Description:

ALBERT SPEER
RELYING ON SLAVE LABOR, SPEER MAKES FACTORY WORKERS AVAILABLE FOR MILITARY SERVICE Retained carbon copy of a Dec. 6, 1944 letter sent by Speer to Adolf Hitler, signed post-war by Speer, 12pp. large 4to., Berlin, Dec. 6, 1944 and typed in the usual large font used in letters to Hitler so that he would be able to read them without glasses. The letter is stamped: "Secret Reichs Matter" in red ink at upper-right with annotation: "8 copies 7. Copy". All pages are also sequentially numbered and stamped at top from 1176 to 1187 and on the bottom from 6439 to 6450. Signed on the last page in blue ink by Speer: "Die Echtheit dieser Durchschrift an Hitler bestaetigt Albert Speer Heidelberg 11.VI 71." ("The authenticity of this copy to Hitler confirmed Albert Speer Heidelberg June 11,1971"). Speer's letter concerns making available German laborers born after 1906 for military service. Speer opens his report by calculating the loss of manpower for production to be about 43% since he took office in February 1942, and he provides a table showing the loss from Jan. 10, 1942 to November 1, 1944, sorted by category: armament lost 66%, mining 36%, war production 43%, Organisation Todt 31%, Wehrmacht-owned production 74%, with a total reduction of 57%. Speer continues, stating that workers on Hitler's and the Wehrmacht's orders are exempt from manufacturing duty. He offers to release available manpower but at the same time maintains his rights to return soldiers back into the labor force once the military situation improves. He attaches a draft recommending to Hitler a special order that releases available workers that are of no use to Speer at this time due to the interruption of the commercial traffic under the condition that once manufacturing is restored they will be returned to production. Speer also offers Hitler 30,000 men listed as indispensable. Speer encloses a draft of this special order for Hitler, writing: "I'm convinced that through this system and careful examination additional conscripts can be released from the armaments and war production. …Despite all difficulties I will provide the Wehrmacht with another 10,000 conscripts in January and for February and March each another 30-40,000 draftees...". Of course, Speer supplemented his diminished labor force with slave labor and foreign "guest" workers. He cleverly evaded a death sentence at Nuremberg.

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March 17, 2016 10:30 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

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