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Control during working hours - under normal conditions - wasplaced in the hands of the technical staff of the OT-fizm,*composed of (1) the firm executive, in charge of construction inthe entire area in which the firm was active; (2) the latter sassistants in charge of the individual pieces of construction;(3) their foremen, for the greater part skilled in excavation andunderground construction, which is the basic type of work done bythe OT. The two former carried OT officer rank. The last twomentioned carried NDO rank, their assignment consisting of thesupervision of section gangs on the construction Job, They broughtwith them into the OT from civilian life their trade giildoccupational grade, such as Polier (and/or Schachtmeister)(roughly translatable as * excavation and tunnelling foremen 1 , or•pit or shaft overseer 1 ). Their OT rank could be any fromObermeister to Obertruppfuhrer (corporal to staff sergeant).This dual classification of both occupational grade andmilitary rank i s given to firm employees who at the same time havesupervisory assignments over OT organic personnel, such as foreignworker detachments. Consequently the grade of Polier and Schachtmeisterin the OT is not restricted to those in charge ofexcavation work, but is given to all firm employees with comparablyresponsible assigaaents (see para. 118 below). Moreover a Polier ora Sohachtmeister can be promoted to Oberpolier or Oberschachtmeisterwhile working for the OT, if he is considered as having satisfiedthe trade guild requirements in this respect. Such promotion inoccupational grade does not, however, automatically involve acorresponding promotion in OT rank. German personnel in loweroccupational grades could, in like manner, be promoted to Polieror Schachtmeister.Control in the camp and to and from work was placed in thehands of OT-eigenes Personal (organic personnel) of appropriate1IC0 rank such as Truppfuhrer (Sergeant) • Their assignment wasnormally that of either Front truppfuhrer or Obertruppfuhrer.Supervision of • Zwangsarbeiter 1 (forced labour) was largely entrustedto the SK (schutzkcmmando or Security Guard). On theconstruction job the duties of the Front and Obertruppfuhrerwere subordinated to those of the Poliere and Schachtmeister inthat the former were to help the latter keep discipline amongsttheir men, convoy additional manpower needed in the course of theday, be alert for signs of sabotage, and so forth. At the end ofthe working day, it became the duty of the Polier to send his meninto the proper formations, ready to leave for camp. The dutiesof the Polier and the Schachtmeister thus ended with the workingday, and the OT-eigenes Personal (OT organic personnel) tookcharge of the men until time for work the next day. Overallcontrol rested in the Frontfuhrung of the GBL and its staff. Acheck was kept on the morale amongst foreign workers through theemployment of collaborationist agents who mixed with their countrymenas co-workers or "social service" agents. These agents werethe eyes and ears of the Frontfuhrer and the SS-Verbindungsfuhrer(SS-Liaison Officer).117. Modifications in Supervisory Field Staffs due to shortage ofGerman Personnel.A3 implied above, supervisory assignnents in the PersonalLager (Camp), usually called simply "Lager", gradually becameentrusted to foreigners. An effort was made to stabilise thissituation by issuing a series of new regulations (contradictory insome instanoes) during the spring of 1944. The re-organisationwhich resulted may be summarised as follows:ac This staff comprises the Firmen Stammpersonal (permanent firmstaff), that is to say, the irreducible minimum staff, withoutwhich no OT-f inn will be allotted foreign manpower by'the OTadministr at ion •-123­