To this it must be stated:

(1) The contents of this document do not show one single concrete “directive” issued by the OKW or Keitel.

(2) The OKW had no authority to give orders, and therefore could not issue directives.

(3) Therefore the findings of the State investigation commission, which for formal reasons would not be binding for the Tribunal, cannot be considered as justified insofar as the OKW and Keitel are concerned.

(4) No opinion is going to be expressed as to the remaining contents of the reports.

Document USSR-38 is entitled:

In this document it is stated on Page 1:

Page 13 states:

Nowhere in this document have either concrete or verifiable instructions or orders by the Defendant Keitel or from the OKW been given.

Then, on Page 134, Paragraph 1:

In the documents previously quoted, either Keitel or the OKW is named as the responsible party. However, during the Prosecution’s presentation many such official reports were quoted as evidence for Keitel’s guilt, which do not even mention either the name of the defendant or the OKW. In this connection, I draw your attention to Documents USSR-8, 39, 45, 46, and 63. I only ask the Tribunal to examine the remaining documents with equal care in order to ascertain whether, if submitted in connection with Keitel and the OKW, they allow Keitel’s guilt to be concluded or whether that is not the case. In this connection I should like to add that I am not going to read, and am not referring to, the remarks at the bottom of Page 134 (USSR-3).

I beg the Tribunal to take note of my statements on the economic exploitation of the occupied territories—Pages 137 to 142—without my reading them. Since Reich Marshal Göring’s defense counsel has already dealt with this problem and has clarified the spheres of competency and responsibility, it would mainly be repetition for me to speak on it. However, I wish to draw attention to this part of my presentation and beg the Tribunal to take judicial notice of it.

In the war against Poland as well as later in the West, extended on the basis of experiences in Poland, expert personnel trained in military economy were detached from the Armed Forces Economic Office in the form of small staffs and units to the Army Groups and Army High Commands as expert advisers and assistants in all military economic questions which resulted from the conquest and occupation of economically and industrially valuable territories. The Economic Armament Office, together with the OKW, prepared the organization of these groups of experts and technical detachments.

By and large, they consisted of: (a) Expert advisers with the unit staffs (at first known as liaison officers of the OKH Economic Armament Office); (b) Reconnaissance Staffs for factories and raw materials important to war economy: (c) technical detachments and formations for security, repairs, and protection from destruction of essential and vital plants and supply installations.

This organization was prepared by the OKW (Economic Armament Office) because it relied on expert research personnel from all three branches of the Armed Forces and civilian economy with the “technical emergency aid” (Technische Nothilfe). The Army completed the set-up itself.

The organization was subordinated to the senior troop commanders in charge. Their employment took place exclusively on the orders of the troop command, for which each adviser submitted suggestions from time to time to the unit staffs (the General Staff Ib or the Chief Quartermaster).

The missions of these technical detachments were: (a) Advising the command concerning the importance and significance of industrial plants and supply installations (fuel, water, electric current, repair plants, mines, et cetera); (b) Protection of these installations from destruction by the enemy and our own forces and the civilian population; (c) Utilization for the purpose of Germany’s conduct of the war for troops and population; (d) Examination of essential and vital plants and establishment of their productive capacity for German use; (e) Establishment of raw material supplies of metals, ore, coal, fuel, et cetera, for reindustrialization or Germany’s conduct of the war.

All functions, with the exception of those mentioned under (d) and (e), served exclusively to supply the fighting troops, the occupational troops, and the native population. The statistical collections (d) and (e) were reported, through military channels to the competent offices at home (Plenipotentiary for Economy, Four Year Plan, Minister of Armaments) who had to make disposition concerning use and utilization. The Armed Forces itself had no independent right of action.

It is correct that (according to the Thomas book, 2353-PS) raw materials and also machines were removed to Germany for the production of implements of war as the Prosecution charges, since both had served the enemy’s conduct of the war and had necessarily gone out of production. No military agency could order the removal to Germany, because it had no right at all to dispose of “booty” of this sort. Only the three highest Reich authorities mentioned could effect such a removal on the basis of a general authority by the Führer or a special order by him to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army. The OKW and the Chief of the OKW, as well as the Economic Armament Office, had no right of disposition and command outside of their own fields, nor did any separate chain of command exist from the OKW Economic Armament Office to these detachments, et cetera. The communications and report chain ran via the unit staffs to the OKH Quartermaster General, with whom the highest Reich authorities (Food, Economy, Armament Ministry, Four Year Plan) had representatives who reported to their departmental chiefs. Orders by the Defendant Keitel as Chief of the OKW concerning utilization, use, or seizure of economic goods have not been given; this follows from Document 2353-PS.

The unified leadership of the entire war economy in France and Belgium was then centered in Reich Marshal Göring as Delegate of the Four Year Plan by the Führer Decree of 16 June 1940.

For determining the responsibility it is of significance that the staff of the Economic Armament Office examined the problems which concerned the armament economy and utilization of economy in the occupied territories. Their appraisals, which in this respect were regarded as decisive, are collected in Document EC-344, coming from the Foreign Department in the OKW (headed by Admiral Canaris).

With reference to Articles 52, 53, 54, and 56 of the Hague Convention of Land Warfare, it is explained therein in connection with total warfare that “economic rearmament” must be regarded as forming part of the “belligerent enterprise,” and accordingly all industrial supplies of raw materials, semifinished and manufactured goods as well as machinery, et cetera, are to be regarded as serving the war effort. Therefore, according to the viewpoint of the author of this opinion, all these goods are liable to be seized and used against compensation after the conclusion of peace. Furthermore, the problem of the need for war is examined and Germany’s state of economic difficulty at that time is already affirmed. For the judgment of the Defendant Keitel this opinion is of significance insofar as the well-known Foreign Department under the responsible leadership of Admiral Canaris as late as November 1941 gave vent to an opinion which justified the economic utilization of the occupied countries. That was the office which concerned itself with problems of international law and on which the Defendant Keitel based his confidence.

An organization for all economic requirements and intended to supersede the former organization was created for Russia on the basis of experiences in the West by Reich Marshal Göring by virtue of a general delegation of authority by the Führer.

The chief of the Economic Armament Office together with State Secretary Körner drew up this organization for Reich Marshal Göring without participation by the Chief of the OKW. The Chief of the OKW for this purpose put General Thomas at the disposal of Reich Marshal Göring. The Chief of the OKW did not acquire any influence at all on this organization, and severed his own and the OKW’s connection with it after Reich Marshal Göring had received full powers and the OKW had put General Thomas at his disposal. General Thomas thus acted solely on instructions by Reich Marshal Göring. The OKW and the Defendant Keitel were never under Reich Marshal Göring’s orders nor were they bound by his instructions. The Defendant Keitel was not represented in Göring’s Economic Staff and had nothing to do with the Eastern Economic Staff (See Thomas book, Page 366).

The execution of the work was centrally directed by the Economic Operations Staff in Berlin as part of the Four Year Plan. The local higher command in the Eastern district was under the Eastern Economic Staff. To this organization was also attached the troops’ supply department. The OKW, and the Defendant Keitel as Chief of the OKW, never issued orders concerning the exploitation, administration, or confiscation of economic property in occupied territory. This is revealed in the book submitted by the Prosecution, Document 2353-PS. On Page 386 of this document, Thomas, in summarizing, correctly stated as follows:

The same is shown by Document USSR-10:

This ought to prove that the OKW and Keitel are clear of any responsibility for the consequences attendant upon carrying out the measures within the scope of the Barbarossa-Oldenburg operation.

I now come to Page 143 and following pages, where I refer to the assertion made by the French Prosecution regarding the participation of the OKW and Keitel in the cases of Oradour and Tulle.

The French Prosecution have charged the Defendant Keitel in person with the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The accusation concerns in particular the execution of French civilians without a trial. In this connection the cases of Oradour and Tulle received special emphasis. They are recorded in a report made by the French Government—Document F-236. The French Prosecution stated: “Keitel’s guilt in all these things is certain.”

In this connection it is not my task to discuss the frightful events of Oradour and Tulle. As defense counsel for the Defendant Keitel I have to examine whether the Prosecution’s assertion that the Defendant Keitel bears any guilt or responsibility for these atrocious happenings has any foundation.

You will understand that the Defendant Keitel attaches particular importance to the production of evidence to the effect that he is not responsible for these terrible occurrences, and, further, that when such things came to his knowledge he took steps to have them cleared up in order that the actual offenders might be brought to account. It is an indisputable fact that Keitel had no direct part in these crimes. Any responsibility and guilt attaching to the defendant can therefore be derived only from his official position. No orders of any kind bearing Keitel’s signature have been submitted by the Prosecution, so that, whoever is guilty, Keitel is not, at any rate, among those directly responsible.

The terrible sufferings inflicted on a large number of French villages are recorded in the notes of General Bérard dated 6 July and 3 August 1944. I pointed out, when this document was submitted, that the submission of these complaints alone—that is, unaccompanied by the replies, which are also in the hands of the Prosecution—cannot convey an objective picture of the actual facts, on which to base a pronouncement on the guilt of the Defendant Keitel. As the Defendant Keitel, not being empowered to issue orders in the matter, cannot possibly be taken into consideration as the originator of the orders which led to the complaint, any responsibility and guilt on Keitel’s part can therefore be based only on the fact that he did not cause the necessary steps to be taken on receiving information from the German Armistice Commission. What Keitel did or did not do can be gathered only from the reply notes and from the directives issued by the OKW to the German Armistice Commission.

Here, too, the Defendant Keitel would have been unable to provide proof to the contrary, had not the French Prosecution themselves submitted a document, F-673, which was intended to furnish proof of Keitel’s individual guilt. This document was already read by the French Prosecution at the session of 31 January 1946:

This document of the OKW, signed by Keitel, shows that:

1. On receiving the French complaint of 26 September 1944, the OKW issued orders to the German Armistice Commission to investigate and deal with the matter.

2. The German Armistice Commission thereupon instructed Commander-in-Chief West to investigate the incidents.

3. On receiving a letter from Army Group B, the OKW expressed itself as follows:

It may therefore be considered as proved that in this case the Defendant Keitel, on receiving information, took energetic steps in accordance with the range of his competency as Chief of the OKW, and as far as he was in a position to do so. This eliminates the charge made by the Prosecution insofar as the Defendant Keitel is concerned. At the same time, however, the way in which the Defendant Keitel handled this case suggests that he acted in similar manner in other cases.

Mr. President, before dealing with the problem of hostages which I may discuss later, I should like to discuss the grave evidence on the Night and Fog Decree on Page 154.

War, which is frightful even under orderly international law, becomes atrocious when the last restraints are removed. Many terrible things have happened during this war and it is impossible to tell which chapter of this book of sorrows and tears is the saddest; but, in any case, one of the most lamentable chapters is that of the treatment of hostages. In international law the question of treatment of hostages is controversial. The taking of hostages is almost generally admitted. Doubtless, although taking hostages is assumed to be admissible under international law, that has as yet no bearing on their treatment. The treatment, even more than the seizure, of hostages must be subject on the one hand to the law of absolute military necessity which cannot otherwise be met, and, on the other, to the application of all possible guarantees to prevent the indiscriminate shooting of hostages as a principle. Any primitive and brutal handling of this very institution, which is doubtful under international law and is apt to affect the absolutely innocent, must be rejected.

Unfortunately, this problem which seldom arose in previous wars between civilized people, acquired considerable importance during World Wars I and II. The cases previously taken into consideration and also explained in the Army Manual 2g (H. Dv. 2g) (Document Book 1, Exhibit Number Keitel-7) resulted from military necessity of troops in operation. As happened with so many things in this war, but especially due to the change-over from theater of operations to rear area, there finally developed a broadening and degeneration in the application of a principle which originally was indisputable according to international law.

The immediate connection with military necessity was absent, that is to say, with military action; its place was taken by interests which naturally included military safeguards, particularly of lines of communications between the front zone and home.

It must be said that this fundamental change ought to have been recognized, and ought to have been taken into consideration in the handling of the existing rules governing hostages. The degeneration in the treatment of hostages was decisively influenced by the fact that civil administrative and police organizations claimed for themselves one of the extreme means of soldierly warfare and often made use of it arbitrarily, wherever they wanted to break resistance, by arresting people without concrete individual or even presumptive guilt and by treating them from the viewpoint of reprisals. Collective arrests for individual offenses come into this category.

All these cases have nothing to do with the original facts in the cases of hostages; but since the word “hostage” is used for all these cases, the Prosecution in many cases has placed on the Armed Forces a responsibility which they should not bear.

I request the Tribunal, when judging this complex and when examining the responsibility of the Defendant Keitel, to take into consideration:

(1) The concept of hostages, the basic conditions governing the taking of hostages end their treatment had become known to all authorities in command and their offices in the Armed Forces by the Army manual regulations (H. Dv. 2g) before the war, especially before the campaign in the West. The Documents 1585-PS, submitted by the Prosecution itself (discussions of the hostage question with the Luftwaffe), and 877-PS (operation orders of the Army for “Case Yellow” and the attack in the West, dated 29 October 1939) reveal that special regulations had originally been issued for the seizure of hostages. Their application was justifiably transferred to the Army offices and later to the military commanders who were subordinate to the Army, never to the Armed Forces High Command (OKW).

(2) Nobody could be in doubt, according to existing regulations (H. Dv. 2g), as to what authority Army commanders had and as to who had to make a decision on a possible shooting of hostages. No supplementary order or supplementary regulation was ever issued by the Armed Forces High Command (OKW). The letter from Falkenhausen (Military Commander in Belgium), dated 16 September 1942 (Document 1594-PS), mentioned by the Prosecution, and the report of this military commander (1587-PS) are not addressed to Keitel, but quite correctly to his superior office, the Army High Command (OKH) Quartermaster General; Keitel received neither the letter nor the report. Whether Hitler received them in his capacity of Supreme Commander of the Army and military superior of the military commanders, Keitel does not know.

(3) The OKW was not informed of the cases in which inhabitants of the occupied territories were mistakenly and falsely described as hostages and treated without legal procedures.

(4) Whenever hostages, without being connected with the plots and terror acts against the occupying power, were held responsible for them without local or material connection, such practice is contrary to service regulations.

(5) Insofar as the OKW or the Defendant Keitel was approached by military agencies in individual cases referring to hostage problems, for example by the Military Commanders in France and Belgium, the evidence has shown that the “hostages” to be shot were to be selected from the circle of persons already sentenced to death by virtue of the law. However, so that this should not be outwardly recognized—for producing the desired deterrent effect—it was to be announced that hostages had been shot.

The French Prosecution has cited the OKW and Keitel in connection with this complex by means of Document 389-PS, which is the same as UK-25, a Führer order of 16 September 1941 drawn up by Keitel. This document, whose contents are monstrous, does not, however, have anything to do with the question of taking hostages and the treatment of hostages. The word “hostages” does not appear in the text. From the subject and from the contents it can be seen that this is an order designed to combat the resistance movement in the eastern and southeastern war theaters, and therefore is related to the basic principles of the so-called ideological war against the Soviet Union, which has been already dealt with at another place, and condemned. When the communication of 16 September 1941 was addressed to the Military Commander in France by the High Command of the Army for information purposes the latter had already decreed the so-called “Hostages Law” (Document Number 1588-PS). Accordingly no causal connection existed, as the French Prosecution has assumed, between the directives signed by Keitel and ordered by Hitler in Document 389-PS, and the hostage legislation in the West. The latter had been decreed without collaboration or consultation of the OKW. The agency to which the Military Commanders in France and in Belgium were subordinated was the High Command of the Army (OKH), and not the OKW; the agency which specialized in this matter was the Quartermaster General (in the OKH). With regard to this it must also be considered that at this period of time Hitler himself was the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, which explains the above-mentioned references to the OKW. In reality, they were not references to the OKW, but to Hitler as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and Commander-in-Chief of the Army, which were partially routed through Hitler’s working staff (the OKW). This however establishes no competence and thereby no responsibility of the OKW and the Defendant Keitel as Chief of the OKW.

In conclusion I request permission to hand in some literature to the Tribunal demonstrating present-day opinions pertaining to international law with regard to the question of hostages for consideration in the examination of these facts in the case. I limit myself to reading the summarization of expert opinions and military practices:

During the whole course of this Trial, no order made such a deep impression on the mind of the public as did the Night and Fog Decree. This was an order which originated during the fight waged against acts of sabotage and against the resistance movement in France. As a result of the withdrawal of troops in connection with the campaign against the Soviet Union, the number of plots aimed against the security of German troops stationed in France, and in particular the acts of sabotage aimed at the destruction of all means of communication increased daily. This necessitated increased activity on the part of the counterintelligence offices, which in its turn led to proceedings being taken and sentences being passed by military courts against members of the resistance movement and their accomplices. These sentences were very severe. In addition to a large proportion of death sentences, sentences of imprisonment were also passed. The reports made almost daily during the situation conferences led to violent disputes in which Hitler, in accordance with his usual habit, tried to find someone on whom to put the blame; in this instance he fixed upon the far too cumbersome handling of military justice. In his spontaneous and explosive way, he ordered directives to be worked out for a rapid, effective, and lasting intimidation of the population. He declared that imprisonment could not be considered an effective means of intimidation. To Keitel’s objection that it was impossible to sentence everyone to death and that military courts would, in any case, refuse to co-operate, he replied that he did not care. Offenses found sufficiently grave to necessitate the imposition of capital punishment without very lengthy court proceedings would continue to be dealt with as before—that is, by the courts—but where this was not the case, he would order the suspected persons to be brought secretly to Germany and all news of their fate to be withheld, since the publication of prison sentences in occupied territory was robbed of its intimidating effect by the prospect of the amnesty to be expected at the end of the war.

The Defendant Keitel thereupon consulted the chief of the Judge Advocate’s Office of the Armed Forces and the chief of the counterintelligence office (Canaris), who is also the originator of the letter of 2 February 1942, Document UK-35, on the procedure to be followed. When repeated applications made to Hitler to refrain from this procedure, or at least not to insist upon complete secrecy, had no effect, they finally submitted a draft which we have before us in the well-known decree of 7 December 1941.

The staff of experts and the Defendant Keitel had succeeded in establishing the competency of the Reich Administration of Justice for the persons removed to Germany (see last paragraph of directives of 7 December 1941). Keitel had guaranteed this stipulation by means of the first Enactment Decree governing the directives, in which he specified (last sentence in Paragraph I, IV) that unless orders to the contrary were issued by the OKW, the case would be turned over to the civil authorities in accordance with Section 3, Paragraph 2, second sentence, of the Articles of War. The defendant believed that in this way he had at least made certain that the persons concerned would have the benefit of regular court proceedings and that in accordance with the German regulations for the accommodation and treatment of prisoners on trial and prisoners serving a sentence, there would be no danger to life and limb. Keitel and his staff of experts reassured themselves by the fact that however cruel the suffering and suspense endured by those concerned might be, the lives of the deported persons had at least been saved.

In this connection, allusion is also made to the text of the covering letter of 12 December 1941. As the Codefendant General Jodl stated during his examination, a certain wording was regularly adopted to indicate that the signatory did not agree with the order submitted. The covering letter begins with the words: “It is the carefully considered desire of the Führer ...”

The closing sentence runs: “The attached directives ... represent the Führer’s views.”

Persons who received such letters knew from that wording that here was another order of the Führer which could not be evaded, and concluded that the order should be applied as leniently as possible.

The letter of 2 February 1942 originated with the counterintelligence office (Amt Ausland Abwehr), and the original which is before you must have been signed by Canaris. At that time the defendant was not in Berlin where, after promulgation of the decree of 7 December 1941, the matter was dealt with further. Keitel, at the Führer’s headquarters, was not informed of the contents of the letter. In connection with the above remarks, the possibility of leniency in application, which might be deduced from the wording of the letter, resided in the fact that counterintelligence offices were directed “to insure as far as possible before making the arrest that they were in possession of sufficient evidence to justify a conviction of the offender.” The competent military court had also to be approached before the arrest took place with a view to ascertaining whether the evidence was adequate.

In Germany the persons concerned were to be handed over to the Reich Administration of Justice. The correctness of the Defendant Keitel’s assumption in this respect is borne out by the fact that Canaris, in view of his attitude with which the Tribunal is familiar, would never have ordered a prisoner to be handed over to the Gestapo. As already stated, the Defendant Keitel did not know of the letter of 2 February 1942.

Although the Defendant Keitel believed that he had succeeded as far as possible in safeguarding those in question, the Night and Fog Decree, as it was later called, weighed heavily on his mind. Keitel does not deny that this decree is incompatible with international law and that he knew that.

What Keitel denies, however, is that he knew—or that prior to the Nuremberg Trial he knew—that on arrival in the Reich the persons involved were imprisoned by the Police and then transferred to concentration camps. This was contrary to the meaning and purpose of the decree. The Defendant Keitel could not know of this because in cases which did not involve proceedings by a military court, the competency of the Armed Forces only extended to turning over the persons concerned through the competent military court officials to the Police to be transferred to Germany and there turned over to the Administration of Justice. The Defendant Keitel is unable to say from his own knowledge why so many persons were brought into concentration camps and there subjected to the treatment known as “Night and Fog,” as described by witnesses who have appeared here. The evidence presented to this Tribunal must lead to the conclusion that all political suspects who, as a result of political measures, were removed from the occupied territories to Germany for detention in concentration camps were without the knowledge of the military authorities designated “NN” prisoners by the Police, for according to the testimonies we have heard the majority of persons in “NN” camps had not been formally sentenced by military courts in occupied territories for transfer to Germany.

It is evident therefore that Police authorities in the occupied territories made use of this decree as a universal and unrestricted carte blanche for deportations, exceeding every conceivable limit and disregarding the exclusive rights exercised by the military authorities and the rules of procedure imposed upon them.

Such a state of affairs in the occupied territories without the knowledge of the Armed Forces authorities can only be explained by the fact that as a result of the appointment of Higher SS and Police leaders the military commanders of the occupied territories no longer had executive powers in Police affairs and that these Higher SS and Police leaders received their orders from the Reichsführer SS.

The Reichsführer SS and the Higher SS and Police leaders were never authorized by the OKW to apply this decree, which was intended as a police executive measure to be used only by the Armed Forces. The decree affected only those offices of the Armed Forces exercising judicial authority; and it is clear from the wording that it was restricted to these and drafted to apply to them.

The German Armistice Commission’s letter of 10 August 1944 (Document 843-PS) proves that the OKW really had no knowledge of this improper application of the decree of 7 December 1941. It says there:

Paragraph 4 of that letter contains the following passage:

The OKW’s reply of 2 September 1944, which is signed by Dr. Lehmann, refers expressly to the directives of the Führer decree of 7 December 1941, the so-called Night and Fog Decree. It contains no statement to the effect that the original conditions for deportation to Germany were changed by the OKW.

This reply, however, was sent from Berlin without the knowledge of the Defendant Keitel; and the Armistice Commission’s letter was obviously also sent to Berlin, where the legal department of the Armed Forces was situated. Keitel himself was at the Führer’s headquarters and did not hear of the correspondence.

It must be admitted that failure to reply immediately to the German Armistice Commission’s letter of 10 August 1944, with the explanation that this constituted an abuse of the decree of 7 December 1941 and the directives issued in connection with it, was a grave omission. An investigation should have been initiated at once in order to find and punish those responsible for this abuse. Insofar as the Tribunal should regard Hitler’s military staff as guilty, the Defendant Keitel accepts responsibility within the scope of his general responsibility as Chief of the OKW.

THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps this will be a convenient time to take a recess.

[A recess was taken.]

DR. NELTE: Mr. President, the Prosecution have charged the Defendant Keitel with participating in the deportations for the purpose of obtaining forced labor. In this connection Keitel declares that his competency did not cover the procurement, recruiting, and conscription of people in the occupied territories nor did it cover allocation of the labor forces procured in this way for the armament industry. The Codefendant Sauckel confirmed this in his testimony of 27 May 1946.

Mr. President, I should like to have official notice taken of the following statements without my reading them. My colleague Dr. Servatius, according to our agreement, will explain the connection between the Armed Forces replacement and the procurement of manpower through the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor.

The Codefendant Sauckel gave the following testimony:

During the cross-examination by General Alexandrov documents were presented which, according to the opinion of the Prosecution, should prove the participation of Keitel and the OKW. In this connection it must be examined whether and in what way the OKW and Keitel had participated in the sphere of duty of Defendant Sauckel as Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor (GBA). Document USSR-365, presented by the Prosecution, contains the basic provisions concerning spheres of tasks and powers of the GBA, the decree of 21 March 1942 about the appointment of Sauckel as GBA, the order of Göring as Delegate for the Four Year Plan dated 27 March 1942, the program for labor allocation, and the task and solution as conceived by Sauckel.

These documents give expression to the relationships and contacts of the GBA with many offices. These relationships and contacts vary in their nature.

The jurisdiction and the official channels in the sphere of tasks of the GBA are clear: He is the spokesman for the Four Year Plan (Order Number 3 of 27 March 1942) and he was therefore subordinate to Reich Marshal Göring and Hitler, who was identified with the Four Year Plan. The relationships and contacts of the OKW or Keitel with the GBA and his sphere of tasks, according to the outcome of the evidence (testimony of Keitel, Sauckel, and the documents) were as follows:

The replacement system for the whole Armed Forces was under the jurisdiction of the Defendant Keitel in his capacity as Chief of Staff of the High Command of the Armed Forces (OKW). Losses at the front were reported to the OKW by each individual branch of the Armed Forces and at the same time replacements were requested.

On the basis of these requests, Keitel submitted a report to the Führer, according to which replacements had to be procured for the troops of the various branches of the Armed Forces at certain designated times by the service commands through their replacement inspectorates.

The replacement inspectorates consequently called up the recruit year group, besides those draftees who had been deferred up to that time. With the war progressing, the result was almost invariable that, for instance, the Armament Ministry (for the deferred employees of the armament industry), the Ministry for Agriculture (for the deferred employees of agriculture), the Transportation Ministry (for the deferred employees working for the railroad), et cetera, made the greatest difficulties with regard to the demands of the replacement authorities, and protested against them.

They pointed out that the tasks of the various departments would suffer dangerously if the deferred employees were removed without further ado. The competent ministers requested that before the release of deferred employees new workers should be procured to make up for those released.

Therefore, the matter was referred by way of the labor offices to the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor (GBA), whose task it was to procure the necessary manpower for the domestic labor allocation required. The Defendant Sauckel as the GBA, who as a special deputy personally did not have at his disposal an independent organization of his own for the recruiting, procurement, and possible conscription of labor, was therefore forced to get in touch with the competent authorities in the occupied territories for the execution of his task.

(a) In the occupied territories under civil administration (Holland, Norway, East), it was the Reich Commissioner who had to assist Sauckel.

(b) In the territories under military commanders (France, Belgium and the Balkans) it was the Quartermaster General of the Army.

(c) In Italy, in the highest instance, it was the Ambassador, Rahn.

This is obvious from the decree of 27 March 1942.

Before Sauckel became active in the execution of his task in the various territories, he invariably turned to Hitler, whose subordinate he was with respect to the Four Year Plan, in order to obtain through his instructions the necessary backing by the local authorities. This was done in such a way that the order was issued to the local authorities to give Sauckel the assistance which he considered necessary for the execution of his task. The Defendant Keitel was not present at such discussions between Hitler and Sauckel, nor did he have any jurisdiction or competence in these questions. However, somebody had to inform the local authorities about Hitler’s orders, and the result was that Hitler, who did not recognize any difficulties of jurisdiction, told the next best man to inform the local authorities about Sauckel and to point out Hitler’s wish to grant him all the necessary assistance.

These “next best” were Keitel, for the military administration of the occupied territories, or Dr. Lammers, for the territories under civilian administration.

Such was the contact which existed between Keitel and Sauckel in this matter. How the details of recruiting or otherwise procuring labor were carried out was not within the competence of the OKW, nor did they receive any reports on the matter. The interest of the OKW was limited to the fact that the required number of soldiers were placed at its disposal through induction by the replacement authorities. In particular, the OKW and the Defendant Keitel had nothing to do with the allocation of the labor procured by the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor within war economy; this was solely the business of the labor offices, where firms requiring labor requested the workers deemed necessary.

(1) The name of Keitel stands at the beginning of Sauckel’s activity, as submitted by the Prosecution, because Keitel was cosignatory to the Führer decree concerning the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor (Document USSR-365). From repeated references of the Prosecution to this fact the conclusion must be drawn that apparently it sees in this cosignatory act of the Defendant Keitel the beginning of a chain of developments, at the end of which stood such frightful happenings as were presented here.

In this connection I would refer to the significance, expounded elsewhere, of the cosignature by Keitel as Chief of the OKW on such decrees of the Führer. This fact, which penally cannot be considered as determinative, does not constitute guilt for the reason that all conception of the events occurring during the further course of developments was lacking.

(2) If the Führer’s decree of March 1942 provides the legal origin of the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor (GBA), the first step in the participation of this official is also connected with the name of Keitel as head of the OKW, as the personnel replacements matters were subordinated to him and he made his requests for replacement of losses at the front to the subordinate military replacement offices. Here also the same applies as in (1), as neither an appreciable determinative effect nor criminal guilt was involved.

(3) Owing to the situation, as characterized by the shortage of manpower, there came into being a purely factual connection between the military personnel requirements and the requirements of the economic replacement of workers, without Keitel thereby coming in contact with the GBA either as regards competence or orders.

Sauckel confirmed the statement of Keitel that the OKW had nothing to do with the recruiting, levying, or any other mobilization of labor, nor with the allocation of the labor procured for German economy.

I have to refer to some documents which the French Prosecution have submitted to incriminate the OKW and Keitel on account of active participation in deportation. These are Documents 1292-PS, 3819-PS, 814-PS, and 824-PS.

The first document is a marginal note by the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Lammers, on a conference with Hitler, at which the question of procuring labor for 1944 was discussed. The Defendant Keitel took part in this discussion. Annexed to this report is a copy of a letter from the Defendant Sauckel dated 5 January 1944, in which he sums up the results of the conference of 4 January and proposes a Führer decree. I quote the following passages: