"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich (155 page)

167.
See Sauckel, “Manifest des Generalbevollmächtigten für den Arbeitseinsatz vom 20.4.1943” (1944), 49; Sauckel, “Totaler Arbeitseinsatz für den Sieg,” 227 ff. (1944) (“We shall cast off the last shackles of humanitarian nonsense”); for more details, see Seeber,
Zwangsarbeiter in der faschistischen Kriegswirtschaft
, 20 ff., 30 ff., with more references.

168.
As early as 1934, Hitler stated: “There are many methods of getting rid of an undesirable race systematically and quite painlessly, at least without bloodshed, … not that I root them out, but that I systematically prevent their natural high fertility from being effective. For example, by keeping the men separated from the women for many years …” (from Rauschning,
Gespräche mit Hitler
[1950], 129).

169.
Sauckel, “Das Wesen des Großdeutschen Arbeitseinsatzes” (1944), 53. See the Plenipotentiary General for Labor Allocation Program for April 20, 1942; see also Sauckel, “Programm des Generalbevollmächtigten” [1944], 27 ff., 38: “Anything that might make the presence and work of foreign workers in Germany more difficult or unnecessarily unpleasant over and above the restrictions and rigors imposed by the war should be avoided. We are … dependent on their goodwill and their labor”; similarly, the Plenipotentiary General for Labor Allocation Manifesto of April 20, 1943 (Sauckel, “Manifest des Generalbevollmächtigten für den Arbeitseinsatz vom 20.4.1943” [1944], 41 ff., 48); cf. also Sauckel, “Das Wesen des Großdeutschen Arbeitseinsatzes,” 53 ff., 55: “Every worker … [must] be regarded as an irreplaceable asset and maintained as such”; Sauckel, “Totaler Arbeitseinsatz für den Sieg” (1944), 227 ff., 233; plenipotentiary general for labor allocation’s circular of March 15, 1943, to all NSDAP Gauleiter (Sauckel,
Handbuch
, 63 ff.; also in ZS, file 246 g, G.J. no. 79).

170.
An example is the generally acknowledged right of supervisors or the German employer to punish Polish agricultural workers, should “admonitions and exhortations be ineffective.” The works manager was in no event to be held to account; any right of appeal was of course ruled out for Poles (circular of March 6, 1941, from the Baden
Landbauernschaft
[farmers’ association] to all district
Bauernschaften
, Nuremberg doc. El-168).

171.
See the review of the situation with regard to the Forced Labor Service (
Arbeitseinsatz
), November 30, 1942 (Nuremberg doc. PS-1739); also the BGA secret report in J. Hohlfeld, ed.,
Dokumente der Deutschen Politik und Geschichte von 1848 bis zur Gegenwart
(1953), no. 161, 5:392 ff.; statistics can also be found in Seeber,
Zwangsarbeiter in der faschistischen Kriegswirtschaft
, 89 ff.

172.
Regarding the program and organization of the plenipotentiary general for labor allocation’s office, i.e., the Allocation of Labor Administration, see the Plenipotentiary General for Labor Allocation Program of April 20, 1942 (Sauckel,
Handbuch
[1944], 27 ff.); Plenipotentiary General for Labor Allocation Manifesto of April 20, 1943 (41 ff.); organization of Plenipotentiary General for Labor Allocation Offices (251 f.); organizational plan of Central Departments 1, 1a, 3, 3e, 5–5c, 6–7, 9 of the Reich Ministry of Labor (267 ff.); Seeber,
Zwangsarbeiter in der faschistischen Kriegswirtschaft
, 65 ff.

173.
Decree of the Führer and chancellor of March 21, 1942 (
RGBl.
I, 179), on a plenipotentiary for the Forced Labor Service. Departments 3 (wages) and 5 (labor) of the Reich Ministry of Labor and their subordinate offices were available to the plenipotentiary for the Forced Labor Service. The decree was apparently prepared by way of an urgent memorandum dated January 29, 1942, from the Reich Ministry of Labor to the competent authorities in the occupied territories, in which the directive was given to prepare orders for the introduction of “compulsory use of labor” “up to readiness for publication” (Nuremberg doc. PS-1183). Implementing regulations subsequent to the decree: First and Second Implementing Orders of September 30, 1942, and March 4, 1943, respectively (Sauckel,
Handbuch
, 23 f.); instructions from the head of the Four Year Plan of March 27, 1942 (22), and decree of March 25, 1942, issued by the head of the Four Year Plan on legislation created by the plenipotentiary for the Forced Labor Service (25).

174.
According to the Führer’s decree of September 30, 1942 (Sauckel,
Handbuch
, 23) on the implementation of the Führer’s decree of March 21, 1942, the plenipotentiary for the Forced Labor Service was empowered “to take at his discretion all measures in the Greater German Reich, including the Protectorate, and in the occupied territories to ensure an adequate labor force for the war economy under all circumstances.” To this end he could nominate labor commissioners in the military and civil administration who for their part were empowered to give instructions to all the relevant departments.

175.
Decree of October 25, 1942, from the plenipotentiary for the Forced Labor Service on the situation of labor commissioners (ibid., 25; also Nuremberg doc. PS-3352; PS-016; EC-1913).

176.
Instruction no. 1 of March 6, 1942, from the plenipotentiary general for labor allocation (Sauckel,
Handbuch
, 69).

177.
Ibid., 25.

178.
See Plenipotentiary General for Labor Allocation Program of April 20, 1942, section titled “Erkenntnisse und Grundsätze des optimalen Arbeitseinsatzes” (ibid., 27 ff., 45, 46 f.), where under letter
I
it is stated: “In particular the performance principle must be applied under all circumstances, in the Eastern Territories as elsewhere, and when prisoners of war and civilian workers are employed, the usual occurrence that only one of a group works badly while seven others stand around watching and doing nothing must be eradicated” (47).

179.
Ibid., 117 ff.

180.
For more details, see H. Kneppers-Bannier,
Arbeitsrecht der Polen im Deutschen Reich
(1942) (
BA
E II C 33); RFSS circulars of September 3, 1940, July 5, 1941, and March 10, 1942, ZS, Versch. 9, 2345–97); summary of the current special regulations in the deputy Führer’s announcement of January 4, 1940 (Notice B 42/40 with annexes I and II), which reproduces the relevant instructions of the
Reichsführer
-SS (
Verordnungsblatt der Reichsleitung der NSDAP
, 1940, ser. 210, IV). Plenipotentiary General for Labor Allocation Instruction no. 4 of May 7, 1942, on the recruitment, care, accommodation, feeding, and treatment of foreign workers (Sauckel,
Handbuch
, 79 ff.), par. 2 of the preamble, which states: “Recruitment of foreign workers is on a voluntary basis. Where in occupied territories, however, a call for volunteers does not suffice, compulsory labor and conscription will necessarily be imposed. This is an indisputable requirement in the light of our labor market situation.” According to details given by the president of the Reich Labor Exchange and Unemployment Insurance, Syrup, in
DVerw
. (1940): 81 ff., 140,000 Polish workers were employed in the territory of the Altreich as of February 1940, plus 300,000 Polish prisoners of war; it was planned to put a million and a half Poles to work in the Reich territory (transcript of a discussion on preparing the economy for “total war” with the head of the Four Year Plan on July 16, 1938, Nuremberg doc. NG-1162).

181.
See Reich Collective Wage Ruling, January 8, 1940 (
Reichsarbeitsblatt
, 1940, IV, 38); breaches of the wage agreement were punished with prison sentences and/or fines at the instigation of the
Reichstreuhänder
(Labor Executor) (sec. 2 of the Reich Collective Wage Ruling, June 25, 1938,
RGBl.
I, 691).

182.
Report of July 30, 1941, by the Department of
Volkstumspolitik
(nationality policy) of the office of the Reich governor of Posen (Pozna
) to the Reich governor of Posen (West Institute Pozna
, Doc. I 145).

183.
Reichsarbeitsblatt
, 1941, I, 442, 448.

184.
RGBl.
I, 45, 220, 2145, 337, 763;
Reichsanzeiger
, 1937, no. 280.

185.
Decree of October 5, 1941, by the Reich labor executor on the treatment of Polish workers in conformity with the labor legislation, cited by Seeber,
Zwangsarbeiter in der faschistischen Kriegswirtschaft
, 182 f. A small separation and accommodation allowance (up to RM 1 per day) was paid. See also the Reich Collective Wage Ruling, January 8, 1940 (
Reichsarbeitsblatt
, 1940, IV, 38 [7]; additional information in Seeber,
Zwangsarbeiter in der faschistischen Kriegswirtschaft
, 170 f.).

186.
Reich Collective Wage Ruling of January 8, 1940, for Polish agricultural workers,
Reichsarbeitsblatt
, 1940, IV, 38, 727; 1339.

187.
See summary in Fröde, “Das Urlaubsrecht im Kriege” (1940). At the outbreak of war, all vacation regulations were annulled (sec. 19 of the War Economy Decree of September 4, 1939,
RGBl.
I, 1609), but they were reinstated by instruction of the Reich minister of labor of November 17, 1939 (
Reichsarbeitsblatt
, 1939, 545), effective January 15, 1940; see also explanatory circular of February 16, 1940, by the Reich minister of labor (
Reichsarbeitsblatt
, February 25, 1940).

188.
Decree of March 31, 1941, issued by the Reich minister of labor on holidays of civilian workers of Polish nationality working in the Reich (
Reichsarbeitsblatt
, 1941, I, 195) (also in
Vertraul. Mitteilungsblatt des Gauschulungsamts Posen
, 13, 1). Rusi
ski,
Poło
enie robotników
(1948–49), 229 n. 170.

189.
Decree of the Reich minister of labor IIIa, no. 12/501/41; cited under report ref. I/50 of July 7, 1941, office of the Reich governor of Posen, to the Reich governor of Posen (Institute for Western Studies, Pozna
, doc. I-145).