Fritz Sauckel
General Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labour

Fritz Sauckel (Ernst Friedrich Christoph Sauckel) (October 27, 1894 – October 16, 1946) was a Nazi war criminal, who organized the systematic enslavement of millions of men and boys from lands occupied by Nazi Germany. He was General Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labour from 1942 until the end of the war. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The term plenipotentiary (from the Latin, plenus + potens, full + power) refers to, as a noun, a person who has, or as an adjective that confers, full powers. ... labor may refer to: Work of any kind Wage labor, in which a worker sells their labor and the employer buys it Manual labor, physical work done by people Childbirth, especially from the start of uterine contractions to delivery Labor (economics), one of the three main factors of production Labor... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany_1933. ... is the 300th day of the year (301st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A war crime is a punishable offense, under international (criminal) law, for violations of the law of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. ... Slave redirects here. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

He was born in Haßfurt (Lower Franconia), the only child of a postman and a seamstress. Sauckel was educated at local schools and left early when his mother fell ill. He joined the merchant marine of Norway and Sweden at age fifteen, first on a Norwegian three-masted schooner, later on a Schwedish and later on German vessels. He went on to sail throughout the world, rising to the rank of Vollmatrose. At the outbreak of World War I, he was on a German vessel en route to Australia when the vessel was captured. He was subsequently interned in France from August 1914 until November 1919. Haßfurt is a town in Bavaria, Germany, capital of the Haßberge district. ... Unterfranken (Lower Franconia) is one of the three administrative regions of Franconia in Bavaria (seven regions), Germany (32 regions). ... Two-masted fishing schooner A schooner (IPA: ) is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Internment camp for Japanese in Canada during World War II Internment is the imprisonment or confinement[1] of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. ...

He returned to Germany, found factory work in Schweinfurt, and studied engineering in Ilmenau from 1922 to 1923. He joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) in 1923 (member 1,395). In 1924 he married Elisabeth Wetzel and went on to be a father of ten children. He remained a party member over its dissolution and publicly rejoined in 1925. Sauckel was appointed party Gauleiter of Thüringia in 1927 and became a member of the regional government in 1929. Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, he was promoted to Reich Regent of Thüringia and Reichstag member. He was also given a honorary rank of Obergruppenführer in the SA and the SS in 1934. Schweinfurt is a city in the Unterfranken region of Bavaria in Germany on the right bank of the canalized Main, which is here spanned by several bridges, 27 km North-East of Würzburg. ... Ilmenau is a town located in the district of Ilm-Kreis, Thuringia, Germany. ... The National Socialist German Workers Party (German: , or NSDAP, commonly, the Nazi Party), was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. ... A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP (more commonly known as the Nazi Party) or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau. ... The Free State of Thuringia (German: Freistaat Thüringen) lies in central Germany and is among the smaller of the countrys sixteen Bundesländer (federal states), with an area of 16,200 km² and 2. ... The Reichstag (German for Imperial Diet) was the parliament of the Holy Roman Empire, the North German Confederation, and of Germany until 1945. ... SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zalewski SS-Obergruppenführer patch SA-Obergruppenführer insignia Obergruppenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the SA. Translated as Senior Group Leader, the rank of SA-Obergruppenführer was held by... The seal of SA SA propaganda poster. ... SS or ss or Ss may be: The Schutzstaffel, a Nazi paramilitary force Steamship (SS) (ship prefix) The United States Secret Service A submarine not powered by nuclear energy (SS) (United States Navy designator), see SSN A Soviet/Russian surface-to-surface missile, as listed by NATO reporting name Shortstop...

During World War II he was Reich defense commissioner for the Kassel district (Reichsverteidigungskommissar Wehrkreis IX) before being appointed General Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labour (Generalbevollmächtigter für den Arbeitseinsatz) on March 21, 1942, on the recommendation of Albert Speer. He worked directly under Hitler through the Four-Year Plan Office, directing and controlling German labour. In response to increased demands, he met the requirement for manpower with people from the occupied territories. Voluntary numbers were insufficient and forced recruitment was introduced within a few months. Of the 5 million workers brought to Germany, around 200,000 came voluntarily. The majority of the acquired workers originated from the Eastern territories, where the methods used to gain workers were reportedly very harsh. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... This article is about the city of Kassel in Hessen, Germany. ... Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, commonly known as Albert Speer ( ; March 19, 1905 – September 1, 1981), was an architect, author and high-ranking Nazi German government official, sometimes called the first architect of the Third Reich. His two bestselling autobiographical works, Inside the Third Reich and Spandau: the Secret Diaries...

The body of Fritz Sauckel after his execution.

He was a defendant at the Nuremberg Trials accused of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression; war crimes and crimes against humanity. He defended the Arbeitseinsatz as "nothing to do with exploitation. It is an economic process for supplying labour". He denied that it was slave labour or that it was common to deliberately work people to death (extermination by labour) or to mistreat them. Image File history File links Deadfritzsauckel. ... Image File history File links Deadfritzsauckel. ... The Süddeutsche Zeitung announces The Verdict in Nuremberg. ... Arbeitseinsatz was German forced labor during World War II in occupied countries Categories: | | ...

He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and together with a number of colleagues, he was hanged on October 16, 1946. His last words were recorded as "Ich sterbe unschuldig, mein Urteil ist ungerecht. Gott beschütze Deutschland!" (I'm dying innocently, my sentence is not just. God protect Germany!).

Literature

• Steffen Raßloff: Fritz Sauckel. Hitler "Muster-Gauleiter" (Thüringen. Blätter zur Landeskunde 36). Erfurt 2004. (Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Thüringen)
• Steffen Raßloff: Fritz Sauckel. Hitlers "Muster-Gauleiter" und "Sklavenhalter" (Schriften der Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Thüringen. Bd. 29). 2. leicht überarbeitete Auflage, Erfurt 2007. ISBN 978-3-937967-18-9 (http://www.thueringen.de/de/lzt/)

External links

• Testimony of Sauckel at Nuremberg (page 72 onwards)
• biography and literature

v • d • e Ministers-President of Thuringia
Weimar period (1920-1933)	Arnold Rudolf Paulssen · August Frölich · Richard Leutheußer · Arnold Rudolf Paulssen · Erwin Baum
Nazi period (1933-1945)	Fritz Sauckel · Willy Marschler
Soviet administration / DDR (1945-1990)	Hermann Brill · Rudolf Paul · Werner Eggerath · state abolished 1952-1990
Federal Republic of Germany (since 1990)	Josef Duchač · Bernhard Vogel · Dieter Althaus