English Translation

The Head of Division V Prague, March 15, 1944. -No. V-487/44 - To 4-Obergruppenführer State Minister F r a n k. Mini Betr.: Appointment of the Major General End: MRZ 16., 1944 Hernekamp as commissioner of the Reichsministerium Speer für Böhmen und Mähren. Attachments: 3 back. I can only follow the remarks of the Head of Department Dr.Krieser from lo.ds.Mts. If the draft decree were to be passed, the result of the meeting with the Minister of the Reich Speer at the time would have become obsolete in Berlin. If the Arms Inspector, as chairman of the Armaments Commission, was to have the greatest possible authority over the autonomous Ministry of Economic Affairs and Labour (the duties of a Land Economic Office and a Gauarbeitsautes are not to be separated from the other tasks of the Ministry of Labour), that Ministry would therefore be completely excluded. While Dr. Krieser points out that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Labour is generally in line with the wishes of the arms inspector, this is due to a vote between equal partners. However, there are a number of fundamental and economically important questions in which the Ministry meets its measures in a deliberate rejection from the point of view of the arms inspector. In this respect, Jch may remind of the question of standstill and of the recovery of further years in accordance with the procedure of the year l924. M.E. should be insisted that it remains in the present state, which - as the practice and the success prove - fully meets all the requirements of the war economy. If this point of view cannot be enforced, it must be considered once again to integrate the armament inspector, i.e. the chairman of the Arms Commission into the German State Ministry. In this way, he would be clearly responsible for the policy of St. M-144 i/43 alone.