructions for the present enlightenment campaign during the fall quarter. No objections can so far be made against a strict observance of these guiding instructions since, on account of the shortage of labor in the rural areas during the past months, a pampering of the Eastern workers and women workers was noticed, which was not only a threat towards the temporary transfer of 200000 agricultural workers into industry but also in respect to the damage of a lack of migration into other areas. To intensify the supervision in the rural enterprises, a policy forming meeting took place in 8/1942 with the representatives of the Reichs Food Administration during which among other things the sending of interpreters by the Reichs Ministry for the occupied Eastern Territory to the Reichs Peasant leader was taken into consideration. Since the Reichs Food Administration was only willing to approve in the latter part of September, the taking over of the payment of special supervision with a knowledge of the language, in spite of exemption from payment of contributions on the part of Eastern laborers, and since there is still at the present time no clear settlement of the number and conditions for this it will be necessary to balance the lack of activity of the Reichs Food Administration with an appropriate initiative action on the part of the Central Office of the Reichs Ministry for the occupied Eastern territories.

11. Insufficient Recreation. In spite of repeated efforts for a satisfactory and meaningful organization of the recreation period for the Eastern laborer the German Arbeitsfront has still not been able to create and carry out a satisfactory recreational program. While the enterprises have organized excursions in groups because of necessity, the recreational program in the camps have so far lacked a uniform outline. The showing of moving pictures often runs into difficulties since the theaters, which have been created for this purpose, are only accessible to German workers and the Eastern laborer could not enter because of the danger of contamination of lice. The daily radio program in Russian and Ukrainian language which in the beginning was proposed by the Reichsminister of Enlightenment and Propaganda has still not been carried out because of several reasons. The performance of several artists is only possible in exceptional cases among the Eastern races because of the existing travel difficulties. What drawbacks and difficulties are connected with this can be shown in the circumstances under which a Ukrainian group of artists, who are now stationed in the Reich after an agreement was made between Gauleiter Sauckel and the Commissioner General of Kiew, are performing. After this group was barely sufficiently housed an Eastern Labor Camp near Halle for a period of two weeks, a meeting took place in the RAM in which it was decided upon a suggestion by the representative of the Reichs Ministry, for the occupied Eastern territories, that the National Socialistic Organization should send three organizational trustees, the Reichs Ministry for Enlightenment and Propaganda three propaganda trustees, and the Reichs Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories three political trustees, to Halle. By the combined efforts of these trustees it was finally possible to employ the group of artists, who were made up of three separate groups, in several of the central German States [Gaue], during which the management, even in organizational matters, soon went to the member of the eastern office who was sent by the Central Office of the Reichs Minister for the Occupied Eastern territory. Until 30/9/42, on which day the Central office in Berlin sponsored an afternoon reception for the 38 Ukrainian artists, the Reichs Minister for Enlightenment and Propaganda had still not decided upon the amount of wages, which had accrued because of the performances, still less who was to pay for it, so that a temporary solution by using an agent who would carry out the bare essential down payment had to be found. Because of this lack of clarity, the wish of the Deputy General for the Arbeitseinsatz to retain the group in the Reich during the winter months can not be supported.

12. Return under Unworthy Conditions of Eastern laborers and women laborers who are not fit for work. The carelessness during the enlistment and reception of millions of Eastern laborers and ;women laborers has resulted in the fact that,according to a careful estimate, about 5% of the persons transported into the Reich have proved not to be capable of work. That means nothing less than that about 80000-100000 returnees will stream to the occupied Eastern territories in the coming days. The dangers included in this returning process can be seen in the fact at this deals with sick, crippled, mothers-to-be, as well as such persons whom the enterprises are glad to reject and who because of that are not being taken care of. The mood of these returnees is temporarily forced to be anti-German, and nothing has been lone, in spite of repeated suggestions in the Reichs Labor Ministry to reconcile the returnees with at least a few favorable impressions of Germany. During the latter part of 9/1942, a collecting camp in Berlin-Blankenfelde, which was quartered with Eastern laborers who were destined for return, was inspected upon the instigation of the Central Office by a commission consisting of different authorities, at which time revolting conditions were met. Among other things a shot was fired by the guard at an Eastern laborer who was caring for his natural needs, without the President of the States Employment Office who was present making any protest against it. All of the camp inmates gave an impression of neglect. Since the returning of these 1600 persons as well as a further 4400 returnees from other camps, could not be reconciled politically with respect to the danger of contaminating their native districts with reports of horror, and since the postponement of a necessary re-quartering of the collecting camps could no longer be provided (in the meantime) the chief of the branch offices of the Central Police-Vice-counsel in retirement Miller -- Dr. of Law Boywidt and Mrs. Miller were sent at the same time to Brest-Litowsk, to stop the transport at least at this point and to carry out according to the situation a quarantining of the people or, belatedly to take care of them. How necessary this interference was is shown by the fact that this train with returning laborers had stopped at the same place where a train with newly recruited Eastern laborers had stopped. Because of the corpses in the trainload of returning laborers, a catastrophe might have been precipitated had it not been for the mediation of Mrs. Miller. In this train women gave birth to babies who were thrown out of the windows during the journey, people having tuberculosis and venereal diseases rode in the same car, dying people lay in freight cars without straw, and one of the dead was thrown on the railway embankment; The same must have occurred in other returning transports. To end these terrible conditions, it is intended to create special transient camps in the Reich area for returning workers where those who contracted diseases in the Reich will be separated from the chronically sick. They will be sent to an organization caring for the sick. Those finally chosen to return would receive medical and psychological treatment for at least a week. The chief of the Reich health program and his chief of liaison with the GBA, resp., have approved this central office plan of giving aid to returning workers, which aid should also be extended during transport. The directorate of the German Red Cross wants to share in the execution of this plan by making available trained personnel, among other things. The first of these transient camps for returnees could be established at Bad Frankenhausen in Thuringia where, according to the statement of the local mayor, suitable area is available.

To solve these and numerous other problems, as well as the removal of the described difficulties and abuses, two things are advised.

I. Consultation of the Reich minister with the Fuehrer with the purpose of asking him for personal energetic intervention; this conference will have to include among others the following requests as laid down in the note 1 f 5 of 6/7/42:

1. Treatment by the police. The Fuehrer should beseech the Reichs Leader of the SS in a personal consultation, to repeal the General Regulations of 20/2/42 including the supplementary Decree of 9/4/42 that is Section A of the General Regulations.

Laborers from the former Soviet Russian territory and to replace them and among other things with new regulations which are to be voted upon in conjunction with the GBA (2) and the Reichs Ministry for the occupied Eastern territory.

2. Direction of people. The Fuehrer should direct the Chancellor of the party as well as the Reich propaganda office of NSDAP to adjust suitable urgent measures in agreement with the Reich Ministry M.G.A.B. and respectively with the Z.O. to enlighten those party members who are handling the supervision of the relations between Germans and foreigners about the scope of the employment of the Eastern laborers and furthermore to inform the entire German population of the political mission which history has bestowed upon them by the taking in of millions of former Soviet citizens.

3. The competence of the R.M.fdBO. The Fuehrer should inform the supreme authorities of the Reich, if possible through the Reich Minister and the chief of the Reichs chancellory that not only those measures of theirs, which concern themselves with occupied Eastern territories but also those that -affect the labor from these territories employed in the Reich may only be decided in every action with the Reich ministry for the occupied Eastern territories.

II. Further expansion of the General Office for member Races, so that an extended arm of the R.M.fdBO in the Reich and as a representative of the foreign people from the occupied Eastern territories living here it can quickly perceive its instructed interests. The following would be essential for this.

(1) Commitment of a special Commissioner. The appointment of a special commissioner for the Reich ministries provided with specific authority to take care of the interests of the central office, should serve especially two purposes; to take an active influence upon the handling of enlistments inside the occupied eastern territories.

(2) To carry out definite aims of the central Office by cultivating a personal contact with Gauleiter Sauckel.

(3) Reinforcing of the Branch Officers. The commissions which serve under the chief of the branch officer and which are employed to inspect the camps, urgently need reinforcements; to be able to work successfully in thousands of camps for this purpose about 50 interpreters are needed besides liaison agents to the country employment offices and those trustees of the Gau who worked in an honorary capacity, the chief of the commissions need a uniform.

(4) Reinforcing the Sections. The four sections of the Central Office, (Matters of organization, legal and information service, supervision aid, and psychological training) need to be immediately filled by at least six representatives. On account of the avalanche of problems brought to the Central Office, urgent questions remain otherwise unsolved and hundreds of transactions unsettled in spite of the twelve hour day and sometimes several hours of night work, as well. Of what far reaching importance it is to see to it that a political use is made of the stay of several million Eastern laborers in the Reich. That on 8/9/42 their members already amounted to 1.737 million is lower as from many other reasons by a glance at the present condition of the German censored figures. In spite of all measures to Germanize and re-Germanize people who are unfortunately confronted by increased war casualties the future of the German people when measured against the breadth of age levels placed on top of each other as characterized by a population pyramid whose outlines deviate from the biologically normal picture of a bell, if one compares the present curve of the future professionals with the similar curves of the Eastern peoples it will be frighteningly apparent that especially during the decisive decades after this war the number of German people of the Harz areas in the East which will be required for a normal administrative development will not be on hand, the willingness and cooperation of members of the Eastern peoples is herewith an unavoidable necessity, wherefore the years committing an army of millions of Eastern laborers in the Reich are not only seen from the viewpoint of overcoming the problems concerned but actively must be used to create a reliable propaganda army which after its return home will perhaps one day will be just as decisive for the German fate in the East as the victory of our weapons.

signed: DR. GUTKELCH.

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#47

Post by David Thompson » 13 Oct 2004, 05:02

19421005 Document: *017-PS; Description: Letter from Sauckel to Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, 10/5/1942, concerning mobilization of foreign labor forces. (USA 180)

"Document 017-PS" in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume III: US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1947. pp. 60-61.
Copy /T
The Deputy for the Four Year Plan
The General Deputy for the Mobilization of Labor
Va. Nr. 5780,28/4265
Berlin SW 11,
10/3/1942
Saarlandstrasse 96 (Reich Labor Ministry)
Phone of the Ministry 11 00 28

Postal Check account Pay Master Berlin 10019

Urgent Mail To the Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories c/o Gauleiter Meyer Berlin W. 35

BStV 10/5/1942 Nr. 904 A/42

Dear Party Fellow member Meyer!

The Fuehrer has worked out new and most urgent plans for the armament which require the quick mobilization of two more million foreign labor forces. The Fuehrer therefore has granted me. for the execution of my decree of 3/21/1942, new powers for my new duties, and has especially authorized me to take whatever measures I think are necessary in the Reich, the Protectorate the General Gouvernement, as well as in the occupied territories. in order to assure at all costs an orderly mobilization of labor for the German armament industry. The additional required labor forces will have to be drafted for the majority from the recently occupied eastern territories especially from the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Therefore the Reichskommissariat Ukraine must furnish 225000 labor forces by 12/31/1942 and 225000 more by 5/1/1943. I ask you to inform Reichskommissar Gauleiter party fellow member Koch about the new situation and requirements and especially to see to it that he will support personally in any possible way the execution of this new requirement.

I have the intention to visit Party member Koch shortly, and I would be grateful to you if you could inform me as to where and when I could meet him for a personal discussion.
Right now though, I ask that the procurement be taken up at once with every possible pressure and the commitment of all powers especially also of the experts of the labor offices. All the directives which had limited temporarily the procurement of Eastern laborers are annulled. The Reichs procurement for the next months must be given priority over all other measures.

I do not ignore the difficulties which exist for the execution of this new requirement, but I am convinced that with the ruthless Commitment of all resources, and with the full cooperation of all those interested, the execution of the new demands can be accomplished for the fixed date. I have already communicated the new demands to the Reichskommissar Ukraine via mail.

In reference to our long distance phone call of today, I will send you the text of the Fuehrer's decree at the beginning of next week.

Heil Hitler!
Your devoted
[signed] FRITZ SAUCKEL

[stamp] Certified conform to the original
[signed] ACKERMANN clerk


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#48

Post by David Thompson » 13 Oct 2004, 05:25

19421017 Document: *054-PS; Description: Report to Reich Ministry for Occupied Eastern Territories, 10/7/1942, concerning treatment of Ukrainian Specialists. (USA 198)

"Document 054-PS [translation]", in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume III: US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: GPO, 1947. pp. 90-99.
The Reichminister For The Occupied Eastern Territories
The Representative at the Army Sector B.
C.P., 10/7/1942 L 14/10

To the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, Chief Section I,
BERLIN, Unter den Linden 63.
Reprint to Captain Lorenz Hg. of the High Command of the Army

Subject: Treatment of Ukrainian Specialists.
Enclosures:2

Attached I send you the copy of a report made by the Commandant of the Collecting Center for Specialists at Charkow. (report submitted at the end of 9/1942) as well as the copy of a letter from 4/1942.

Relative to the treatment of Ukrainian specialists in the Reich, I was asked by the Chief of Staff of the Commander in Chief to attend to the matter most emphatically since the complaints here never cease. I have discussed it thoroughly with the chief of section VII at the Commander in Chiefs. I went to see Captain Schmid and visited the camp. As synopsis of the discussions with the gentlemen and reading of reports the following can be established in general:

a. With some few exceptions the Ukrainians employed individually in the Reich e.g. at small trade plants, as agricultural laborers, as domestic helps, etc., are very satisfied with their conditions.

b. The Ukrainians sheltered in the community camps, however, complain very much.

The enclosed report of Captain Schmid reports these matters in detail.

The question of treatment of the Ukrainians, transported to the Reich as workers of the East worries the bureaus of the Army concerned a great deal. The Commander in Chief urged me to visit some of the camps in the Reich myself as soon as possible and to report to the proper authorities in order to bring about immediate relief. The Army zone is by no means satisfied. All the circumstances of discontent contribute more and more to more people joining the bands or wandering away to the camp of the Bandera esp. other groups hostile to us.

The best propaganda of all would be to treat the workers of the East well; great demands are not made by the Ukrainians anyhow. If their treatment will only be somewhat better and humanely decent these people, who make in part a good impression, will be more than satisfied; these people after all came to the Greater German Reich -- at least at the beginning of the employment of workers of the East in the Reich -- of their own free will and full of hope. The unsuitable treatment described in the reports is hardly propaganda and is not profitable for us. After all, we are not at war with the Ukrainian population and certainly not with people who by their voluntary enlistment for labor, help us to win the war.

It also would serve our purposes definitely better to utilize the specialist in his specialty.

[signed] THEURER (Theurer)
1st Lieutenant

*************************************************
Copy of Copy

Collecting Center for Skilled Workers at Charkow.
Captain Schmid, Commandant.

To the Commander of the Army Sector B., Section VII CHARKOW

Subject. Abuses in the treatment of Ukrainian skilled workers. By reason of my capacity as commandant of the Collecting Center for skilled workers and the transport of skilled workers to the Reich connected with it and thereby being in touch with the various groups of the Ukrainian population, I am informed of the morale of the Ukrainians in the extended surroundings of the Eastern Ukraine. Resulting from this knowledge I have to state that an atmosphere of animosity has taken the place of the original attitude toward the Reich. This sudden change of mood is connected partly with the scarcity of food for the civilian population caused by the war and intensified by the measures for centralization. The more important motive -- the extreme abuses which have taken place at various times in the treatment of skilled workers shipped to Germany.

Since a prosperous economic cooperation with the 35 million people of the Ukraine lies within the interest of our coming generations and since the Ukrainians themselves are organically healthy, very capable of development and rich in valuable and willing constructive forces, it is necessary to prevent in time an estrangement starting at the roots and to recognize the beginnings of the disastrous development before it is too late, and to take effective countermeasures.

I. Abuses in recruiting.

At the beginning of the action the recruiting worked on the basis of voluntary enlistment. Later on a certain pressure had to be put on to reach certain minimum quotas. This however did not give a license to the starosts and to their militia, entrusted with the drafting, to the brutalities mentioned in the following.

The starosts esp. village elders are frequently corruptible, they continue to have the skilled workers, whom they drafted, dragged from their beds at night to be locked up in cellars until they are shipped. Since the male and female workers often are not given any time to pack their luggage, etc., many skilled workers arrive at the Collecting Center for Skilled Workers with equipment entirely insufficient (without shoes, only two dresses, no eating and drinking utensils, no blankets, etc.). In particularly extreme cases new arrivals therefore have to be sent back again immediately to get the things most necessary for them. If people do not come along at once, the threatening and beating of skilled workers by the above mentioned militia is a daily occurrence and is reported from most of the communities. In some cases women were beaten until they could no longer march. One bad case in particular was reported by me to the commander of the civil police here (colonel Samek) for severe punishment (place Sozolinkow, district Dergatschi). The encroachments of the starosts and the militia are of a particularly grave nature because they usually justify themselves by claiming that all that is done in the name of the German Armed Forces. In reality the latter have conducted themselves almost throughout in a highly understanding manner toward the skilled workers and the Ukrainian population. The same, however, can not be said of some of the administrative agencies. To illustrate this be it mentioned, that a woman once arrived being dressed with barely more than a shirt.

Particularly distressing is the fact that, on account of issued ordnances to prevent smuggling, all food acquired by the skilled workers and the rest of the population by buying or bartering household utensils, etc., is being taken away by the militia on the way. This is not rarely accompanied by beatings (without regard to objections or given circumstances).

It happened that skilled workers who came to Germany had sold or bartered their own belongings partly or completely in that way, thus they owned neither household furniture, etc., nor any other goods or food. By combatting smuggling in that manner, unfortunately only too often very poor people are being affected and robbed of their last property, while the real smugglers are hard to catch. Furthermore food has disappeared from the market due to a freezing of prices.

Family members left behind and formerly supported by those who went to Germany get social care. This, however, is only the case in the city of Charkow, not in the case of people on the country (note: used to be the case, now all get special food distribution, the hardship thus is removed). The taking away of food esp. the sale of goods mentioned above often results in considerable hardships for those left behind and has sometimes strong effects, since neither communal nor reciprocal assistance exist here.

Very depressing for the morale of the skilled workers and the population is the effect of those persons shipped back from Germany for having become disabled or not having been fit for labor commitment from the very beginning. Several times already transports of skilled workers on their way to Germany have crossed returning transports of such disabled persons and have stood on the tracks alongside of each other for a long period of time. These returning transports are insufficiently cared for. Nothing but sick, injured and weak people, mostly 50-60 to a car, are usually escorted by 3-4 men. There is neither sufficient care or food. The returnees made frequently unfavorable -- but surely exaggerated -- statements relative to their treatment in Germany and on the way. As a result of all this and of what the people could see with their own eyes, a psychosis of fear was evoked among the specialist workers esp. the whole transport to Germany. Several transport leaders -- of the 62nd and the 63rd in particular -- reported thereto in detail. In one case the leader of the transport of skilled workers observed with his own eyes how a person who died of hunger was unloaded from a returning transport on the side track [1st Lt. Hoffmann of the 63rd transport Station Darniza]. Another time it was reported that 3 dead had to be deposited by the side of the tracks on the way and had to be left behind unburied by the escort. It is also regrettable that these disabled persons arrive here without any identification. According to the reports of the transport commanders one gets the impression that these persons unable to work are assembled, penned into the wagons and are sent off provided only by a few men escort, and without special care for food and medical or other attendance. The Labor Office at the place of arrival as well as the transport commanders confirm this impression.

II. Deficiencies on Transport

During the transport to Germany provisions should be made for food, water and drink, answering the call of nature, medical care, orderly transportation, avoidance of maltreatment, delousing according to regulation, and supervision. To take care of all this a military escort is detailed consisting of 1 car commander for each car, 1 train guard for every 6 cars, 1 supply man for every 5 cars, and 1 control staff for every 3 cars. This is the minimum strength required according to corresponding reports of all transport commanders. With less than that orderly care and transportation of specialists is no longer secured. It has been often confirmed that insufficient and uninstructed escorts caused fatal accidents, insufficient food and care, escape of hundreds of workers, most brutal maltreatment with consequent disorder and confusion. Unfortunately the escorts were depleted on the way in various manners by Army details esp. by commanders for the supervision of furloughs or after the transports were taken over by the police. This always affected the transports unfavorably. The transports commanders are instructed to secure the interests of the transports by all possible means against encroachments of all kind. They are of vital importance for the Great German Reich.

Recently the practice started of handing the transports over to new escorts in Przemysl. These escorts are under the command of a delegate of the German Labor Front or the Ministry of Labor. This practice is clearly against the regulations and rules of the Reich Marshal and the Deputy General for Labor Supply. Taking a good management of the transport by the delegates for granted, incoming reports here list the following deficiencies: The escorts are understaffed which causes in part lack of care and food and rough treatment, doctors and released female domestic helpers are detained in camps without authority for want of supplementary identification papers, social care is lacking. A verbal report at hand relates in detail and with the witnesses the irresponsibility and indecent conduct of delegate Albert Nuessen who took over the 62nd transport. The transfer to the camp is made as fast as possible and not perfect. The railroad offices are of course directed to support the transport commanders. Unfortunately, however, some of the office chiefs of the railroad treat the transports of specialists often as very immaterial. The chief of transportation in Romodan e.g. stated to a transport commander that these transports are not important. Yet the Fuehrer himself ordered these transports, and the problem of work power was declared to be the most important and urgent in order to increase the potential of armament

The food situation of the transports is now somewhat improved after giving right notice ahead of time. Previously some of the food stations failed grossly. However, it happens again and again that in spite of giving advance notice of the transports strength in time, no warm or cold food is ready or available. Sometimes this is due to military or hospital transports which passed through before. This can be easily understood. Sometimes, however, the notice was not passed on or simply nothing at all was done. In the Reich it is generally better. Of course it happens when trains are detoured a great deal of the specialists go hungry for days. The iron ration is always taken along and also used. It mostly depends on the transport commander and the office -chief for social care how unforeseen food difficulties are overcome. The Army offices show always greatest understanding for supplying these transports, the deputies of the labor front most of the time fulfill their appointments well, however some of the deputies of the attendance service have completely failed in their duties. The transport commanders are instructed to give exact names and conditions in the future. The red cross which at times is overburdened helps with the supplying; unfortunately, however, the attitude and behavior of many female red cross workers toward the specialists is based often on uncomprehension of the Fuehrer's great action in regard to Eastern workers, and they treat especially the female workers in an outrageous manner. Food also has been refused at times with the reference that these were "Russian swine." Nobody pays attention to the fact that these are Ukrainians, because there is a lack of information to that effect. In reference to this, attention is called to the fact that it has happened on several occasions that people have broken out of the cars after several days of hungering, hurried into the nearby villages, sold their goods and acquired food. In such cases of course it is not to be expected that they all come back. Such gross incidents of the transports of the first months have not to our knowledge been repeated in the summer. However, it has been reported that about 500 workers escaped along the route out of a transport which started from Kiev, accompanied by only a few policemen, supposedly 5 in all, (and without medical personnel) and which convoy was badly supplied and taken care of.

To understand the supply problem, it is important to know, that often only a short time is being allotted for the feeding of the many hundred people by the train commander or the railway station officer. Therefore all the workers can only be fed before the departure of the train if there is a sufficient amount of accompanying and attendance personnel and if the food is handed out quickly at several distributing points; in addition close cooperation of the workers is needed. Because the transports must often stop 1-3 Km outside of the stations it still happens frequently that a small part of the workers remains without rations because the engineers, in spite of agreements and the stationmaster let the trains take of without warning. On the basis of reported incidents, attention must be called to the fact that it is irresponsible to keep the workers locked in the cars for many hours so that they cannot even take care of the calls of nature. It is evident that the people of a transport must be given an opportunity from time to time to get drinking water, to wash, and in order to relieve themselves. Cars have been showed in which people had made holes so they could take care of the calls of nature. When nearing bigger stations persons should, if possible relieve themselves far from these stations.

The following abuses were reported from the delousing stations: In the women's and girls' shower rooms, services was partly performed by men or men would mingle around or even helped with the soaping!; and vice versa, there was female personnel in the men's shower rooms; men also for some time were taking photographs in the women's shower rooms. Since mainly Ukrainian peasants were transported in the last months, as far as the female portion of these are concerned they are mostly of a high moral standard and used to strict decency, they must have considered such a treatment as a national degradation. The above mentioned abuses have been, according to our knowledge, settled by the intervention of the transport commanders. The reports of the photographing were made from Halle; the reports about the former were made from Kiewerce. Such incidents in complete disregard of the honor and respect of the Greater German Reich may still occur again here or there.

III. Abuses inside Germany

Undoubtedly the higher authorities in the Reich do everything to attend, in the best manner, to the workers from the East, especially from the Ukraine, who have been called to Germany. In most of the enterprises, too, in the countries and in households, one is not only satisfied most of the time with the Ukrainian women and girls as help, but they are also treated with a happy solicitude and with understanding for their position and for our relations to the Ukraine.

Here too, unfortunately voices are heard that tell of bad treatment in the collecting as well as other camps. All the time people tell about beatings and thrashings and constantly also they write about them. It seems that especially these men who have functions pertaining to order and security violate sometimes very much the limits of admissibility and identify the Ukrainians as Bolsheviks while they have actually for decades opposed themselves to Bolshevism as its natural enemies. The camp commanders also, usually show no understanding for the Ukrainians. The treatment in the camps is described as being bad and very brutal.

With regard to food, it is being felt in Germany that in a war for life and death, it is but natural to impose harsh restrictions in the first place on foreigners who have been up to the present in the enemy's camps. No doubt the Reich and the businesses make efforts to keep the workers who were brought in, in good health and working condition. If abuses take place here, it is harmful to ourselves and should be remedied in each single case.

Disadvantageous also is the fact that a great portion of the German population considers the Ukrainian labor forces as their worst enemies and as Russian Bolshevists and treat them accordingly. A definite clarification is urgently needed here. In the face of such an attitude of the Ukraine it will be completely impossible to have for decades and centuries a successful and durable solution for the great economical and political problem of the East especially of the Southern part.

Until recently the postal communication problem of the specialists with their country was not fully solved and gave cause to ill rumor and depression. At present an improvement is being planned.

Here in the Ukraine thousands of recruiting notices and placards have been put out to get cooperation from the people and urging them to report to the Reich with the assurance of best treatment Therefore, considering this and also the above mentioned abuses, it would seem to be of interest to the Reich, and necessary for the security of our future race and to prevent a later evil, to prevent by all means an alienation of the Ukraine with its precious territories and population by settling vicious abuses and by a clarification of the situation.

Certified True Copy
C. P. 10/5/1942.
[illegible signature]
*****************************************************
At the V.O. of the Reichs Ministry for the occupied territories of the East.

Deputy with Army, Territory B. Official seal.
Copy of Copy

Copy of a letter of graduate engineer given to the Specialist Collecting Camp.

(Translated from the original in the Specialist Collecting Camp.)
4/27/1942

Camp Dabendorf, Berlin Reich Railway direction.

Mister Franz H. Ergard and H. Nester!

As I have told you in my letter of 4/20/1942, we have been transported to the Grunewald Railroad car repair factories. In the first week I have worked as a manual laborer in the main warehouse of the works. I have unloaded coal, have dug the ground and have stacked lumber. This is supposed to be the "employment of Specialists" in their own line of work. The question constantly arises, why did I go to Germany, maybe that I who volunteered as a specialist (graduate engineer) for Germany, am to be transformed into a banned prisoner? I wonder why? What misdeeds have I committed against Germany? On the contrary. I have believed all those who spoke in Charkow about the worker's life in Germany. My attitude toward Germany has remained kind and friendly, I want to work, but I do not want to be led astray, to be treated as a civilian prisoner and without any care, or as a forgotten man who can find nowhere and receives from nobody, care and moral backing. I had hoped that we would be treated humanely and quite differently. It should be clear that I did not come to Germany to beg for charity. I had a job in Charkow and a decent working place; this I have renounced for the good of Germany and sacrificed for the improvement of the condition of my family. It was clear to me that I had to help that state that delivered me from the Bolshevist yoke, from this yoke under which I had to live for 24 years. Now I had expected a better future for myself. Our food ration consists of: at 4 o'clock in the morning 3/4 of a liter of tea, in the evening at 6 o'clock 3/4 of a liter of soup and 250 grams of bread a day. That is all. With such food we have to dig the ground and great requirements are made from us just like from manual laborers. On account of the undernourishment and the heavy work I am weak and exhausted today and I don't know if I can endure and survive this much longer. To what conditions thoughtlessness can drive a man! Into a condition which will probably not be pleasant to anybody.

I beg you all, deliver me, help that I can go back to my family! If this is impossible, ease my condition otherwise I may commit a stupidity, escape or suicide.

There is no possibility to continue to live like this.
Your,
Grigori.

P.S.: Expect with impatience to hear from you. What is the possibility of sending me a work suit which in my stupidity I have not taken along.

Certified copy of Original
5 Oct. 42
Mamperl, employee (At the V.O. of the Reich Ministry of the occupied territories of the East. Deputy with Army, Territory B.)

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#49

Post by David Thompson » 13 Oct 2004, 05:38

19421026 Document: *294-PS; Description: Top secret memorandum signed by Brautigam, 10/26/1942, concerning conditions in Russia. (USA 185)

"Document 294-PS [translation]", in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume III: US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1947. pp. 242-251.
Copy
TOP SECRET

Handwritten: II 1 1161/44/ g

Memorandum

In the East, Germany is carrying on a threefold war: a war for the destruction of Bolshevism, a war for the destruction of the greater Russian Empire, and finally a war for the acquisition of colonial territory for colonizing purposes and economic exploitation.

This threefold mission of the Eastern campaign has brought about the enormous resistance of the Eastern peoples. Were the war being conducted only for the smashing of Bolshevism, then it would have been decided long ago in our favor, for, as all experiences of this war have confirmed, Bolshevism is hated to the utmost by the Eastern peoples, above all by the great mass of peasants. Also the dissolution of the greater Russian Empire into its national components would not have provoked the resistance which we meet now. As the numerous prisoner interrogations and other experiences show the shrewd Russians have a complete understanding that this war will end in territorial losses for them and the non-Russian peoples will break out from the confinement within which Russia has forced them. The reduction of the power of resistance of the Red Army is the major portion of the third goal of our campaign. With the inherent instinct of the Eastern peoples the primitive man soon found out also that for Germany the slogan: "Liberation from Bolshevism" was only a pretext to enslave the Eastern peoples according to her own methods. In order that there exist no doubt at all on the German-war aim, however, German publicity refers openly to this intention in increasing measure. The conquered territory is claimed publicly not only for Germany as a colonization area, but even for Germany's embittered enemies, the Dutch, Norwegians, and others. The economic exploitation is proclaimed verbally and in print, and carried out with almost elimination of the demands of the indigenous population, even with the greatest lack of consideration.

The populace has more of an understanding of the measures and duties necessitated by war than the conquered peoples of the West. But the laborer and peasant, who were educated to the highest degree of self-consciousness by Bolshevism, soon perceived that Germany did not regard them as partners of equal rights, but considered them only as the objective of her political and economic aims. That disillusioned them unspeakably, all the more since they had placed colossal hopes on Germany.

The main department for politics of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern territories claims that it has been quit aware of this situation from the beginning. It was soon apparent that the war could not be decided in a short time by arms lone, because of the vast areas and the enemy's inexhaustible reserves of manpower and material, but that as in all great wars of recent times a spiritual disintegration would have to come and the war would have to be changed at the final conclusion to a civil war, all the more since the German Wehrmacht does not tend to occupy completely the territory of the Soviet Union. The Russian collapse of 1917 and the German breakdown of 18 were actually not brought about by weapons alone, but primarily by political disintegration. What Lenin achieved in Russia, the 14 points of Wilson and the undermining effect of Marxism accomplished in Germany. In the Soviet Union we found on our arrival a population weary of Bolshevism, which waited longingly for new slogans, holding out the prospect of a better future to them. It was Germany's duty to find such slogans, but they remained unuttered. The population greeted with joy as liberators, and placed themselves at our disposal willingly and freely with body and life. Wherever Ukrainians, Russians, White Ruthenians and members of the Baltic peoples were enlisted in the German Wehrmacht or in the police they have proved themselves and fought excellently almost without exception. The Main Department for Politics tried every means of keeping this vast capital that had fallen into our lap, and of utilizing it for our purposes. To this purpose it was necessary that National Socialism separate itself from Bolshevism with a sharp line of distinction and open to the populace prospects of a new better life. All measures which the Main Department for Politics suggested were directed toward this one goal of preserving this capital. They have been many times attacked as the expression of a weak sentimental humanitarian attitude, of a form of German sentimentalism, and they were in reality only the expression of completely coarse material politics. For nothing else was contemplated than to preserve the mass millions of the Eastern area in the adjustment to us which was encountered with, in order to draw from it the greatest possible Use for Germany both militaristically, politically and economically. Should this political policy succeed, the greatest reactions on the enemy troops were to be expected. For years the masses of the S. U. (Soviet Union) were stirred up against the surrounding world by the most efficient propaganda machine that has ever existed. Until 1939 National Socialism had been the target of the most spiteful attacks. Day after day it was hammered into the laborers and peasants that the active masses in Germany were a sacrifice to the most terrible exploitation. With extreme tens on workers and peasants looked forward to the German administration. To be sure they had not completely trusted the Bolshevist propaganda, but in spite of that they met the new masters with a certain feeling of doubt.

As we all know, the peoples of the S. U. (Soviet Union) have gone through the hardest times. Consequently, they are of a simplicity inconceivable to us, even in the political sphere. A form of government which was not intent only on plundering and exploitation and which put aside the Bolshevist methods would have kindled the greatest enthusiasm and put at our disposal a mass of millions. And the enthusiasm in the occupied Eastern territories would have had its reaction on the force of resistance of the Red Army. It would have been easily attainable to have the Red Army man say to himself: "I fight for a system that is throughout worse than that which awaits me in the case of a defeat. I will be better off in every respect among the Germans than I have been until now". If the Red Army man had become convinced of his general well-being, the war would have been at an end very soon.

Knowing this the Main Department for Politics believed it to be its primary duty to assist our combat troops with all their power by a propaganda campaign aimed at crippling the power of resistance of the Red Army and to shorten the war in this way. For the attainment of this goal there are, among the measures proposed, two of the utmost importance: The Agrarian Law and Religious Freedom, which is essentially distinct from that of the Bolshevists.

Considering the exceptionally great significance which approaches the agrarian question in the Soviet Union, the Main Department for Politics was demanding even before the beginning of the Eastern campaign, that the Kolchos be dissolved and an individual agrarian economy be introduced again. This proposal was turned down by the Four Year Plan with the remark that organic changes were not to be considered during the war. Not until August of 1st year was an increase of the farmland successfully put through.

Before the realization could be carried out, however, the Four Year Plan had recognized that the impetuous pressure of the whole peasant population for the dissolution of the collective would have to be reckoned with in some way in the interest of production itself. The proposal of the Main Department for Politics for the dissolution of the collective found its defeat in the new agrarian decree. A few months had been sufficient to make clear, not only to all Wehrmacht units down to the youngest lieutenant in the line farthest forward, but also to the units in the home country and the civil administration in the occupied Eastern territories, the need of reform in the Kolchos constitution. The only exceptions in this knowledge were the two Reich Commissars, whose disagreement unfortunately caused a delay of several weeks. The new Agrarian Decree came out shortly before the spring planting and was greatly played up in the territories by the Press and Propaganda Dept. of Main Department I. Its direct success was a hitherto inconceivable piece of work of the populace in the spring planting, which was able to be carried out in spite of unfavorable preliminary conditions. In spite of this no lasting effect on the enemy has appeared so far. Naturally, the enemy propaganda countered our Agrarian Decree with every means. Their main argument was that in this it was only a matter of a promise which had as its purpose a momentary tactical success, that moreover Germany intended to make use of the land later for her own purposes. This argument found support in the very slow execution of the Agrarian Decree, which is to be attributed in part to objective reasons (lack of surveyors, land registration, surveying instruments and so forth).

It has been foreseen that in 1942 in the Ukraine 20% of the general economy was to be changed to agriculture cooperatives. The increasing of the farmland, which forms the main criterion of the general economy and is carried through everywhere immediately, has still not been achieved to the extent of 10% Of the general economy, although it was decreed, as has been mentioned, in 8/1941. The transformation to agricultural cooperatives has generally begun only a short time ago, and according to the directives of the farmer's leader Koerner is not to reach more than 10% by the end of August of this year. In this state of affairs it is understandable that great sections of the Ukrainian peasantry are under the control of enemy propaganda and have lost belief in the earnestness of our intentions.

The religious freedom was likewise to call forth a great propaganda effect. After months long negotiations, it was eventually decided not to announce the freedom of religion ceremoniously, but to let it come into existence as quietly as possible. The propaganda effect consequently slipped from the picture.

When the Main Department for Politics noticed the hesitation of decision in the church question, it searched for a substitute in another means of propaganda, in the question of returning property rights of the individual. In this the whole world could be clearly shown that National Socialism contrasts distinctly with the Bolshevist expropriation measures and a new property law would be ushered in. The first display of this slogan for propaganda use would have been the immediate raising of the expropriation measures in the Baltic states, which Bolshevism had not yet controlled for a year, and consequently it would have been possible to resume the former property situation without further ado. To the unbounded astonishment of the populace, however, the German administration marched forward to play the role of receiver of the goods stolen by the Bolshevists. The necessity for the restoration of private ownership for the psychological treatment of the populace was referred to by all the General Commissioners in the Baltic states; this population, as everybody knows, ought to be won for German patriotism. Even after the Four Year Plan gave up its old ideas in recognition that a further protraction of the restoration of private ownership would damage even the German economic interests. The fundamental profession of the reinstallation of the pre-Bolshevist property law did not follow, though it was against every political judgment and based only on the unfounded opposition of the Reichs Commissar.

Again a real weapon for the disintegration of the enemy front had been twisted out of our hand, a weapon whose effect may not be undervalued. For the unrecompensed expropriation of private property by the Bolshevists had aroused at the time not only the terror of Russian bourgeois circles including the more prosperous peasants, but also of the entire civilized world. The world, including the laborers and peasants in the Soviet Union who were disillusioned by Bolshevism, awaited now a clear policy in this question on the part of Germany. This silence on the part of Germany obviously made itself of use to the enemy propaganda, which could reliably persuade the Soviet masses that Germany plans no restoration of individual ownership.

The Main Department for Politics furthermore has always emphasized that the Eastern peoples must be told something concrete about their future. The Department refers to the fact that in case we should not oppose the propaganda of Stalin, the peoples would have to succumb to this propaganda, that is to say, they would believe in their own enslavement by Germany. The Main Department for Politics has accordingly often directed the attention of Wehrmacht units to the expediency of having the Slavic Eastern peoples receive calming assurances regarding their future from the authoritative German quarters. As the best means, the establishment of a sort of counter-regime to Stalin with a captured Red general was indicated; or, if the word government should be avoided, then just a rebellious general somewhat after the model of de Gaulle, who should become the point of crystallization for all the Red soldiers who are dissatisfied with Stalin. The correctness of this conception has been confirmed in the time following its inception by countless statements of prisoners of war, who have all stated independently that the silence of Germany regarding the future of Russia allows the worst to be feared. Many would like to desert, but they did not know to whom they should go. Under the banner of a recognized counter-revolutionary leader they would gladly and bravely fight against the Bolshevist regime.

All the suggestions concerning this were rejected in their essentials. Permission for front-line duty was effected only for groups of Turkish and Caucasian peoples and finally after several refusals also for the Estonians. Because of the difficulty of recruiting troops, the unit generally came to the point of impressing civilians and prisoners of war into their ranks, in the first line of rear-echelon services. But even in the foremost line they found employment and fought well. Only in the last few weeks under the pressure of danger from the partisans was the formation of native units allowed and that only for combat with the bandits. But even this measure will remain ineffective as far as propaganda is concerned if a combat unit is not activated and a personality with a resounding name is not put at its head.

The Main Department for Politics was compelled, for the sake of attaining the above-outlined goal, to rescind or at least greatly change measures from German quarters which would strengthen the enemy's power of resistance.

Of primary importance, the treatment of prisoners of war should be named. It is no longer a secret from friend or foe that hundreds of thousands of them literally have died of hunger or cold in our camps. Allegedly there were not enough food supplies on hand for them. It is especially peculiar that the food supplies are deficient only for prisoners of war from the Soviet Unions, while complaints about the treatment of other prisoners of war, Polish, Serbian, French and English, have not become loud. It is obvious that nothing is so suitable for strengthening the power of resistance of the Red Army as the knowledge that in German captivity a slow miserable death is to be met. To be sure the Main Department for Politics has succeeded here by unceasing efforts in bringing about a material improvement of the fate of the prisoners of war. However this improvement is not to be ascribed to political acumen, but to the sudden realization that our labor market must be supplied with laborers at once. We now experienced the grotesque picture of having to recruit millions of laborers from the occupied Eastern territories, after prisoners of war have died of hunger like flies, in order to fill the gaps that have formed within Germany. Now the food question no longer existed. In the prevailing limitless abuse of the Slavic humanity, "recruiting" methods were used which probably have their origin only in the blackest periods of the slave trade. A regular manhunt was inaugurated. Without consideration of health or age the people were shipped to Germany, where it turned out immediately that far more than 100000 had to be sent back because of serious illnesses and other incapabilities for work. This system in no way considered that these methods would of necessity have their effect on the power of resistance of the Red Army, since these methods were used only in the Soviet Union of course, and in no way remotely resembling this form in enemy countries like Holland or Norway. Actually we have made it quite easy for Soviet propaganda to augment the hate for Germany and the National Socialist system. The Soviet soldier fights more and more bravely in spite of the efforts of our politicians to find another name for this bravery. Valuable German blood must flow more and more, in order to break the resistance of the Red Army. Obviously the Main Department for Politics has struggled unceasingly to place the methods of acquiring workers and their treatment within Germany on a rational foundation. Originally it was thought in all earnestness to demand the utmost efforts at a minimum cost of the biological knowledge has led to an improvement. Now 400000 female household workers from the Ukraine are to come to Germany, and already the German press announces publicly that these people have no right to free time and may not visit theaters, movies, restaurants, etc. and may leave the house at the most three hours a week apart from exception concerning duty.

In addition there is the treatment of the Ukrainians in the Reichs Commissariat itself. With a presumption unequalled we put aside all political knowledge and to the glad surprise of all the colored world treat the peoples of the occupied Eastern territories as whites of Class 2, who apparently have only the task of serving as slaves for Germany and Europe. Only the most limited education is suitable for them, no solicitude can be given them. Their sustenance interests us only insofar as they are still capable of labor, and in every respect they are given to understand that we regard them as of the most minute value.

In these circumstances the following can be determined:

1. The resistance power of the Red Army and the strength of the partisan movement has mounted in the same degree as the population realized our true enlistment for them. The feats of arms of our noble army have been neutralized exactly as in 1918 by an inadequate political policy. Our political policy has forced both Bolshevists and Russian nationals into a common front against us. The Russian fights today with exceptional bravery and self-sacrifice for nothing more or less than recognition of his human dignity.

2. Our political policy of utilizing the Ukraine as a counterweight against mighty Russia, against Poland and the Balkans, and as a bridge to the Caucasus, has suffered complete shipwreck. The 40 million Ukrainians who joyfully greeted us as liberators, are today indifferent to us and already begin to swing into the enemy camp. Should we not succeed in checking this situation in the last moment, then we run the danger from day to day of having a partisan movement in the Ukraine, which not only eliminates the Ukraine as a furnisher of food, but also ties up the reinforcements of the German army, endangers its existence and accordingly involves the danger of a German defeat.

If this danger which threatens the German people is to be prevented in the last moment, then the following is necessary.

1. For the Ukraine an absolutely positive political policy must be carried out in every respect. The Ukraine must not be merely an objective of exploitation to us, but the populace must sincerely feel that Germany is its friend and liberator. The German economic agencies must be responsible for assuring the populace a minimum on which they can exist. A compulsory conscription of labor in the occupied Eastern territories must be restrained immediately. The treatment of Ukrainians and other Eastern peoples within the Reich must be fair and human. In publicity, both oral and written, everything must be avoided that is in any way cognizant of the fact that we regard this territory as an objective of exploitation. The Russian people must be told something concrete about their future, particularly because Germany does not have the intention nor the power to occupy the whole Russian area.

2. The policy of the officials of the Reichs Commissar for the Ukraine is in general the exponent for the above described policy, which has not recognized the role of the Ukraine in world politics, and has succeeded in throwing away the friendship of 40 million people; and which is guilty in this way of strengthening the power of resistance of the Red Army and prolonging the war with all its consequences. These officials see their only mission as the economic exploitation of the country. The longer the war lasts, however, the more political forces must be interposed. Therefore it would be opportune to place at the head of the Reich Commissariat a personality who also possesses sufficient political ability.

If we do not accomplish this change of course at once, then one can say with certainty that the power of resistance of the Red Army and of the whole Russian people will mount still more, and Germany must continue to sacrifice her best blood. Yes, it must be openly stated that the possibility of a German defeat approaches in a tangible proximity, all the more so if the partisan movement for which Stalin is striving with every means, should spread over a greater part of the Ukraine. One should protest that in the South Ukraine such a danger does not exist because of the lack of swamps and forests. The bandit leader Machino needs to be remembered, he who for about 2 years terrorized the Ukraine and knew how to avoid all persecutions. One should also not place his hopes on the economic collapse of the Soviet Union. Certainly the losses in fertile land, raw materials and industrial projects are very significant. On the other hand the Soviet Union still has the Ural territory, fabulously rich in raw materials of all kinds, which for fourteen years has been industrially developed with all power, as well as rich Siberia. Finally we know that the Soviets have systematically carried on an economic policy of hoarding reserves, and we cannot completely tie up the English-American reserves.

However, if we accomplish the proposed change in policy, then it can be believed certain that the decomposition of the Red Army will also succeed. For the power of resistance of the Red Army man is broken the moment that he becomes convinced that Germany brings him a better life than he has led under the Soviets, and that Germany has a small bit of consideration for his national qualities, in other words does not intend to rob him of his soul.

The problem is too serious to be allowed to remain undecided. Here it is a question of the future of the German race, under circumstances concerning even its existence or non-existence. The permanent thesis of the Main Department for Politics has proved itself true, that a quick victory cannot be attained entirely by the aid of arms, but only in conjunction with the application of a great political offensive. That the administration of the occupied Eastern territories is composed almost entirely of personnel not acquainted with Russia is probably one of the reasons why this thesis has not been carried out. The gentlemen slowly grope their way into the problem, for which the majority still require interpreters. Nevertheless it is today already confirmed that wide circles of the lower administrative chiefs in the Ukraine are plainly frightened of the policy commanded by the higher echelon. However, they are not in a position to have their way. So much the more reason one should trust the interpretation of the Main Department for Politics based on the best technical and social knowledge; the Department is even today convinced of a speedy victorious conclusion of the war, insofar as its political directives are followed.

Berlin, 10/25/1942

Signed: BRAEUTIGAM

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#50

Post by David Thompson » 13 Oct 2004, 05:43

19421105 Document: *L-316; Description: RSHA Order of 11/5/1942, signed by Streckenbach, concerning jurisdiction over Poles and Eastern Nationals. (USA 346)

"Document L-316: Jurisdiction over Poles and Eastern Nationals [translation]", in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume VII: US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1947. pp. 1104-1105.
Berlin, 11/5/1942
Reich Security H.Q.
II A 2 No. 567/42-176
EXPRESS LETTER.SECRET.

To:

(a) the Higher SS and Head of Police,
(b) Commanders and Inspectors of the Security Police and Security Service (SD),
(c) the Directors of the State Police (Control) Stations,
(d) Officers commanding the Security Police and Security Service (SD),
(e) Directors of the Criminal Investigation Police (Control) Stations,
(f) Directors of the Security Service (Control) Sections.

For information to the offices I, III, IV and V
five copies each.

I. The Reichsfuehrer SS. has come to an arrangement with the Reich Minister of Justice Thierack whereby the justice waives the execution of the usual penal procedure against Poles and eastern nationals. Those persons of alien race are in future to be handed over to the police. Jews and gypsies are to be treated in the same way. This agreement has been approved by the Fuehrer.

A settlement is now being worked out for carrying out this agreement by the Reich Security H.Q. on the one hand, and the Reich Ministry of Justice on the other, which settlement is as far as possible to enter into force by 1/1/1943.

II. This agreement is based on following considerations: Poles and eastern nationals are alien and racially inferior people living in the German Reich territory. As a result, considerable risks arise of crises endangering German civil order which are bound to lead to nationals of an alien race being subjected to a penal jurisdiction other than that for the German people.

This need has hitherto not been fully realized. Only for Poles has a special regulation been made in the penal sense by the order concerning the administration of jurisdiction against Poles and Jews in the annexed eastern territories of 12/4/1941 (R.G.Bl.German Official Journal, I. p. 759). But this special regulation does not completely solve the problem either, which arises through Germans living together with people of an alien race. It merely creates more stringent penal regulations and a penal procedure more simplified in part, for Poles. It, however, evades the main issue, viz.: that persons of an alien race, for reasons of public interest, are to be treated in an entirely different way from German people, as, at bottom, despite all increased rigours, it applies the characteristic features of the administration of German penal law to Poles.

In adjudicating a punishable offence committed by a Pole, the same views, therefore, still obtain in principle as hold good in adjudicating a German, i.e., the judge takes the person of the offender as his starting-point and tries by a thorough valuation of the offender's personal motives to find an expiation for the deed in accordance with the interests of the people's community.

Such considerations which may be right for adjudicating a punishable offence committed by a German are, however, wrong for adjudicating a punishable offence committed by a person of alien race. In the case of punishable offences committed by a person of alien race the personal motives actuating the offender must be completely eliminated. The only standard may be that German civil order is endangered by his action, and that consequently preventive measures must be taken to prevent the recurrence of such risks. In other words, the action of a person of alien race is not to be viewed from the angle of judicial expiation, but from the angle of the police guard against danger.

As a result of this, the administration of penal law for persons of alien race must be transferred from the hands of the administrators of justice into the hands of the police.

III. Above expositions are for personal information. In case of need, however, there need be no hesitation in informing the gauleiter in suitable form.

(signed) Streckenbach
Certified
Kausch Office clerk.

[Rubber Stamp: The Reichsfuehrer SS. and Chief of the German Police at the Reich Home Office-eagle and swastika]

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#51

Post by David Thompson » 13 Oct 2004, 05:57

19421106 Document: 1113-PS; Description: Report of 11/6/1942 concerning action "Marshfever".

"Document 1113-PS: Report of 11/6/1942 concerning action "Marshfever" [partial translation]", in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume III: US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1947. pp. 792-793.
PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1113-PS

Higher SS- and Police Leader for the East
2000/42 g
11 Jacobstr, Riga,
November 6, 1942

SECRET

* * * * * * *

Final Report "Marshfever"

9. Miciajewicze (p. 2479)
9 Feb—9 Mar 1942

By motorized Gendarmery -- patrols and a company from the 15th Latvian Police Battalion. Seventy bandits shot. By carrying out these actions the following successes were obtained:

a. 49 bandit camps, pill-boxes and strong points, as well as several villages in the swamp-areas which were used as hide-outs were smoked out and destroyed.

b. 389 armed bandits shot in combat.

1274 suspicious persons sentenced and shot.
8350 Jews executed.

c. 1217 persons evacuated.

d. 3 antitank guns,
2 heavy machine guns,
3 light machine guns,

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1 radio set (sender and receiver),
some radio equipment, rifles and other small arms,
large amount of explosives and ammunition, hand grenades, Teller mines, pieces of equipment and other material, as well as
1 truck, 1 passenger car,
80 panji-carts (peasant carts),
42 bicycles,
62 horses,
5 cows as well as food supplies have been captured.

Besides the above stated objects the enclosed 14 sketches were found during actions against bands in the territory of Smolewicze north-eastward of Minsk in a camp abandoned shortly before the two bandits whose portraits are enclosed were recognized by comparison with captured bandits and shot. One of them is the leader of the bandits, a Bolshevist commissar.

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#52

Post by David Thompson » 13 Oct 2004, 06:12

19421126 Document: EC-336; Description: Report of the Reich Minister for Occupied Eastern Territories, 11/26/1942, concerning treatment of Poles under his jurisdiction.

"Document EC-336: [translation]", Description: Report of the Reich Minister for Occupied Eastern Territories, 11/26/1942, concerning treatment of Poles under his jurisdiction, in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume VII: US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1947. pp. 408-411.
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT EC–336

Berlin, 26 Nov., 1942.
The Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern territories
I/862/2 g

SECRET

a. To the Reichskommissar for the Eastland [Ostland] Riga
b. The Reichskommissar for the Ukraine, Rowno

Re: Treatment of Poles in the occupied Eastern territories.

Several reports which I have received concerning the behaviour of the Polish population in the occupied Eastern territories have caused me to take a fundamental stand on the problem of the treatment of the Poles who live in the occupied Eastern territories and to point out the necessity of pursuing a uniform policy in this connection.

The Polish people which has always seen its political chance in a fight against Germany and the history of which is full of an age-old antagonism against Germany has carried on a struggle

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of extermination against the German minority in former Poland unparalleled in its cruelty, and it has plotted the present war at the instigation of England. Although they have lost their part of the war, nevertheless Polish soldiers are even today fighting on the English and Soviet Russian side against Germany while the Polish population residing in the annexed territories and in the Generalgouvernment tries with all means at its disposal to make difficulties for the German command by passive resistance as well as by isolated acts of terror and sabotage and thus to weaken the power of resistance of the Reich.

In the occupied Eastern territories the situation is similar. Notwithstanding their display of loyalty and outward willingness to cooperate, here too, the Poles have often exploited their official positions in the German administration and in the native auxiliary administration as well as in the field of economics, in order to gain advantages of all kinds (e.g. in the distribution of food and lodgings as well as in the assignment of well-paid jobs) for themselves and their fellow citizens. The Polish personnel used in the transportation system and especially on the railroads, has put itself to a high degree at the service of a whispering propaganda very detrimental to German interests and it has strongly contributed to the creation and spread of rumors. This Polish personnel employed in transportation has likewise maintained con-tact with the Poles living outside the occupied Eastern territories as well as with the illegally working Polish resistance movement and with the Soviet Partisan groups. Finally, the Poles have successfully managed, among the native population, to in-crease, by clever agitation, the discontent existing here and there over measures of the German military government necessitated by the war, and to whip up the minds of the people against the German leadership.

The dangers to the interest of the Reich arising from the exertion of such influence and pressure by the Poles are obvious. In many cases these dangers are understandable to their full extent only in their connection with the entire Polish resistance movement, and will become apparent only after a considerable stretch of time, due to the extremely difficult and ethnically often very confused conditions in Eastern Europe.

Neither the fact that the majority of the Poles generally possess a better knowledge of German, a more refined demeanour and more attractive clothing than the indigenous population, nor the fact that some Poles like to point to their German military decorations won during the last war and to their alleged ties of

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relationship to Germany, nor their own external politeness and industriousness should deceive the German leadership as to the true intentions of the Poles, who because of their national character and their history have a leaning towards conspiracy, have learned during the period in which they lived under German, Austrian or Russian rule, to worm their way into the confidence of the ruling class through a clever adaptation to prevalent cur-rents, and then to exploit for themselves the weaknesses and differences of opinions there observed. To a particularly high degree this is true of the Polish women who especially in the period of the Polish fight for independence have lent themselves to political machinations under the cloak of charitable works, and. who were always ready to render service to the cause of Poland. For obvious reasons it is not possible to reach a final solution of the Polish problem in its entirety during the war. All the more important, on the other hand, is an unequivocal attitude of all members of the German military government towards the Poles and a clear and continuous execution of those directives considered necessary in the treatment of the Poles, as soon as the opportunity for replacement by other forces is present. I therefore pronounce it a duty to observe the following directives:

1. As quickly and completely as possible all Poles are to be re-moved from positions which afford an insight into the essential political and economic setup or which in some form or other give them important influence in matters of administration, culture or economy. In particular mayors, Kreis-and-Rayon chiefs of Polish nationality or pro-Polish leaders of larger industrial plants and estates will be dismissed and replaced by members of other nationalities (Lithuanians, White Ruthenians, Ukrainians). The same holds for persons of Polish nationality holding positions in the German or native administration; especially for former students, teachers, clerics, and other members of the Polish intelligentsia.

2. In view of the enormous tasks which have to be performed in the occupied Eastern territories, the dismissed Poles will be used in other fields, just as generally the employment of the Polish population in agriculture and other fields involving the assurance of the food supply and military economy is to be guaranteed.

3. The Polish school system will not be developed and extended beyond four years of primary school. Exceptions in military technical training may be admitted.
4. The foundation of Polish newspapers, periodicals and pamphlets is prohibited. The newspaper "Coniec Codzienny"

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published in Polish under German supervision is to be distributed exclusively to Poles living in the Wilna district.

5. The Polish language is to be used only in those localities which have an undisputed Polish majority. It must neither be put on the same level nor be preferred to the use of Lithuanian, White-Ruthenian, or Ukrainian.

Poles will not be required to learn German or the language of the country, but are to continue to use Polish.

I am not unaware of the fact that the execution of these directives will in many cases be connected with great difficulties. It is, however, a question of an incessantly to-be pursued aim, which must never be lost sight of merely for reasons of convenience. For the political harm of Polish activity usually outweighs the momentary economic advantage.

It is requested that this order of which 100 extra copies are enclosed, will be fully brought to the attention of all agencies under you and that report be made to me on the measures taken for the execution of these directives.

Signed: Rosenberg
certified Szymaniak
Government Head Inspector

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#53

Post by David Thompson » 14 Oct 2004, 10:30

Part 1 of 2:

19421200 Document: 1381-PS; Description: Secret report of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories on Political and Economic Situation in these Territories, December 1942

"Document 1381-PS: [partial translation]", Description: Secret report of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories on Political and Economic Situation in these Territories, December 1942 in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume III: US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1947. pp. 932-958.
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1381-PS

The Representative of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories with the Headquarters of Army Group North
December 1942 SECRET
[Rubber Stamp]

Political and Economic Problems of the Military and Civil Administration of the Occupied Eastern Territories.

Introduction: The author of this report as representative of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories with the Headquarters of Army Group North had the possibility to, become acquainted with all questions of administration and economy in the Eastern area. An information trip also brought him to the
Army Area B (Donetz)
Army Area Don

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Army Area Crimea
Army Area A (Caucasus)

into the General Commissariat Dniepropstrovsk into several District Commissariats.

Conferences took place with all commanders of these army areas, the chiefs of staff, the chiefs of. the departments VII, the chiefs and experts of the economic inspectorates and numerous economic teams and with field and local commanders.

In the field of civil administration, conversations were held with the competent experts as well.

Result: Necessity for our Present Eastern Policy.

Reasons: 1. The military results of the fighting of this year in the Eastern area is the fact that the fighting power of the Bolshevist army has not been broken yet. One must count on a prolonged duration of the war.

2. The size of the occupied territory results in a noticeable lack of security troops as well as fighting troops. The necessity of the military commitment of the Slav becomes apparent more and more, whether it be for the combatting of partisans and in the police service, or whether it is for use at the front even as will be necessitated by future developments.

3. The war economic importance of the Occupied Eastern Territories increases with the duration of the war. The last inhabitant of the country, able to work, must be utilized in agriculture or in war economic factories. His existence must be assured. Losses of a large number mean damage for the front which cannot be repaired.

4. As in all great wars of all times, one must also reckon with military reverses in the East. In retaining our present Eastern policy, we stand before the danger that one day the dissatisfaction of the population will find an outlet in a general uprising, whereby the supply for the front would be endangered most seriously.

5. It is the opinion of all military commanders as well as of the leaders of the civil administrative areas, to whom the re-porter was able to talk, that the present Eastern policy must undergo a fundamental change in its basic points.

The following are the most important problems:

I. The Food Problem

The food rations granted to the Russian rural population do not constitute the assurance of their existence, but only a vegetating for a limited duration. One can never expect the necessary cooperation for the Armed Forces from a population who

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does not know whether it will still be alive tomorrow, who thus must expect death by starvation and who lived in the Bolshevist period—with the exception of the year 1933, with its bad harvest —better than today. The military dangers described at the be-ginning increase with the deterioration of the food basis; the tendency to support the partisans increases; the desire to experience again the former Bolshevist conditions comes to the foreground even in those who refute the system ideologically.

The rations allotted at present, which in practice are for the most part not issued complete, are as follows :

(Appendix A 3a)

City and Country: The following food situation prevails: The rural populations, although it has to hand over more today than in Bolshevist times, still goes rarely hungry. No matter whether it was in the time of the Mongol rule, or in Tsarist or Bolshevist times, they were always exploited, and they know methods of secreting food items, which guarantee them food despite of all controls.

Today they are even able to deliver at least the most necessary things to the urban population through the black market. The German administration will never be able to develop a system which will enable a 100% seizure of products on Russian territory. The territory is too large for. this, and the number of the appointed agricultural leaders is too small.

However, should one of the periodical bad harvests occur in Southern Russia within the next years, as last in the year 1933, then the present lack of reserves would result in a catastrophe in the Eastern territory, the effects of which would be unpredictable for the food situation in the rest of Europe.

The food question in the Eastern territory today is an urban problem. As already explained in the beginning, we must free ourselves completely from the attitude which we maintained at the time, that there were too many people in the territory, and that their extermination would mean a blessing to Germans! The German Armed Forces in the East live on the work performance of the cities there. Complaints about the lack of workers after the execution of the Sauckel action are common.

If we continue to maintain our present attitude, it will be the combat soldier who will pay with his blood for this mistake.

Generally there is no famine yet in the cities at present. The reporter was even able to establish in a city like Kharkov, which had been embattled to the finish, that the food situation is better than in the past year. This condition can be traced back


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to the fact that the urban population, which for the most part has been living in cities of industrial areas for only one or two generations, has relatives in the country by whom it is supplied with food items in exchange for consumer goods.

Nutrition—Nomadic Movement—Utilization of Labor.

He who flies over or rides through the occupied Eastern area today will notice crowds of people moving along the roads; there are hundreds of thousands of them, and according to the estimate of experts, their number often may reach a million. These crowds are on the move, either to look for food, or vice versa, to bring food to the cities in order to sell it.

The exchange of food items/consumer goods, which thereby is reached between city and country, is vital in the cities in view of the food supply which is insufficiently controlled by the German administration. Suggestions to suppress this self-support of the urban population radically are unbearable, because this would result in starvation of the urban population, causing decreased work performance and finally a revolutionary attitude.

Loss of Working Power

On the other hand, however, a tremendous amount of valuable working power is being lost for a certain time to the utilization of labor through the nomadic movement.

The conclusion therefore is: First securing of livelihood for the important war economically urban population and their relatives, and only then suppression of this self-support. But not vice versa.

Because of reasons of the utilization of labor therefore, all preparatory measures must be taken without delay in order to guarantee sufficient supplies for the urban population of the occupied Eastern territory which is important to the war economy.

The Family Problem

This must also include members of the family, because the male Slav worker like the female Slav worker will starve or practically give up the food to which they are entitled or even the cooked food which is being furnished in the factory mess halls, in order to save their children, parents, or other relatives from starvation.

The claim, that there are not sufficient food items on hand for this subsistence is countered by the fact that by way of the nomadic movement into the rural areas and the black market in the cities, food is supplied which until now has prevented specific signs of starvation on a larger scale.

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The Occupied Eastern Area no Surplus Territory.

Despite this the realization that contrary to propagandistic claims the Ukraine as well as the areas of the Caucasus and the remaining Eastern area are not yet surplus areas at present, from which Germany and the rest of Europe could already be fed tomorrow. The truth is that the additional subsistence of Western Europe today can only result in the risk that the Eastern territory will become refractory tomorrow as a result of its present delivery quota, which has been increased considerably in comparison to the Bolshevist period and that simultaneously part of the urban population, which is indispensable for the war economic tasks will approach a slow ebbing of strength, if not even death of starvation.

Ukraine Industrial Area without Agricultural Surplus

The large number of publications, which are being distributed at present in Germany about the Eastern territory, are copies of obsolete or uncontrolled figures from Tsarist or Bolshevist times, which lack any knowledge of fact. As every expert will have to realize, the truth in the Ukraine is that a situation has been created by the Bolshevist industrialization and by the accumulation of giant urban populations in the Don- and Donetz areas, which consumed the agricultural surpluses, which were at hand during the Tsarist period for the overwhelming part in their own territory.

Exchange Trade A Regulator

A part of the food of the cities is being procured through the black market, which for the most part is barter trade. First of all it is a regulating factor. In the Bolshevist era the urban population was better supplied with consumer goods because of relatively higher wages at the expense of the Sochos and Kolchos peasants. Today these consumer goods are wandering to the country as barter goods for food.

Dangers of the Black Market Prohibition.

The black market has been completely outlawed in individual, area as in the Army Area North [XVIII.AOK], in Pleskau and as the commander of Army Area Don has informed the reporter, in Transnistria, which had been ceded by Rumania.

All these prohibitions had a completely negative result. The goods disappeared from the markets, trading was continued in uncontrollable backyards, and the urban population lacked the most important food items. With a readmission of the markets; these dangerous symptoms vanished.

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Black Market Prices

Following are some examples of black market prices in the occupied Eastern territories:

In Areas of the Caucasus:
1 Egg RM 1.-
1 lb. Butter RM 15.-- 20.-
1 ltr milk RM 2.60 - 3.40
100 gr. tea RM 20.- - 40.-
1 apple RM 1.-
1 chicken RM 9.- - 10.-
1 lb. meat RM 5.-
1 winter overcoat RM 600.-
1 pr. shoes RM 200.-- 300.-In the city of Kharkov:
1 ltr milk RM 3.- - 4.-
1 kg tea RM 1000.-
1 piece wartime soap RM 7.- - 8.-
1 ltr Vodka RM 70.-
1 cigarette RM -.30
1 pr shoes RM 400.-- 500.-

In regard to all these prices, however, it must not be forgotten that the majority of the scales being executed by means of barter.

The Armed Forces And Increases in Prices

Besides the lack of consumer goods, the German soldier is also responsible for the outrageous prices, because by uncontrollable means he is obtaining funds from home besides his pay, which in army of a million men add, up to an imposing sum. Every expert of the conditions knows that the doughboy will today pay any price, because the additional food items are more import to him than money. The suggestion, made to the reporter by various economic inspectorates, that the soldier in future should receive no Reichskreditkassenscheine, but shall receive a type of substitute money for purchasing in post exchange [Marketendereien], can only then be carried out, if the post exchanges can offer to the soldier additional food items, which he would otherwise obtain in the black market.

The opportunity for the combat soldier to acquire additional food items or to purchase them for the home-front must not be hampered, it must not be forgotten, that this combat soldier decides the war.

The Combat Soldiers as the Bearer of Useful Barter.

It is therefore regrettable, that town commanders often punish the soldier severely, who exchanges tobacco goods or minor items of consumer goods which he receives from home, for food items

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ful that its general introduction into the towns of the occupied East must be thought over in manner and extent.

At first, this system is marked that only a single German administrative official can be in charge of the entire system without any further German help.

A Main Food Administration was established for the whole Crimea. The native town administrations supplied the collaborators of this organization, which, in Simferopol alone, runs to-day 12 mess halls and 49 factory kitchens, in which you can eat lunch or take it to your home.
Those working for the German Armed Forces and also some of their relatives, a total of approximately 30,000 persons of the 70,000 inhabitants of the town, are fed. There is mostly soup, vegetables, sometimes fish and meat from deceased animals.

However the distribution of the allocated bread coupons frequently runs up against difficulties, since the bread supply is especially difficult in the Crimea. On the other hand an information service of the Food Administration itself is excellently organized ; it consists of native residents, who immediately report, if spoiled, but still edible food from army stores, in the case of small truck farm vegetables etc. can be procured. Furthermore each deceased horse or cow within the territory of the town or its vicinity is reported immediately and examined for suitability.

A special control section of the Food Administration inspects the mess halls, doctors make spot checks of the quality of the food offered. In this case also, native help is used. Further sections of the Main Food Administration are the mill sections, which is in charge of the processing of grain. The section for the issuing of bread and food coupons, the bread baking and trading section etc.
A procurement section which has to secure the release coupons from the competent German authorities and must look further for food, and call for it with its own vehicles, is in charge of the procurement of merchandise. All big consumers, such as hospitals, schools etc., have to submit monthly reports of supply requirements. Procurement takes place according to a common plan, so that the German agricultural leadership is not hampered by numerous individual requests.

This example must be imitated in its magnitude. In the field of food, the organizing capabilities of the Eastern population must be used, thus relieving simultaneously the German administrative apparatus.

The example Simferopol proves that we have to use the Slav in the huge Eastern territories for the organization of food, since he is always in the position to discover possibilities of procure-

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with the local population. It has to be considered that the consumer goods in question are in most cases rubbish of the German household, items which can be foregone by the homefront, but which such as needles, twine, pocket knives, nails, combs, etc., are necessary in the eastern territory and bring good will. The combat soldier, who carried out this barter, procures additional food for the front and/or to the home-front, and at the same time supplies to the East the most necessary consumer goods, which cannot be supplied in general today by German authorities.

For these reasons, the market activity in Russian towns must be retained despite all mentioned disadvantages.

Price Ceiling in the Black Market.

In order not to let the prices rise beyond all limits it is recommended to have a certain control, a price ceiling which equals the present average price; however an experiment which was executed in various towns, is not recommended for imitation, whereby merchandise which was not sold on the market by evening, is confiscated and sold at the local average price.

Establishment of a Central Food Administration.

Despite all this, market dealing can not be a solution. The food supply must be assured by the German administration. Two ways constitute the solution.

1. Further expansion of the factory kitchens

2. Mass introduction of community kitchens.

This system was built up during the Bolshevist period in a form, which an unbiased reporter must describe as exemplary. For instance, there was in the town of Simferopol, in the Crimea, during the Bolshevist period a food trust which supplied 23 mess halls and 15 factory kitchens, by which 50,000 of the town's 140,000 inhabitants were fed. Breakfast, lunch and supper were served and could be eaten right there and then, or were' taken home. The appearance of the population and its physical condition at the time of conquest of the territory proved that the food was sufficient. A system of feeding to the population was carried out here, which is also going into effect in Germany in numerous labor camps, and factory canteens, etc., but in its present stage does not yet approach the Bolshevist system.

The Example Simferopol

A Kriegsverwaltungsrat, who came from the Arbeitsfront took over these institutions in the town of Simferopol to a certain ex-tent and operated them according to the necessities and conditions of the present. This organization appears to be so success-

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ment which we cannot do because of insufficient help. Self administration, which goes as far as possible, in the field of food for the urban population is necessary.

No Schematic All-inclusive Ruling of Fundamental Directives.

On account of the gigantic delivery quota of corn, meat, poultry, eggs, oil, to the German Reich, it is obviously not possible in the near future to guarantee to the urban population in the East a 100% supply of food. In addition, as already explained, there is still a great deal of food in the hands of the farmers and of some urban residents which is beyond our control. Thus schematic ruling would therefore lead to the result that the Russian towns would receive food which could be spared in an emergency at the expense of the German and/or the Western European territories.
Thus the final conclusion can only be this that at the moment, a general systematic ruling which guarantees the minimum subsistence level of the entire population cannot be carried out in the occupied Eastern territories. On the other hand, the responsible leaders of the occupied territories must immediately receive the authority through directives from competent authority that they can take immediate measures there, where serious dangers arise in the food situation of those natives employed in the war economy with freedom of decision and responsibility t exceed the presently authorized rations, which secure the mini mum subsistence level and prevent the described dangers (loss o Man Power, Anti-German, and Pro-Bolshevist attitude). This system, which gives to the responsible administrative employe freedom of action and which has primarily been developed an tried by the English administration, based on hundred years o experience must be introduced more and more in the German work in the Eastern area. Basic decisions from central authorities, which can be of unforeseen consequence, should only be decided upon then, if the measures have proved themselves by experiments in a partial sector of the area.

II. The Position Agricultural

The food political situation which may become important during the coming year, even for the Reich and the whole o Europe, is opposite to the demand to procure sufficient food for people working in town in essential industry.

The following spot checks of the various Eastern territories give an approximate picture of the situation :

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Economic Inspectorates established generally a surplus of farm products for the Reich can not be expected from the Caucasian area. At best, some cattle, sunflower seeds, wool and cowhides could be delivered.

As far as grain is concerned, it must be expected that there will not be enough in many cases for the supply of the local population until the next harvest. For example, details from the District Voroschilovsk (Stavropol) : the territory covers approximately 540,000 hectares, 60,000 hectares of which are steppe.

The total area, growing wheat was 70,000 hectares, 10,000 hectares of which were destroyed by the Bolshevists. Of the total area growing oats, approximately 50% of 8000 hectares are destroyed and full of weeds. Of 17,000 hectares of barley, 4,000 hectares are destroyed. 8,000 hectare of meadow could not be mowed. The total cultivated area amounts to only 50-60% to that of 1940. Reason: lack of fuel and labor.

In the District Patigorsk, the conditions are still less favorable.

The example of the development of the Sovchos Semlianskaia near Voroschilovsk is also informative. According to this, there were the following during the Bolshevist time at this Sovchos:

104 horses presently 41
104 cows presently 60
32,000 sheep presently 8,899

5,561 double hundred-weights of barley and fodder are required to keep the present livestock, 650 double hundredweights are available. Reason: 180 hectars of 750 hectares of wheat were destroyed by the Bolshevists. 360 of 475 hectares of barley are lost, since it could not be cut in time because of lack of gasoline, tractors, scythes, and man power; 20 hectors of oats are completely lost. 5 of 18 tractors are still on hand. 5,000 of the 8,899 sheep mentioned above must be surrendered to the Armed Forces in the near future.

Crimea

The result of the harvest is 191,969 tons of grain. 109,620 tons are needed for seed grain, 55,739 tons for fodder and 129,503 for food. Accordingly, there is a deficit 81,126 tons of grain in the Crimea. Added to this is a poor harvest of potatoes.

Territory Kharkov

In the territory of Kharkov (Army B) the delivery of cattle to the front has been so large, that only young cattle is still on hand. Thousands of hectares of the best soil could not be cultivated because there were no draft animals.

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Ukraine

The total result of the harvest is worse than last year. In detail, the delivery quota calls for: 600 ltr. milk from each dairy co at a price of 7 Pfg. per liter (during the Bolshevist period it was 90 ltr. at price of 15 Kopeken) . Every liter delivered voluntarily exceeding this was paid with 3 Rbl. Because of the high delivery quota of more than 3 million tons of grain from the whole Ukraine it looks as follows in some of the districts of the country.

Rural District Wynica : The harvest gave winter wheat :

82 982 double hundredweights

55 900 double hundredweights must be surrendered

25 906 double hundredweights are required for feed grain,

This leaves 11,176 double hundredweights for feeding the population, which are by no means sufficient.

In the General Commissariat Shitomir about 28% of the livestock has to be consigned. Normally it would be 18%.

General Commissariat Dniepropetrovsk.

The presumed consignment of grain amounts to a total of 490,000 tons of the total crop of 820,000 tons. Thereby the population receives only 65 kg. per capita of which 30 kg. already were distributed. 26% of the total arable land is used for winter grains. Of that 30% are good, 30% are spotted, and 40% did not come up at all.

The difficulties of cultivation are very great because of the shortage of tractors, fuel, and labor. Thus for 100 hectares 23-2 laborers are regularly required, but today only 13-14 are available.
There are only 4-6 horses to 100 hectares. But the cow team requires a greater number of laborers.

The consignment of live stock amounts to 50% of the stock There are numerous cases where the farmer has to deliver his dairy cow, his only real property from the Bolshevik period.

III. The Agrarian Reform

The agrarian reform up to now has been carried out in a different manner in the various occupied territories. While the "Kalchos" were divided and the land given to the farmers for cultivation in the north and the center, not much was change, in the Bolshevistic conditions as such in the South, especially the Ukraine. The creation of agricultural cooperatives up to volume of 10% of the total agricultural area can not be considered as
basic change of the system.

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David Thompson
Forum Staff
Posts: 23722
Joined: 20 Jul 2002, 20:52
Location: USA

#54

Post by David Thompson » 14 Oct 2004, 10:32

Part 2 (final):
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It must be admitted that in the south with its strongly industrialized giant estates a slower pace is advisable in the division of the estate. The danger of a decrease in production in cases of a quick division would be present.

Conception of the Cossacks-Atamane.

In addition, another fact has to be taken into consideration, which is that old "Atamanen" have found in the Cossack areas for instance that only old Cossacks were capable of managing an individual farm. The young generation is partially so used to industrial agriculture that before all a certain re-education is necessary.

Also in carrying out of the new agricultural reform a general solution, as already mentioned, must not be striven for from the beginning; rather the return to individual farming must be carried out with consideration of economic and political points of view resulting from the particular situation in a particular region of the tremendous Eastern Area.

Special Arrangements in the Agrarian Reform.

The efficient German administrative expert must have the possibility of experimentation and his successes and his failures must become the basis for final decision of the central office.

The discussion, which the reporter was able to have with the specialists concerned in the entire eastern areas, resulted in the following proposed solution:

The Russian farmer is without exception land hungry and an opponent of the "Kalchos system." He desires private property of land, even though of limited extent. In contrast to the worker and intellectual he is the most honest opponent of the Bolshevik system. If tomorrow he is denied his property, then we shall lose the east economic and political power with which we could build up the Eastern Area.

Land Distribution According to Merit.

The demand to immediately allot to all farmers, land as private property, is in spite of these political points of view, of course unfeasible for the present.

First of all those farmers respectively their families, who themselves or whose sons have earned special merit in war economy in the fight against partisans, or today or. tomorrow at the front, must receive self-sufficient individual farms.

Although later the distribution of land must be carried out in a generous manner without the qualifying clauses used today.

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The greatest part of the agricultural region in the East must, because of the political reasons mentioned, as time goes on, become the property of farmer families in order to create a stratum of satisfied farmers as sure counterweight against possible revolutionary ambitions of labor and intelligentsia in this manner.

State Farms and Farmer's Land

Besides these farmers' lands, a great number of state farms should be created by the taking over of the Sovchosen and/or the creation of new estates whose production would have to deliver the excess of agricultural products necessary for Europe.

IV. The Slav as Worker Necessity of Realistic Policy

As initially pictured, every member of the rural population less means a weakening of the labor power as well as fighting power of the Reich. All occurrences of the recent past prove that there is no room for ideologies at this time. Where this demand is not heeded because of ideological reasons, for the sake of future problems, where the law of the best utilization of manpower is violated, the objection of the soldiers as well as that responsible civil servants arises with justification. Thus we hear again and again from leading Germans in the East, the regret expressed that we learn too little from the English, who—under the cover of long term policy—act on the basis of needs of the hour, while we antagonize people in the East and cause the greatest difficulties in reconstruction only in order to proclaim distant aims, whose accomplishment is in no way certain, but which come about on its own accord after a victory.

He who just like the reporter, has gone through English schooling and knows the English. manner of treating foreign peoples, can only confirm that the greatest mistake of our entire Eastern policy is to be found in this field. First of all we have to win the war. Having won it, we can shape the area as we see fit. Every proclamation of an aim that repulses those who are of the most use for us in the Eastern area today, which makes them resent the German leadership, is, from a soldier's point of view, a mistake which has to be continually rectified by the commitment of German blood.

Thus the Project Sauckel as earned out in the Eastern area has caused unrest and dissatisfaction which is the equivalent of a lost battle, though without doubt it was the final means to cover the requirements for workers of the German economy.

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Dangerous Excesses.

But the executing agencies have committed errors which should have been avoided: Delousing of Russian girls by men, taking of nude photographs in forced positions, locking female doctors in cars in order to make them available to the transport leaders, transporting of shackled girls in shirts through Russian localities to the railroad, etc. . . (The complete material has been channeled through the proper army regions to the OKH.)

Important Imponderables.

It is of course correct to consider these things without sentimentality. In spite of that the results of such errors must not be overlooked. Before everything, the treatment of the Eastern workers in the Reich is decisive. According to all previous reports the results in household and in agriculture are good; in industry bad. The fact that male and female workers housed in camps have no leave, that exercise of religion etc., in contrast to conditions in the Russian territories, is prohibited, leads the population of the occupied Eastern territories to the conclusion that the Slav is treated and utilized as a slave. The result is that when today a commission for the hiring of labor for the Reich appears in a region, everybody, as far as possible, flees into the woods.

Our propaganda, which attempts to influence the East by an expenditure of millions of Marks and irreplaceable paper, and also by the employment of valuable manpower, which is lost to the Armed Forces, must evaporate into thin air under these circumstances.

Attitude of the Eastern Peoples Important.

The Slav will formulate his opinion and attitude on the basis of his experiences in the Reich. Here comes the decision, whether millions of Slays will reconstruct under German domination and leadership willingly or whether they, filled with hate, will seek every opportunity to destroy this domination, since their conditions make a worthwhile existence impossible.

The attitude, still present today occasionally in some places, to treat the Slav as a slave, whereby beatings are the best means of education, must be corrected by immediate orientation, and that the maltreatment concerned must be stopped at once by the severest threat of punishment.

Despite all terror during the Bolshevist period, the social aid measures for the Russian worker and his family were consider-ably better than is assumed in Germany—as has been proven in

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the meantime by unbiased investigations. In addition a purposeful meaning of his work in the realm of the community is given to him by unrelenting and refined propaganda. One must have much understanding for this, and it is by no means easy to win this people for us. Whoever represents the opinion that the attitude of this people is unimportant, sins against the German armed power in the face of the war economic and also future military indispensability of the Eastern peoples and calls for the danger that most valuable, forever irreplaceable German blood must be sacrificed in addition.

Methods of the Utilization of Labor.

The utilization of labor of the Slavic workers can be carried out best in similarity to the Bolshevist example, as various experiments which the reporter could observe, prove.

The Successes in Dniepropetrovsk.

Model successes have been achieved by Commissioner General Selzner in Dniepropetrovsk. The Russian worker, who practically has been primarily an armament worker for years, works according to the group piecework system. Not the individual performance, but that of the group was decisive. This system the advantages of which are apparent, must be retained and introduced generally. Furthermore, the punitive system for co tract violators or workers who violate the work discipline is ideal. At first, a reprimand is given or a monetary fine imposed. In case of repeated violations, additional duty [Dienstverpflichtung] with exact orientation about further punitive measures is another disciplinary procedure.

Educational Work Camps.

The severest punishment is confinement in a educational work camp. The maximum length of punishment here is 6 months. Such camps are in all District Commissariats, sometimes in stalled as mobile camps and made available to the Organization TODT. In the camps, all beatings and all corporal punishment are forbidden altogether, out of principle.

Coordination of Utilization of Labor and Food.

The work is carried out in groups, as in the group piecework . In case of full work performance, the convicts receive Armed. Forces rations, diluted three times. If the group of ten men produce in their work performance only 50% of the quota, their food is diluted six times, and they receive 50% less bread. The results are marvelous. The amount of punishment decreases

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constantly, work performance increases, the morale of the workers is good, considering the circumstances.

Bonus System.

The Bonus system proves itself in case of the Eastern workers, industrial workers as well as farmers. Thus in the District Dniepropetrovsk, especially good results were achieved in the delivery of sunflowers, when 1 kg oil was made available to the farmer for every 100 kg of seeds delivered.

An especially attractive bonus is the distribution of tobacco. In several districts, the tobacco, allocated to certain armament and/or war economic plants, is distributed equally up to 90% to the workers, whereas the remaining 10% * * *

V. Salary, Money, Market—Price Problem

The salaries which are being paid at the present time in the Eastern area are so low, in comparison to the general market prices, that they are of absolutely no value: Actually, in the entire section, there exists no salary problem at all, but merely a food problem. It is impossible to raise the salaries in order to thereby make it possible for the workers to purchase the most essential consumer goods. There is enough money. The reporter experienced repeatedly that for example, porters, unskilled laborers, etc., were in possession of such amounts of money as no German General possessed. A raise of salaries would only constitute a swelling of the circulation of a medium of exchange and a further price increase.

Comparison with the Japanese Experience in China.

In the entire Eastern Area, prices are being paid today for food and consumer goods which are actually inflationary. The reporter, who before the war, in 1939 had the assignment to conduct the same investigations on the Chinese-Japanese battle front, today in the Eastern area can only determine that the German administration is repeating the same mistakes which Japan had previously exercised in the occupied Chinese territory.

Combining the Reichs-kreditmark with the Ruble.

The greatest financial mistake which we could have made was to combine the Reichsmark, respectively the Reichskreditmark with the Ruble, similarly as Japan had done with its leveling, in connection with the Chinese dollar, until after severe set-back, it was at last recognized that this had been the greatest mistake which could have been made at all by the Japanese financial policy.

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The Reichskreditmark, which, not only in the Eastern, but also in other occupied territories, is the medium of exchange which the combat soldier accepts as standard salary, is today actually of inflationary value. Her fate depends on the Ruble, which is entirely beyond our control. Today there is no German office which could determine in which amounts the Ruble is circulating, which amounts, thru robbing of the inhabitants, have come into additional circulation at the Finance Offices and which amounts are brought in by the Bolshevists through the Front, into the occupied territory.

We therefore made the same mistake with the same repercussion. Just as Japan, after several years of the Chinese-Japanese war, decided to withdraw from the former use of enemy currency, we too shall have to take that step. The quicker this happens, the better it will be.

The Karbovanetz Experiment.

The introduction of the Karbovanetz in the Ukraine, put through as an attempted solution, must be recognized as such, although it, as local experts of the Reichscommissariat themselves confirm, was a useless attempt. It is so because a partial solution is senseless in the huge Eastern Area and the Karbovanetz is meaningless as long as the other immense territories retain the Ruble.

The attempt was also doomed to failure because currency problems can only be solved together with the consumer goods problem. One can determine and control mediums of exchange; nothing is changed in the price fixing, as long as not even a half way: satisfactory consumers goods offer opposes the continuous flow of mediums of exchange to the working country—and city inhabitants.

The currency political experiment, taken, as a whole, must therefore be considered as a failure in the Ukraine. It has only brought unrest to the people. Above all, the fact that large bank-notes are not redeemable in Karbovanetz, has resulted in the transport of money into the other sections, where the notes are changed into small coins.

Central Solution of Currency Problem

This case proves particularly well that such efforts towards solution should be conducted only centrally, never locally. This ex-ample is further proof that, as all the General officers of the Army sector and Army groups had informed the reporter the greatest danger in the Eastern area was the lack of a central leadership in the Civilian Administration.

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VI. Care of the sick—Self Aid Service

With a view to the aim, that is to say, the maintenance of the able-bodied person, the most important beside the sustenance, is the care of the sick and the safeguarding of those people who through lengthy illness have become unfit for work.

In some Army sectors, in the meanwhile, precautions for the care of the sick have been taken, and it is true, not only in the interest of the country inhabitants working for the German Armed Forces, but above all, in recognition of the Russian Psyche, for their families as well. The measures, carried out in this sense in the various Army sectors, must be taken over in general.
The lack of medicinal items, in the entire Eastern Area, is particularly catastrophic. The number of hospitals, doctors and medical personnel is fairly adequate, despite the abductions during the retreat of the Bolshevists. In order to uphold the standard of the people, for the purpose of war economic and military utilization, you must however work primarily for the accumulation of medicines for the entire Eastern territory.

Exemplary Solution in the Northern and Central Army Sector

Of particular importance is the so-called Self Aid Service, which represents a special measure of the first order for the entire Russian area and which expects to lift the social calibre of the peasantry in the Northern and Central Army Sector. It is necessary to spread this organization to all other occupied territories.

As the reporter was able to determine, on the basis of intensive investigations, particularly in this field, measures were taken during the Bolshevistic period, which on the average, correspond to the German conditions. The partially carried out and proposed emergency measures for further accomplishments correspond of course in no way to the former Bolshevistic and other accomplishments as customary in Germany today. They have in fact the exclusive aim to keep the most important portions of the Eastern Nations alive and capable of working for the German Armed Forces and the sustenance of the German people.

VII. The School System

The viewpoint represented up to now by numerous German offices in the Eastern area, that the Slavic person should be kept in a condition which could not be primitive enough, cannot practically be carried out. All Military posts, all Civilian Administrative offices, with which the reporter spoke on this problem took

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the viewpoint that the front, like the German war economy, was in need of a worker's replacement, which could not be supplied by 3rd or 4th grade primary schools.

No Breeding of Superfluous Intelligentsia.

Without exception, the viewpoint is taken, of course, that it would be wrong to heed a Russian intelligentsia, which without possibility of commitment, dissatisfied and without work, tomorrow would have to become the bearer of National, Revolutionary and Panslavic ideas. It is here important to keep a proper plan in mind. To point here to India, to England's faulty policy, is premature. The reporter had the opportunity to study the English colonial policy in India. It is true that the English, out of consideration for later working possibilities, make it possible for every Hindu to study at any desired school or college. In this manner, a Hindu proletarian intelligentsia was created. However —on the other side of every propaganda—one must admit today that, as the result of this English policy, today, in the darkest home of the Empire, one cannot speak of serious uprisings in India and that the Indian economy is working one hundred percent for the British war.

The British Experiences.

It is, however, not decisive as was sometimes believed, if a young native inhabitant in a subordinate section has a college education or is illiterate, but decisive is the fact whether this per-son is satisfied with the extensive utilization of labor and thereby actually is the best collaborator of the ruling people, or if he, regardless of what educational class he belongs to, dreams only of the downfall of this ruling class. The fact that England, as the third people after the Greek and Roman Empire has succeeded on the basis of a century-long experience of her colonial statesmen to gain supporters for herself among the best of the conquered peoples is the basis of the rule of the British Isle.

The German Language in the East

If we are prohibiting today the learning of the German language in the occupied Eastern territories, then this is considered only a sign of weakness, not that of strength. Military detachments told the reporter that they were in many instances asked by the natives why their children were not allowed to study the German language. The Russians concluded from this that the Germans intended to leave the Eastern territory in the shortest

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possible period of time. Throughout the existence of world history, the conquered have learned the languages of the ruling peoples. This law of nature cannot be changed.

Today it is actually so, that—contrary to the order of the Ministry for the East—German is being learned and taught every-where. Especially exemplary is the settlement at Selzner in the General Commissariat Dniepropetrovsk, where in the professional schools all professional and technical expressions are taught to the apprentices right away in the German language.

Replacement [Nachwuchs] of Specialists

Aside from the general school education the question of specialist training for industrial use plays the decisive part at present. Here also the way and manner is exemplary in which the solution is being executed in the General Commissariat Dniepropetrovsk with an inclination toward Bolshevist examples.

This concerns handicraft schools with attached retraining shops, which are connected with practical work in the factory.

The youths between the ages of 14-16 years, who have left school, attend a training course in industrial preparatory school, which lasts two months, after having taken a capability examination with the employment office. Then follows practical work in a factory; duration 6 month. This is followed by another training course of 2 month. After every attendance of a semester the youth advances into the next higher wage class. Altogether 12-16 months of training are given.

The system turns out useful specialists within the shortest period of time, even though they are not painstaking craftsmen. The continuation of this method is to be urgently recommended in view of the mobilization of labor, and if possible it should be executed by a central order for the remaining occupied Eastern territories.

In Dniepropetrovsk itself especially good participants of the training courses are finally taken over after the Germans ex-ample into an apprenticeship of three years' length, where their final training takes place under German supervision.

Retraining in Critical Professions.

With the same system the unskilled workers who were left be-hind by the Bolshevists are being retrained in the critical professions: metal craftsmen, construction craftsmen, carpenters, and stone cutters. Further schools for car mechanics, tractor drivers, etc., have been established and schools for other professions are being planned.

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Medical and Legal Replacement Necessary

Besides this special training for industrial use a thorough training of the young generation also in the medical, veterinary, and legal fields is necessary. Because we need the Slav as a peasant and worker and tomorrow as a fighting soldier, in order to maintain ourselves against the whole world, it is necessary that especially in the medical field the required education for the maintenance of the population, whose life and work is necessary for our front. The impetus is the greater, because already today the time has arrived, when Ukrainian and/or Russian doctors are working in the Reich itself as assistant doctors in German hospitals because of the lack of doctors and thereby represent to the leading doctors a more valuable help than the inexperienced young German generation.

The Rising Generation of Farmers.

Just as important is the rising generation of farmers. I e reality, in the East, the Specialist Officers [Sonderfuehrer] who cultivated at home 10 Mozgen, does not manage half a doze communal farms [Sovchose] and state farms [Kolchose] with a. total of a hundred thousand hectars, but the problems of sue, agricultural installations are mastered by the Bolshevist agronomist subordinate to the former, who has received a preliminary training during the Bolshevist period in order to manage huge industrialized agricultural installations.

Basic Meaning of the School Problem.

However, the question of schools, apart from all practical aspects of the rising generation of workers is urgent for us, also for propagandistic considerations. All efforts of the reporter to determine which apart from the practical social measures of Bolshevism, of the number of Moscow's ideological propaganda slogans has developed actually the strongest public appeal, yield the following unmistakable picture:

The entire population of the Soviet Union, even as far back as the most remote village all terrors—had the conviction that each and every one carries the marshal's baton in his knapsack. Every farmer's son, every worker's child actually: had every opportunity for advancement in the countless schools of the Soviets. There was no village in which one or more farmer families could not state proudly that their daughter or their son is an engineer or a doctor or chief agronomist or Commander of the Red Army, etc. There was an unusually broad middle strata of Soviet intelligentsia, whose highest aspiration was the continuation of education, the breaking into the scientific world.

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As a sole sample taken at random the Sovchos Semlianskaia near Voreschilovsk is mentioned.
The following comprise the administration of this State property; a director with a monthly salary of 1000 Rubles, his deputy 600 Rubles, another agronomist for special assignments with 600 Rubles, two agronomists for sheep with 450 Rubles each, the chief animal agronomist with 850 Rubles, two animal specialists with 450 Rubles each, the veterinary with 750 Rubles, two assistants with 450 Rubles each, the chief shepherd with 350 Rubles, the bookkeeper with 750 Rubles, his deputy with 500 Rubles, three more bookkeepers with 350 Rubles each.

Such a staff of "these of the intelligentsia" [Intelligenzlern] administered 20,000 hectars with 605 workers, including the members of the family.

The crass transition from the Bolshevist propaganda of the "ascent" [Aufstieg] into the intelligentsia to our method of closing all schools is perhaps the very measure which is the most dangerous for our domination in the East.

Theater and Film

In the same connection the theater and film question is important. The incident in Kiev is well known, where, after the presentation of a revue under German stage-direction with nude girls, etc., although subdued but completely unmistakable protest reactions by- the native inhabitants were the result. The Russian and the people of the East area influenced by him, still considered the theater as an educational institution. They expect either education or a political tendency in the sense of training. In the serious theater, every activity of amusement appears to them as a sacrilege and consequently our revues and soldier shows as a barbaric action against culture.
It is similar with the motion pictures. After the appearance of the first German entertainment films, for a long time the native public vainly racked its brains over their tendency. All German offices, all interpreters, all native inhabitants who were linguists were overwhelmed with pertinent questions. Apparently the peasants agreed on the solution that all German films, which, as is known, take place in an atmosphere of luxury essentially have a marked tendency to glorify capitalism and its outward forms.

Accordingly, it is vital to exercise the greatest caution and tact in the selection of films for the Eastern area. It is best to exhibit cultural films, which are received with the greatest elucidation.

953

VIII. The Judicial Problem

Collegiate Courts or Single Judges

In various army areas, as well as in the Reich Commissariat Ukraine, a legal code have been created for the arbitration of civil court disagreements. As for details, the opinions differ. In the Army Area North and in Army Area Center, collegiate courts have been set up. In the Ukraine, the point of view is taken that the single judges are better, because the Slav has the tendency to evade the responsibility. There were endless proceedings in the collegiate court without the possibility of arriving at a clear-cut judgment, but the single judge is forced to pronounce a sentence on his own responsibility. This shortens the proceedings and is more favorable in its consequences.

Trained Jurists

The experience and conclusion that only trained jurists are fit for this judicial office is general and unmistakable. This conclusion is general. It was explained especially clearly in the General Commissariat, Dniepropetrowsk by the highest judge, who is continually traveling in the country and is professionally best equipped to judge the situation. This example also proves that the 3 year elementary school [Grundschule] in the Eastern area is unfeasible.

In the necessary clarification of the legal code the inheritance law (testaments) and marital law in particular are very urgent.

IX. Unified Leadership

The complaint of all military offices as well as numerous civil administration offices is that today the Ministry for the East is not uniformly decisive in the Eastern area, but that a half dozen other offices act independently. In the appendix a chart of the structure of Army Group A is included which shows how many and what offices work on their own responsibility, outside of the proper military administration in its sphere.

Of course, this independence of individual offices gives them an extraordinary striking power, but in the long run this division of authority cannot be kept up. Even if the mentioned offices retain their general independence in the future, it must by all means, be achieved that the commander of the army areas are given the authority to delegate to all these offices the tasks designated for the individual commitments after previous consultation. Every military and civil leader with final responsibility in the Eastern area is weakened in his authority and thus also in view to the achieving of his aims by the fact that there are to-

954

day, a half dozen officers which act independently in his sphere without having to subordinate their own interests to the overall interest of the particular sector. This division of jurisdiction is the same over-bureaucratization which we justly criticize in our enemies and which the Fuehrer has often enough branded as the cause of the weakening of our effort.

It will have to come that the highest leadership issues directives which are decisive for the civil as well as military administrative districts, whereby a basic law, according to an English model, has to be considered always: first of all experiments are made, and only then, after examination of the experiences, will the final decisive orders be given by the central office. This knowledge of leadership from century old experience, as possessed by the British Empire must finally be taken over by the proper central administrative authorities in Berlin.

X. Administrative Experiment Areas.

The Army Area, respectively Army Group A (Caucasus) have organized experimental areas of the administrative type, and namely one in the territory of the Cuban-Cossacks around Unmanskaia, which includes six regions with a population of about 150,000 each, the other one in the area of the Karatschaier.

The two closed settlement groups of the Karatschaier are led by- a committee of the eldest, each consisting of 8 of the noblest persons of the tribe, who are directly subordinated to the local commander in an advisory capacity.

The cooperative [Kolchos] land is divided up, and given to the farmers as their property. The old farmland from the Bolshevist period is tax-free, taxes are levied for the new.

In the experimental area of the Cuban-Cossacks, the role of the local commander is changed. Six regions are concentrated under one field commandant. The District Ataman is subordinated to the field commandant in an advisory capacity.

Furthermore, a special economic liaison staff has been created which is directly subordinated to the economic inspectorate Caucasus. The county Agricultural Supervisor [KreislandwirtI must turn to him. The regional agronomist is also subordinate directly to the liaison staff.

The attempts to carry out a certain amount of self administration deserve the highest attention in the framework of the reconstruction policy in the East. We must learn from experiments. Whatever proves itself here must be exercised again to-morrow in the best suited areas, perhaps in the Ukraine, then again in parts of districts.

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XI. Realist-Political Leadership of the Peoples in the Eastern Area

An ideological goal must be given to the peoples of the Eastern area, where already today and tomorrow even more the last inhabitant is used for essential agricultural or war economic task, above that where his use in military combat, whether it is against partisan or directly on the front has already begun. As long as no such goal is in front of the eyes of the Slav, we must expect; that all forces, organized in the meantime, will turn against the German leadership in case of a military reverse, with which a far sighted policy always must count upon.

Never in world history was there such a condition, whereby a large people respectively several large peoples gave their entire working power and their blood in military commitments without knowing what results they can achieve by this for themselves, their children and their children's children. The fact that we do not recognize this thesis of experience of history will cost us tomorrow the blood of hundreds of thousands of German soldiers. There is no General of the German Armed Forces today who has any understanding that we believe to be able to dominate: the Slays without consideration of this fact.

Self Administration

This impression of the Eastern peoples that their work and military utilization in the German service is meaningful, can only be achieved by giving them self administration in a national-political respect as a goal. Secret slogans can actually never be kept secret, that is known. Today, the conviction is at large all through: the Eastern area that Germany has the intention to put the Slav on the same level as the Negro; that the Slav must be biologically exterminated at the first possible moment, that at best he would be all to seek his livelihood beyond the Ural mountains.

This knowledge constitutes the greatest danger for the German leader who wants to organize the Russian area. Already the fact that the marked conviction in the Eastern area is generally known and widespread today, means a weakening of the war economic and soldierly potential of the Slav, such as no partisan propaganda could achieve to such an extent.

Primacy of War Necessities

All of these projects exist beyond any ideological attitude. The military and war economic necessities are the only guides. If we forsake them, then the German soldier at the front will have to pay for our political errors in disposition with his blood.

We must build, by taking only those measures, beyond all

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ideology, which may be suitable after a victorious peace, which are useful in furthering the working and soldierly commitment of the Slav in our interest and thereby conserve German working power and German blood, and bring German victory closer.

Appendix A Daily Food Rations in the Occupied Eastern Territories. (in grams)

Consumer Class Bread Meat Fat Foods Potatoes In the Towns of Army Area A (Caucasus)

Normal Consumer 215 — — — —

Worker for the German
Armed Forces 345 28.5 10 —

Very Heavy Worker for
the German Armed
Forces 428 43 14.3 — In some villages potatoes and vegetables are missing altogether.

In the Ukraine (without legal claim)

Unemployed 215 14.3 286

Families of those working
for German interests 215 14.3 71,5 281!'

Workers for the German
Armed Forces 286 28.6 — 71,5 355

Very Heavy Workers for
the German Armed
Forces 355 42.8 355(?) 355

These rations were issued hardly anywhere until now; especially the first two groups mentioned have not received these rations in most cases.

In the Towns of the
Crimea — — — — ---

Workers for the German
Armed Forces 300 — — 71,3 —

Families 200 — — — — ---

Children under 14 100 — — — —

According to the importance of the factory, 3 - 5 grams of sunflower oil is distributed daily.

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Appendix A—Continued

Consumer Class Bread Meat Fat Foods Potatoes
In the Towns of the General Commissariat
Dniepropetrovsk — — — ---
(Oil)
Normal Worker 250 — 6 50 --
Heavy Worker for the
German Armed Forces 300 --- 6 50 ---
Very Heavy Workers for
the German Armed Forces
400 — 15 50 ---
Miners 700 -- 20 100 —
Women and Children. 250 — — — ---

* * * * * * *

David Thompson
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#55

Post by David Thompson » 14 Oct 2004, 10:44

19421221 Document: *018-PS; Description: Letter from Rosenberg to Sauckel, 12/21/1942, concerning labor in the East. (USA 186).

"Document 018-PS [translation]", in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume III: US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1947. pp. 61-65.
The Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories
21 December 1942
Nr. 02926/42

To Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel General deputy for labor deployment
Berlin W 8 Mohrenstrasse 65

Dear party member Sauckel:

I thank you very much for your report on the execution of the great task given to you, and I am glad to hear that in carrying out your mission you have always found the necessary support, even on the part of the civilian authorities in the occupied Eastern territories For myself and the officials under my command this collaboration was and is self-evident, especially since both You and I have, with regard to the solution of the labor problem in the East, represented the same view-points from the beginning. For political as well as efficiency reasons, you have devoted your attention above all, to the care of the Eastern workers, employed in the Reich, and in the same sense I also have striven toward an overall satisfactory solution, by the establishment of special Posts, collaborating with the welfare organizations [Betreuungsorganisationen].

If there is no complete agreement between your and my conception of the matter, I nevertheless find it necessary on the grounds of several occurrences during the last months, to point out With reference to the enclosure, the methods applied by your agencies and collaborators. I
thereby do not disregard the fact that considering the scope and urgency of the task to be accomplished, difficulties and hardships, yes even false measures by the executing branches, can in the long run not be avoided. But it seems necessary to me, to follow up these occurrences insofar as they touch the conduct of war and the interests of the Reich. This would always be the case, where the acquisition of new laborers is undertaken in a way which intimidates the population. The reports I have received show, that the increase of the guerilla bands in the occupied Eastern regions is largely due to the fact that the methods used for procuring laborers in these regions are felt to be forced measures of mass-deportation, so that the endangered persons prefer to escape their fate by withdrawing into the woods or going over to the guerilla bands. Add to the occasionally unfavorable news regarding the treatment of the Eastern laborers in the Reich, about experiences with the labor procurement authorities, then the result can only be a strengthening of the number and fighting spirit of the hostile troops. This development is further aided by the return of tens of thousands of useless Eastern workers from the Reich (sick, cripples, etc.).

To this point I should like to add that my repeated plea to establish sick-camps in the regional labor office districts, instead of the mass deportation of the Easterners who are incapable of work, has so far not been answered. Hence I found it necessary to contact the Reichskommissar [Commissioner] for health and sanitation on this matter. In the session of the propaganda department called by State Counselor, Professor Boerger on the 17th of this month, the negative repercussions which will be caused in the native provinces by the recently planned return transports were referred to not only by the representatives of my agency, but particularly by the representative of the economic staff East, since such events interfere with the demands for labor and production in the rear military zones. Measures such as conscription, return of the sick or similar things not only impair the procurement and the legal validity of the executive orders of the compulsory-labor order released by me on December 1941, but moreover endanger all the important war work in the occupied Eastern territories. This goes as well for the urban as for the rural procurement districts, where so far, thanks to the self-sacrificing activity of the leaders of the economic land bases, an atmosphere permitting productive work was created between the German administration and the native population, which now threatens to become lost. Even if I do not close my eyes to the necessity that the numbers demanded by the Reichs minister for weapons and ammunition as well as by the agricultural economy justify unusual and hard measures, I have to ask, due to the responsibility for the occupied Eastern territories which lies upon me, that in the accomplishment of ordered tasks such measures be excluded, the toleration and prosecution of which will some day be held against me, and my collaborators. In order to achieve this, and to bring into agreement the requirements given by the peculiar political situation of the Eastern territories with the measures of the commissions and the staffs of your agencies, I have empowered the Reichs commissioner for the Ukraine insofar as necessary to make use of his right, and to see to it that methods which run contrary to the interest of the conduct of the war and war economy in the occupied East be abolished.

It appears strange to me, that in numerous cases which should have been discussed with the civil authorities, we only receive information through the police and other agencies. I am referring in this connection to the note of my standing representative of Nov. 11.42.III wi 51231-3587in which I asked for a discussion concerning the mutual cooperation, and especially on the position of your delegates, to which I have unfortunately never received an answer from you. With consultation of our mutual wishes, which you personally will certainly understand, it is unfortunately impossible for me to accept a co-responsibility for the consequences, which result from the recounted state of affairs.

I should not like to have informed you of this, without expressing my hope that in the interests of both of us, this condition will be terminated with the coming of the new year. I am personally Convinced that you, dear Party member Sauckel, have the same desire I assume that there will be an opportunity for discussion of this in the conference prompted by me on 11.Jan.43.

I am gratefully looking forward to your reports in this connection.

Yours, signed: A. ROSENBERG

****************************************
Extracts from the Secret Report on Morale by the Foreign Mail Censorship Post Berlin.

(Reg. No. 7328/42 secret Group VIII)

Selected letters from the occupied Eastern regions regarding the period from 9/11-11/10/1942

In the letters from the Ukraine a further sharp decline in the morale is pictured, and under the impact of an increased requisition of labor forces for the Reich, the Ukrainian population has been seized by a terrible fear.

Horrifying picturizations of compulsory measures by the administrative authorities for the seizure of Eastern laborers, form a major part of the news from home to their relatives working in Germany. The disinclination to answer the call to work in the Reich has evidently grown steadily, not only due to the reports of Eastern workers, which fled home and their workshops or have been dismissed. In order to secure the required number for the labor transport, men and women including youngsters from 15 years on up, are allegedly taken from the street, from the market places and village festivals, and carried off. The inhabitants therefore hide themselves in fear and avoid any appearance in public. After public beatings during the month of October, so available letters state, came the burning down of homesteads, and of whole villages as retribution for failure to comply with the demand for the appropriation of labor forces directed to the communities. The execution of the latter measures is being reported from various villages.

Parts from Two Letters
"At our place, new things have happened. People are being taken to Germany. On Dec. 5, some people from the Kowkuski district were scheduled to go, but they didn't want to and the village was set afire. They threatened to do the same thing in Borowytschi, as not all who were scheduled to depart wanted to go. Thereupon 3 truck-loads of Germans arrived and set fire to their houses. In Wrasnytschi 12 houses and in Borowytschi 3 houses were burned.

"On Oct. 1 a new conscription of labor forces took place. From what has happened, I will describe the most important to you. You can not imagine the bestiality. You probably remember what we were told about the Soviets during the rule of the Poles. At that time we did not believe it and now it seems just as incredible. The order came to supply 25 workers, but no one reported. All had fled. Then the German militia came and began to ignite the houses of those who had fled. The fire became very violent, since it had not rained for 2 months. In addition the grain stacks were in the farm yards. You can imagine what took place. The people who had hurried to the scene were forbidden to extinguish the flames, beaten and arrested, so that 7 homesteads burned down. The policemen meanwhile ignited other houses. The people fall on their knees and kiss their hands, but the policemen beat them with rubber truncheons and threaten to burn down the whole village. I don't know how this would have ended if I. Sapurkany had not intervened. He promised that there would be laborers by morning. During the fire the militia went through the adjoining villages, seized the laborers, and placed them under arrest. Wherever they did not find any laborers they detained the parents, until the children appeared. That is how they raged throughout the night in Bielosirka. The workers which had not yet appeared till then, were to be shot. All schools were closed and the married teachers were sent to work here, while the unmarried ones go to work in Germany. They are now catching humans like the dog-catchers used to catch dogs. They are already hunting for one week and have not yet enough. The imprisoned workers are locked in at the schoolhouse. They cannot even go out to perform their natural functions, but have to do it like pigs in the same room. People from many villages went on a certain day to a pilgrimage to the monastery Potschaew. They were all arrested, locked in, and will be sent to work. Among them there are lame, blind and aged people."

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Posts: 23722
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#56

Post by David Thompson » 14 Oct 2004, 10:53

19430200 Document: *1526-PS; Description: Letter from Ukrainian Main Committee to Frank, February 1943 (USA 178)

Title: "Document 1526-PS [translation]" in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume IV:US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: GPO, 1947. pp. 79-93.
Letter from Ukrainian Main Committee

to Hans Frank
COPY Prof. Dr. Wolodymyr Kubijowytsch,
Chairman of the Ukrainian Main Committee.

Cracow, February 1943.

To the Governor General, Reich Minister Dr. Frank.

Your Excellency:

Complying with your wish I send you this letter, in which I should like to state critical conditions and the painful happenings, which create especially grave conditions for the Ukrainian population within the General-Government. As to the German-Ukrainian relations and the general situation of the Ukrainian people, I have included all that in my letter, known as well to you, which I addressed to the Secretary of State Dr. Buehler as far back as December 1942. In that letter I stressed mainly the alarm of the Ukrainian population in regard to the uncertainty about their national future within the New Europe. Here I would like to quote some real happenings and add my reflections on them.

The center of these is the question: Shall the Ukrainians work successfully in favor of final victory; they must be granted the security which, while absolutely necessary to them, unfortunately does not exist. For under the present conditions the Ukrainians are neither sure of their possessions nor of their lives. The matter of reprivatisation has not yet been settled. Inhuman treatment, severe pressure to forced labor, unfounded arrests, and lastly the shootings of great numbers are happenings not too infrequent these days.

I. Question of Re-privatisation.

Of primary importance for the further shaping of German-Ukrainian relations is the problem of re-privatisation. The whole Ukrainian people have connected with the German victory in the East their hope that now all remainders of the Bolshevist Regime shall be extinguished finally.

The views of the Ukrainian people are basically those of private property and economy. The Ukrainian peasant is prepared to undergo the greatest privations and sacrifices in favor of the State, if only he be allowed to work in tranquility; this feeling of inner tranquility he can but gain in the knowledge that the soil on which he and his ancestors have toiled, will remain his property in the future. The Ukrainian population received with gratitude the proclamation of your Excellency of 1 August 1941 in which, you Sir, have solved this problem at its roots and have stated re-privatisation to be the general rule for the economy of the State. Now, however, the attitude of some authorities looks as if the re-privatisation would be questioned still and as if in the new social order there was no place for private property. This situation is very cleverly made use of by the hostile whispering propaganda. Especially widely has the rumor been spread that private property has not yet been reintroduced for the reason that a large action of resettlement of the Ukrainians from Galicia to the East is to be expected.

Actions, such as measures of adjusting real property at the expense of peasant property (in the districts of Tarnopol, Rawa, Ruska, Kalusch, etc.), survey of real property of peasants (in the district of Czortkow) and imposing of fees for the use of land (Czortkow Zloczow, etc.) give such rumors the appearance of probability (enclosure 1).

It is clear that for this reason there appears a great alarm and nervousness amongst the rural population which must badly influence the inclination for work and the output of agricultural production.

The uncertainty as well as all the consciously false interpretations of such measures through the whispering propaganda, could only be ended by a definite carrying out of the principle of the Proclamation mentioned.

II. Measures for finding labor.

The general nervousness is still more enhanced by the wrong methods of finding labor which have been used more and more frequently in recent months. The wild and ruthless man-hunt as exercised everywhere in towns and country, in streets, squares, stations, even in churches, at night in houses, has badly shaken the feeling of security of the inhabitants. Everybody is exposed to the danger, to be seized anywhere and at any time by members of the police, suddenly and unexpectedly, and to be brought into an assembly camp. None of his relatives knows what has happened to him only months later one or the other gives news of his fate by a postcard.

I beg to mention some instances with their respective proofs:

a. During such an action a pupil in Sokol lost his life and another one was wounded (enclosure 2).

b. 19 Ukrainian workers from Galicia, all provided with identity cards, were assigned in Cracow to a transport of "Russian prisoners-of-war" and delivered into a punitive camp in Graz (enclosure 3).

c. 95 Ukrainians from Galicia, recruited for work in Germany by the labor offices in the middle of January, were sent to Pskow in Russia, via Eastern Prussia, where most of them died under distress (enclosure 4).

d. Seizure of workers under pretext of military recruitment (Zalesczyki); kidnapping schoolboys during school time (Biala Podloaska, Wlodawa, Hrubieschow) (enclosure 5).

III. Question of Personal Security.

Treatment of human beings.

Already the kind of treatment meted out to our compatriots by the lower instruments of the German authority, adds much to make the general situation more grave. The Ukrainians expected the treatment of members of those nations who fought against Germany, because they belong to a people who have never done anything against the Germans and their interests. Now every Ukrainian cannot fail to become convinced that most of the Germans do not make any distinction, and that they are accustomed to treat all peoples of the East similarly, whether friend or foe. Too often the Ukrainian is exposed to the danger, when dealing with the lower authorities, to be personally insulted, to be slandered, even to be ill-treated. Innumerable instances could be mentioned proving this sort of treatment. In the enclosure I give only a small selection of especially grave cases (enclosure 6).

Wholesale shootings.

Of much worse character are the wholesale shootings of absolutely innocent persons, such as happened in Lubycza Koroliwska and then in Lwow and Czortkow.

In Lubycza Koroliwska, district of Rawa Ruska, 46 peasants, including 31 Ukrainians, were shot without trial (4 October 1942) (enclosure 7).

During the second half of November 1943, 28 Ukrainians were shot in Lwow, 56 in Czortkow, also without trial. (enclosure 8).

Arrests in December 1942.

In December 1942 the police undertook a cleansing action among the so-called disturbing elements, leading very soon, however, to wholesale arrests of innocent, quiet citizens. They are under arrest and in danger to lose their good health for certain, if not their life. (enclosure 9).
How acute and well founded this fear is, is proved by what happened to 6 Ukrainian girls from Kolomea, who were arrested in February 1942 and who disappeared without leaving any trace. (enclosure 10).

Revision in the St. George Cathedral, Lwow.

In connection with the cleansing action mentioned above a raid was carried out even in the St. George's cathedral in Lwow. The fact itself, especially because of the behavior of the police at this place which is sacred to the Ukrainians, produced a deep resentment and bad feelings amongst the population. This was used by hostile propaganda at once. Generally, it is pointed out that not even during the Bolshevist occupation raids took place on the hill of St. George, and that several visits by Bolshevist professors and students were always undertaken with great respect for the place and the person of the Metropolitan.

Special action against the asocial elements.

Since 15 January a special action began against the so-called asocial elements in, Galicia. In the whole area about 5,000 persons were arrested. The purpose of this action was said to be the removal of those elements, who did not wish to work, were active in the black market and by so doing made the work of the authorities more difficult. This action however, did not obtain the right result, and the victims were leading personalities of the Ukrainian cultural and economic life as well as employees of several state authorities and members of the Ukrainian Aid Committee.

These wholesale arrests raised an extraordinary nervousness and anxiety among the delegates of our committee and in large spheres of the Ukrainian population.

IV. Irregular conditions and Partisan nuisance in the District of Lublin.
[This chapter deals with partisan activity and the risks to which the loyal Ukrainian population is exposed thereby. Irrelevant].

V. Collective responsibility.

General remarks.

The Ukrainian people consider as particularly painful the application of methods of collective responsibility. The large masses of the people generally have no understanding for the principle of collective responsibility; they take it as absence of justice to be punished for a deed one has neither done nor approved of. Generally, the principle of collective responsibility may be considered as justified if applied to a racial community which is homogenous. The partisan nuisance, however, is particularly spread out in the mixed Polish-Ukrainian areas, and the Ukrainian community can by no means bear any responsibility for misdeeds done by Poles. But even in areas with the almost homogenous population, as e.g. in Galicia, the Ukrainian people could only be held responsible if they were possessed of some means of executive power towards those members. Today they have no such means. For the reasons stated, the application of the principle of collective responsibility against the Ukrainian people is unjust and inexpedient in its present state of organization and especially in the mixed areas. The collective responsibility often hits the leading circles in town and country whose feelings are pro-German, but who are powerless against both the Polish dissenters and against their own irresponsible hot-heads and despairing persons.

Thus it happens that the collective responsibility which has the purpose of exterminating anti-German elements quite to the contrary annihilates or weakens positively pro-German elements and creates bad feelings and bitterness. Thus in the district of Lublin about 400 such Ukrainians perished. We mention but some of the most convincing instances:

Wholesale shootings.

On 25 December 1942 the military police surrounded the village of Przewale, in the district of Zamose, area of Lublin, herded together a large number of Ukrainians and Poles. When the manager of the estate declared he needed the Poles for work, the Poles were set free, the Ukrainians, however, numbering 16, were shot dead; among the persons shot was a 15 years old girl, Eugenie Tybyczuk (encl. 15).

In the village of Nodosow (district of Lubin) 8 pro-German Ukrainians who had been persecuted by the Poles because of their patriotic views in pre-war time, were shot on 30 October 1942.

On 29 January 1943 in the village of Sumyn (collective community of Tarnowatka, district of Lublin) 45 Ukrainians, including 18 children between the ages of 3 and 15 were shot, and on 2 February 1943 in the villages of Pankow and Scharowola (collective community of Tarnowatka) 19 Ukrainians were shot, including 8 children, aged 1 to 13 years (encl. 16).

The greatest bitterness is created by the killing of innocent children, because the population is unable to understand that the German authorities could consent to or order such deeds.

The tragic events in Lubycza Koroliwska and Kubycza Kniazi (districts of Rawa Ruska, area of Lublin) have been mentioned above (encl. 7).

Conclusion.

The happenings in Galicia mentioned in this report have been submitted to Governor Dr. Waechter and the Department Head Dr. Bauer in writing and verbally. We repeat them herein, in order to complete the picture of the General Government.

Cracow, 25 February 1943.

Table of Enclosures.

1. The surveying measures in the area of Czortkow.
2. The events at Sokal.
3. The behavior of the Polish employees of the labor office.
4. Minutes (fate of the Ukrainian workers in Pskow).
5. Memorandum for the files (false recruiting of workers to the Reich ).
6. Memorandum for the files (ill-treatment of Ukrainians).
7. Shooting of 46 peasants in Lubycza Koroliwska, district of Rawa Ruska.
8. Shootings in Lwow and Czortkow in November 1942.
9. Arrests in Galicia in December 1942.
10. Uncertain fate of arrested Ukrainian women students from Kolomea.
11. List of some well-known Ukrainian citizens, arrested in January 1943 in the area of Kolomea, Stryj, and Kamionka Strumilowa.
12. Arrests and shootings of persons unfit for work in the district of Sanok.
13. Anti-Ukrainian activities of persons unlit for work in the district Biljoraj.
14. Activities of partisans in the district of Biala Podlasko during the second half of the year 1942.
15. Shooting of 16 Ukrainians in the village of Przewale.
16. List of the Ukrainians shot in the village of Sumin, community of Tarnowatka on 29 January 1943.

Enclosure 1. The Surveying Measures in the District of Czortkow.

In September of last year the Chief Inspectorate of agricultural land [Hauptlandinspektion] in Czortkow was formed under the management of the former District Surveyor [Kreislandinspektor].

Employed were the engineers-surveyor Jwanenko, a Russian, and the draughtsman Sach, a Pole; further the land-surveyor from Brzezany and Tarnaopol and some other German employees who were brought to Czortkow. Travelling in the district of Czortkow they drew maps showing the position of the communities with special regard to all farms and marking the better farms. About the middle of December the activities of this institution ceased, probably up till the end of April 1943. Rumor has it that German peasants to the number of 50,000 who are to be transferred from Germany into this district should be settled on these better farms.

Enclosure 2. The Events at Sokal

On 24 October 1942 between 13 and 14 hours, when the school boys went home from school, they were stopped by detachments of military police on the street and together with other people were formed into one unit. There was a panic as nobody knew what was going to happen to these people. People began to flee from the streets. The school boy Jaroslau Meda who was just passing with his father, the secretary of the collective community of Parchacz also started to run. The father tried to calm him and called him back as there was no danger. A military police-man, however, saw him fleeing and shot at him wounding him fatally, so that he died in the local hospital half an hour later.

At the same time two military policemen went into the Ukrainian hostel for schoolboys and took away some boys. The others were at lunch in the dining-room and therefore remained un-noticed. In front of the schoolboys' hostel the schoolboy Wassyl Krawtschuk was caught by a military policeman and wounded so seriously in the thigh by a bayonet that he had to be taken to hospital.

The student of theology Osyyp Karawan was severely beaten until he fainted.

The public school teacher Michael Duliba was beaten publicly.

It is to be stressed that nobody knew that this action of collecting people was to procure workers to load carrots at the station. When the headmaster of the public school informed the manager of the local labor office by phone and asked for his help, the latter replied he had no time to spare for this matter at the moment. Thereafter, the headmasters of the Ukrainian schools informed the manager of the local labor office that they would put their boys at the disposal of the authorities in every case there was unforeseen and undelayable work to be done in town after having received fair warning provided no other labor was available.

Enclosure 3.

COPY
Zborow, 6 Oct. 1942
Ukrainian Aid Committee, Branch Zborow.
To the Ukrainian Main Committee in Lwow.
Department for food.

Subject: The behavior of the Polish employees of the labor office in Cracow towards our laborers.

We present the minutes prepared by our office together with Mr. Procyk Lukas on 28 September 1942 who returned from Germany.

He reports:

Ukrainian laborers coming to Cracow, though provided with certificates and identification papers, are being transferred by the Polish employees of the labor office together with the trans-ports of Russian civilian and brought to punitive camps.

Many Ukrainians fell victim to such Polish provocations. The situation of these people is all the more tragic, as they do not know the German language and their certificates and identification papers were destroyed by the above mentioned Polish employees.

Below we give a list of the Ukrainian laborers who are in the punitive camp in Graz as Russians and refugees:

[Follows a list of 19 names].

The situation of the above named is tragic. I was lucky to escape. With complete confidence in me and tears in their eyes they asked me to report their condition to the Committee.

[signed] Procyk Lukas.

Enclosure 4.

Minutes.

Michaljlo Kost, Bohdan Janiw, Iwan Baran (son of Iwan), Iwan Baran (son of Mykola) and Olexa Chimjak, all from Koniuschky, Koroliwiski, district of Komarow, were sent by the labor office for work to Germany on 12 January 1942.

They came to Pwzemysk, where they stayed for a whole week awaiting medical inspection. After the medical inspection they were joined to the transport which was to go to Germany. However, they were driven via Warsaw, East Prussia to Russia and were brought to the town of Pskow. With them were 95 Ukrainian lads from Galicia, including 18 lads from the village of Koniuschky, Koroliwiski. They were accompanied by a military escort. On 28 January 1942 they arrived in Pskow. At first, they worked in the woods felling trees, later building a bath-house.

In the beginning they received half a loaf of bread as daily ration, and later one loaf for seven persons daily, black coffee at breakfast and supper and soup at dinner time.

They never had a day off, they had to work even on Sundays.

Terrible frost persisted throughout to 58 centigrades (below zero), but the lads got no warm clothes, they worked in the clothes they had brought with them. After arriving in Pskow the workers lived in unheated huts without beds. The huts were made from wood and it was very cold there; only after two weeks were they billetted in a hall with beds, but they were unable to get warm with the blankets they had brought with them. Many of them fell ill from hunger and cold, 18 had to be taken to hospital (there was no room for several persons) where they remained for 2 to 3 weeks. The sick were refused bread, because they were said to be simulants. In the hospital the sick received 50 grammes of bread and some warm water and some soup and potatoes at about 16 hours.

Anyone unfit for work was sent away forcibly. Many escaped from the huts during the winter, one died. 13 lads from the village of Koniuschky, Koroliwiski escaped, three were arrested, and we know nothing about the others; they certainly did not return home.

5 of the above mentioned lads were declared unfit for work by a military commission and sent to Lwow and then home where they arrived completely exhausted. Of the 95 persons in the hut-ments in Pskow up to April, only 14 remained, 8 from the district of Jarowiw and 1 from Grodek. Those 14 persons, hungry and weak, were released to go home.
These workers received no pay.

Komarow, 22 April 1942.

Confirmed by signature: Mychajlo Kost,
Bohdan Janiw,
Iwan Baran.

Enclosure 5.

Memorandum for the files.

In November of last year an inspection of all males of the age groups 1910 to 1920 was ordered in the area of Zaleschozyki (district of Czortkow). After the men had appeared for inspection, all those who were chosen were arrested at once, loaded into trains and sent to the Reich. Such recruiting of laborers for the Reich also took place in other areas of this district. Following some interventions the action was then stopped.

The labor office in Biala Podlaska carried out the recruiting for work of the students at the commercial college. When the officials recruited more students than ordered, the main doors and doors to the class-rooms were locked; consequently a panic amongst the students broke out, and even some students fled through the windows.

Similar events occurred in Wlodawa and Hrubieschow in consequence of which the schools were closed for some time.

Enclosure 6.

Memo for the files. Re: Ill-treatment of Ukrainians.

a. On 11 November 1942 Irene Malaschtschuk, a public school girl working in a German food store in Czortkow, was, whilst working (attending to German customers) hit in the face several times by a Security Policeman without any reason whatsoever. When questioned why he did it, she received the answer: because you did not pay any special attention to me.

b. In September 1942 a meeting took place in Chodorow in the presence of the District Farmer of Stryj, the District Agricultural Expert, the Chairman of the Ukrainian Aid Committee, the Land Commissioner, the District Farmer, the Chairman of the Delegation in Chodorow, and mayors and bailiffs of the district of Chodorow concerning the delivery quotas. During the discussion of the quota action the District Farmer said that the communities of Hranky, Kuty, and Bortniky had not delivered their ordered quota of vegetables, then he ordered the Mayor of Hranky, Kuty to come up and hit him in the face in front of the assembly.

c. The chief of the price control office in Zloczow, H. Mok, who personally controls the delivery of foodstuffs into the town, stopped a woman on the way who was carrying a few kilos of carrots. Mr. Mok ordered his interpreter, a Jew, to search the woman; the Jew did it in such a manner as to offend the dignity of a human being and of the woman.

d. The District Farmer Benzin in Biala Polaska shot at innocent Ukrainian peasants from the villages of Polenow and Nosow, whilst on duty on 30 July 1942, two of whom died. Benzin was arrested, but the event caused great indignation in the whole area.

e. On 9 August 1942 the Ukrainian student Iwan Wowtschyschyn was beaten without any reason whatsoever by a Polish railroad policeman on the station in Przemysl; when the student tried to defend himself, he was fatally wounded with the bayonet.

Generally, there are strong complaints all over the country about the way Polish members of the railroad police treated Ukrainians.

Enclosure 7. Shooting of 46 peasants in Lubycza, district of Rawa Ruska

In the early morning on Sunday, 4 October 1942, some groups of the Special Service detachments, stationed near Belsez, came to the village of Lubycza Koroliwska and Kubysca Kniazi and called out all male villagers. The men were convinced that it was a matter of some urgent work for the village and obligingly hurried to the place of assembly. There they were formed in rank and file and requested to name 2 saboteurs within two minutes otherwise every fifth man would be shot. As, however, no acts of sabotage had been committed in the village, no saboteurs could be named. Then, 45 men and 1 woman were chosen from the crowd and shot dead in two groups in the presence of their relatives, viz. in Lubycza, Koroliwska and Kubycza, Kniazi.

Amongst the 46 shot were 31 Ukrainians.

The pretence for these tragic mass-shootings was a fire which occurred in the stables of the said Special Service detachments near Belsez during the night of 3-4 October, when 3 horses were said to have perished. Probably this fire was set alight by the carelessness of the stable-boys and was extinguished at once.

The community of Lubycza, Koroliwska has been known as one of the most loyal of the whole district. The very same day (4 October 1942) the Governor of the province of Galicia, during a celebration in Lwow; especially mentioned the community as one conscious of their duties regarding the delivery of their quotas; this was officially published (Lwiwski Wisti) (Lemberger Nachrichten 6 October 1942).

The village Kubycza is 8 km. away from the place where the fire took place. The above mentioned stable is not within the village boundaries of Lubycza, Koroliwska.

It should be noted here that in spite of repeated assurances given by the District Captain [Kreishauptmann] the injured families in Lubycza, Koroliwska have so far not received any compensation.

Enclosure 8.

As a reprisal for the shooting of a member of the German police in Lwow who was killed by an unknown perpetrator in the second half of November 1942, 28 Ukrainians were shot in Lwow, and 56 in Czortkow who were at the time in prison in these towns. Nobody was told the reason for the shooting, and the shootings in Czortkow were carried out in broad daylight before the eyes of the frightened population. Among the persons shot were many suffering from typhoid who were taken from the hospital whilst unconscious, loaded on to trucks, and taken to the place of execution.

These shootings were to be considered as reprisals against the so-called "Bandera" group. Among the persons shot were elderly citizens who had no connection whatever with the activities of this group, as for instance Dr. Olexa Kossak, lawyer from Kolomea, engineer Andrij Pjaseckyj, head-gamekeeper in Janiw near Lwow all of whom had been vouched for not only by myself and Dr. Kost Pankiskyj, but by Reich Germans as well.

Enclosure 9. Arrests in Galicia in December 1942.

In December 1942 the police made arrests among the so-called restless elements.

In the whole province of Galicia arrests were made, especially among the young people among whom followers of the partisans were looked for. On this occasion a number of elderly citizens were arrested, who were but vaguely connected with the suspects. Thus, for instance, the owners of houses where the suspect lived as a lodger were arrested as well as guests present in the house at the time of arrest. On interventions by the representatives of the Ukrainian Main Committee in Lwow the police answered in order to release the persons arrested by mistake. Since then 2 1/ 2 months have passed and the persons arrested by mistake are still in prison. They are treated there as criminals and are not certain of their lives.

A typical example of this is the fact that 50 Ukrainians died of misery and hunger in the prison in Czortkow. The Ukrainian Aid Committee in Czortkow tried to obtain a permit to send food to the prisoners, but without success; although the commander of the police agreed, the prison-commander insisted that the command of the Lwow police had to grant permission.

Enclosure 10. Uncertain fate of arrested Ukrainian women students.

On 5 February 1942, 6 Ukrainian women students and school girls from Kolomea were arrested and in the spring sent on to Czortkow. Since then their relatives are unable to obtain any news about their fate.
The personal date of the arrested: [follow 6 names together with names of respective parents and date and place of birth].

Enclosure 11.

List of some well-known Ukrainian citizens, members of the Ukrainian Aid Committee and employees of the State Administration, the Self-Government and the Economic Authorities, also of the old men and students who were arrested in January 1943 in the districts of Kolomea, Stryj, and Komionka, Strumilowa: [follows names by localities.]

Enclosure 12. Arrests and shootings of persons unfit for work in the District of Sanok.

During the period from 18 to 24 January 1943 about 300 persons were arrested in the neighborhood of Sanok in accordance with lists compiled some time before by the local mayors on orders of the authorities. Some of them were soon set free, but the fate of the rest is unknown to us and their families. The shootings which are daily taking place on the Jewish cemetery promise no good.

On 17 and 18 January 1943 many persons from the districts Sanok and Jaslo were arrested in the station in Tarnow whilst riding in the direction of Cracow; so far their families have no news about their fate. Thus, for instance 4 persons were arrested from the village of Losie, district Jaslo, viz.: [follow 4 names and addresses.]

One of them went to see a doctor in Cracow, the others were on business trips to Warsaw.

On 18 January 1943, 14 persons who were unfit for work were shot together with 80 Jews in Ustrzyki Dolne; they were buried together in a ditch. Among these 14 were old men and invalids, for instance from Lutswyska; Iwan Lesky, 68-70 years old, invalid of the Austrian Army who worked as a tiler, Jurko Schkrabak and his wife, both about 70 years of age, and 3 other unknown persons, a female beggar from Ustrzky called "Haramsymka". We do not know the names of the other people shot. It should be pointed out that the Ukrainians celebrated a second Christmas evening on that day called "Schtschedryj Wetschir".

As this holiday is celebrated by the Ukrainians with great piety, the shootings of these innocent people on this holy day caused great indignance and embitterment. These events depress the Ukrainian population. The view is current that now the shootings of the Jews come to an end those of the Ukrainians begin The case of Ustrzyki is commented upon as follows: The Germans do not care about any non-German sanctity and holidays they even shoot Ukrainians on the Ukrainian "Schtschedryj Wetschir" (the case in Ustrzyki) .

The Ukrainian population is suspicious of all orders given by the German authority and even keep away from the soup kitchens, for fear that those in need may be considered as beggars and shot.

Enclosure 13. Anti-Ukrainian activities of partisans in the District of Bilgoraj. * * *

Enclosure 14. Activities of partisans in the district of Biala Podlaska during the second half of 1942.* * *

Enclosure 15. Shooting of 16 Ukrainians in Przewala.

On 17 December 1942 the population of Zubowice, district of Tyschowce was moved away and racial Germans were settledin their place. The Polish population of Zubowice, warned the day before by a certain Kolesche of the coming evacuation fled, but the Ukrainians stayed and were evacuated to the little town of Tyszowce and its suburbs, with the help of the representativesof the Ukrainian Aid Committee. This evacuation affected 128 Ukrainian families, 486 persons in all.

Some days later a few farms in Zubowice and the. surrounding country as far as the village of Przewale were burnt down. It is obvious that these fires were started by escaped Poles who hid in the forests or the neighboring Polish villages, for all farms burnt down belonged to Poles prior to the evacuation; the Ukrainians who were evacuated in an organized manner and went willingly to destinations far off, viz. Zamlynie and Dubyna, were certainly not interested in burning down farms in Zubowice, particularly not their own farms.

As reprisal the arrests in Zamlynie and the shooting of persons in the village Przewale, near Zubowice, were carried out on 24 December 1942. This village is inhabited by 337 Poles and only 122 Ukrainians. On intervention by the Local Farm Administrator Poles have been separated and released from amongst the people arrested at random, the remaining Ukrainians, however, among them the 58 years old Ukrainian teacher and trustee of the Aid Committee in Zamosc, Onofer, and his 75 years old mother-in-law Marie Rewus were shot. The names of the other Ukrainians who were shot are : (follows a list of 10 names in-cluding one of a person aged 80 years).

Enclosure 16.

List of the Ukrainians shot on 29 January 1943 in the village of Sumin community of Taranwatka.


[Follows a list of 45 names, giving family state, age, and re-marks. Remarks to No. 16: Wounded, in hospital, to No. 19: Village Mayor, to No. 31: Wounded, in hospital, No's: 39 & 45: wounded, in hospital.]
Total 8 men, 19 women, 18 children. The delegate: Pastor Matwijtschuk.

List of Ukrainians shot 2 February 1943 in the villages of Pankow and Scharowola.

[Follows a list of 19 names, giving family state, age and remarks. Remarks to Nos. 4, 14, 15, 16, 17 : Wounded].

Total 4 men, 7 women, 8 children. In the village Pankow 5 Poles have been shot. In the village Scharowola 6 Poles have been shot.

Delegation Ukrainian Aid Committee Tomascho Lubelsko.
Delegate : Matwijtschuk.

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#57

Post by David Thompson » 14 Oct 2004, 11:04

19430310 Document: *407-II-PS; Description: Letter from Sauckel to Hitler, 10 March 1943, concerning difficulty in recruiting of workers in former Soviet territories. (USA 226)

"Document 407-II-PS [translation]", in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume III: US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1947. pp. 389-390.
Telegram
GBA 760/43 [in ink crossed out in red]

To the Fuehrer
Fuehrer headquarters

With the urgent request for immediate presentation to the Fuehrer in person and decision.

Subject: Difficulties in recruiting of workers [Arbeitsdiensterpflichtung] in the former Soviet territories.

My Fuehrer:

You can be assured that the Arbeitseinsatz is being carried out by me with fanatical determination, but also with care and consideration for the economical and technical, as well as human, necessities and occurrences.

The replacement for soldiers who are to be freed and the reinforcement of the armament program with newly needed workers can and will be supplied, in spite of great difficulties, which had to be overcome in the last two winter months. 258000 foreign workers could be supplied during January and February to war industry, although the transports in the East were almost completely lacking. The commitment of German men and women is in full force.

Now that the difficulties of the winter months are disappearing more and more the transports from the East can be put into full operation again on account of preparations arranged by me. Although the report and commitment-results of German men and women is outstanding, in the heavy industrial labor the commitment of productive foreigners who are used to labor cannot be neglected.

Unfortunately, a few commanders in chief [Oberbefehlshaber] in the East mobilized the recruiting of men and women in the conquered Soviet territories, as I was told by Gauleiter Kochfor political reasons.

My Fuehrer! To fulfill my task I ask you to abolish these orders. I think it impossible that the former Soviet people should experience a better consideration than our own German people, on whom I was forced to levy drastic measures. If the obligation for labor and the forced recruiting of workers in the East is not possible anymore, then the German war industry and agriculture cannot fulfill their tasks to the full extent.

I myself have the opinion that our army leaders should not give credence under any circumstances to the atrocity and propaganda campaign of the Partisans. The generals themselves are greatly interested that the support for the troops is made possible in time.

I should like to point out that hundreds of thousands of excellent workers going into the field as soldiers now, cannot possibly be substituted by German women, not used to work even if they are trying to do their best. Therefore I have to use the people of the eastern territories.

I myself report to you, that the workers belonging to all foreign nations are treated humanely, correctly and cleanly, are fed and housed well, and are even clothed. On the basis of my own services with foreign nations, I go as far as to state, that never.before in the world were foreign workers treated as correctly as is now happening in the hardest of all wars by the German people.

Therefore, my Fuehrer, I ask you to abolish all orders which oppose the obligation of foreign workers for labor and to report to me kindly, whether the concept of the mission presented here is still right.

I would ask to talk to you personally about different important points of the Arbeitseinsatz at the beginning of next week, possibly Tuesday.

Yours, always thankful, sincere and obedient
Signed: Fritz Sauckel

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#58

Post by David Thompson » 14 Oct 2004, 11:10

19430317 Document: *019-Page; Description: Letter from Sauckel to Rosenberg, 3/17/1943, concerning draft of workers from the East. (USA 181)

"Document 019-PS," in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume III: US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1947. pp. 65-66.
The Commissioner for the Four Year Plan
The Deputy General for Labor Supply No. IVa 5780.28/1138
Berlin, SW 11, 3/17/1943
Saarlandstr. 96 (Reich's Ministry for Labor)
Tel. of the RAM: 11 00 28

Postal Checking Account of the RAM, Branch: Berlin 100.19 Copies:

1. Gauleiter
2. III W 5
3. Special Deputy for the Eastern Labor Supply

Receipt stamp 03487 dated 3/18/1913
Personal!

To: The Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories.
S Att. Mr. Reichsminister ROSENBERG, Berlin

Subject Draft of workers from the East

Dear Party Member Rosenberg:

After a protracted illness my Deputy for Labor Supply in the Eastern Territories, State Councillor Peukert, is going there to regulate the labor supply both for Germany and the territories themselves.

I ask you sincerely, dear party member Rosenberg, to assist him to your utmost on account of the pressing urgency of Peukert's mission. Already now I may thank you for the hitherto good reception accorded to Peukert. He himself has been charged by me with the absolute and completely unreserved cooperation with all bureaus of the Eastern Territories.

Especially the labor supply for the German agriculture, an likewise for the most urgent armament production programs ordered by the Fuehrer make the fastest importation of approximately 1 million women and men from the Eastern Territories within the next 4 months a must. Starting 15 March the daily shipment must have reached 5000 female and male workers respectively, while beginning of April this number has to be stepped up to 10000. This is a requisite of the most urgent programs, and the spring tillage, and other agricultural tasks are not to suffer to the detriment of the nutrition and of the armed forces.

I have foreseen the allotment of the draft quotas for the individual territories in agreement with your experts for the lab supply as follows:

Daily quota starting 3/15/1943:

From General Commissariat White Ruthenia, 500 people;
Economic Inspection Center, 500 people;
Reich's Commissariat Ukraine, 3000 people;
Economic Inspection South, 1000 people;
Total: 5000 people.

Starting 4/1/1943 the daily quota is to be doubled corresponding to the doubling of the entire quota.

I hope to visit personally the Eastern Territories towards the end of the month, and ask you once more for your kind support.

HEIL HITLER!
Signed: SAUCKEL

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#59

Post by David Thompson » 14 Oct 2004, 11:16

19430319 Document: *3012-PS; Description: Order signed Christiansen, 3/19/1943, to all group leaders of Security Service, and record of telephone conversation signed by Stapf, 3/11/1943. (USA 190)

"Document 3012-PS [partial translation]", in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume V: US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1946. pp. 731-734.
COPY OF COPY
SPECIAL GROUP 4a
No. 173 3/19/1943

SECRET Personal To all group leaders of the Security Service [SD]-auxiliary groups.

It is the task of the Security Police and of the Security Service [SD] to discover all enemies of the Reich and fight against them in the interest of security, and in the zone of operations especially to guarantee the security of the army. Besides the annihilation of active opponents, all other elements who, by virtue of their opinions or their past, may appear active as enemies under favorable conditions, are to be eliminated through preventive measures. The Security Police carries out this task according to the general directives of the Fuehrer with all the required toughness. Energetic measures are especially necessary in territories endangered by the activity of hostile gangs. The competence of the Security Police within the zone of operations is based on the Barbarossa decrees. I deem the measures of the Security Police, carried out on a considerable scale during recent times, necessary for the two following reasons:

1. The situation at the front in my sector had become so serious that the population, partly influenced by Hungarians and Italians, who streamed back in chaotic condition, took openly position against us.

2. The strong expeditions of hostile gangs, who came especially from the forest of Bryansk, were another reason. Besides that, other revolutionary groups, formed by the population, appeared suddenly in all districts. The providing of arms evidently provided no difficulties at all. It would have been irresponsible, if we had observed this whole activity without acting against it. It is obvious that all such measures bring about some harshness. I want to take up the significant points of harsh measures:

1. The shooting of Hungarian Jews

2. The shooting of Agronoms

3. The shooting of children

4. The total burning down of villages

5. The "shooting, while trying to escape," [Fluechten] of Security Service [SD] prisoners.

Chief of commitment group C confirmed once more the correctness of the measures taken, and expressed his recognition for the energetic actions.

With regard to the current political situation, especially in the armament industry in the fatherland, the measures of the security police have to be subordinated to the greatest extent to the recruiting of labor for Germany. In the shortest possible time, the Ukraine has to put at the disposal of the armament industry 1 million workers, 500 of whom have to be sent from our territory daily.

The work of the field groups has therefore to be changed as of now. The following orders are given:

1. Special treatment is to be limited to a minimum.

2. The listing of communist functionaries, activists and so on, is to take place by roster only for the time being without arresting anybody. It is, for instance, no longer feasible to arrest all the close relatives of a member of the communist party. Also, members of the Komsomolz are to be arrested only if they were active in a leading position.

3. The activity of the labor offices, respectively of recruiting commissions, is to be supported to the greatest extent possible. It will not be possible always to refrain from using force. During a conference with the chief of the labor commitment staffs. an agreement was reached stating that wherever prisoners can be released, they should be put at the disposal of the commissioner of the labor office. When searching villages, resp. when it has become necessary to burn down a village, the whole population will be put at the disposal of the commissioner by force.

4. As a rule, no more children will be shot.

5. The reporting of hostile gangs as well as drives against them is not affected hereby. All drives against these hostile gangs can only take place after my approval has been obtained.

6. The prisons have to be kept empty, as a rule. We have to be aware of the fact that the Slavs will interpret all soft treatment on our part as weakness and that they will act accordingly right away. If we limit our harsh measures of security police through above orders for the time being, that is only done for the following reason. The most important thing is the recruiting of workers. No check of persons to be sent into the Reich will be made. No written certificates of political reliability check or similar things will be issued.

True copy (Signed): Bender KVR
(signed): Christiansen SS Major and C. O.
Copy Telephone conversation of the Chief of the Wl staff
East, Br. B. No 3663/43 To Inspector Wi Jn South General Nagel

The plenipotentiary for the Arbeitseinsatz, Gauleiter Sauckel, points out to me in an urgent teletype that the Arbeitseinsatz in German agriculture as well as all the most urgent armament programs, ordered by the Fuehrer, make the most rapid procurement of approx. 1 million women and men from the newly occupied territories an imperative necessity. For this purpose, Gauleiter Sauckel demands the shipment of 5000 workers daily beginning 15 March, 10000 workers, male and female beginning 1 April from the newly occupied territories.

The daily quota of 5000 (10000) workers was distributed with the consent of the GBA as follows:

Reich Commissioner Ukraine daily 3000 (6000) workers;
Wl Jn South daily 1000 (2000) workers;
Wl Jn Center daily 500 (1000) workers;
Commissioner General White Ruthenia daily 500 (1000) workers

In consideration of the extraordinary losses of workers which occurred in German war industry because of the developments of the past months, it is now necessary that the recruiting of workers be taken up again everywhere with all emphasis. The tendency momentarily noticeable in that territory, to limit and/or entirely stop the Reich recruiting program is absolutely not bearable in view of this state of affairs. Gauleiter Sauckel, who is informed about these events, has because of this, turned immediately to General Feldmarschall Keitel on 3/10/1943 in a teletype, and has emphasized on this occasion, that, as in all other occupied territories, there, where all other methods fail, by order of the Fuehrer a certain pressure must be used.

I therefore order that in the individual territories quotas are set up which are to be fulfilled with the consent of the native administrative agencies and in the rural areas with the competent LA-leaders pursuant to the service obligation. As far as the quotas cannot be filled by voluntary enlistments, they are to be filled by conscription. For the realization of the service obligation, in the individual case, compulsion may be used if necessary. However, it is not permitted that the workers are procured by collective measures.

I request to direct at once with the consent of the competent headquarters that disturbance of the Reich recruiting program is stopped and that the latter is assisted in every respect by the military agencies.

/s/ Stapf Lieutenant General (General der Infanterie)

Received O.v.D. 11 March 43 /s/ Dr. Bachmann 2245 hours KVR Forwarded
KVS Goth F.d.R.d.A [illegible] KVR

David Thompson
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#60

Post by David Thompson » 14 Oct 2004, 11:27

19430411 Document: *1130-PS; Description: Note, 4/11/1943, and report of speech by Koch in Kiev on 3/5/1943, concerning treatment of civilian population in Ukraine. (USA 169)

"Document 1130-PS [translation]", in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume III: US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1947. pp. 797-798.
Col. I.G. v. Altenstadt
OKH/Gen Qu Department
War Administration
II/2120/43 secret
4/11/1943 Main Department I

Tgb No. I 784/43 secret Received 5/6/1943 Encl. 1

Dear Mr. Braeutigam:

Enclosed I am sending you for your personal information a report of a speech which Gauleiter Reichkommissar Koch made in Kiev on 5 March 1943. May I ask you to regard this report as solely meant for yourself.

With best regards,

Heil Hitler!
Sincerely yours,
Altenstadt [signature]

N.R. Obergruppenfuehrer Dr. Kinkelein [initialed] 8 May The speech is known, isn't it? Yes. [initials illegible] 1 enclosure.

File Koch.

**********************************
Copy
High Command Army, Group B
O.Qu./VII (Mil. Govt.)
B.B.Nr.83/43 secret.
Headquarters, 4/1/1943
SECRET

To the OKH/Gen Staff Army/Gen Qu Dept. War Administration (Admin.)

Subject: Treatment of the civilian population in the Ukraine.

Reference: OKW/Gen St d H/Gen Qu Obt.Kr.Verw(Qu 4) Nr. II/1736/43 secret of 3/23/1943.

Oberkriegsverwaltungsrat Dr. Claassen participated in the meeting of the NSDAP in Kiev on 3/5/1943 and gave a verbal report on the contents of the Reich Commissar's speech. Other documents on the contents of the speech are not available here.

I. On the treatment of the population the Reich Commissar remarked in the course of his speech in several places as follows:

1. We are the master race and must govern hard but just

2. I will draw the very last out of this country. I did not come to spread bliss, I have come to help the Fuehrer. The population must work, work, and work again * * * for some people are getting excited, that the population may not get enough to eat. The population cannot demand that. One has only to remember what our heroes were deprived of in Stalingrad We definitely did not come here to give out manna, we have come here to create the basis for victory.

3. We are a master race, which must remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and biologically a thousand times more valuable than the population here

II. Furthermore, the speech was primarily an appeal to all party members stationed in the Reich Commissariat of the Ukraine, to conduct themselves perfectly in every respect and in any situation. In this connection the Reich Commissar said the following among other things:

1. In the days of the crisis, one could differentiate between three groups of people:

1. The group of those, that went about asking where one might be able to buy another suitcase;

2. The group of slogan manufacturers with the main slogan: "One has to wait and see."

3. The group of real National Socialists, who said: "Now of all times we will not move an inch from here!"

With this third group we say: Whoever wallows in defeatism, who gripes, will have trouble with this National Socialist community, gathered here; he will get a slap in the face. We owe such conduct to the front, which we would prefer to join if the Fuehrer would give us permission. There is not a single place at the front, at which the Russians could have forced us to retreat. The Russian has not been able to force his will upon us

2. Nowadays, one often hears: "Had we," or "Were we." I only tell these people one thing: Had one had more faith in Adolf Hitler and had one taken a firmer grip at the sword, everything would have been different

3. We have brought you, my fellow party members to the Ukraine as personalities but not for the purpose that you should write your papers as in a paper war. I have no objection if you want to get yourselves a rubber stamp, say "Not important for the war." This stamp you can then apply to those files which you consider superfluous or unnecessary for these times. If your superiors do not understand this, tell them so. It is not the question to build up staffs, but to decrease them. I have reduced mine in Rowno from 800 to 250 staff members.

For the High Command of the Army Group B
Chief Quartermaster Faehndrich

For correctness of copy: [signature illegible] Lt.

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