ml miRS-tonpon HI 'nrflJIBRCH 1945 Illi - 1GM

adjacent construction sites are grouped together and administered
by an ABL or a EL (See above IIAa 29 and 30).
The executive of an 0T construction firm is chief of the
construction site on whioh his firm works* His authority,
however, is limited in several ways. In his oontrol of the
construction at hand, he is limited by the terms of his contract
with organization Todt. In his control of the manpower allotted
to hjjn by the OT, for the performance of the manual and mechanical
labour at hand, he is limited "by the basic regulations of the
Organization in regard to personnel administration, such as hours
of work, rates of pay, bonuses and penalties, treatment of the
various nationalities, and so forth. He has the right to invoke
penalties for infractions of regulations without, however, having
the authority to enforce punishment, which is left to the Frontftlhrer
(Front Area personnel Director) of the BL or OBL- For
the exercise of these functions, he is invested, as long as he is
contracted or sub-contracted to the OT, with the rank of an OT
officer, normally that of Bauleiter (approximately equivalent to
that of Major) but possibly one or two grades higher or lower,
aocording to the importance of his firm and his own ability.
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The OT firm executive must bring with him into OT his own
staff of old employees consisting essentially of technical and
clerical personnel. He must do so because his staff which is
called Firmen Stammpersonal (permanent Firm Staff) contains the
German supervisory personnel without which the OT will not allot
him any foreign labour. Inasmuoh as foreign labour comprises
about eighty percent of all OT personnel even at the present time,
an OT-firm is consequently helpless without a minimum of German
supervisory personnel on its staff. If that staff drops below
the irreducible minimum, there are three possible eventualities.
1. It is subject to dissolution as a firm, whereupon its
manpower is withdrawn, the members and its equipment
are temporarily requisitioned for use "by other OT firms.
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2. It may keep its entity in the OT, but not its status,
by beooming a sub-contraotor to a more adequately
staffed firm.
3. It may combine with several firms in a similar position
to form an Arge (Arbeitsgemeinschaft or Working Combine)
by pooling individual resources. It is only in
exceptional cases that a firm withdraws completely from
the OT. To do so would be an unwise step both
economically and politically.
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An important feature of the organization of an OT firm is
the increase in responsibility it has been given over all its
personnel, including foreign workers. In faot, since March 194k*
the OT firm has been charged with performing exactly the same
functions in regard to its personnel as performed by an OBL
FrontfOhrer toward the entire OBL Personnel. For this purpose
each OT firm includes a Mannschaftsftthrer (Personnel Administrator)
who is responsible to the firm executive, and accountable to the
competent BL FrontfQhrer, or lacking the latter, directly to the
competent OBL FrontfQhrer.
Various phases of the OT-firm as a basio unit will be discussed
in more detail as follows: the economic and legal aspects in H D
and the administrative and functional aspects in III Bb»
b) "Current Organization"
32. "Current Organization". The OT High Command
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