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with the Wehrmacht and with civil authoritieswere on a much more formal footing and were carried out throughliaison and official channels* Political and social control of the')T by the Nazi Party Organizations "brought with it further administrativeramifications. The following captured German document fromthe West is submitted as an illustration of administrative frustration,owing mainly to shortage of manpower and deterioration of morale.Organization Todt.Einsatzgruppe West 19 November 1943­OBL» -Cherbourg.To theOrganization Todt*Einsatzgruppe West.Reference; Inventory and issue of materials.At the beginning of this year we attempted to take an inventoryhere although it was much too late. The first store keeper wasGREB. He did not take any inventory but sold all the goods andput the money into his own pooket. For this he was sentenced toimprisonment. His successor was POLTL» He was an administrativeemployee who, although he did not actually sell anything,also did not attempt any inventory. The third storekeeper wasHECKMAN* This man also failed to take any inventory but blackmailedeveryone to whom he sold OT goods in exchange fortobacco and brandy. He too had to be replaced. His successorwas HIPPER* His only shortcoming was the fact that he couldneither read nor write, and mixed up all the accounts. The fifthstorekeeper within the ten months, is TRUMANN, employed heresince 20«9«43« This man was released tjy the Personnel Administrationon 18»5»43» and was transferred to this branch. At thattime I was grateful for personnel and took in anyone who seemedsuitable. But as it happens, the reason for TRUMANN 1 sreassignment to this post is his near-blindness, and consequentlyhe cannct even attempt inventory because he positively cannotsee a thing.Nevertheless, now, after "nearly a year, the inventory mustbe undertaken. Stock must be taken of all Reioh property.Among all men employed here, there is not one capable of performingthis task. If all instructions issued "by headquartersare to be carried out I must request the assignment to thisbranch of a suitable and capable man to replace TRUMANN*To summarise, then, the OT is to be regarded as a generallyflexible organization, evolved to meet local conditions throughoutEurope over a period of years. The Organization appeared to bestadvantage in the Einsatzgruppen situated in Russia; it began to givedefinite evidence of deterioration in the stabilised West.T:7. "Permanent Organization". The Einsatz (E: Area Control Staff ArmyEinsatz as a subdivision of Einsatzgruppe is primarily a controlstaff concerned with co-ordinating the construction programme of theOberbauleitungen (OBLs) under its oomrol. Thus the largest administrativesection in its headquarters is the Referat Bau (Sub-sectionConstruction)• The above conception of Einsatz, however, representsa late stage of OT organization, and there are frequent allusions toEinsstz in the OT which cannot be interpreted in this sense. Thereason for this can be traced to the fact that the word Einsatz in the3ense of "commitment" is one of the most frequently and indiscriminatelyused terms in present day German military language. Thus, in Russia,and to a lesser extent in the West, the termBinsata was used tox See Chart 5c- 28 ­