Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Sauckel was a Nazi politician who during World War II was placed in charge of acquiring slave laborers from occupied countries and bringing them to Germany to work in German industry. Sauckel, who ordered these workers to be exploited as the "lowest conceivable degree of expenditure," was indicted after the war by the International Military Tribunal (IMT) for war crimes and was convicted of the charges at the Nuremberg trials. Sauckel was born on October 27, 1894 in Hassfurt, Germany. Early on, he joined the merchant marine as a seaman. During World War I the French captured his ship, and he served five years as a prisoner of war. After his release he took a factory job in Schweinfurt. During the 1920s Sauckel discovered politics, eventually joining the Nazi Party in 1925. He met Hitler but formed no close connection with him. Nevertheless, in 1927 he was appointed the...