“The German authorities in Serbia issued a series of orders, aiming at maximum exploitation of manpower. Among the first measures two decrees were passed: The Decree for General Labor Service and Restriction of the Freedom of Labor, of 14 December 1941, and the Decree for the National Labor Service for the Reconstruction of Serbia, of 5 November 1941. According to the first decree all persons between 17 and 45 years of age could be called up for compulsory labor in certain enterprises and branches of economy. According to the second order, such persons could be called up for civilian service in the National Reconstruction, which in fact meant that they had to work for the strengthening of the German economic and war effort.
“The persons eligible for labor in accordance with these two laws, although remaining in the country, worked in fact for the aims and benefit of the Germans’ economic exploitation. They were primarily used for work in the mines (Bor, Kostolac, _et cetera_), for road building and railway line repairs, in the water transport, and so on.
“On 26 March 1943 the German Commander of Serbia, Befehlshaber Serbien, in a special order introduced the so-called war economy measures of the Reich in the occupied territory of Serbia, and by this act imposed the general mobilization of manpower in Serbia. . . .
“By this decree, therefore, the entire population of occupied Serbia was mobilized for the German war economy. The Germans exploited Serbian manpower, in fact, to the greatest possible extent. . . .
“The situation was in no way different in the other occupied areas of Yugoslavia. Without entering into numerous details of this planned exploitation, we shall quote here only one example from occupied Slovenia.
“According to an official announcement of the German Farmers’ Union in Carinthia (Landesbauernschaft Kärnten) of 10 August 1944, issued in Klagenfurt, every case of pregnancy of non-German women was to be reported, and in all such cases these women were to be obliged to have their child ‘removed by operation in a hospital.’ The announcement itself explains that in cases when non-German women give birth to their children this ‘creates difficulties for their use in work,’ and besides, it is also ‘a danger for the population policy.’ Furthermore, this announcement states that the Office of Labor Service should try to influence these women to commit an abortion.