Factories under the supervision of the Wehrmacht, machine tool, tool, and apprenticeship industry, industry building locomotives and coaches for the Reich railway, including repair shops, motor vehicle industry, merchant marine ship yards, petroleum industry, producers of fuel, gunpowder and explosives, chemical production plants, contractors and subcontractors of the above-mentioned groups of industry.

To the extent that the above-mentioned establishments are not under the supervision of the Wehrmacht, the respective supervising agencies are to be included.

4. Making available and directing laborers according to requirements of armament economy laid down by the Reich Minister for Armaments and Munitions, will be handled through the Plenipotentiary General for Labor Commitment within the framework of his jurisdiction over labor commitment as a whole.

5. To carry through labor mobilization, the Plenipotentiary General for Labor Commitment will give the necessary directives to the offices under his jurisdiction, for the execution of labor commitment distributes the available labor taking into consideration the varying degree of burden resting upon individual establishments who have armaments tasks, and other tasks of importance to the war.

II. REGIONAL TASKS

1. In all questions pertaining to priority within the armament field as they arise regionally, decisions will be up to the chairmen of the armaments commissions.

2. Having made contact with the presidents of the regional labor offices, they decide on the practicability and necessity for transferring labor from one plant to another within the same kind of production for the Wehrmacht in compliance with requests made by Wehrmacht units. In general, such transfers are to be approved only if they do not involve change of domicile for the respective worker. This restriction will not apply to key workers and who, upon the request of a committee, or a group, or of the supervising authority can temporarily be assigned to work in plants of similar production located elsewhere. Such applications in case of transfer within the area of an armaments commission will be acted on by the chairman, in case of transfers between plants, by the Armaments Office.

Transfers are to be made according to applications submitted to the respective authorities.

3. Armaments offices will participate decisively when, through

measures taken by the labor commitment offices, the course of armament production of the plant will be essentially affected and to the extent that through their inclusion a rational commitment of labor within armament industry will be encouraged. (par. III, 2).

4. The district labor offices take care of fulfilling demands for armament according to directives of the Plenipotentiary General for Labor Commitment.

They check up on the normal need to be reported to them by armament plants, compare it with statistics on needs possibly given them from central offices, and they work out a plan of coverage taking into consideration all labor reserves to be recruited locally.

They inform central offices where needs backed by lists are found to be inaccurate as regards kind and amount involved, or where it appears that plants do not obey instructions to give up employees.

On the employment of labor resulting from the man power gained by a decrease in central needs, for the benefit of other armament plants with jobs of high priority, the chairman of the Armaments Commission will decide.

Labor commitment offices will at once commit locally available labor and such labor reserves as are made available through the Plenipotentiary General for Labor Commitment.

5. Wherever the prerequisites are met, numerically limited intra-plant measures of equalization as well as transfers involving more than one establishment in order to cover specially urgent needs-will be carried out directly, in which case care must be taken that the withdrawal of labor in the first case will not endanger completion within set time of assignments as per stages Ii, II and III of priority order (r Labor assignment, 14 August 1942; in the second case also including stage IV) be not jeopardized.

III. COOPERATION IN JOINT INVESTIGATION COMMITTEES.

1. As regards execution of individual assignments which are of particular importance for the course of the armaments program, the chairman of the armaments commission will appoint investigation committees. They will be directed by members of the Commitment Administration which will be appointed in consultation with the president of the regional labor offices.

2. Following a suggestion of Labor Commitment offices and

E

supervisory offices, such investigation committees will be operative

a. in examining supplementary supply requests of appreciable volume, and especially whenever doubts arise in regard to demands given centrally.

b. in examining principles underlying plant-equalization measures, in order to meet a greater demand,

c. in connection with screening measures called for by fluctuations in the urgency in programs; changes in the employment situation especially through withdrawal of orders; scarcity of raw materials; scarcity of power and seasonal fluctuations.

d. in the case of equalization measures involving more than one establishment to assure a wholesome structure conducive to attainment of the highest possible labor yield in all armaments establishments (inclusion of skilled labor, foreign labor, female labor, in proportionate measure). 3. In each instance the investigation committee must include one representative of the armaments inspection and of the labor commitment administration. Depending upon the type of work involved, there should also be included an additional representative of the military area, the armaments foreman and, in special cases, additional experts.

4. The committee may transfer the task of investigation to individual members.

5. Preparations for investigations can be assigned to local labor commitment offices.

6. Suggestions of the investigation committee for transfer of personnel must be carried out by the labor commitment offices unless, within ten days of announcement to the plants involved, protest is raised by the latter or by the supervising agency. Reduction of labor will be made according to limitation imposed by paragraph II, figure 5.

7. Protests raised against suggestions made by the investigation committee will be acted upon by the chairman of the armaments commission.

Doubtful cases which in their regional aspect cannot be finally clarified, must be referred to the central offices which will make a decision. It is expected that all parties involved will at all times remain aware of the magnitude and urgency of the present armament tasks and of the decisive importance that cooperation without friction will have, and at all times there will exist just one

will everywhere, namely to master completely and in the spirit of closest comradeship what is left to be accomplished.

[signed] SAUCKEL

[signed] SPEER

[Page 323, column 1, line 1 to column 2, line 12]

Berlin, 16 September 1943 The Reich Minister for Armament and War Production General Plenipotentiary for Armament Tasks within the compass of the Four Year Plan.

Decree dated 16 September 1943 concerning the tasks of the Office for Planning issued by the General Plenipotentiary for Armament Tasks within the compass of the Four Year Plan and of the Reich Minister for Armament and War Production. By decree dated 4 September 1943 the Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich has established a Planning-Office in my Ministry for the purpose of a coordinate treatment of all basic questions of war economic planning.

Hereto I decide:

I.

1. The Planning Office prepares the decisions of the Central Planning Board and supervises their execution.

2. For this purpose it has in particular to prepare the distribution of the raw materials (e.g. ore, metals, coal, mineral oil, nitrogen and other important raw materials) to the consumers.

3. The Planning Office must establish for the Central Planning Board-as its standard order of procedure-the production and distribution for the entire war economy the basis of which shall be the planning of the requirements for the entire German sphere of influence. Hereby import and export must be considered. The entire planning must be previously coordinated with the administrations and agencies concerned under consideration of the prerequisites of production. The Planning Office has to correlate and utilize currently the necessary statistic material.

4. The Planning Office must propose to the Central Planning Board for its decision the assignment of all workers in the Greater German sphere of influence to the individual main sectors (industrial war economy, transport, food, etc.) and draw up statistics for its execution.

[Page 357 Column 1, lines 1-6]

Berlin, 2 March 1944

The Reich Minister for Armament and War Production.
Combat against lack of discipline of the workers in the plants.
To all Works Managers!

[Page 357, column 2, line 17 to page 358, column 1, line 20]

Loafers and defaulting workers will be punished according to the extent of their offense. As established in the annexed decree, Trade-educational measures are first of all to be used, and the inclusion of the German Labor Party is most urgently recommended. Should these educational measures prove insufficient, notorious loafers i.e. malevolent elements and defaulting workers must be dealt with severely. The next step is to send them to a labor training camp for a period up to 56 days or in more severe cases to a concentration camp. The competent police-authorities decide whether a transfer to a labor training camp or to a concentration camp is to be effected and for how long. On their release from detention, workers must on principle be sent back to their former place of employment. Thus no plant will permanently lose its workers by their denunciation.

I must now state, that unexplicably some of the Works Managers do not use these measures and prefer to reckon constantly with a certain absenteeism caused by loafers.

For reasons of output one of the tasks of the Works Managers is to diminish it by all means at their disposal, and to take all possible care to assure a high number of workers assuming duty in any situation and season. I therefore demand of every single works manager to exhaust all given possibilities of overcoming any existing lack of discipline at work, and also to instruct his works assistants concerning these tasks.

[signed] SPEER.

[Page 411, column 2, from line 11]

Berlin, 22 June 1944 The Reich Minister for Armament and War Production Plenipotentiary General for the Labor Commitment Mutual work of Plenipotentiary General for Labor Commitment and of the Reich Minister for Armament and War Production The Reich Minister for Armament and War Production and the Plenipotentiary General for Labor Commitment have agreed to a still closer cooperation between their offices in order to meet the increased demands for armaments and war production in all fields.