Conditions of Deportation & Slave Labor (Part 4 of 4)
Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression
Volume I Chapter X
[Page 905]
Appropriate memoranda have already been turned over to the District Peasants' Associations. Below, I promulgate the individual regulations, as they have been laid down during the conference and how they are now to be applied accordingly:
"1. Fundamentally, farmworkers of Polish nationality no longer have the right to complain, and thus no complaints may be accepted any more by any official agency.
"2. The farmworkers of Polish nationality may not leave the localities in which they are employed, and have a curfew from 1 October to 31 March from 2000 hours to 0600 hours, and from 1 April to 30 September from 2100 hours to 0500 hours.
"3. The use of bicycles is strictly prohibited. Exceptions are possible for riding to the place of work in the field if a relative of the employer or the employer himself is present.
"4. The visit of churches, regardless of faith, is strictly prohibited, even when there is no service in progress. Individual spiritual care by clergymen outside of the church is permitted.
"5. Visits to theaters, motion pictures or other cultural entertainment are strictly prohibited for farmworkers of Polish nationality.
"6. The visit of restaurants is strictly prohibited to farmworkers of Polish nationality except for one restaurant in the village, which will be selected by the Rural Councilor's office (Landratsamt), and then only one day per week. The day, which is determined as the day to visit the restaurant, will also be determined by the Landratsamt. This regulation does not change the curfew regulation mentioned above under No. 2.
"7. Sexual intercourse with women and girls is strictly prohibited, and where it is established, it must be reported.
"8. Gatherings of farmworkers of Polish nationality after work is prohibited, whether it is on other farms, in the stables, or in the living quarters of the Poles.
"9. The use of railroads, buses or other public conveyances by farmworkers of Polish nationality is prohibited.
"10. Permits to leave the village may only be granted in very exceptional cases, by the local police authority (Mayor's office). However, in no case may it be granted if he wants to visit a public agency on his own, whether it is a labor [Page 906] office or the District Peasants Association or whether he wants to change his place of employment.
"11. Arbitrary change of employment is strictly prohibited. The farmworkers of Polish nationality have to work daily so long as the interests of the enterprise demands it, and as it is demanded by the employer. There are no time limits to the working time.
"12. Every employer has the right to give corporal punishment toward farmworkers of Polish nationality, if instructions and good words fail. The employer may not be held accountable in any such case by an official agency.
"13. Farmworkers of Polish nationality should, if possible, be removed from the community of the home and they can be quartered in stables, etc. No remorse whatever should restrict such action.
"14. Report to the authorities is compulsory in all cases, when crimes have been committed by farmworkers of Polish nationality, which are to sabotage the enterprise or slow down work, for instance unwillingness to work, impertinent behavior; it is compulsory even in minor cases. An employer, who loses his Pole who must serve a longer prison sentence because of such a compulsory report, will receive another Pole from the competent labor office on request with preference.
"15. In all other cases, only the state police is still competent. "For the employer himself, severe punishment is contemplated if it is established that the necessary distance from farmworkers of Polish nationality has not been kept. The same applies to women and girls. Extra rations are strictly prohibited. Noncompliance to the Reich tariffs for farmworkers of Polish nationality will be punished by the competent labor office by the taking away of the worker.
" (EC-68) The women of the conquered territories were led away against their will to serve as domestics. Sauckel described this program as follows: "*** In order to relieve considerably the German housewife, especially the mother with many children and the extremely busy farmwoman, and in order to avoid any further danger to their health, the Fuehrer also charged me with procurement of 400,000 -- 500,000 selected, healthy and strong girls from the territories of the East for Germany." (016-PS) [Page 907] Once captured, these Eastern women, by order of Sauckel, were bound to the household to which they were assigned, permitted at the most three hours of freedom a week, and denied the right to return to their homes. The decree issued by Sauckel containing instructions for housewives concerning Eastern household workers, provides in part, as follows: "*** There is no claim for free time. Female domestic workers from the East may, on principle, leave the household only to take care of domestic tasks. As a reward for good work, however, they may be given the opportunity to stay outside the home without work for 3 hours once a week. This leave must end with the onset of darkness, at the latest at 20 00 hours. It is prohibited to enter restaurants, movies, or other theatres and similar establishments provided for German or foreign workers. Attending church is also prohibited. Social events may be arranged for Eastern domestics in urban homes by the German Workers' Front, for Easte
rn domestics in rural homes by the Reich Food Administration with the German Women's League (Deutsches Frauenwerk). Outside the home, the Eastern domestic must always carry her work card as a personal pass. "10. Vacations, Return to Homes. "Vacations are not granted as yet. The recruiting of Eastern domestics is for an indefinite period." (3044-B-PS) At all times the shadow of the Gestapo and the concentration camp hovered over the enslaved workers. As with the other major programs of the Nazi conspirators, Himmler's black- shirted SS formations were the instruments employed for enforcement. A secret order dated 20 February 1942, issued by Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler to SD and security police officers spells out the violence which was applied against the Eastern workers. (3040-PS):
"III. Combatting violations against discipline.
"(1) According to the equal status of the manpower from the original Soviet Russian territory with prisoners of war, a strict discipline must be exercised in the quarters and at the working place. Violations against discipline, including work refusal and loafing at work, will be fought exclusively by the secret State police. The smaller cases will be settled by the leader of the guard according to instruction of the State police administration offices with measures as provided for in the enclosure. To break acute resistance, the guards shall be permitted to use also physical power against the manpower. But this may be done only for a cogent cause. [Page 908] The manpower should always be informed about the fact that they will be treated decently when conducting themselves with discipline and accomplishing good work.
"(2) In severe cases, that is in such cases where the measures at the disposal of the leader of the guard do not suffice, the State police office has to act with its means. Accordingly, they will be treated, as a rule, only with strict measures, that is with transfer to a concentration camp or with special treatment.
"(3) The transfer to a concentration camp is done in the usual manner.
"(4) In especially severe cases special treatment is to be requested at the Reich Security Main Office, stating personnel data and the exact history of the act.
"(5) Special treatment is hanging. It should not take place in the immediate vicinity of the camp. A certain number of manpower from the original Soviet Russian territory should attend the special treatment; at that time they are warned about the circumstances which led to this special treatment.
"(6) Should special treatment be required within the camp for exceptional reasons of camp discipline, this is also to be requested." "VI. Sexual Intercourse. "Sexual intercourse is forbidden to the manpower of the original Soviet Russian territory. By means of their closely confined quarters they have no opportunity for it.
Should sexual intercourse be exercised nevertheless -- especially among the individually employed manpower on the farms -- the following is directed:
"(1) For every case of sexual intercourse with German countrymen or women, special treatment is to be requested for male manpower from the original Soviet Russian territory, transfer to a concentration camp for female manpower.
"(2) When exercising sexual intercourse with other foreign workers, the conduct of the manpower from the original Soviet Russian territory is to be punished as severe violation of discipline with transfer to a concentration camp." *******
"VIII. Search.
"(1) Fugitive workers from the original Soviet Russian territory are to be announced principally in the German search [Page 909] book (Fanndungsbuch). Furthermore, search measures are to be decreed locally.
"(2) When caught, the fugitive must receive special treatment***." (3040-PS)
A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
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