R & A No. 3113.7 / Principal Nazi Organizations Involved in the ...

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Richard Glücks), and the Varwaltunpjsamt of the SS
(under Prank). The importance of the Y.VHA can hardly
be overestimated. As the administrative office for the
it
concentration camps,/is directly responsible for the
administration of policies permitting the perpetration
of uncounted atrocities against millions of inmates.
nowever, within the general function of the V.VHA, the
administration of concentration camps wa3 only a part,
though a vital part, of the over-all policy. This policy
aimed at the establishment of tho SS as an entrepreneur
of the first order, through exploitation of the natural
resources of occupied Europe. The cheap la^or which
the concentration car. p3 offered was one of these re­
sources and one which permitted it to compete success­
fully on the market, so to expand the productive capacity
of Germany as to provide the surplus output necessary if
war were to be risKod.
Himmler, in his spsech to hifh officials of the
OKW, on 16 October 1943,poiated out "But as you have them
(the political and criminal prisoners) under lock and key -—
usinf, them, by the way, in & very practical manner for
armament purposes and thus supplying the armament in­
dustry with many millions of working; hours -the .security
position has become better year by year." The close co­
ordination of concentration camp administration with the
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