The Nuremberg Trials (Vol.9). International Military Tribunal

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СКАЧАТЬ some nine months before the occupation of the Rhineland?

      MILCH: I cannot say whether I was present. I can no longer remember.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: There were, according to the evidence, 24 members of the Wehrmacht and five members of the Luftwaffe present, as well as 24 State and Party officials. Were you one of those present at that conference at which this discussion took place?

      MILCH: May I ask again for the date?

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: The 26th of June 1935.

      MILCH: I cannot remember. I do not know.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Did you ever learn of that meeting?

      MILCH: At the moment I really cannot remember. What is supposed to have been said at that meeting?

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: That the preparations for the occupation of the Rhineland were to be kept secret, and the plan was made to invade the Rhineland. Did you never learn of that meeting?

      MILCH: I cannot remember that. I do not think I was present.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: If your Honors please, the usual time for adjournment is here. I intend to take up a different subject involving some documents. It might be a convenient time to adjourn.

      THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now.

      [The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours.]

Afternoon Session

       Table of Contents

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: I want to ask you some questions regarding your duties and activities on the Central Planning Board. You were a member of the Central Planning Board, were you not?

      MILCH: Yes.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And what was the period of your membership?

      MILCH: From the beginning—I believe that was in the year 1941 or 1942—until the end.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Members of that Board, in addition to yourself, were the Defendant Speer?

      MILCH: Yes.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: The Defendant Funk?

      MILCH: Yes, but only later.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: When did he come on the Board?

      MILCH: At the moment when a large part of the civil production was turned over to the Speer Ministry, the Ministry for Armament.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And Körner? Körner was a member of the Board?

      MILCH: Körner? Yes.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Who was Dr. Sauer?

      MILCH: Sauer was an official in the Speer Ministry, but he did not belong to the Central Planning Board.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: But he did keep some of the minutes, did he not?

      MILCH: No; I think he did not keep them.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Sauckel frequently attended the meetings, did he not?

      MILCH: Not frequently, but occasionally.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: What were the functions of the Central Planning Board?

      MILCH: The distribution of raw materials to the various groups which held quotas, such as the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and for civilian requirements for various branches such as industry, mining, industrial and private building, et cetera.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And labor?

      MILCH: Pardon me, labor? We did not have to distribute that.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: It had nothing to do with labor? Do I understand you correctly?

      MILCH: We could make suggestions, but not the distribution.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: You mean by that, not the distribution amongst different industries which were competing to obtain labor?

      MILCH: That was a point which concerned Armaments more than the Central Planning Board.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Did you know that Speer turned over to the United States all of his personal papers and records, including the minutes of this Central Planning Board?

      MILCH: I did not know that; I hear it now.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: I will ask that the minutes, volumes of minutes which constitute U.S. Document R-124, offered in evidence as French Exhibit Number RF-30, be made available for examination by the witness in the original German; I shall ask you some questions about it.

      MILCH: Yes.

      [Document R-124 was submitted to the witness.]

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: If you will point out to the witness Page 1059, Line 22.

      This, Witness, purports to be the minutes of Conference Number 21 of the Central Planning Board, held on the 30th of October 1942 at the Reich Ministry of Armament and Munitions, and the minutes show you to have been present. Do you recall being there at that meeting?

      MILCH: In that one sentence, I cannot see it, but I can well assume it. Yes. I see here in the minutes that my name is frequently mentioned.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Now, I call your attention—Page 1059, Line 22−to the following entry and ask you if this refreshes your recollection about the functions of that Board:

      “Speer: The question of slackers is another point to be dealt with. Ley has ascertained that the number of people reporting sick decreased to one-fourth or one-fifth where there are factory doctors and the workers are examined by them. SS and Police could go ahead with the job and put those known as slackers into undertakings run by concentration camps. There is no other choice. Let it happen a few times, and the news will go round.”

      Were you not concerned with the discussion of the labor situation in that conference, and does that not refresh your recollection as to the dealing with the labor question?

      MILCH: I do recall that the question of slackers as a whole was discussed. It was rather a question of slackers, workers, people, who while not normally employed in peacetime, as a result of the total mobilization of manpower, were compelled to work during the war. Among these people, who did not belong to the ranks of the workers, I repeat that there were some slackers who upset the good spirit of the workers. It was those people we had in mind.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Those were to be sent to concentration camps, as you know?

      MILCH: Yes, I was told that. But no decision was arrived at. Moreover, it was not for us to send anybody to a concentration camp.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Well, was it not said that there was nothing to be said against the SS taking them over? You knew that the SS was running the concentration camps, did you not?

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