TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 407-V AND VI-PS

District Administration Thueringen of NSDAP The Plenipotentiary for The Direction of Labour.
Weimar 15 April 1943 Nr. 435/43 10:25 o'clock
To the Fuehrer, Obersalzberg.
23 June 1943 [stamped]
My Fuehrer,
As Gruppenfuehrer Bormann has already informed you, I am going to the eastern areas on the 15th April in order to secure 1 million workers from the East for the German war economy in the coming months.
The result of my last trip to France is that, after exact fulfillment of the last program, another 450,000 workers from the western areas too, will come into the Reich by the beginning of the summer.
Counting the manpower which comes into question from Poland and the remaining areas, and which is in the neighborhood of about 150,000, it will become possible again to place 5- to 600,000 workers at the disposal of German agriculture and 1 million workers at the disposal of the armaments industry and the rest of the war industries by the coming summer months.
I beg you to agree that the new French labor forces can also come into the Reich under conditions similar to those which applied to the last group. I have kept in touch with the High Command of the Armed Forces.
Since the largest part of the Belgian civil workers and prisoners of war perform very satisfactorily, I ask you to agree that a similar statute to that which was granted to the French be made for some 20,000 Belgian prisoners of war. This very great concession by you has made a very deep impression upon Laval and the French Ministers. Laval has repeatedly asked me to transmit his sincerest thanks for this to you, my Fuehrer.
1. After one year's activity as plenipotentiary for the direction of labor, I can report that 3,638,056 new foreign workers were given to the German war economy from 1 April of last year to 31 March this year.
As a whole, these forces have produced satisfactory performances. Their feeding and housing is secured, their treatment so indisputably regulated that, in this respect too, our National Socialist Reich presents a shining example to the methods of the capitalist and bolshevist world. However, it is naturally inevitable that mistakes and blunders occur here and there. I will
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continue to endeavor with the greatest energy to reduce them to a minimum.
Besides the foreign civil workers, 1,622,829 prisoners of war will be employed in the German economy.
2. The 3,638,056 workers are distributed amongst the following branches of the German war economy:
Armament .................................... 1,568,801
Mining industry ............................. 163,632
Building .................................... 218,707
Communications ______________________________ 199,074
Agriculture and forestry ....................- 1,007,544
Other economic branches ..................... 480,298
Besides the employment of foreign workers, 5 million German men and women workers were transferred, inside the German economic structure, to the German war economy proper by being switched from businesses unimportant to the war effort to important ones, or by retraining.
All of these efforts were necessary in order to smooth out the natural fluctuations, for example, through death, sickness, expirations or breaches of contract, but especially through drafting into the Armed Forces and the shifting of industries into other regions and to facilitate the enlargement of the armament works, the establishment of new factories and the fulfillment of new programs.
3. The result of the registration action for men and women up to the 1 April is as follows:
On the basis of the order of 27 January 1943, 3,249,743 men and women have registered. The results are not yet final.
The number of men amounts to 553,415 that of women to 2,696,328
Up till now about 52% of these registrations (that is 1,851,771) have been definitely fixed up by the Labor Bureaux.
Up till now only 32.5% of the men come into question for the direction of labor as the majority do not fit in with the requirements as a result of old age or sickness.
Employed up to the present moment are 66,008 men. Up to 7 April 732,489 women were put to work.
This result must be designated as outstanding. 44% of these women, however, work less than 48 hours per week because of their domestic circumstances. The basic armament industry has received from the women and men employed 20,670 men 341,100 women
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It was possible to make some 130,000 available to agriculture and the rest to the Armed forces, postal service, railroads, etc.
4. The result of the shutting-down measures taken by the Reich Minister for Economic Affairs includes 74,644 persons, of this group, mostly over-age and consisting of 27,218 men, 47,426 women, only a third could be directed to industry, 10,108 men, 17,929 women, of these the armament industry received 5,258 men, 8,621 women.
The rest were distributed to the remaining industries of war importance and to the Armed Forces.
5. The demands of the armaments industry for men and women workers and the allocations of these from December 1942 until the end of March 1943 give the following result :
Demand Allocation
December 1942 ] 250,000
January 1943 [ total 335,000 172,000
February 1943 J 235,000
March 1943 225,000
replacements for those drafted from the armaments industry. 240,000
total— 657,000 450,000
800,000 1,107,000
In the March figures 320,000 men and women are brought into account by the registration-action.
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Since I, my Fuehrer, shall be staying in the eastern provinces on the 20 April, I beg, already today, to be allowed to extend my most fervent good wishes to you, along with those of my district and my family.
You can be assured that the district of Thueringen and I will serve you and our dear people with the employment of all strength.
The warmest desire is that you, my Fuehrer, may always enjoy the best of health and that we ourselves can serve you to your complete satisfaction.
Your faithful and obedient,
[signed] Fritz Sauckel
Passed on : Puttig.
Received : Weismann Oberg.
Officially received : 1130 o'clock Heinstein pkz Munich for Section Roem. 3.
The above telegram was also sent in letter form, [in ink]
WE 15 Apl.
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