HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES FORCES EUROPEAN THEATER MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SERVICE CENTER. APO 757
5 Sep 1945
I, Fritz Sauckel, Gauleiter and Reichstatthalter in Thuringia in charge of labor procurement in Germany make in lieu of oath voluntarily and under no compulsion the following statements:
1. Since 1921 I was a convinced National Socialist and agreed 100% with Adolf Hitler's program. I have worked actively in this sense and in the period from 1921 up to the 1933 assumption of power delivered approximately five hundred speeches, which represented as to sense and contents the national socialist point of view. It was a particular satisfaction to me to have brought the Gau Thuringia to a leading position as to its National Socialist standing and ideology. There was no doubt in my mind as I never questioned Adolf Hitler's leadership up till the time of the collapse but obeyed blindly his orders.
2. After the introduction of the Nürnberg law I saw to it, in line with my convictions, that the provisions of these laws were fully carried out in the Gau Thuringia.
3. It was known to me that the majority of the components of which the Gustloffwerke consisted were Jewish property which were dispossessed under pressure.
4. As far as foreign politics are concerned I was of the opinion that German people had a right to living space in Europe and had to take a leading position on the basis of their racially superior level. With reference to the means and measures to be applied in order to attain this end I agreed to all decisions of Hitler and the NSDAP and cooperated actively in the execution of these plans.
5. I had the mission of bringing foreign laborers to Germany and I did my utmost to fulfill this task. I was well aware that this would provoke resistance in the foreign countries but everything had to be done to bring laborers to Germany. Police measures were applied to bring laborers to the Reich from territories occupied by German troops. When the labor procurement from France met with ever increasing difficulties I insisted upon the introduction of a labor draft law according to which French laborers were forcibly imported into Germany. I have also insisted that wages in France should be frozen in order that their relationship with German wages should be maintained. The care, housing, feeding and transport of the foreign workers were under my authority and I was competent and responsible for these matters as the highest level authority. I do not want to mitigate or excuse the performance of my mission.