Afternoon Session
MARSHAL: If Your Honor please, the Defendants Kaltenbrunner and Streicher will continue to be absent during this afternoon’s session.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dubost, the Tribunal had some difficulty this morning in following the documents that you were citing; and also, the Tribunal understands the interpreters had some difficulty because the document books, except the one that is before me, have no indications of the “PS” or other numbers; and the documents themselves are not numbered in order. Therefore it is extremely difficult for members of the Tribunal to find documents, and it is also extremely difficult for the interpreters to find any document which may be before them.
So, this afternoon, it will be appreciated if you will be so kind as to indicate what the document is, and then give both the interpreters and the Tribunal enough time in which they may find the document, and then indicate exactly which part of the document you are going to read, that is to say, whether it is the beginning of the document, or the first paragraph, or the second, and so on. But you must bear with us if we find some difficulty in following you in the documents.
M. DUBOST: Very well, Your Honor.
I had finished this morning presenting the general rules which prevailed during the five years of occupation in the matter of the execution of numerous hostages in the occupied countries of the West. I brought you the evidence, by reading a series of official German documents, that the highest authorities of the Army, of the Party, and of the Nazi Government had deliberately chosen to practice a terroristic policy through the seizure of hostages.
Before passing to the examination of a few particular cases, it seems to me to be necessary to say exactly wherein this policy consisted, in the light of the texts which I have quoted.
According to the circumstances, people belonging by choice or ethnically to the vanquished nations were apprehended and held as a guarantee for the maintenance of order in a given sector; or after a given incident of which the enemy army had been the victim. They were apprehended and held with a view to obtaining the execution by the vanquished population of acts determined by the occupying authority, such as denunciation, payment of collective fines, the handing over of perpetrators of assaults committed against the German Army, and the handing over of political adversaries; and these persons thus arrested were often massacred subsequently by way of reprisal.
An idea emerges from methods of this kind, namely, that the hostage, who is a human being, becomes a special security subjected to seizure as determined by the enemy. How contrary this is to the rule of individual liberty and human dignity. All the members of the German Government are jointly responsible for this iniquitous concept and for its application in our vanquished countries. No member of the German Government can throw this responsibility on to subordinates by claiming that they merely executed clearly stated orders with an excess of zeal.
I have shown you that upon many occasions, on the contrary, the persons who carried out the orders reported to the chiefs the moral consequences resulting from the application of the terroristic policy of hostages. And we know that in no case were contrary orders given. We know that the original orders were always maintained.
I shall not endeavor to enumerate in their totality all the cases of executions of hostages. For our country, France, alone, there were 29,660 executed. This is proved in Document Number F-420, dated Paris, 21 December 1945, the original of which will be submitted under Exhibit Number RF-266 to your Tribunal. It is at the beginning of the document book, the second document. There in detail, region by region, the number is given of the hostages who were executed.
“Region of: Lille, 1,143; Laon, 222; Rouen, 658; Angers, 863; Orléans, 501; Reims, 353; Dijon, 1,691; Poitiers, 82; Strasbourg, 211; Rennes, 974; Limoges, 2,863; Clermont-Ferrand, 441; Lyons, 3,674; Marseilles, 1,513; Montpellier, 785; Toulouse, 765; Bordeaux, 806; Nancy, 571; Metz, 220; Paris, 11,000; Nice, 324; total, 29,660.”
I shall limit my presentation to a few typical cases of executions which unveil the political plan of the General Staff which prescribed these executions—plans of terror, plans that were intended to create and accentuate the division between Frenchmen, or, more generally, between citizens of the occupied countries. You will find in your document book a file quoted as F-133, which I submit as Exhibit Number RF-288. This is called “Posters Concerning Paris.” At the head of the page you will read, Pariser Zeitung supplement. This document reproduces a few of the very numerous posters and bills, some of the numerous notices inserted in the press from 1940 to 1945 announcing the arrest of hostages in Paris, in the Paris district, and in France. I shall read only one of these documents, which you will find on the second page, entitled Number 6, 19 September 1941. You will see in it an appeal to informers, an appeal to traitors; you will see in it a means of corruption, which systematically applied to all the countries of the West for years; all tended to demoralize them to an equal extent:
“Appeal to the population of occupied territories.
“On 21 August a German soldier was fired on and killed by cowardly murderers. In consequence I ordered on 23 August that hostages be taken, and threatened to have a certain number of them shot in case such an assault should be repeated.
“New crimes have obliged me to put this threat into execution. In spite of this, new assaults have taken place.
“I recognize that the great majority of the population is conscious of its duty, which is to help the authorities in their unremitting effort to maintain calm and order in the country in the interest of this population.”
And here is the appeal to informers:
“But among you there are agents paid by powers hostile to Germany, Communist criminal elements who have only one aim, which is to sow discord between the occupying power and the French population. These elements are completely indifferent to the consequences, affecting the entire population, which result from their activity.
“I will no longer allow the lives of German soldiers to be threatened by these murderers. I shall stop at no measure, however rigorous, in order to fulfill my duty.
“But it is likewise my duty to make the whole population responsible for the fact that, up to the present, it has not yet been possible to lay hands on the cowardly murderers and to impose upon them the penalty which they deserve.
“That is why I have found it necessary, first of all for Paris, to take measures which, unfortunately, will hinder the everyday life of the entire population. Frenchmen, it depends on you whether I am obliged to render these measures more severe or whether they can be suspended again.
“I appeal to you all, to your administration and to your police, to co-operate by your extreme vigilance and your active personal intervention in the arrest of the guilty. It is necessary, by anticipating and denouncing these criminal activities, to avoid the creation of a critical situation which would plunge the country into misfortune.
“He who fires in ambush on German soldiers, who are doing only their duty here and who are safeguarding the maintenance of a normal life, is not a patriot but a cowardly assassin and the enemy of all decent people.
“Frenchmen! I count on you to understand these measures which I am taking in your own interests also.”—Signed—“Von Stülpnagel.”
Numerous notices follow which all have to do with executions.
Under Number 8 on the following page you will find a list of twelve names among which are three of the best known lawyers of the Paris Bar, who are characterized as militant Communists, Messrs. Pitard, Hajje and Rolnikas.
In file 21 submitted by my colleague, M. Gerthoffer, in the course of his economic presentation, you will find a few notices which are similar, published in the German official journal VOBIF.
You will observe, in connection with this notice of 16 September announcing the execution or rather, the murder, of M. Pitard and his companions, that the murderers had neither the courage nor the honesty to say that they were all Parisian lawyers. Was it by mistake? I think that it was a calculated lie, for at this time it was necessary to handle the elite gently. The occupying power still hoped to separate them from the people of France.
I shall describe to you in detail two cases which spread grief in the hearts of the French in the course of the month of October 1941 and which have remained present in the memory of all my compatriots. They are known as the “executions of Châteaubriant and of Bordeaux.” They are related in Document Number F-415 in your document book, which I submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number RF-285.
After the attack on two German officers at Nantes on 20 October 1941 and in Bordeaux a few days later, the German Army decided to make an example. You will find, on Page 22 of Document Number F-415, a copy of the notice in the newspaper Le Phare of 21 October 1941.
“Notice. Cowardly criminals in the pay of England and of Moscow killed, with shots in the back, the Feldkommandant of Nantes on the morning of 20 October 1941. Up to now the assassins have not been arrested.
“As expiation for this crime I have ordered that 50 hostages be shot to begin with. Because of the gravity of the crime, 50 more hostages will be shot in case the guilty should not be arrested between now and 23 October 1941 by midnight.”
The conditions under which these reprisals were exercised are worth describing in detail. Stülpnagel, who was commanding the German troops in France, ordered the Minister of the Interior to designate prisoners. These prisoners were to be selected among the Communists who were considered the most dangerous (these are the terms of Stülpnagel’s order). A list of 60 Frenchmen was furnished by the Minister of the Interior. This was Pucheu. He has since been tried by my compatriots, sentenced to death, and executed.
The Subprefect of Châteaubriant sent a letter to the Kommandantur of Châteaubriant, in reply to the order which he received from the Minister of the Interior:
“Following our conversation of today, I have the honor of confirming to you that the Minister of the Interior has communicated today with General Von Stülpnagel in order to designate to him the most dangerous Communist prisoners among those who are now held at Châteaubriant. You will find enclosed herewith the list of 60 individuals who have been handed over this day.”
On the following page is the German order:
“Because of the assassination of the Feldkommandant of Nantes, Lieutenant Colonel Hotz, on 20 October 1941, the following Frenchmen, who were already imprisoned as hostages in accordance with my publication of 22 August 1941 and of my ordinance to the Plenipotentiary General of the French Government of 19 September 1941, are to be shot.”
In the following pages you will find a list of all the men who were shot on that day. I leave out the reading of the list in order not to lengthen the proceedings unduly.
On Page 16 you will find a list of 48 names. On Page 13 you will find the list of those who were shot in Nantes. On Page 12 you will find the list of those who were shot in Châteaubriant. Their bodies were distributed for burial to all the surrounding communes.
I shall read to you the testimony of eyewitnesses as to how they were buried after having been shot. On Page 3 of this document you will find the note of M. Dumenil concerning the executions of 21 October 1941, which was written the day after these executions. The second paragraph reads:
“The priest was called at 11:30 to the prison of La Fayette. An officer, probably of the GFP, told him that he was to announce to certain prisoners that they were going to be shot. The priest was then locked up in a room with the 13 hostages who were at the prison. The other three, who were at les Rochettes, were ministered to by Abbé Théon, professor at the College Stanislas.
“The Abbé Fontaine said to the condemned, ‘Gentlemen, you must understand, alas, what my presence means.’ He then spoke with the prisoners collectively and individually for the two hours which the officers had said would be granted to arrange the personal affairs of the condemned and to write their last messages to their families.
“The execution had been fixed for 2 o’clock in the afternoon, half an hour having been allowed for the journey. But the two hours went by, another hour passed, and still another hour before the condemned were sent for. Certain of them, optimists by nature, like M. Fourny, already hoped that a countermanding order would be given, in which the priest himself did not at all believe.
“The condemned were all very brave. It was two of the youngest, Gloux and Grolleau, who were students, who constantly encouraged the others, saying that it was better to die in this way than to perish uselessly in an accident.
“At the moment of leaving, the priest, for reasons which were not explained to him, was not authorized to accompany the hostages to the place of execution. He went down the stairs of the prison with them as far as the car. They were chained together in twos. The thirteenth had on handcuffs. Once they were in the truck, Gloux and Grolleau made another gesture of farewell to him, smiling and waving their hands that were chained together.
“Signed: Dumenil, Counsellor attached to the Cabinet.”
Sixteen were shot in Nantes. Twenty-seven were shot in Châteaubriant. Five were shot outside the department. For those who were shot in Châteaubriant, we know what their last moments were like. The Abbé Moyon, who was present, wrote on 22 October 1941 the account of this execution. This is the third paragraph, Page 17 of your document:
“It was on a beautiful autumn day. The temperature was particularly mild. There had been lovely sunshine since morning. Everyone in town was going about his usual business. There was great animation in the town for it was Wednesday, which was market day. The population knew from the newspapers and from the information it had received from Nantes that a superior officer had been killed in a street in Nantes but refused to believe that such savage and extensive reprisals would be applied. At Choisel Camp the German authorities had, for some days, put into special quarters a certain number of men who were to serve as hostages in case of special difficulties. It was from among these men that those who were to be shot on this evening of 22 October 1941 were chosen.
“The Curé of Béré was finishing his lunch when M. Moreau Chief of Choisel Camp presented himself. In a few words the latter explained to him the object of his visit. Having been delegated by M. Lecornu, the subprefect of Châteaubriant, he had come to inform him that 27 men selected among the political prisoners of Choisel were going to be executed that afternoon; and he asked Monsieur Le Curé to go immediately to attend them. The priest said he was ready to accomplish this mission, and he went to the prisoners without delay.
“When the priest appeared to carry out his mission, the subprefect was already among the condemned. He came to announce the horrible fate which was awaiting them, asking them to write letters of farewell to their families without delay. It was under these circumstances that the priest presented himself at the entrance to the quarters.”
You will find on Page 19 the “departure for the execution,” Paragraph 4:
“Suddenly there was the sound of automobile engines. The door, which I had shut at the beginning so that we might be more private, was abruptly opened and French constables carrying handcuffs appeared. A German officer arrived. He was actually a chaplain. He said to me, ‘Monsieur le Curé, your mission has been accomplished and you must withdraw immediately.’ ”
At the bottom of the page, the last paragraph:
“Access to the quarry where the execution took place was absolutely forbidden to all Frenchmen. I only know that the condemned were executed in three groups of nine men, that all the men who were shot refused to have their eyes bound, that young Mocquet fainted and fell, and that the last cry which sprang from the lips of these heroes was an ardent ‘Vive la France.’ ”
On Page 21 of the same document you will find the declaration of Police Officer Roussel. It is also worth reading:
“The 22 October 1941 at about 3:30 in the afternoon, I happened to be in the Rue du 11 Novembre at Châteaubriant, and I saw coming from Choisel Camp four or five German trucks, I cannot say exactly how many, preceded by an automobile in which was a German officer. Several civilians with handcuffs were in the trucks and were singing patriotic songs, the ‘Marseillaise,’ the ‘Chant du Depart,’ and so forth. One of the trucks was filled with armed German soldiers.
“I learned subsequently that these were hostages who had just been fetched from Choisel Camp to be taken to the quarry of Sablière on the Soudan Road to be shot in reprisal for the murder at Nantes of the German Colonel Hotz.
“About two hours later these same trucks came back from the quarry and drove into the court of the Châteaubriant, where the bodies of the men who had been shot were deposited in a cellar until coffins could be made.
“Coming back from the quarry the trucks were covered and no noise was heard, but a trickle of blood escaped from them and left a trail on the road from the quarry to the castle.
“The following day, on the 23rd of October, the bodies of the men who had been shot were put into coffins without any French persons being present, the entrances to the château having been guarded by German sentinels. The dead were then taken to nine different cemeteries in the surrounding communes, that is, three coffins to each commune. The Germans were careful to choose communes where there was no regular transport service, presumably to avoid the population going en masse to the graves of these martyrs.
“I was not present at the departure of the hostages from the camp nor at the shooting in the quarry of Sablière, as the approaches to it were guarded by German soldiers armed with machine guns.”
Almost at the same time, in addition to these 48 hostages who were shot, there were others—those of Bordeaux. You will find in your document book, under Document Number F-400, documents which have been sent to us by the Prefecture of the Gironde, which we submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number RF-286.
One of them comes from the Bordeaux Section of Political Affairs, and is dated 22 October 1941, Document F-400(b).
“In the course of the conference, which took place last night at the Feldkommandantur of Bordeaux, the German authorities asked me to proceed immediately to arrest 100 individuals known for their sympathy with the Communist Party or the Gaullist movement, who will be considered as hostages, and to make a great number of house searches.
“These operations have been in process since this morning. So far no interesting result has been called to my attention. In addition, this morning at 11 o’clock the German authorities informed me of the reprisal measures which they had decided to take against the population.”
These reprisal measures you will find set forth on Page “A” of the same document in a letter addressed by General Von Faber Du Faur, Chief of the Regional Administration of Bordeaux, to the Prefect of the Gironde. I quote:
“Bordeaux, 23 October 1941.
“To the Prefect of the Gironde, Bordeaux.
“As expiation for the cowardly murder of the Councillor of War, Reimers, the Military Commander in France has ordered 50 hostages to be executed. The execution will take place tomorrow.
“In case the murderers should not be arrested in the very near future, additional measures will be taken, as in the case of Nantes.
“I have the honor of making this decision known to you.
“Chief of the Military Regional Administration,”—signed—“Von Faber Du Faur.”
And in execution of this order, 50 men were shot. There is a famous place in the surburbs of Paris which has become a place of pilgrimage for the French since our liberation. It is the Fort of Romainville. During the occupation the Germans converted this fort into a hostage depot from which they selected victims when they wanted to take revenge after some patriotic demonstration. It is from Romainville that Professors Jacques Solomon, Decourtemanche, Georges Politzer, Dr. Boer and six other Frenchmen departed. They had been arrested in March 1942, tortured by the Gestapo, then executed without trial in the month of May 1942, because they refused to renounce their faith.
On 19 August 1942, 96 hostages left this fort, among them M. Le Gall, a municipal councillor of Paris. They left the fort of Romainville, were transferred to Mont-Valérien and executed.
In September 1942 an assault had been made against some German soldiers at the Rex cinema in Paris. General Von Stülpnagel issued a proclamation announcing that, because of this assault, he had caused 116 hostages to be shot and that extensive measures of deportation were to be taken. You will find an extract from this newspaper in Document Number F-402(b) (Exhibit Number RF-287).
The notice was worded as follows:
“As a result of assaults committed by Communist agents and terrorists in the pay of England, German soldiers and French civilians have been killed or wounded.
“As reprisal for these assaults I have had 116 Communist terrorists shot, whose participation or implication in terroristic acts has been proved by confessions.
“In addition, severe measures of repression have been taken. In order to prevent incidents on the occasion of demonstrations planned by the Communists for 20 September 1942, I ordered the following:
“1) From Saturday, 19 September 1942, from 3 o’clock in the afternoon, until Sunday, 20 September 1942, at midnight, all theaters, cinemas, cabarets, and other places of amusement reserved for the French population shall be closed in the Departments of the Seine, Seine-et-Oise, and Seine-et-Marne. All public demonstrations, including sports, are forbidden.
“2) On Sunday, 20 September 1942, from 3 o’clock in the afternoon until midnight, non-German civilians are forbidden to walk about in the streets and public places in the Departments of the Seine, Seine-et-Oise, and Seine-et-Marne. The only exceptions are persons representing official services. . . .”
In actual fact, it was only on the day of 20 September that 46 of these hostages were chosen from the list of 116. The Germans handed newspapers of 20 September to the prisoners of Romainville, announcing the decision of the Military High Command. It was, therefore, through the newspapers that the prisoners of Romainville learned that a certain number of them would be chosen at the end of the afternoon to be led before the firing squad.
All lived through that day awaiting the call that would be made that evening. Those who were called knew their fate beforehand. All died innocent of the crimes for which they were being executed, for those who were responsible for the assault in the Rex cinema were arrested a few days later.
It was in Bordeaux that the 70 other hostages of the total of 116 announced by General Von Stülpnagel were executed. In reprisal for the murder of Ritter, the German official of the Labor Front, 50 other hostages were shot at the end of September 1943 in Paris. Here is a reprint of the newspaper article which announced these executions to the French people—Document Number F-402(c).
“Reprisals against terroristic acts. Assaults and acts of sabotage have increased in France recently. For this reason 50 terrorists, convicted of having participated in acts of sabotage and of terrorism, were shot on 2 October 1943 by order of the German authorities.”
All these facts concerning the hostages of Romainville have been related to us by one of the rare survivors, M. Rabaté, a mechanic living at 69 Rue de la Tombe-Issiore, Paris, whose testimony was taken by one of our collaborators.
In this testimony—Document Number F-402(a), which has already been submitted as Exhibit Number RF-287—we read the following:
“There were 70 of us, including Professor Jacques Solomon, Decourtemanche and Georges Politzer, Dr. Boer, and Messrs. Engros, Dudach, Cadras, Dalidet, Golue, Pican who were shot in the month of May 1942, and an approximately equal number of women.
“Some of us were transferred to the German quarter of the Santé (a prison in Paris), but the majority of us were taken to the military prison of Cherche-Midi (in Paris). We were questioned in turn by a Gestapo officer in the offices of the Rue des Saussaies. Some of us, especially Politzer and Solomon, were tortured to such an extent that their limbs were broken, according to the testimony of their wives.
“Moreover, while questioning me, the Gestapo officer confirmed this to me: I repeat his words:
“ ‘Rabaté, here you will have to speak. Professor Langevin’s son-in-law, Jacques Solomon, came in here arrogant. He went out crawling.’
“After a short stay of 5 months in the prison of Cherche-Midi, in the course of which we learned of the execution as hostages of the 10 prisoners already mentioned, we were transferred on 24 August 1942 to the Fort of Romainville.
“It is to be noted that from the day of our arrest we were forbidden to write, or to receive mail, or inform our families where we were. On the doors of our cells was written, ‘Alles verboten’ (‘Everything is forbidden’). We received only the strict food ration of the prison, namely, three-fourths of a liter of vegetable soup and 200 grams of black bread per day. The biscuits sent to the prison for political prisoners by the Red Cross or by the Quakers’ Association were not given to us because of this prohibition.
“In the Fort of Romainville we were interned as ‘isolated prisoners,’ an expression corresponding to the ‘NN’ (Nacht und Nebel), which we knew about in Germany.”
THE PRESIDENT: M. Dubost, the Tribunal thinks that, unless there is anything very special that you wish to read in any of these documents, they have already heard the number of the hostages who were put to death and they think that it really does not add to it—the actual details of these documents.
M. DUBOST: I thought, Mr. President, that I had not spoken to you of the regime to which men were subjected when they were prisoners of the German Army. I thought that it was my duty to enlighten the Tribunal on the condition of these men in the German prisons.
I thought that it was also my duty to enlighten the Tribunal on the ill-treatment inflicted by the Gestapo, who left the son-in-law of Professor Langevin with his limbs broken. Moreover that is found in a testimony.
THE PRESIDENT: Certainly, if there are matters of that sort which you think it right to go into, you must do so; but the actual details of individual shooting of hostages we think you might, at any rate, summarize. But if there are particular atrocities which you wish to draw our attention to, by all means do so.
M. DUBOST: Mr. President, I have only given two examples of executions out of the multiple executions which caused 29,660 deaths in my country.
THE PRESIDENT: Go on, M. Dubost.
M. DUBOST: In the region of the North of France, which was administratively attached to Belgium and subjected to the authority of General Von Falkenhausen, the same policy of execution was practiced. You will find in Document Number F-133, submitted as Exhibit Number RF-289, copies of a great number of posters announcing either arrests, executions, or deportations. Certain of these posters include, moreover, an appeal to informers, and they are analogous to those which I read to you in connection with France. Perhaps it would be well, nevertheless, to point out the one that you will find on Page 3, which concerns the execution of 20 Frenchmen, ordered as the result of a theft; that on Page 4, which concerns the execution of 15 Frenchmen, ordered as a result of an attack against a railroad installation; and finally, especially the last, the one that you will find on Pages 8 and 9, which announces that executions will be carried out, and invites the civilian population to hand over the guilty ones, if they know them, to the German Army.
As concerns especially the countries of the West other than France, we have a very great number of identical cases. You will find in your document book, under Document Number F-680, Exhibit Number RF-290, a copy of a poster by the Military Commander-in-Chief for Belgium and the North of France, which announces the arrest in Tournai, on 18 September 1941, of 25 inhabitants as hostages, and specifies the condition under which certain of them will be shot if the guilty are not discovered. But you will find especially, under the Number F-680(a) a remarkable document; it comes from the German authorities themselves. It is the secret report of the German Chief of Police in Belgium dated 13 December 1944, that is to say, when Belgium was totally liberated and this German official wished to give an account to his chiefs of his services during the occupation of Belgium.
From the first page of this document we take the following passage:
“The increasing incitement of the population, by enemy radio and enemy press, to acts of terrorism and sabotage”—this is applied to Belgium—“the passive attitude of the population, particularly that of the Belgian administration, the complete failure of the public prosecutors, the examining judges, and of the police to disclose and prevent terrorist acts, have finally led to preventive and repressive measures of the most rigorous kind, that is to say, to the execution of persons closely related to the culprits.
“Already on 19 October 1941, on the occasion of the murder of two police officials in Tournai, the Military Commander-in-Chief declared through an announcement appearing in the press that all the political prisoners in Belgium would be considered as hostages with immediate effect. In the provinces of the north of France, subject to the jurisdiction of the same Military Commander-in-Chief, this ordinance was already in force as from 26 August 1941. Through repeated notices appearing in the press the civilian population has been informed that political prisoners taken as hostages will be executed if the murders continue to be committed.
“As a result of the assassination of Teughels, Rexist major of Charleroi, and other attempts at assassination of public officials, the Military Commander-in-Chief has been obliged to order, for the first time in Belgium, the execution of eight terrorists. The date of the execution is 27 November 1942.”
On the following page of this same document—Number F-680(b)—you will find another order dated 22 April 1944, secret, and issued by the Military Commander in Belgium and the North of France, concerning measures of reprisal for the murder of two Walloon SS, who had fought at Tcherkassy; five hostages were shot on that day.
On the following page nine hostages are added to these five, and still a tenth on the next page. Then five others on the following page.
You will find, finally, on the next to the last page of the document, a proposed list of persons to be shot in reprisal for the murder of SS men. Compare the dates, and judge the ferocity with which the assassination of these two Walloon traitors, SS volunteers, was revenged.
Finally, you will see the names of the 20 Belgian patriots who were thus murdered.
“Nouveau Journal, 25 April 1944.
“Measures of reprisal for the murder of men who fought at Tcherkassy.
“Announcement by the German authorities:
“The perpetrators of the assassination on 6 April of the members of the SS Sturmbrigade Wallonie, Hubert Stassen and François Musch, who fought at Tcherkassy, have so far not been apprehended. Therefore, in accordance with the communication dated 10 April 1944, the 20 terrorists whose names follow have been executed:
“Renatus Dierickx of Louvain; François Boets of Louvain; Antoine Smets of Louvain; Jacques Van Tilt of Holsbeek; Emiliens Van Tilt of Holsbeek; Franciskus Aerts of Herent; Jan Van der Elst of Herent; Gustave Morren of Louvain; Eugene Hupin of Chapelle-lez-Herlaimont; Pierre Leroy of Boussois; Léon Hermann of Montignies-sur-Sambre; Felix Trousson of Chaudfontaine; Joseph Grab of Tirlemont; Octave Wintgens of Baelen-Hontem; Stanislaw Mrozowski of Grâce-Berleur; Marcel Boeur of Athus; Marcel Dehon of Ghlin; André Croquelois of Pont des Briques, near Boulogne; Gustave Hos of Mons; and the stateless Jew, Walter Kriss of Herent.”
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now for 10 minutes.
[A recess was taken.]
M. DUBOST: As far as the other western countries, Holland and Norway, are concerned, we have received documents which we submit as Document Number F-224(b), Exhibits RF-291, 292, and 293.
In the French text you will find a long list of civilians who were executed. Also you will find a report of the Chief of the Criminal Police, Munt, in connection with these executions, and you will observe that Munt tries to prove his own innocence, in my opinion without success. This is in Document Number RF-277, already submitted.
On Page 6 you will find the report of an investigation concerning mass executions carried out by the Germans in Holland. I do not think it is necessary to read this report. It brings no new factual element and simply illustrates the thesis that I have been presenting since this morning: That in all the western countries the German military authorities systematically carried out executions of hostages as reprisals for acts of resistance. You will see that on 7 March 1945 an order was given to shoot 80 prisoners, and the authority who gave this order said, “I don’t care where you get your prisoners”—execution without any designation of age or profession or origin.
The Tribunal will see that a total of 2,080 executions was reached. It will be noted that as a reprisal for the murder of an SS soldier, a house was destroyed and 10 Dutchmen were executed; and in addition, two other houses were destroyed. In another case 10 Dutchmen were executed. Altogether, 3,000 Dutchmen were executed under these conditions, according to the testimony of this document, which was drawn up by the War Crimes Commission, signed by the Chief of the Dutch Delegation to the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, Colonel Baron Van Tuyll van Serooskerken.
This document gives to the Tribunal the approximate number of victims, region by region.
I do not wish to conclude the statement as to hostages concerning Holland without drawing the attention of the Tribunal to Section (b) of Document Number F-224, which gives a long list of hostages, prisoners or dead, arrested by the Germans in Holland; for the Tribunal will observe that most of the hostages were intellectuals or very highly placed personages in Holland. We note, therein, the names of members of parliament, lawyers, senators, Protestant clergymen, judges, and amongst them we find a former Minister of Justice. The arrests were made systematically among the intellectual elite of the country.
As far as Norway is concerned, the Tribunal will find in Document Number F-240, submitted as Exhibit Number RF-292, a short report of the executions which the Germans carried out in that country:
“On 26 April 1942 two German policemen who tried to arrest two Norwegian patriots were killed on an island on the west coast of Norway. In order to avenge them, 4 days later 18 young men were shot without trial. All these 18 Norwegians had been in prison since the 22 February of the same year and therefore had nothing to do with this affair.”
In the first paragraph of the French translation in the French document book, which is Page 22 of the Norwegian original, it states that:
“On 6 October 1942, 10 Norwegian citizens were executed in reprisal for attempts at sabotage.
“On 20 July 1944 an indeterminate number of Norwegians were shot without trial. They had all been taken from a concentration camp. The reason for this arrest and execution is unknown.
“Finally, after the German capitulation, the bodies of 44 Norwegian citizens were found in graves. All had been shot and we do not know the reason for their execution. It has never been published, and we do not believe they were tried. The executions were effected by a shot through the back of the neck or a revolver bullet through the ear, the hands of the victims being tied behind their backs.”
This information is given by the Norwegian Government for this Tribunal.
I draw the attention of the Tribunal to a final document, Number R-134 (Exhibit Number RF-293), signed by Terboven, which concerns the execution of 18 Norwegians who were taken prisoners for having made an illegal attempt to reach England.
It is by thousands and tens of thousands that in all the western countries citizens were executed without trial in reprisal for acts in which they never participated. It does not seem necessary to me to multiply these examples. Each of these examples involves individual responsibility which is not within the competency of this Tribunal. The examples are only of interest in so far as they show that the orders of the defendants were carried out and notably the orders of Keitel.
I believe that I have amply proved this. It is incontestable that in every case the German Army was concerned with these executions, which were not solely carried out by the police or the SS.
Moreover, they did not achieve the results expected. Far from reducing the number of attacks, it increased them. Each attempt was followed by an execution of hostages, and every shooting of hostages occasioned more attacks in revenge. Generally the announcement of new executions of hostages plunged the countries into a stupor and forced every citizen to become conscious of the fate of his land, despite the efforts of German propaganda. Faced with the failure of this terroristic policy, one might have thought that the defendants would modify their methods. Far from modifying them, they intensified them. I shall endeavor to show the activity of the police and the law from the time when, the policy of hostages having failed, it was necessary to appeal to the German police in order to keep the occupied countries in a state of servitude. The German authorities made arbitrary arrests at all times and from the very beginning of the occupation; but with the failure of the policy of executing hostages, which was—as you remember—commented upon by General Von Falkenhausen in the case of Belgium, arbitrary arrests increased to the point of becoming a constant practice substituted for that of killing hostages.
We submit to the Tribunal Document Number 715-PS, Exhibit Number RF-294. This document concerns the arrest of high-ranking officers who were to be transferred to Germany in honorable custody:
“Subject: Measures to be taken against French Officers.
“In agreement with the German Embassy in Paris and with the Chief of the Security Police and the SD, the Supreme Commander in the West has made the following proposals:
“1. The senior officers enumerated below will be arrested and transferred to Germany in honorable custody: “Generals of the Army: Frère”—who died subsequently in Germany after his deportation—“Gérodias, Cartier, Revers, De Lattre de Tassigny, Fornel de la Laurencie, Robert de Saint-Vincent, Laure, Doyen, Pisquendar, Mittelhauser, Paquin;
“Generals of the Air Force: Bouscat, Carayon, De Geffrier, D’Harcourt, Mouchard, Mendigal, Rozoy;
“Colonels: Loriot and Fonck.
“It is a question of generals whose names have a propaganda value in France and abroad or whose attitude and abilities represent a danger.
“2. Moreover, we have chosen from the index of officers kept by the ‘Arbeitsstab’ in France about 120 officers who have distinguished themselves by their anti-German attitude during the last two years. The SD has also given a list of about 130 officers previously accused. After the compilation of these two lists, the arrest of these officers is to be arranged at a later date, depending on the situation . . . .
“6. In the case of all officers of the French Army of the Armistice, the Chief of the Security Police, in collaboration with the Supreme Command West, will appoint a special day for the whole territory for a check to be made by the police of domiciles and occupations.”
And here are the most important passages:
“As a measure of reprisal, families of suspected persons who have already shown themselves to be resistants or who might become so in the future, will be transferred as internees to Germany or to the territory of eastern France. For these the question of billeting and surveillance must first of all be solved. Afterwards we contemplate as a later measure the deprivation of their French nationality and the confiscation of property, already carried out in other cases by Laval.”
The police and the army were involved in all of these arrests. A telegram in cipher shows that the Minister of Foreign Affairs himself was concerned in the matter. Document Number 723-PS, which becomes Exhibit Number RF-295, will be read in this connection. It is the third document of the document book. It is addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and is dated Paris, 5 June 1943:
“In the course of the conference which took place yesterday with the representatives of the High Command West and the SD, the following was agreed on concerning measures to be taken:
“The aim of these measures must be to prevent, by precautionary measures, the escape from France of any more well-known soldiers and at the same time to prevent these personages from organizing a resistance movement in the event of an attempted landing in France by the Anglo-Saxon powers.
“The circle of officers here concerned comprises all who, by their rank and experience or by their name, would considerably strengthen the military command or the political credit of the resistants, if they should decide to join them. In the event of military operations in France we must consider them as being of the same importance.
“The list has been drawn up in agreement with the High Command West, the Chief of the Security Police, and the General of the Air Force in Paris.”
I shall not read these new names of high-ranking French officers who were to be arrested but will go on further where the Tribunal will see that the German authorities contemplated causing officers already arrested by the French Government and under the surveillance of the French authorities to undergo the same fate as General De Lattre de Tassigny, General Laure, and General Fornel de la Laurencie. These generals were to be literally torn away from the French authorities to be deported.
“In view of the present general situation and the contemplated security measures, all the authorities here consider it undesirable for these generals to remain in French custody, as the possibility must be considered that either through negligence or by intentional acts of the guard personnel, they might escape and regain their liberty.”
Finally, Page 7, under Roman numeral IX, concerning reprisals against families:
“General Warlimont had asked the Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front to raise the question of reprisal measures against the relatives of persons who had joined the resistance and to submit any proposals.
“President Laval declared himself ready, not long ago, to take measures of this kind on behalf of the French Government; but to limit himself to the families of some particularly distinguished persons.”
I refer to the paragraph before the last of the telegraphic report Number 3,486 of 29 May 1943:
“We must wait and see whether Laval is really willing to apply reprisal measures in a practical way.
“All those present at the meetings were in agreement that such measures should be taken in any event, as rapidly as possible, against families of well-known personages who had become resistants. (For example, members of the families of Generals Giraud, Juin, Georges, the former Minister of the Interior, Pucheu, the Inspector of Finance Couve De Murville, Leroy-Beaulieu, and others.)
“The measures may also be carried out by the German authorities, since the persons who have become resistants are to be considered as foreigners belonging to an enemy power and the members of their families are also to be considered as such.
“In the opinion of those present, the members of these families should be interned; the practical carrying-out of this measure and its technical possibilities must be carefully examined . . . .
“We might also study the question of whether these families should be interned in regions particularly exposed to air attacks, for instance, in the vicinity of dams, or in industrial regions which are often bombed.
“A list of families who are considered liable for internment will be compiled in collaboration with the Embassy.”
In this premeditation of criminal arrests we find the Defendant Ribbentrop, the Defendant Göring, and the Defendant Keitel involved; for it is their departments who made these proposals, and we know that these proposals were agreed to—Document Number 720-PS, submitted as Exhibit Number RF-296, the second in your document book.
It is a fact that these arrests were carried out. Members of the family of General Giraud were deported. General Frère was deported and died in a concentration camp. The orders were therefore carried out. They were approved before being carried out, and the approval inculpates the defendants whose names I have mentioned. The arrests did not only affect high-ranking officers but were much more extensive, and a great number of Frenchmen were arrested. We have no exact statistics.
THE PRESIDENT: M. Dubost, did you produce any evidence for your last statement?
M. DUBOST: I shall bring you the proof of the arrest of General Frère and his death in the concentration camp when I deal with the concentration camps. With regard to the arrest and death of several French generals in the concentration camps in Dachau, the Tribunal still remembers the testimony of Blaha. So far as the family of General Giraud is concerned, I shall endeavor to bring proofs, but I did not believe it was necessary; it is a well-known fact that the daughter of General Giraud was deported.
THE PRESIDENT: I am not sure that we can take judicial notice of all facts which may be public knowledge in France.
M. DUBOST: I shall submit to the Tribunal the supplementary proof concerning the generals who died while deported when I deal with the question of the camps.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
M. DUBOST: General Frère died in Struthof Camp and we shall explain the circumstances under which he was assassinated. In addition, there exists in your document book a document numbered F-417, Exhibit Number RF-297, which was captured among the archives of the German Armistice Commission, which establishes that the German authorities refused to free French generals who were prisoners of war and whose state of health and advanced age made it imperative that they should be released. I quote:
“As far as this question is concerned the Führer has always adopted an attitude of refusal, not only from the point of view of their release but also with regard to their hospitalization in neutral countries.
“Release or hospitalization today is more out of question than ever, since the Führer has only recently ordered the transfer to Germany of all French generals living in France.”
It is signed by Warlimont, and in handwriting it is noted: “No reply to be given to the French.”
Please retain as evidence only this last sentence: “—since the Führer has only recently ordered the transfer to Germany of all French generals living in France.” As I explained, however, these arrests infinitely exceeded the relatively limited number of generals or families of well-known persons envisaged by the document which I have just read to the Tribunal: “Very many Frenchmen will be arrested . . . .” We have no statistics; but we have an idea of the number, which is considerable according to the figures given for Frenchmen who died in French prisons alone, prisons which had been placed under German command and were supervised by German personnel during the occupation.
We know that 40,000 Frenchmen died in the French prisons, alone, in France, according to the official figures given by the Ministry of Prisoners and Deportees. In the prison registry “Schutzhaft” (protective custody) is written. My American colleagues explained to the Tribunal what this protective custody meant when they read Document Number 1723-PS, submitted under Number USA-206. It is useless to return to this document. It is sufficient to remind the Tribunal that imprisonment and protective custody were considered by the German authorities as the strongest measure of forceful education for any foreigners who would deliberately neglect their duty towards the German community or compromise the security of the German State; they had to act in accordance with the general interests and adapt themselves to the discipline of the State.
This protective custody was, as the Tribunal will remember, a purely arbitrary detention. Those who were interned in protective custody enjoyed no rights and could not vindicate themselves. There were no tribunals at their disposal before which they could plead their cause. We know now through official documents which were submitted to us, particularly by Luxembourg, that protective custody was carried out on a very large scale.
The Tribunal will read in Document Number F-229, already submitted as Exhibit Number USA-243, Document L-215, a list of 25 persons arrested and placed in different concentration camps under protective custody. The Tribunal will recall that our colleagues drew its attention to the reason for the arrest of Ludwig, who was merely strongly suspected of having aided deserters.
Evidence of the application of protective custody in France is given in our Document Number F-278, submitted as Exhibit Number RF-300:
“Copy attached to VAAP-7236 (g)—Secret. Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Berlin, 18 September 1941.
“Subject: Report of August 30, of this year.
“The explanations of the Military Commander in France, of 1 August of this year, are considered in general to be satisfactory as a reply to the French note.
“Here, also, we consider there is every reason to avoid any further discussion with the French concerning preventive arrest, as this would only lead to fixing definite limits to the exercise of these powers by the occupying power, which would not be desirable in the interests of the liberty of action of the military authorities. By order, signed (illegible).”
“To the Representative of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at the German Armistice Commission at Wiesbaden.
“The Representative of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs—VAAP 7236(g), Secret, dated Wiesbaden, 23 September 1941. Copy.
“. . . the Representative of the Ministry requests that he be informed at an opportune time of the reply made to the French note.”
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs was still involved in this question of protective custody.
The grounds for this custody were, as the Ministry for Foreign Affairs admits and according to the testimony of this document, very weak; nevertheless, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs does not forbid it. The arrests were carried out under multiple pretexts, but all these pretexts may be summarized under two general ideas: Arrests were made either for motives of a political nature or for racial reasons. The arrests were individual or collective in both cases.
Pretexts of a political nature:
From 1941 the French observed that there was a synchronism between the evolution of political events and the rhythm of arrests. The French Document Number F-274(i) (Exhibit Number RF-301), which is at the end of your document book, will show this. A description is given by the Ministry of Prisoners and Deportees of the conditions under which these arrests took place, beginning in 1941—a critical period in the German history of the war, since it was from 1941 that Germany was at war with the Soviet Union:
“The synchronism between the evolution of political events and the rhythm of arrests is evident. The suppression of the line of demarcation, the establishment of resistance groups, the formation of the Maquis resulting from forced labor, the landings in North Africa and in Normandy, all had immediate repercussions on the figures for arrests, of which the maximum curve is reached for the period of May to August 1944, especially in the southern zone and particularly in the region of Lyons.
“We repeat that these arrests were carried out by the members of all categories of the German repressive system: the Gestapo in uniform or in plain clothes, the SD, the Gendarmerie, particularly at the demarcation line, the Wehrmacht and the SS. . . .
“The arrests took on the characteristics of collective operations. In Paris, as a result of an attempted assassination, the 18th Arrondissement was surrounded by the Feldgendarmerie. Its inhabitants, men, women, and children, could not return to their homes and spent the night where they could find shelter. A round-up was carried out in the arrondissement.”
I do not think that it is necessary to read the following paragraph, which deals with the arrests at the University of Clermont-Ferrand, which the Tribunal will certainly remember, and also the arrests in Brittany in 1944, at the time of the landing.
The last paragraph, at the bottom of Page 11:
“. . . on the pretext of conspiracy or attempted assassinations, whole families were made to suffer. The Germans resorted to round-ups when compulsory labor no longer furnished them sufficient workers.
“Round-up in Grenoble, 24 December 1943, Christmas Eve.
“Round-up in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, in March 1944.
“Round-up in Figeac in May 1944.”
The last paragraph, at the bottom of Page 11:
“Most Frenchmen who were rounded up in this way were in reality not used for work in Germany but were deported, to be interned in concentration camps.”
We might multiply the examples of these arbitrary arrests by delving into official documents which have been submitted by Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Holland, and Belgium. These round-ups were never legally justified, they were never even represented as an action taken in accordance with the pseudo-law of hostages to which we have already referred. They were always arbitrary and carried out without any apparent reason, or at any rate, without its being possible for any act of a Frenchman having motivated them even as a reprisal. Other collective arrests were made for racial reasons. They were of the same odious nature as the arrests made for political reasons.
On Page 5 of the official document of the Ministry of Prisoners and Deportees, the Tribunal may read a few odious details connected with these racial arrests.
“Certain German policemen were especially entrusted to pick out Jewish persons, according to their physiognomy. They called this group ‘The Brigade of Physiognomists.’ This verification sometimes took place in public as far as men were concerned. (At the railway station at Nice, some were unclothed at the point of a revolver.)
“The Parisians remember these round-ups, quarter by quarter. Large police buses transported old men, women, and children pell-mell and crowded them into the Velodrome d’Hiver under dreadful sanitary conditions before taking them to Drancy, where deportation awaited them. The round-up of the month of August 1941 has gained sad renown. All the exits of the subway of the 11th Arrondissement were closed and all the Jews in that district were arrested and imprisoned. The round-up of December 1941 was particularly aimed at intellectual circles. Then there were the round-ups of July 1942.
“All the cities in the southern zone, particularly Lyons, Grenoble, Cannes, and Nice, where many Jews had taken refuge, experienced these round-ups after the total occupation of France.
“The Germans sought out all Jewish children who had found refuge with private citizens or with institutions. In May 1944 they proceeded to take into custody the children of the Colony of Eyzieux, and to arrest children who had sought refuge in the colonies of the U.G.I.F. in June and July 1944.”
I do not believe that these children were enemies of the German people, nor that they represented a danger of any kind to the German Army in France.
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps, M. Dubost, we had better break off now.