"Milch: The Air Force stressed the importance of getting the whole cave for the purposes of manufacture...
"Dorsch: I shall talk to Weiss again about our getting more concentration camp people for finishing off the work.
"Diesing: (Who is on the Staff of Milch's General Luftzengmeister) " -- We probably shall not get them."
"Diesing: "I'll get them from the Reichsfuehrer. I already have 3500. Two of Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl's men are going to France to prepare everything locally with regard to housing and feeding.
"Nobel: Can one be responsible for foreigners working as airfield control personnel? The repair works say: Yes." (Milch interjects:) "not as pilots."
"Dorsch again: "I do not think that is intended. The repair works said yesterday that it would be a help to them if foreigners could be used as airfield control personnel.
The next document which the Prosecution wishes to introduce in this series is DOCUMENT NO. NOKW-361. This is an excerpt of the minutes of the May 1944 meeting of the Jaegerstab; and is, again, a part of Prosecution Exhibit No. 75. This is at page 154 of the English Document Book, 152 of the German. This excerpt is a discussion of the labor for underground construction.
THE PRESIDENT: Is this "Exhibit No. 76", Mr. King?
MR. KING: No--I--. If your Honor please, we would like to introduce these minutes of the Jaegerstab as one document.
THE PRESIDENT: This is still part of "Exhibit No. 75"?
MR. KING: Yes, your Honor. The participants in this discussion are, GABEL, who is in charge of machinery for the Jaegerstab; Sauer, Chief of Staff of the Jaegerstab; (Minister Plenipotentiary to Speer) and BORNITZ.
This is at page 153 of the English Document Book 4, and at page 152 of the German Document.
"GABEL: We must have 1,000 underground workers at once.
SAUER: Definitely.
BORNITZ: The Erzberg (ore-mine) has, furthermore, a loss of from 1400 to 1500 men per annum due to climatic conditions. It goes up as high as 1500 metres.
SAUER: Do you give the men up systematically, and to whom?
BORNITZ: Not systematically. They collapse, report sick and the foreigners do not come back. Some escape, too, as in the mountain country it is not possible to seal everything hermetically.
GABEL: Careful. Concentration camp internees are not strong enough to be able to work underground."
MR. KING: Document No. NOKW-337 --
DR. BERGOLD: --- May it please the TRIBUNAL, I would like to ask the prosecution whether it has become evident from the last document, that the defendant was present.
MR. KING: The list discloses, your Honor, that the defendant was present at that meeting. And, I can show Dr. Bergold the original document, which we are introducing in evidence; and if Dr. Bergold wishes to examine it, we can show it to him.
"DOCUMENT NO KW-337", which the Prosecution wishes to introduce now, is an excerpt from the Jaegerstab meeting of March 6th, 1944. This document is, again, part of Prosecution Exhibit No. 75, and is at page 133 of the English Document Book Four, and at page 130 of the German.
Here again we find the Jaegerstab discussing the problem of labor for underground construction, concentration camp personnel, foreign forced labor, prisoners of war and all considered, and I might add in passing that the reference in this document two pages by Milch show time he was present at this meeting of the Jaegerstab. Also in passing I might add that the previous document No. NOKW-361 which Dr. Bergold questions has references to a statement by Milch at this meeting of the Jaegerstab. I wish to draw your Honors attention again to the fact that Milch was present at that meeting. We are handing a copy of that excerpt to Dr. Bergold for him to examine. (Dr. Bergold is given a copy of the excerpt referred to.) Going back to NOKW 337a Sturmbannfuehrer of the SS whom I have not been able to identify speaking at page five and thirteen of the excerpt, page 133 of the English, page 130 of the German:
"I have already discussed with Lt. Col. Diesing our requirements according to our construction plan in the immediate program. From tomorrow 5,000 prisoners will be in readiness to carry out this measure. For that we need 750 guard personnel."
I want to call the Tribunal's attention to the fact that Diesing was a member of the Air Force. Then on page 13 Milch is speaking:
"We must distribute our German people as key personnel. That is, out of three construction companies we can probably make ten complete ones by introducing 70% foreigners. The SS officer replies:
"They must be skilled workers. In handling the prisoners it appears best that we should give 5 to 10 of them to one man who knows his job.
"The construction companies will be dissolved to provide key personnel for teams 10 times or even 100 times their size. That is a question which must be clarified by 10 a.m. tomorrow between the Plenipotentiary General for Construction, the Air Force Construction Units on one side and Kammler's Construction Staff on the other. That will be clarified by tomorrow, then any man must say what he needs. The Todt Organization must take part in this discussion, but I cannot consent to the inclusion of the Todt Organization in the 331-a matter as a third leading organization, as we should get confused.
The Todt Organization must bleed with the rest. It is the same as your construction companies. They should know that he is the organizer and usufructory; by all means the usufructuary. For besides being organizer, he is the usufructuary for the construction sites of the Plenipotentiary General for Construction."
And the SS Officer replies:
"Therefore it is important that these construction companies should be under military leadership."
Later on there is a reference by Milch to the recruitment of miners by the SS from Italy and Czechoslovakia.
MILCH: We further appealed to the Fuehrer that we should get the 64 miners who are in Berchtesgaden. The work there will probably soon be finished. May we make the suggestion that we, like the SS, should also train miners to a greater degree, and mention the figure 10,000, who would have to be trained one after another, because they could not all be trained at once.
DR. BERGOLD: May it please the Tribunal, I am reverting to the objection which I raised before, when I asked the Prosecution whether Milch was present during the meeting of the 8th to 10th of May. A photostatic copy of the document has now been shown to me. We must conclude that at this meeting Milch was present in Vienna during the first part. However, during the individual discussions especially mentioned here on page 57 in the village called Bruck an the Mur. Mur is situated in the Southern Part of Austria and only certain individuals were present. However, there is a possibility that Milch has been present and consequently I withdraw my objection.
MR. KING: If your Honor please, I had that reference checked and an examination made by a German-speaking analyst disclosed that at that particular session Milch was present. If Dr. Bergold wishes to look into it further he may make any further objection later on.
THE PRESIDENT: Has he withdrawn his objection? If so, there is no need of it.
DR. BERGOLD: Yes, Yes.
MR. KING: Back at page 133 of the English Document Book, page 131 of the German, Milch is speaking. I will read that again in view of the interruption:
"We further appealed to the Fuehrer we should get the 64 miners who are in Berchtesgaden, the work there will probably soon be finished. He 332 -a made the suggestion that we, like the SS, should also train miners in a greater degree, and mentioned the figure of 10,000, who would have to be trained one after another because they could not all be trained at once.
"Sauer: The SS should be told that the training of miners should rest entirely with them, because the SS runs the best mining school.
"Milch: We must also ask the SS to get more miners from Italy and Slovakia.
"Sauer Again: We must bring more order to the PW Base Camp. We made a proposal that these PW Base Camps should be transferred to the SS. The Italian and Eastern people should be treated more roughly. In this document we have the defendant suggesting to the SS that miners be recruited and trained after having been brought in from Italy and Slovakia, and his colleague, Sauer, urging the harsher treatment of foreign labor, the transfer from the Stalag to the SS members of Jaegerstab were fully cognizant of the treatment of labor employed in works under its control. This is shown for example by Document NOKW 389 again part of Prosecutions Exhibit No. 75 and it is an excerpt from the Jaegerstab Meeting of May 2, 1944. This is at page 48 of the English Document Book - rather 148 of the English and 148 of the German. I shall read only that part of the Document in which Kammler is speaking. It is my understanding that the Defendant, Milch, was at this meeting, and in passing I again call your Honor's attention to NOKW 017 in which the defendant stated that Kammler was a leader of the Jaegerstab. I also wish to point out that Kammler was chief of one phase of the Jaegerstab Underground Construction Program. Here he reports having ordered the hanging of thirty people in the plant primarily as an example to others:
"Kammler: As usual it is because the people have noticed that they are no longer treated severely enough. I had 30 people hanged as a special measure. Since they were hanged, everything has been to some extent in order again. It is the same old story; whenever people notice that they are not being treated so severely as before, they take all sorts of liberties.
It is not surprising that a normal soldier, standing guard on people who were previously always harmless, does not suspect anything of the kind. They are not, however, harmless people. The day before yesterday 30 people succeeded in 333-a breaking out."
The next documentary excerpt from the Jaegerstab meeting which I would like to introduce is Document NOKW 349 which is an excerpt of the Jaegerstab meeting of May 25, 1944, again part of Prosecution's Exhibit 75 at page 154 of the English Document Book, 153 of the German. Milch is at the Central Planning Board meeting on this date. He was not at this meeting, but we have, however, submitted his personally initialed copy of the minutes. Participants at the discussion are Schmelter, who the Tribunal will recall the defendant named as labor expert of the Jaegerstab, Schlempp, who was Dorsch's Deputy of the Jaegerstab and Lange who is in charge of the machinery for the Jaegerstab. In the course of the discussion the statements of Schmelter clearly indicate that he was providing labor for Schlempp and in turn Dorsch, who includes the labor to be used by Schlempp in the computation of his needs. Reference is made to the arrival of some of the transports in the Dorsch phase of the construction, and also to the imminent arrival of the Hungarian Jews:
"Schmelter: In Italy we now hope that several age groups will be called up by the Italian Government and brought to Germany. The Todt Organization is bringing over 1000 workers I expect to get some of them. Some transports have arrived already.
Lange replies with the question: Will they all go to construction?
"Schmelter's Reply: Exclusively. Whatever the Todt Organization brings goes only into construction. The first transports have arrived at the large construction sites in order to get work going gradually on the large bunkers; at the same time the Hungarian Jews are expected now, and they will require some kind of key personnel. Altogether I need about 250,000 construction workers for the large bunkers and for Schlett's installations.
"Lange: You can get them all in Hungary. There are still Jews running around Budapest.
"Schmelter: There is a lot of disorder in the disposal of bomb damage. Of the 20,000 construction workers in Hamburg, 8,000 are employed in bomb damage disposal although, thank God, there have been no raids there for 334-a a long time.
Nobody can take them from Hamburg because Gauleiter Kaufman says: 'I shall not give them up. I am Commissioner for Defense of the Reich, you cannot force me.' There are in my opinion construction workers who could be get together very quickly to the tune of 50,000.
"Schlemp: Then we can employ the Jews and Italian military internees judiciously. The 100,000 Jews and Italian Military Internees will be of no use unless we have the necessary deputy leaders and skilled workers.
If your Honors please, I would now like to introduce Document NOKW 336 which is Prosecutions -- rather part of Prosecution's Exhibit No. 75. This is at page 156 of the English Document Book, page 154 of the German. This is an excerpt minute from the Jaegerstab meeting of May 26, 1944. Defendant Milch was there. Participants in this discussion include Speer, Sauer, Kammler, Schlempp, Schmelter and the defendant. In this excerpt Schmelter reports that two transports of Hungarian Jews had already arrived at the SS Camp Ausschwitz; that these consisted primarily of children, women and old men. Schlempp, speaking for Dorsch, reports on Dorsch's plan for capturing more labor. Kammler states that he will capture his own labor by taking fifty thousand people into protective custody:
"Speer: With regard to construction it is important that we should not start more building than we can supply labor and equipment for. Equipment is of secondary importance. He must not continue with the mistakes we found in the Air Force Armament industry when we took over, i.e., the beginning of no end of buildings for which, at that time, only 20 per cent to 30 per cent of the necessary labor was available. The Chief of the Jaegerstab stated that labor is a main consideration.
"Sauer: That is the case now unfortunately. We have at least 3 times as many buildings under construction as we have labor available.
"Speer: What is the news about the Hungarian Jews?
"Kammler: They are on the way. At the end of the month the first transports will arrive for surface work on the surface bunkers.
"Schlempp: Dorsch said yesterday that he wanted to bring 100,000 Jews from Hungary, 500,000 Italians, 10,000 men from bomb damage repair, also 1,000 355-a from Waldbrohl; then he wanted to get something from Greiser's zone by negotiation, then 4,000 Italian officers, 10,000 men from South Russia and 20,000 from North Russia.
That would be 220,000 altogether.
"Speer: We have often made such calculations; but the people never came.
Kammler again:
"For all these measures I must take in 50,000 more people in protective custody.
"Speer: We shall carry out a "special operation" undertaking of our own in order to build up reserves of manpower. It will bring in 90,000 men in three installments of 30,000. It will be experts who are called up. And it would be a good thing if one linked up with it the conscription of toolmakers within the firms so that one would have a body of tool-makers in the Armament industry. These people would get leave from this group and would function as Armed Forces employees. If we make them Armed Forces employees we have the advantage of being independent of Sauckel's offices.
Then later on Defendant Milch speaking of Italian PW's.
"How long do the Italian PWs actually work?
"Schmelter: As long as the factory works. There is a regulation that PWs must work so long.
"Milch: Could you not look into this? You can see people on the streets about 4 or 5 o'clock and nobody after that.
"Schmelter: I can look into it.
Milch again:
"I do not believe that any Italian prisoner of war works 72 hours.
Later on Schmelter:
"Dorsch will accompany me to Greiser to try and get 20 to 30 thousand men out of him.
"Speer: Kammler had his doubts about that before.
"Representative of Kammler: He didn't think the 100,000 Jews would come.
"Schmelter: To that I can add the following. Till now two transports have arrived at the SS Camp Ausschwitz. For fighter construction were offered only children, women and old men with whom very little can be done unless the next transports bring men of an age fit for work the whole action will not have much success.
Schmelter later on:
"I had agreed with Sauckel to get 20 to 25 thousand unemployed from Denmark. It was only a question of rate of exchange.
On page 87 of page 156:
As far as numbers of workers are concerned we have, for example, 7104 workers in Antwerp, of whom only 238 are German; in the Erla works in Brussels there are 3969 workers of whom 156 are German. The percentage of foreigners to German in the repair works is around 93% to 7%. If we do not succeed in bringing this labor with us into German territory -- we could do it from the point of view of space -- I see very great dangers for us."
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will recess until one-thirty A recess was taken.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
THE MARSHAL: All persons will please take their seats. The Tribunal is again in session.
MR. KING: If your Honors please, I would next like to make further reference to the Goering to Himmler telegram, which was part of Exhibit No. 71, 1584-PS at page 60 of the English Document Book. Our discussion about whether the letter from Himmler, which is also part of 1584-PS and which is at page 61, English Document Book 4, whether the Himmler letter of March 9th was a reply to the Goering telegram of February 14th, I would like to call to your Honors' attention an omission in the English translation up in the left-hand corner. An omission from the document as translated for the first case. That is, before the International Military Tribunal. This is in the left-hand corner and the word "received" right above "hour, day, month and year". The word "received" has been left out, indicating that the telegram was received on that day. I would also like to call your Honor's attention to the fact that in the Himmler letter the month is not clear there. This is presumably a "2" but it isn't written clearly and distinctly, and it's been translated as a "4". Then, in the middle of the page, right next to 2030 "top secret" reference 14-2, indicates the date of sending. I call your Honors' attention to the fact that this is a teletype, dated February 14, 1944, reference in the Himmler letter is to a teletype dated February 14, 1944, The teletype dated February 18th, which Himmler refers to has not been located by us. It may refer to the air corps matter that's discussed in the first paragraph of the Goering telegram.
DR. BERGOLD: May it please the Tribunal, I would like to add the following to this statement: It is correct, when the prosecution says that the word "received" means -- may it please the Tribunal, I repeat: it's correct that the word "received" is at the top left and means the arrival or the receipt of the telegram. However, I would like to point out that this teletype was sent as a "Blitz" telegram. You can see that in the right lower corner of the upper section.
Such "Blitz" telegrams would go by "blitz" and arrived 338a within a few minutes.
Therefore, this teletype, which was sent on the 15th of February 1944 by Himmler, also arrived the same day. Furthermore, the defendant draws my attention to the fact that No. A401714-2230 is not the number of Goering. The Goering number can be seen at the end of the telegram. The number was ADJ No. 391-44, GKDOS. Therefore, this number which is on the upper part of the page has nothing to do with the day on which the telegram was sent.
MR. KING: I would like to call the Tribunal's attention to the fact that the figure 2030 is mentioned. Presumably the telegram was sent at 8:30 in the evening, and normally it would not arrive until the following day. It's impossible for us to trace by exact reference whether the telegram actually arrived in the morning. We do know it arrived the following day, and indications are that the figure 2030 there refers to the time at which the telegram left the Reich Air Ministry.
THE PRESIDENT: There's an indication of the hour. Two forty.
MR. KING: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: If it was sent at 2030 at night it could have been received at two forty A.M. the following day.
MR. KING: That's correct, your Honor. I merely make that comment in connection with this "blitz" that's referred to there. We gather that, your comment that, presumably, the telegram was received at two forty in the morning, would indicate that the telegram was quickly transmitted.
MR. BERGOLD: "Blitz" telephone calls came through within minutes and not in such a long period of time from eight thirty P.M. to two forty the following morning, that's absolutely impossible.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think we have heard sufficiently on that.
MR. KING: If the Tribunal please, the next series of Prosecution exhibits deals with the procurement of labor by the Jaegerstab. The inclusion of Schmelter, the labor expert, in its membership is indicative that the procurement of labor in the fighter aircraft factories was a concern of the Jaegerstab. In this connection I again call Your Honors' attention to Document No. NOKW 317, Prosecution Exhibit 69, Pages 9 and 10, both the English and German Document Book, which is an interrogation of the Defendant Milch. The Court will see from this reference that the formation of the Jaegerstab was explicable in terms of the need for workers in air armament and the controversy over this question.
In this same interrogation, at Page 9 in Your Honors' document book the Defendant states that Schmelter, the labor expert of the Jaegerstab, acting on its order, demanded workers from Sauckel. I call the Tribunal's attention at this time to this Page 9, Prosecution Exhibit No. 69.
The next prosecution exhibit, which is at Pages 98 and 99 of the English Document Book 4 and Pages 101 and 102 of the German, is Document NOKW 266. This is an affidavit dated November 19, 1946, by Schmelter, labor expert of the Jaegerstab. This is Prosecution Exhibit No. 76. Here Schmelter clearly describes both the positions of the Jaegerstab in the matter of slave labor and the relative positions of Milch and Speer in the Jaegerstab. Starting on Page 98, numbered paragraph 2:
"That Milch and Speer together were in charge of the Jaegerstab; that Saur was the Chief of Staff and was, in this capacity, the immediate subordinate of Milch and Speer.
"3. That during its existence the Jaegerstab met almost every day and that these meetings were presided over in most cases by Milch, in the beginning, and later on by Saur; that Speer was very rarely present, and only at special occasions; that these meetings took place, first, in the Reich Air Ministry and after this was destroyed, in the barracks at Tempelhof.
"That in the meetings of the Jaegerstab the supply of labor for the Luftwaffe was discussed; that the Labor requirements necessary to the industry of the Luftwaffe were discussed, for the Jaegerstab, with the Plenipotentiary for Labor Assignment Ministry Sauckel; that Sauckel satisfied these requirements as far as possible; that the Chief of Staff Saur, in the Jaegerstab, occasionally also distributed the available labor to the different Luftwaffe plants.
"That in the year of 1944 the air raids made it necessary to decentralize many of the plants of the Luftwaffe; that this decentralization was ordered by the Jaegerstab; that many factories of the Luftwaffe were transferred into subterranean buildings, and that for the completion of these subterranean buildings concentration camp inmates and Jews were also used; that the whole building program of the Jaegerstab was established and controlled by this Jaegerstab itself."
Signed, dated November 19, 1946.
The next group of documents which show the involvement of the Jaegerstab in the procurement of labor, indicate that during 1944 the Jaegerstab made desperate efforts to obtain labor from every conceivable source, from the Sauckel Ministry, the concentration camps, by direct recruitment from the occupied countries. We show by these Prosecution exhibits that the Defendant Milch took a particular interest in the problem of obtaining labor, and used his personal influence with Sauckel to obtain workers when other methods had failed.
Documentary evidence has already been introduced in this and in the preceding presentation by Mr. Denney showing Milch's participation in the slave labor program and his full knowledge of sources from which Sauckel was obtaining his labor.
The first documentary excerpt in this series of the Jaegerstab meetings is NOKW 346, and this is at Page 137 of the English Document Book, Pages 134 and 135 of the German, and is again part of the Prosecution Exhibit No. 75. This is an excerpt from the Jaegerstab meeting of March 20, 1944, which was under the chairmanship of the defendant, then Field Marshal Milch. The part which I shall read shows Saur calling upon Milch to tell Sauckel that the entire group mobilized in Hungary should be placed at the disposal of the Jaegerstab.
The second excerpt in this discussion is the discussion about foreign labor to be obtained from Czechoslovakia. I might add that Mahnke, one of the participants, was Chief of the Motor Supply and General Luftzeugmeister and as such was a subordinate of the Defendant Milch.
"Saur: As far as Hungary is concerned, I should be grateful if the Field Marshal would call up Mr. Sauckel and tell him that the whole group mobilized in Hungary should be primarily at the disposal of the Jaegerstab. Large, heavy labor companies must be formed. The people have to be treated like the prisoners. Otherwise it won't work."
And then again page 53-
DR. BERGOLD: I would appreciate it very much if the Prosecution could put this document at my disposal so that I can see if and what answer the Defendant Milch gave to these questions.
MR. KING: That is amenable to the Prosecution, Your Honor, and we will give Dr. Bergold this entire document.--On Page 53:
"Saur: Where are the 54,000 Czechs?
"Mahnke: Of the 58,000 Czechs, 17,000 have been earmarked for Czechoslovakia. 31,000 are intended for the Reich, and after that 26,000 have been divided among the special commissions. 31,000 were for power units."
Later:
"Saur: In my opinion it is a shame that, if we have a pool of 3,000 to 4,000 Czechs, we cannot open it up and take out 50 to 100 people."
The second document in this series is at Page 138 of the English document Book, Page 136 of the German, Document No. NOKW 388, and is again part of Prosecution Exhibit No. 75. The participants in this discussion are Nobel, who is in charge of repairs for the Jaegerstab; Schmelter, whom I have described before; Frydag of the Jaegerstab for the factories under the jurisdiction of the main board for airplanes, and the Defendant Milch. This document shows the Defendant offering to bring the labor demands of the Jaegerstab to Sauckel, and suggesting that the Jaegerstab itself snatch slave labor arriving on transports and coming in from the East.