Fritz Sauckel Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

FRITZ SAUCKEL (1894-1946), a Nazi Party member from 1923, was the Nazi chief of slave labor recruitment who seized over five million workers and kept them under the vilest condition. The unprecedented International Military Tribunal was established by the Allied Powers at the end of World War II to try leaders of the Nazi movement and German war effort. A panel of 4 judges, one each from the U.S., Britain, France and the Soviet Union, rendered the verdicts. The first trial (1946) tried the top surviving German leaders, Sauckel included. In his testimony, Sauckel defended what he did as "nothing to do with exploitation. It is an economic process for supplying labor". He denied that it was slave labor or that it was common to deliberately work people to death (extermination by labor) or to mistreat them. He also denied any knowledge of the existence of concentration camps. Fritz Sauckel was hanged on October 16, 1946. His last words were recorded as "Ich sterbe unschuldig, mein Urteil ist ungerecht. Gott beschütze Deutschland!" ("I die innocent, my judgment is unfair. God protects Germany!")