Archive/File: imt/nca/nca-02/nca-02-16-responsibility-13-07
Last-Modified: 1997/05/12

   Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume Two, Chapter XIV

                                                  [Page 791]
                                                            
G. KRUPP AS HEAD OF THE KRUPP CONCERN, IN FURTHERANCE OF THE
COMMON PLAN TO EXPLOIT THE PEOPLE OF OCCUPIED COUNTRIES AND
PRISONERS OF WAR, WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR COMPELLING PERSONS
FORCIBLY DEPORTED FROM OCCUPIED COUNTRIES AND PRISONERS OF
WAR TO WORK AGAINST THEIR WILL AND WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF ARMS AND MUNITIONS. THESE ACTS AND
PRACTICES WERE CONTRARY TO ARTICLES 6 AND 52 OF THE HAGUE
REGULATIONS, 1907, TO ARTICLE 31 OF THE PRISONERS OF WAR
CONVENTION (GENEVA 1929), THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF WAR, AND
TO ARTICLES '6(b) AND 6(c) OF THE CHARTER.

(1) Charts marked "secret" have been found which show the
number and nationalities of prisoners of war and foreign
workers employed in each of the workshops in the Fried.
Krupp Cast Steel Works at Essen, for the period from
December 1940 to February 1945. These charts, when read in
conjunction with an affidavit by a Krupp official concerning
the materials produced in the various Essen workshops,
reveal that French and Russian prisoners of war and slave
laborers from virtually every country occupied by Germany
were used in the production of arms

                                                  [Page 792]
                                                            
and munitions. Thus, they were compelled to work in
departments engaged in the construction of turrets for tanks
and carriages for heavy Army and Navy guns; the assembling
of marine gun turrets, 10.5 cm. marine guns, and 15 cm.
torpedo-boat guns; the manufacture of crankshafts for S-
boats and aeroplanes, etc. (Charts and affidavit relating to
production in the workshops of Fried. Krupp Cast Steel Works
by prisoners of war and foreign workers, not here
reproduced.) Affidavits of workers in the Krupp workshops
afford added proof that prisoners of war and foreign
laborers were used by Krupp in the manufacture of arms and
munitions (see D-253, D-265, D-279).

(2) The prisoners of war and foreign workers at the Krupp
factories did not voluntarily engage in the manufacture of
arms and munitions; they were forced to do so. This fact is
clearly shown by the following:

(a) Workers were brought to Essen from Poland and Russia in
grossly overcrowded, unheated, and unsanitary cattle cars
and upon debarking, were beaten, kicked, and otherwise
inhumanely treated. An employee of the Reich Railway at
Essen has described these conditions as follows:

     "*** In the middle of 1941 the first workers arrived
     from Poland, Galicia and Polish Ukraine. They came to
     Essen in goods wagons in which potatoes, building
     materials and also cattle have been transported; they
     were brought to perform work at Krupp. The cars were
     jammed full with people. *** The people were squashed
     closely together and they had no room for free
     movement. The Krupp overseers laid special value on the
     speed the slave workers got in and out of the train.
     *** the people were beaten and kicked and generally
     maltreated in a brutal manner. *** I could see with my
     own eyes that sick people who could scarcely walk ***
     were taken to work. One could see that it was sometimes
     difficult for them to move themselves. The same can be
     said for the Eastern workers and PWs who came to Essen
     in the middle of 1942." (D-321; D-367).

(b) Foreign workers were compelled to go to work under guard
and were closely watched. In a memorandum dated 7 April
1942, entitled "employment of foreign workers", from the
Ignitor workshop of the Krupp Essen plant, it is stated:

     "In the course of last week, due to the fact that the
     foreign workers, especially Poles, could not be relied
     upon to appear
     
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     at work, there was an extraordinary decrease in
     production; loss of money and fines did not obtain the
     desired results.
     
     "Especially during short (bank) holidays we were not
     able to find a responsible person in the camp
     Seumannstrasse, to whom we could have referred. We
     ourselves are short of guards to fetch the Poles from
     their camp, and to guard them overnight." (D-270; re
     compulsion exerted by guards in marching foreign
     workers to work, see also D-253).

(c) After working hours, foreign workers were confined in
camps under barbed wire enclosures and were carefully
guarded. Dr. Jaeger, senior camp doctor in Krupp's workers'
camps, has stated in an affidavit:

     "The eastern workers and Poles who laboured in the
     Krupp works at Essen were kept at camps at
     Seumannstrasse, Spenlestrasse, Grieperstrasse,
     Heegstrasse, Germaniastrasse, Kapitan-Lehmannstrasse,
     Dechenschule, and Kramerplatz. *** All these camps were
     surrounded by barbed wire and were closely guarded." (D-
     288)

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