English Translation

774-44 III D 4 - VA 83 H eheimcheim. 66 H eh. X. Mr. 0hl To the German Minister of State for Bohemia and Moravia 4-Obergruppenführer K.H. F a n k Ministeraraa Prag. Eing.: 9. SEP 1944 Betr.: Reichswerke Hermann Göring - Witkowitzer Bergbau und Eisenhüttenbewerke, Moravian-Ostrau. On 19.8.44, a meeting was held in Witkowitz under the chairmanship of the Council of State P 1 e i - g e r of all the departmental boards of the Witkouwitz ironworks, with the support of the representative of the Czech labour and civil servants organization. from (recited after the memory): According to the contract of transfer of the company, which was concluded at the time between the Eisenwerk Witkowitz and Hermann Göring-Werke, he, Pleiger, was and remains the manager of the ironworks. Recently, efforts by the WEW to free themselves from the leadership of the Reichswerke and to become independent again have become apparent. He was of the view that Mr. K u c h i n k a is not the spiritus-rector of this idea, but rather Dr. N o w a k . The war production of the WEW would not correspond to the size and capacity of the work, which could also be attributed to personal differences between the leading directors of Witkowitz. He therefore had to decide, despite his friendly migrations to Kuchinka, to put a tripartite board of directors at the head of the works. In addition to the board of directors, Dr. Schmidt functions as Deputy Enemy Manager, who as such has an insight into all WEW agendas. Pleiger further explained that Witkowitz did not support the Group's plants in Watenstädt and Linz sufficiently and only once - this was, however, praised by him - had gained special merit in providing assistance in Brüx. b.w. $\0 $\-63A/44q