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Ernst Friedrich Christoph Sauckel (27 October 1894 – 16 October 1946) was a German Nazi politician and convicted war criminal. As General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment ( Arbeitseinsatz) from March 1942 until the end of the Second World War, he oversaw the mobilization of forced labour for the benefit of the German war effort.
Born in Haßfurt in Bavaria, Sauckel worked as a seaman from a young age. During the First World War, he was interned in France as an enemy alien. He joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and established himself as a leading party organiser in Thuringia. He was appointed Gauleiter of Thuringia in 1927 and, following Hitler's appointment as chancellor, Reichsstatthalter in 1933; he would retain both positions until the end of the Nazi regime.
During the Second World War, Sauckel was responsible for regional defense until 1942, when he was appointed General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment, working directly under Hermann Göring's Four Year Plan office. In this capacity, he deported some five million workers from occupied territories for forced labour in German industries, often by brutal coercion. In addition, he authorized the use of prisoners of war in response to ever-increasing demands.
At the end of the war, Sauckel was arrested by American troops in Salzburg. He was among the 24 major war criminals accused in the Nuremberg trials before the International Military Tribunal. He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, sentenced to death, and executed by hanging in October 1946.
When released, he returned to Germany and found factory work for the next few years in Schweinfurt as an apprentice locksmith and toolmaker in the ball-bearing works. In 1919 he joined the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund , the largest and most influential anti-Semitic organization in Weimar Germany. He served as its local manager for Lower Franconia until 1921. Moving to Thuringia, he studied engineering at a technical school in Ilmenau from 1922 to 1923, but was expelled for his political activities.
After the ban on the party was lifted, Sauckel became the business manager for Gau Thuringia under Gauleiter Artur Dinter in March 1925 and formally rejoined the party on 6 April. On 6 February 1927, he was also named Deputy Gauleiter and Gau Organisationsleiter, in charge of personnel issues. Sauckel succeeded Dinter as Gauleiter of Thuringia on 30 September 1927 and would retain this position until the end of the Nazi regime.
On 8 December 1929, Sauckel was elected to the Landtag of Thuringia as one of six Nazi deputies that would hold the balance of power there between the leftist (24) and center-right (23) parties.Martin Broszat, Hitler and the Collapse of Weimar Germany, Berg Publishers Ltd., 1987, pp. 76-77 . On 23 January 1930, a coalition government took office in Thuringia which for the first time in Germany included Nazi ministers, Wilhelm Frick and Willy Marschler. Sauckel, though not included as a State cabinet minister, became the leader of the Nazi faction in the Landtag. Following the 31 July 1932 election, the Nazis captured 42.5% of the votes and 26 seats, and Sauckel became the new Leading Minister of State (equivalent to Minister-President) as well as the interior minister from which portfolio he controlled all the State police and security apparatus.
Following Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, Sauckel was appointed to the new position of Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) of Thuringia on 5 May 1933, a post he would retain until May 1945. The new post was created to provide more centralized control over the State governments. On 8 May he left the Thuringian cabinet and was succeeded by Willy Marschler. (2025). 9783981148343, Edition Kramer. ISBN 9783981148343 On 9 November 1933, Sauckel was promoted to SA- Gruppenführer and, on 12 November, he was elected to the Reichstag from electoral constituency 12 (Thuringia), retaining this seat until the fall of the Nazi regime in May 1945.Karl Höffkes: Hitlers Politische Generale. Die Gauleiter des Dritten Reiches: ein biographisches Nachschlagewerk. Tübingen: Grabert-Verlag, 1986, p.282, .
On 9 September 1934, Sauckel joined the Schutzstaffel as an SS- Gruppenführer at the invitation of Heinrich Himmler and was assigned to SS- Oberabschnitte Mitte (Senior Section Central) based in Weimar until 1 April 1936 when he was transferred to the staff of the Reichsführer-SS. Upon the death of Wilhelm Friedrich Loeper Sauckel was appointed to succeed him as the acting Reichsstatthalter of both Anhalt and Brunswick from 30 November 1935 to 20 April 1937.Der Große Ploetz: Die Enzyklopädie der Weltgeschichte, Verlag Herder GmbH, 2019, Page 978, . On 23 January 1937 Sauckel was made the head of the Main Office for the Four Year Plan in Thuringia. He was also given an honorary rank of SA-Obergruppenführer on 9 November 1937.
Sauckel worked directly under Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring within the Four Year Plan Office, obtaining and allocating labour for German industry and agriculture. On 27 March 1942, Göring issued a decree naming Sauckel the Leader of the Department of Labor Allocation within the Four Year Plan. In response to increased demands for labour from German war industries, Hitler issued a decree on 30 September 1942 granting Sauckel extraordinary powers over both civil and military authorities in the occupied territories. His agents were authorized “to issue directives to the competent military and civilian authorities” to ensure an adequate supply of labourers. Sauckel therefore met the ever-increasing requirement for manpower with people from the occupied territories. Voluntary numbers were insufficient and forced civilian labour was introduced within a few months. Of an estimated five million foreign workers brought to Germany, only around 200,000 came voluntarily, according to a March 1944 statement by Sauckel introduced as evidence at Nuremberg. of random civilians in Warsaw's Żoliborz district, 1941]]
The majority of the acquired workers originated from the Eastern territories, especially in Poland and the Soviet Union where the methods used to gain workers were very harsh. The Army was used to pressgang local people and most were taken by force to the Reich. In addition to forced civilian labourers, Sauckel authorized the use of prisoners of war. Conditions of work were extremely poor and discipline severe, especially for concentration camp prisoners. All the latter were unpaid and provided with starvation rations, barely keeping those workers alive. Such slave labour was widely used in many German industries, including coal mining, steel making, and armaments manufacture. The use of forced and slave labour continually increased throughout the war, especially after Albert Speer, the Reichsminister of Armaments and War Production, in April 1942 brought about the formation of the Central Planning Board, which determined the labor requirements of industry, agriculture and all other components of the German war economy, and requisitioned that labor through Sauckel’s office. It has been estimated that over 12 million such laborers eventually were brought forcibly to Germany to work, often by brutal coercion. (1997). 9780306807930, Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780306807930 badge in Auschwitz]]
Robert Servatius, Sauckel's counsel, portrayed Sauckel as a representative of the labour classes of Germany; an earnest and unpretentious party man assiduously committed to promoting the collective utility of the working class. This portrait was contrary to that of Speer, whom Servatius juxtaposed against Sauckel as a technical genius and entrepreneurial administrator. Sauckel surmised that Speer bore greater legal and moral responsibility by virtue of the fact that the former merely met the demands of the latter, in accordance with protocol. This strategy did not yield to his favour, however, as the ratio in the final judgement against the respective defendants outlined that Speer's tasks were numerous, with the forced labour program comprising only one facet of his ministerial responsibilities, while Sauckel was singularly responsible for his office as General Plenipotentiary. Sauckel was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and was hanged at Nuremberg Prison on 16 October 1946, 11 days before his 52nd birthday after receiving Communion.Railton, Nicholas M. “Henry Gerecke and the Saints of Nuremberg.” Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, vol. 13, no. 1, 2000, pp. 112–137. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43750887. Accessed 8 Feb. 2021. His last words were recorded as " Ich sterbe unschuldig, mein Urteil ist ungerecht. Gott beschütze Deutschland. Möge es leben und eines Tages wieder groß werden. Gott beschütze meine Familie." ("I die an innocent man, my sentence is unjust. God protect Germany. May it live and one day become great again. God protect my family.") Albert Speer escaped the death sentence and served 20 years at Spandau prison, one of the most controversial verdicts of the Nuremberg trials. The discrepancy of an effective subordinate facing death with the superior facing a prison sentence has faced much attention and criticism in historical analysis, including by Gitta Sereny, who later interviewed Speer concerning his responsibility for slave labour.
Sauckel's body, as were those of the other nine executed men and the corpse of Hermann Göring, was cremated at Ostfriedhof (Munich) and the ashes were scattered in the river Isar.
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