"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich (193 page)

21.
Letter dated June 22, 1944, V A, 580/212, from the Reich governor of Wartheland to the
Gau
Chamber of Commerce, Wartheland (State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
924, Bl. 196):

Regarding maternity arrangements for Polish women … The general political line should of course be respected in the application of these protective provisions set out in sec. 9 of the Implementing Order to the Maternity Protection Law of May 17, 1942 (
RGBl
. I 324). From these general principles for the treatment of Poles it emerges that Polish mothers-to-be are never justified in refusing to work. Furthermore, past experience has shown that maternity leave before and after the confinement of Polish women is not always necessary. For this reason pregnant women should as a rule no longer be employed if they are likely to be delivered within two weeks. Women who have given birth should not be employed less than two weeks after confinement. They should resume work six weeks at the latest after confinement… Deputy Head Jäger.

22.
Report of July 30, 1941 (Institute for Western Studies, Pozna
, doc. I-145); letter of September 15, 1941, from the management of the Elektronische Werke Zychllin to the armaments inspector in Posen, quoted by Łuczak,
Diskriminierung der Polen
, 295 ff. See also the report of October 9, 1941 (
Doc. Occ
. 5:275). In the administrative district of Zichenau and in Danzig–West Prussia, vacations were awarded only as a bonus for increased work performance (report of October 9, 1941[275 ff.]).

23.
Report of October 9, 1941 (
Doc. Occ
. 5:275), according to which the Poles’ wages were reduced by a further 15% beyond the 15% deducted for social compensation tax in order to cover bonuses for good workers.
Wirtschaft
(organ of the Chamber of Economics), no. 9 (September 1941): 17.

24.
See the announcement to his employees by W. Kaes, master house-painter, of Wreschen (Wrzesnia), in
Streng aber gerecht
(Institute for Western Studies, Pozna
, doc. I-873).

25.
Report of October 9, 1941 (
Doc. Occ
. 5:276).

26.
Ibid.; see the statements by the deputy Gauleiter of Posen, Dr. Derichsweiler, from the office of the Reich governor of Posen: “If Poles make up the majority in a factory, or indeed 100% of the manpower, they work little or badly. If they work properly, they should be properly paid. The piecework system is to be preferred as an inducement. A Posen construction company increased the output of Polish bricklayers from 300 to 1,200 bricks a day by the introduction of piecework” (
Doc. Occ
. 5:277); and Gauleiter Greiser: “The Pole has to achieve a minimum output, and he should be paid for this. The time he needs to achieve this performance is not relevant. We may regard him as nothing but a laborer whom we are to look upon without feeling … he should never have any rights. He prefers a hundred selfish bosses who treat Poles badly to a regular legal system for Poland…. He doesn’t want a minimum wage for Poles but only a wage corresponding to his work performance. How this principle is achieved is a matter of form, for which he has his employees” (277 ff., 280).

27.
VOBl. CdZ Posen
, October 27, 1939.
VOBl. Reichsstatthalter Wartheland
, February 2, 1940; May 28, 1941; and May 24, 1943; report of October 9, 1941 (
Doc. Occ
. 5:279).

28.
Report for the period January 16 to February 15, 1941 (State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
854, Bl. 49 f.).

29.
Report of October 9, 1941 (
Doc. Occ
. 5:276).

30.
Ibid., 279; statements by the
Gau
economic adviser Batzer, Wartheland. See also the letter of January 5, 1942, from Zellgarn AG, Posen, to the Reich governor of Posen (ZS Posen, film 14, 603 ff.).

31.
See the report by the commissioner of the Opalenitza District of March 1942 (State Archive Pozna
, Landratsamt Grätz 36, pp. 16, 22): “Recruitment will be pursued with the greatest energy this spring. At present lists of all Polish youths between 12 and 18 years of age are being prepared for the labor office.” Confidential circular of May 5, 1944, by the Reich minister of labor, according to which children over 10 years could also be used for suitable light work within their capacities (if necessary also for more than four hours a day (Łuczak,
Diskriminierung der Polen
, 306).

32.
For example, the note of June 25, 1941, by the Security Police, Posen, regarding preparation of a raid (especially in places where long queues of Poles were to be found), and secret directives of April 22, 1941, by the commander of the Security Police regarding rounding up of unemployed Poles, with supplement of June 11 regarding rounding up of “vagrant” Poles; report on manpower recruitment in the
Ostdeutscher Beobachter
, March 12, 1941; activity report for June 1941 by the
Kreisleitung
Hermannsbad (Ciechocinek) (administrative district Hohensalza [Inowrocław]): “In order to be sure to catch every work-shy Polish layabout, we intend to clamp down on the Polish churches one after the other and check all the Poles for their papers, work allocation, and so on. In this way we hope to teach them some respect once again” (Institute for Western Studies, Pozna
).

33.
Regarding compulsory dispatch to the Reich, see full details in Seeber,
Zwangsarbeiter in der faschistischen Kriegswirtschaft;
Łuczak,
Diskriminierung der Polen
, 220 ff.; by mid-1943, 400,000 Polish workers had been sent to the Reich from the Warthegau alone (statement by an official of the
Land
Economic Office, Posen, July 21, 1943 [222]); see also circular of March 1, 1944, by the
Gau
Bureau of Nationhood Affairs (State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
1174, Bl. 55).

34.
Note for Referat I/50 of the office of the Reich governor of Posen dated June 17, 1944, on a meeting of the armaments commission in Posen (State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
1174, Bl. 53), stating, “It will not be possible to maintain the seventy-two-hour week indefinitely, especially since the proportion of workers with tuberculosis is extremely high. State Official Schneider informs us that he loses some 20 men each week to tuberculosis at the DMW [Deutsche Munitions-Werke]. Since a further 40 were taken away last month by the State Police, and further such removals can be expected, the long-term running of the factory is at risk. He intended to speak to
Oberregierungsrat
Stoßberg [head of the State Police bureau], since the people taken away by the Stapo are the most intelligent and most able workers.”