Morning Session
MARSHAL: May it please the Court, I desire to announce that the Defendants Kaltenbrunner and Seyss-Inquart will be absent from this morning’s session on account of illness.
M. DUBOST: Before finishing, Gentlemen, I must read you a few more documents concerning war prisoners.
First of all, it will be Document Number L-166, which we present as Exhibit Number RF-377, Page 65 in your document book. It concerns a note which summarizes an interview with the Reich Marshal, on 15 and 16 May 1944, on the subject of pursuit planes. Page 8, Paragraph Number 20:
“The Reich Marshal will propose to the Führer that American and English crews who fire indiscriminately on towns, on civilian trains in motion, or on soldiers dropping by parachute, shall be shot immediately on the spot.”
The importance of this document need not be emphasized. It shows the guilt of the Defendant Göring in reprisals against Allied airmen brought down in Germany.
We shall now read Document R-117, which we submit as Exhibit Number RF-378. Two Liberators, brought down on 21 June 1944 in the District of Mecklenburg, came to earth with their crews intact, 15 men all told. All were shot on the pretext of attempting to escape. The document was found in the files of the headquarters of the 11th Luftgaukommando, and states that nine members of one crew were handed over to the local police. In the next to the last paragraph, third line, we read that they were made prisoners and handed over to the police in Waren. Lieutenants Helton and Ludka were handed over on 21 June 1944 by the protective police to SS Untersturmführer Stempel, of the Security Police, and former Commissioner of the Criminal Police, at Fürstenberg:
“These seven prisoners were shot en route while attempting to escape.
“Lieutenants Helton and Ludka were also shot on the same day while attempting to escape.”
Regarding the second Liberator, at Page 91 we read:
“Subject: Crash of a Liberator on 21 June 1944, at 11:30 a.m. . . . six members of the crew shot while attempting to escape; one, seriously wounded, brought to the garrison hospital at Schwerin.”
We now submit as Exhibit Number RF-379, Document F-553, which the Tribunal will find on Page 101 of the document book. This document concerns the internment in concentration camps and extermination camps of prisoners of war. Among the escaped prisoners a discrimination was made. If they were privates and noncommissioned officers who had agreed to work, they were generally sent back to the camp and punished in conformity with Articles 47, and following, of the Geneva Convention. If it was a question of officers or noncommissioned officers—this is a comment I am making on the document which I shall read to the Tribunal—if it was a question of officers or noncommissioned officers who had refused to work, they were handed over to the police and generally murdered without trial.
One can understand the aim of this discrimination. Those French noncommissioned officers who, in spite of the pressure of the German authorities, refused to work in the German war industry had a very high conception of their patriotic duty. Their attempt to escape, therefore, created against them a kind of presumption of inadaptability to the Nazi order, and they had to be eliminated. Extermination of these elite assumed a systematic character from the beginning of 1944; and the responsibility of Keitel is unquestionably involved in this extermination, which he approved if he did not specifically order.
The document which the Tribunal has before it is a letter of protest by General Bérard, head of the French Delegation to the German Armistice Commission, addressed to the German General Vogl, the president of the said commission. It deals specifically with information reaching France concerning the extermination of escaped prisoners.
First paragraph, fourth line:
“This note reveals the existence of a German organization, independent of the Army, under whose authority escaped prisoners would come.”
This note was addressed on 29 April 1944 by the commandant of Oflag X-C. I read from Page 102:
“Captain Lussus”—declares General Bérard to the German Armistice Commission—“of Oflag X-C, and Lieutenant Girot, of the same Oflag, who had made an attempt to escape on 27 April 1944, were recaptured in the immediate vicinity by the camp guard.
“On 23 June 1944 the French senior officer of Oflag X-C received two funeral urns containing the ashes of these two officers. . . .”
No particulars could be given to this French officer as to the cause of the deaths of Captain Lussus and Lieutenant Girot. General Bérard pointed out at the same time to the German Armistice Commission that the note—which the Tribunal will find on Page 104—had been communicated by the commandant of Oflag X-C to the French senior officer at that Oflag:
“You will bring to the attention of your comrades the fact that there exists, for the control of people moving about unlawfully, a German organization whose field of action extends over regions in a state of war from Poland to the Spanish frontier. Each escaped prisoner who is recaptured and found in possession of civilian clothes, false papers and identification cards, and false photographs, falls under the authority of this organization. What becomes of him then, I cannot tell you. Warn your comrades that this matter is particularly serious.”
The last two lines of this note assumed their full significance when the urns containing the ashes of the two escaped French officers were handed to the senior officer of the camp.
Our Soviet colleagues of the Prosecution will present the conditions under which the escapes of the officers from the Sagan Camp were repressed.
THE PRESIDENT: Was there any answer to this complaint? What you have just been reading, as I understand it, is a complaint made by the French general, Bérard, to the German head of the Armistice Commission, is that right?
M. DUBOST: Mr. President, I do not know if there was an answer. I know only that the archives in Vichy at the time of the liberation were partly pillaged and partly destroyed through military action. If there was an answer we would have had it in the Vichy archives, for the documents we present now are the documents from the German archives of the German Armistice Commission. As to the French archives, I do not know what has become of them. In any case it is possible they may have disappeared as a result of military action.
I was about to inform the Tribunal that my Soviet colleagues would set forth the conditions under which repressive measures were carried out at the camp of Sagan for attempts to escape.
We submit as Exhibit Number RF-380, Document Number F-672, which the Tribunal will find on Page 115 of its document book. This is a report from the Service for War Prisoners and Deportees, dated 9 January 1946, which relates to the deportation to Buchenwald of 20 French prisoners of war. This report must be considered as an authentic document, as well as the reports of war prisoners which are annexed thereto. On Page 116 is the report of Claude Petit, former prisoners’ representative in Stalag VI-G.
“In September 1943 the French civilian workers in Germany and the French prisoners of war who had been converted”—that means converted into workers—“were deprived of all spiritual help, there being no priest among them. Lieutenant Piard, head chaplain of Stalag VI-G, after having spoken with the prisoners-of-war chaplain, Abbé Rodhain, decided to turn into workers six prisoner-of-war priests who volunteered to exercise their ministerial functions among the French civilians.
“This change in classification of priests was difficult to accomplish, as the Gestapo did not authorize the presence of chaplains among civilian workers. . . .”
These priests and a few scouts organized a scout group, and a group of Catholic Action.
On Page 117:
“From the beginning of 1944 the priests felt themselves being watched by the Gestapo in their various activities. . . .
“At the end of July 1944, the six priests were arrested almost simultaneously and taken to the prison of Brauweiler, near Cologne. . . .”
Page 118, the same happened to the scouts. I quote:
“Against this flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention I took numerous steps and made several protests; for the prisoners of war arrested by the Gestapo I even asked the reason for their arrest. . . .
“Owing to the rapid advance of the allies, who were approaching Aachen, all the prisoners of Brauweiler were taken to Cologne. . . .”
[Dr. Stahmer approached the lectern.]
M. DUBOST: Mr. President, before allowing the Defense Counsel to interrupt, permit me to finish reading this document.
THE PRESIDENT: Continue.
M. DUBOST: Thank you, Mr. President. With the end of this paragraph the Tribunal learns that the German military authorities themselves took steps in order to learn the fate of these prisoners:
“The military authorities having no knowledge thereof, immediately undertook correspondence with Buchenwald, correspondence which remained without answer.”
And again:
“At the beginning of March, Major Bramkamp, chief of the Abwehr group, had to go personally to Buchenwald. . . .”
On Pages 120-121 the Tribunal will find the list of the prisoners who thus disappeared.
On Page 122 there is a confirmation of this testimony by M. Souche, prisoners’ representative at Kommando 624, who writes:
“. . . certain war prisoners, converted into workers, and French civilian workers had organized in Cologne a Catholic Action group under the direction of the re-classified war-prisoner priests, Pannier and Cleton. . . .”
Finally, Page 123:
“. . . the arrests began with members of the Catholic Action”—and the accusations were—“anti-German maneuvers. . . .”
THE PRESIDENT: I do not know what Dr. Stahmer’s objection is.
DR. OTTO STAHMER (Counsel for Defendant Göring): We are not in a position to follow the exposé of the French Prosecutor. First of all, the translation is not very good. Some sentences are left out. Especially, wrong numbers are mentioned. For instance, 612 has been mentioned. I have it here. It is quite a different document. We have not the document books and therefore we cannot follow the page citations. Also my colleagues complain that they are not in a position to follow the proceedings under this manner of presentation.
THE PRESIDENT: May I see your document?
[The document was handed to the President.]
DR. STAHMER: This number was just mentioned, as can be confirmed by the other gentlemen.
THE PRESIDENT: The document which M. Dubost was reading was 672. The Document you have got there is a different number.
DR. STAHMER: But this was the number that came through to us, 612, and not only I, but the other gentlemen heard the same number. And not only this number, but all the numbers have been given incorrectly.
Another difficulty is that we have not the document book. Page 118 had been referred to, but the number of the page does not mean anything to us. We cannot follow at this rate.
THE PRESIDENT: M. Dubost, I think the trouble really arises from the fact that you give the numbers too fast and the numbers are very often wrongly translated, not only into German, but sometimes into English. It is very difficult for the interpreters to pick up all these numbers. First of all, you are giving the number of the document, then the number of the exhibit, then the page of the document book—and that means that the interpreters have got to translate many numbers spoken very quickly.
It is essential that the defendants should be able to follow the document; and as I understand it, they have not got the document books in the same shape we have. It is the only way we can follow. But we have them now in this particular document book by page, and therefore it is absolutely essential that you go slowly.
M. DUBOST: Mr. President, the document books, all the documents, have been handed to the Defense.
THE PRESIDENT: Are you telling us that document books have been handed to the Defense in the same shape they are handed to us, let us say, with pages on them? Speaking for myself, that is the only way I am able to follow the document. You mentioned Page 115 and that does show me where the document is. If I have not got that page, I should not be able to find the document.
M. DUBOST: Mr. President, I announced at the same time RF-380, which is the number of the exhibit. F-672 is the classification number. All our documents bear a classification number. It was not possible to hand to the Defense a document book paginated like the one the Tribunal has, for it is not submitted in the same language. It is submitted in German and the pages are not in the same place. There is not an absolute identity of pagination between the German document book and yours.
THE PRESIDENT: I am telling you the difficulties under which the defendants’ counsel are working, and if we had simply a number of documents without the pagination we should be under a similar difficulty. And it is a very great difficulty. Therefore you must go very slowly in giving the identification of the document.
M. DUBOST: I shall conform to the wishes of the Tribunal, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Stahmer, the document being read was Document F-672.
DR. STAHMER: We cannot find Document 672. We have 673. We have nothing but loose sheets, and we have to hunt through them first to find the number. We have Number 673, but we have not yet found Number 672 among our documents. It is very difficult for us to follow a citation, because it takes us so much time to find the numbers even if they have been mentioned correctly.
THE PRESIDENT: I can understand the difficulty. Will you continue, M. Dubost, and do as I say, going very slowly so as to give the defendants’ counsel, as far as possible, the opportunity to find the document. And I think that you ought to do something satisfactory, if possible, to make it possible for them to find that document—by pagination or some other letters. An index, for instance, giving the order in which the documents are set out.
M. DUBOST: Three days ago, two document books in French, paginated like the books which the Tribunal has before it, were handed to the Defense. We were able to hand only two to them, for reasons of a technical nature. But at the same time we handed to the Defense a sufficient number of documents in German to enable each Defense Counsel to have his file in German. Does the Tribunal ask me to collate the pages of the French document book which we submit to the Defense with the pages of a document book which we set up, when the Defense can do it and has the time to do it? Three days ago the two French document books were handed to the Defense. They had the possibility of comparing the French texts with the German texts to make sure that our translations were correct, and to prepare themselves for the sessions.
THE PRESIDENT: Go on, M. Dubost. As I say, do it slowly.
DR. STAHMER: It is not correct that we received it 3 days ago. We found this pile in our compartment yesterday evening. We simply have not had time to number these pages. As I say, this was in our compartment yesterday evening or this morning.
THE PRESIDENT: Let’s go on now, M. Dubost, and go slowly in describing the identification of the document.
M. DUBOST: We shall pass to Document F-357, which will be submitted as Exhibit Number RF-381. This document deals with the carrying out of general orders concerning the execution of prisoners of war. It contains the testimony of a German gendarme who was made prisoner on 25 May 1945, and who declares (Page 127):
“All prisoners of war, who had fallen into our hands in whatever circumstances, were to be slain by us instead of being handed over to the Wehrmacht as had been done hitherto.”
This concerned an order which was given in the middle of August 1944. The witness continues:
“This execution was to be carried out in a deserted spot.”
On Page 128, the same witness gives the names of Germans who had executed prisoners of war.
We shall now submit Document 1634-PS, which will become Exhibit Number RF-382. The Tribunal will find it on Page 129 in their document book. It is a document which has not yet been read. It relates to the murder of 129 American prisoners of war which was perpetrated by the German Army in a field in the southwest, and west of Baignes in Belgium, on 17 December 1944 during the German offensive.
The author of this report summarizes the facts. The American prisoners were brought together near the crossroad. A few soldiers, whose names are indicated, rushed across the field toward the west, hid among the trees in the high grass, in thickets, and ditches, and thus escaped the massacre of their companions. A few others who, at the moment when this massacre began, were in the proximity of a barn, were able to hide in it. They also are survivors.
Page 129:
“. . . the artillery and machine gun fire on the column of American vehicles continued for about 10 to 15 minutes, and then two German tanks and some armored cars came down the road from the direction of Weismes. Upon reaching the intersection, these vehicles turned south on the road toward St. Vith. The tanks directed machine gun fire into the ditch along the side of the road in which the American soldiers were crouching; and upon seeing this, the other American soldiers dropped their weapons and raised their hands over their heads. The surrendered American soldiers were then made to march back to the crossroad, and as they passed by some of the German vehicles on highway N-23, German soldiers on these vehicles took from the American prisoners of war such personal belongings as wrist watches, rings, and gloves. The American soldiers were then assembled on the St. Vith road in front of a house standing on the southwest corner of the crossroad. Other German soldiers, in tanks and armored cars, halted at the crossroad and also searched some of the captured Americans and took valuables from them. . . .”
Top of Page 131:
“. . . an American prisoner was questioned and taken with his other comrades to the crossroads just referred to.
“. . . at about this same time a German light tank attempted to maneuver itself into position on the road so that its cannon would be directed at the group of American prisoners gathered in the field approximately 20 to 25 yards from the road. . . .”
I again skip four lines.
“. . . some of these tanks stopped when they came opposite the field in which the unarmed American prisoners were standing in a group, with their hands up or clasped behind their heads. A German soldier, either an officer or a noncommissioned officer, in one of these vehicles which had stopped, got up, drew his revolver, took deliberate aim and fired into the group of American prisoners. One of the American soldiers fell. This was repeated a second time and another American soldier in the group fell to the ground. At about the same time, from two of the vehicles on the road, fire was opened on the group of American prisoners in the field. All, or most, of the American soldiers dropped to the ground and stayed there while the firing continued, for 2 or 3 minutes. Most of the soldiers in the field were hit by this machine gun fire. The German vehicles then moved off toward the south and were followed by more vehicles which also came from the direction of Weismes. As these latter vehicles came opposite the field in which the American soldiers were lying, they also fired with small arms from the moving vehicles at the prostrate bodies in the field. . . .”
Page 132:
“. . . some German soldiers, evidently from the group of those who were on guard at the crossroad, then walked to the group of the wounded American prisoners who were still lying on the ground in the field . . . and shot with pistol or rifle, or clubbed with a rifle butt or other heavy object, any of the American soldiers who still showed any sign of life. In some instances, American prisoners were evidently shot at close range, squarely between the eyes, in the temple, or the back of the head. . . .”
This deed constitutes an act of pure terrorism, the shame of which will remain on the German Army, for nothing justified this. These prisoners were unarmed and had surrendered.
The Tribunal authorized me yesterday to present the documents on which the French accusation is based for establishing the guilt of Göring, Keitel, Jodl, Bormann, Frank, Rosenberg, Streicher, Schirach, Hess, Frick, the OKW, OKH, OKL, the Reich Cabinet, and the Nazi Leadership Corps, as well as of the SS and the Gestapo, for atrocities committed in the camps. I shall be very brief. I have very few new documents to present.
The first concerns Kaltenbrunner. It is the American Document L-35 which the Tribunal will find on Page 246 of the document book concerning concentration camps, that is the second book. This document has not been submitted. It is the testimony of Rudolf Mildner, Doctor of Law, Colonel of the Police, who declares:
“The internment orders were signed by the Chief of the Sipo and SD, Dr. Kaltenbrunner, or, as deputy by the head of Amt IV, SS Gruppenführer Müller.”
In submitting this it becomes Exhibit Number RF-383 (bis).
Concerning Göring we submit the American Document 343-PS, Exhibit Number RF-384. This is a letter from Field Marshal Milch to Wolff. This letter concludes with this phrase:
“I express to the SS the special thanks of the Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe for the aid they have rendered.”
Now, from what precedes, one can conclude that these thanks refer to the biological experiments of Dr. Rascher. Thus, Göring is involved in these.
The German SS Medical Corps is implicated. This one can gather from Document 1635-PS, which has not yet been handed to the Tribunal, which becomes Exhibit Number RF-385, and which the Tribunal will find in the annex of the second document book. These are extracts from reviews of microscopic and anatomical research. They deal with experiments made on persons who died suddenly, although in good health. The circumstances of their death are stated by the experimenters in such a way that no reader can be in any doubt as to the conditions under which they were put to death.
With the permission of the Tribunal, I shall read a few brief extracts. Page 132 of the document which we submit to the Tribunal:
“The thyroid glands of 21 persons between 20 and 40 years of age, who were in supposedly good health and who suddenly died, were examined.
“The persons in question, 19 men and 2 women, until their death lived for several months under identical conditions, also with regard to food. The last food taken consisted chiefly of carbohydrates.
“Replacement products and examination methods:”—that is the title.
“Over a considerable period, substance for experiments was taken from the livers of 24 adults in good health, who suddenly died between 5 and 6 o’clock in the morning.”
On examining these documents, as well as the originals, the Tribunal will see that German medical literature is very rich in experiments carried out on “adults in good health who died suddenly between 5 and 6 o’clock in the morning.”
No one in Germany could be deceived as to the conditions under which these deaths occurred, since the accounts of the SS doctors’ experiments in the camps were printed and published.
One of the last documents is F-185(b), and (a), relative to an experiment with poisoned bullets carried out on 11 August 1944, in the presence of SS Sturmbannführer Dr. Ding and Dr. Widmann—Page 187 of the second document book concerning concentration camps. These two documents are submitted as Exhibit Numbers RF-386 and RF-387. The Tribunal will find the description of this experiment, in which the victims are described as persons sentenced to death.
THE PRESIDENT: The document has been read already, I think.
M. DUBOST: It is a document from the French archives. However, Mr. President, I doubt whether the Tribunal has heard Document F-185(b), Exhibit RF-386, which is the opinion of the French professor, M. May, Fellow of Surgery, to whom the pseudo-scientific documents to which I alluded just now were submitted—the reports from scientific reviews of experiments. He wrote, Page 222:
“The wickedness and the stupidity of the experimenters amazed us. The symptoms of aconitine nitrate poisoning have been known from time immemorial. This poison is sometimes employed by certain savage tribes to poison their war arrows. But one has never heard of them writing observations in a pretentious style, on the anticipated result of their experiments—observations which are completely inadequate and puerile—nor that they would have them signed by a ‘Doz,’ that is to say, a professor.”
We now submit Document F-278(a) as Exhibit Number RF-388. It involves Keitel. It is a letter signed: “By order of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, Dr. Lehmann.” It is dated 17 February 1942 and is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and it implicates him. It concerns the regime in the internment camps:
“Delinquents brought to Germany in application of the decree of the Führer are to have no communication of any kind with the outside world. They must, therefore, neither write themselves, nor receive letters, packages, or visits. The letters, packages, and visits are to be refused with the remark that all communication with the outside world is forbidden.”
The High Command gives its point of view in a letter of 31 January 1942, according to which there can be no question of Belgian lawyers being permitted for Belgian prisoners.
We now submit Document 682-PS, which becomes Exhibit Number RF-389, Page 134 of the second document book. This document implicates the German Government and the Reich Cabinet. It is a record of a conversation between Dr. Goebbels and Thierack, Minister of Justice, in Berlin, on 14 September 1942, from 1300 hours to 1415 hours.
“With regard to the destruction of asocial life, Dr. Goebbels is of the opinion that the following should be exterminated: All Jews and Gypsies, Poles having to serve 3-4 years of penal servitude, and Czechs and Germans sentenced to death, to penal servitude for life, or to security custody (Sicherungsverwahrung). The idea of exterminating them by work is the best. . . .”
We stress this last phrase which shows, even in the heart of the German Government itself, the will to “exterminate by work.”
The last document that we shall submit with regard to the concentration camps is Document F-662, which becomes Exhibit Number RF-390, Pages 77 and 78, second document book. This document is the testimony of M. Poutiers, living in Paris, Place de Breteuil, who points out that the internees in the detachments of Mauthausen-Ebens worked under the direct control of civilians, the SS dealing only with the guarding of the prisoners. This witness, who was in numerous work units, states that all were ordered and controlled by civilians and only supervised by the SS and that the inhabitants of the country, as the internees went to and from their work and while at work, could therefore observe their misery; which confirms the testimony which has already been given before the Tribunal during these last few days.
We shall summarize the increasing advance of the German criminal policy in the West: At the beginning of the occupation, violation of Article 50 of the Hague Convention; execution of hostages, but creation of a pseudo “law of hostages” to legalize these executions in the eyes of the occupied countries.
In the years that follow, contempt for the rights of the human individual increases, until it becomes complete in the last months of the occupation. By that time arbitrary imprisonment, parodies of trials, or executions without trial have become daily practice.
The sentences, the Tribunal will remember, were not put into effect in cases of acquittal or pardon; people acquitted by German tribunals, who should have been set at liberty, were deported and died in concentration camps.
At the same time there developed and grew in strength the organization of Frenchmen who remained on the soil of France and refused to let their country die. At this stage German terrorism was intensified against them ever increasingly. What follows is the description of the terrorist repression carried out by the Germans against the patriots of the west of Europe, against what was called the “Resistance,” without giving this word any other meaning than its generic sense.
From the time Germany understood that her policy of collaboration was doomed to defeat, that her policy of hostages only exasperated the fury of the people whom she was trying to subdue; instead of modifying her policy with regard to the citizens of the occupied countries, she reinforced the terror which already reigned there and tried to justify it by saying it was an anti-Communist campaign.
The Tribunal will recall Keitel’s order and will understand what was thought of this pretext. All the French, all the citizens of Europe without distinction, without any distinction of party, profession, religion, or race, were involved in the resistance against Germany and their heroes were mingled in the graves and in the collective charnel houses into which the Germans threw them after their extermination.
But this confusion was voluntary; it was calculated; it justified to a certain degree the arbitrary measures of repression of which we already had evidence in Document F-278, which we submit under Number RF-391. It is dated 12 January 1943, and is signed “Von Falkenhausen.”
“Persons who are found, without valid authorization, in possession of explosives and military firearms, pistols of all kinds, submachine guns, rifles, et cetera, with ammunition, are liable in future to be shot immediately without trial.”
This order and others analogous to it continued to be executed even after the allied landing in the west of Europe. These orders were even carried out against organized forces in Belgium as well as in France, although the Germans themselves considered these forces as troops to a certain extent. This can be verified by reference to Document F-673, submitted under Exhibit Number RF-392, entitled “Terrorist action against patriots.”
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps this would be a convenient time to break off.
[A recess was taken.]
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, M. Dubost.
M. DUBOST: The document I have just submitted under Exhibit Number RF-392 is a memorandum to the Wiesbaden Commission. We read the following:
“The action of the German troops, even if we admit the truth of the facts presented by the French, is taking place in the form of combat by far exceeding in scope any purely police action against isolated outlaws. On the enemy side we have organizations which absolutely refuse to accept the sovereignty of the French Government of Vichy and which from the point of view of numbers as well as of armament and command should almost be designated as troops. It has been reiterated that these revolutionary units consider themselves as being a part of the forces fighting against Germany.
“General Eisenhower has described the terrorists who are fighting in France as troops under his command. It is against such troops”—on the original is written in red pencil “unfortunately not only”—“that repressive measures are directed.”
This document shows us that when in action the French Forces of the Interior, as well as all French forces in the western occupied countries, were considered as troops by the German Army.
THE PRESIDENT: I see that it may be useful for the record. It is in the document book on the extermination of innocent populations, on Page 167.
M. DUBOST: I thank you, Mr. President. Are then these patriots, who were consequently considered by the German Army as constituting regular troops, treated as soldiers? No.
The order of Falkenhausen is proof thereof. They were either to be killed on the spot—and, after all, that is the fate of a combatant—or else delivered to the Sipo, to the SD, and tortured to death by these organisms, who dispensed with any legal formalities, as is shown by Document 835-PS, which has already been submitted under Number USA-527, and also by Document F-673, Page 6 in your document book, which we submit under Exhibit Number RF-392.
Document Number F-673 is a considerable bundle of papers which comes from the archives of the German Commission at Wiesbaden, and we are submitting it in its entirety under Exhibit Number RF-392. Whenever we refer to Document F-673, it will be one of the documents in this big German book.
“Letter from the Führer’s headquarters, 18 August 1944, 30 copies; copy 26; top secret.
“Subject: Combatting terrorists and saboteurs in occupied territories . . . . 2. Jurisdiction over non-German civilians in occupied territories.
“1) Enclosed herewith”—says the writer of this letter—“we are transmitting a copy of the order of the Führer of 30 July 1944. . . .”
This order of the Führer will be found on Page 9 of your document book. Paragraph 3.
“I therefore order the troops and every individual member of the Wehrmacht, the SS, and the police to shoot immediately on the spot terrorists and saboteurs who are caught in the act . . . .
“2) Whoever is captured later is to be transferred to the nearest local office of the Security Police and of the SD.
“3) Sympathizers, particularly women, who do not take an actual part in hostilities, are to be assigned to work.”
We know what that means. We know the regime of labor in concentration camps. But I shall proceed with reading the text of the covering letter of this order of the Führer, Paragraph 4. This paragraph is a commentary on the order itself:
“Present legal proceedings relating to any act of terror or sabotage or any other crime committed by non-German civilians in the occupied territories, which endanger the security or the readiness for battle of the occupying power, are to be suspended. Indictments are to be withdrawn. The carrying out of sentences is not to be imposed. The accused and the records are to be turned over to the nearest local office of the Security Police and SD.”
This order, to be transmitted to all commanding officers, as indicated on Page 7, is accompanied by one last comment, Page 8, the penultimate paragraph:
“Non-German civilians in the occupied territories who endanger the security or readiness for battle of the occupying power in a manner other than through acts of terrorism and sabotage are to be turned over to the SD.”
This order is signed by Keitel.
By this comment, Keitel has associated himself in spirit with the order of his Führer. He has brought about the execution of numerous individuals, for an order to kill without control any one suspected of being a terrorist affects not only the terrorists but the innocent and affects the innocent more than the terrorists. Moreover, Keitel’s comment exceeds even Hitler’s own orders. Keitel applied Hitler’s stipulation—on Page 9 of your document book—to a hypothetical case which had not been foreseen, to wit:
“Acts committed by non-German civilians in occupied territories which endanger the security or readiness for battle, of the occupying power.”
This is on the general’s own initiative. It is a political act which has nothing to do with the conduct of war. It is a political act which compromises and involves him. It makes him participate in the development and extension of the Hitlerian policy; for it is the interpretation of an order from Hitler, within the spirit of the order perhaps, but beyond its scope.
Instructions were given to the Sipo and the SD to execute without judgment. These instructions were carried out. Document F-574 on Page 10 of your document book, submitted as Exhibit Number RF-393, is the testimony of a certain Goldberg, an adjutant to the Sicherheitspolizei in Chalon-sur-Saône before the liberation of that city. He was captured by the patriots and interrogated by the divisional commissioner, who was head of the regional judicial police officials at Dijon. The Defense will certainly not accuse us of having had him examined by a subordinate police officer. It was the chief himself of the judicial police officials for the Dijon region who interrogated this witness. The witness declared, Page 12:
“At the end of May 1944, without my having seen any written order on this subject, the Sicherheitspolizei of Chalon were given the right to pronounce capital punishment and to have the sentence executed without those concerned having appeared before a tribunal and without the case having been submitted for approval to the commander at Dijon. The chief of the SD in Chalon, that is Krüger, had all necessary authority to make such decisions. There was no opposition, so far as I know, on the part of the SD of Dijon. I therefore conclude that this procedure was regular and was the consequence of instructions which were not officially communicated to me but which emanated from higher authorities.”
Execution was carried out by members of the SD. Their names are given by the witness, but they are not of particular interest to this Tribunal, which is only concerned with the punishment of the principal criminals—those who gave the orders and from whom the orders emanated.
How were these orders applied in the various countries of the West? In Holland, according to the testimony found in the report given by the Dutch Government, Page 15, I quote:
“About 3 days after the attempt against Rauter—about 10 March 1945—I witnessed the execution of several Dutch patriots by the German ‘green’ police while I was working in the fields in Waltrop.”
This Dutch document is classified in the French file as Number F-224 (Document F-224 (a), Exhibit RF-277) and has been submitted to you in its entirety, but the specific passage to which I refer has not been read. The witness continues, on Page 16 of your document book:
“I spoke to an Oberwachtmeister of the ‘green’ police whose name is unknown to me, and he told me that this execution was in revenge for the attempt against Rauter. He told me also that hundreds of Dutch ‘terrorists’ had been executed for similar reasons.”
Another witness stated:
“About 6 o’clock in the evening”—this is the German who gave the orders to execute the Dutch patriots—“when I went to my office, I received the order to have 40 prisoners shot.”
On Page 19, the investigators, who are Canadian officers, state the conditions under which the corpses were discovered. I do not believe that the Tribunal will want me to read this passage.
On Page 21 the Tribunal will find the report of Munt, completing and rectifying his report of 4 June on the execution of Dutchmen after the attempt against Rauter.
The execution was carried out on the order of Kolitz; 198 prisoners were transported. Munt denies having sanctioned the execution of these Dutch patriots, but says that it was nevertheless impossible for him to prevent it, in view of the orders from higher sources which he had received.
On Page 22, next to the last paragraph, the same Munt states:
“After an attack against two members of the Wehrmacht on two consecutive days, in which both were wounded and their rifles taken away, my chief insisted that 15 Dutch citizens be shot; 12 were shot.”
An important document is to be found on Page 30 in your document book. It is included in F-224, which comprises the documents relative to inquiries made by the Dutch Government. This is a decree concerning the proclamation of summary police justice for the occupied Netherlands territory. It is signed by the Defendant Seyss-Inquart. Therefore one has to go to him when seeking for the chief responsibility for these summary executions of patriots in Holland.
From this decree we take Paragraph 1:
“. . . I proclaim, for the occupied Netherlands territory in its entirety, summary police justice which shall enter into force immediately.
“Simultaneously, I order that everyone abstain from any kind of agitation which might disturb public order and the security of public life.”
I skip a paragraph.
“The senior SS and Police Leader will take every step deemed necessary by him for the maintenance or restoration of public order or the security of public life.
“In the execution of his task the senior SS and Police Leader may deviate from the law in force.”
Summary police justice! These words do not deceive us. This is purely and simply a matter of murder, in that the police is authorized in executing its functions to deviate from the law in force. This sentence, which Seyss-Inquart signed and which protected his subordinates who assassinated Dutch, patriots as far as German law was concerned, is in itself the condemnation of Seyss-Inquart.
In execution of this decree the Tribunal will see that on 2 May—and this is Page 32 of your document book—a summary police tribunal pronounced the death sentence against ten Dutch patriots. On Page 34, another summary police tribunal pronounced the death sentence on ten other Dutch patriots. All of them were executed. On the next page, still in application of the same decree, a summary police court pronounced the death sentence on a patriot, and he was executed.
This document, Document F-224(a), Exhibit RF-277, comprises a very long list of similar texts which seems to me superfluous to cite. The Tribunal may refer to the last only, which is especially interesting. We will consider it for a moment; it is on Page 46 of your document book. This is the report of the Identification and Investigation Service of the Netherlands, according to which, while it was not possible to make known at that time the number of Dutch citizens who were shot by the military units of the occupying power, we can state now that a total of more than 4,000 of them were executed. The details of the executions, with the places where the corpses were discovered, follow.
This constitutes only a very fragmentary aspect of the sufferings and the sacrifices in human life endured by Holland. That needs to be stated because it is the consequence of the criminal orders of the Defendant Seyss-Inquart.
In the case of Belgium, the basic document is the French Document F-685, submitted as Exhibit Number RF-394; and you will find it on Page 48 of your document book. It is a report drawn up by the Belgian War Crimes Commission, which deals only with the crimes committed by the German troops at the time of the liberation of Belgian territory, September 1944. These crimes were all committed against Belgian patriots who were fighting against the German Army. It is not merely a question of executions but of ill-treatment and torture as well. Page 50:
“At Graide a camp of the secret army was attacked. 15 corpses were discovered to have been frightfully mutilated. The Germans had used bullets with sawn off tips. Some of the bodies had been pierced with bayonets. Two of the prisoners had been beaten with cudgels before being finished off with a pistol shot.”
The prisoners were soldiers, taken with weapons in hand and in battle, belonging to those units which officially, according to the testimony in documents previously cited to you, were considered by the German General Staff from that time on as being combatants.
“At Fôret, on 6 September, several hundred men of the resistance were billeted in the Château de Forêt. The Germans, having been warned of their going into action, decided to carry out a repressive operation. A certain number of unarmed members of the resistance tried to flee. Some were killed; others succeeded in getting back to the castle, not having been able to break through the cordon of German troops; others were finally made prisoner.
“The Germans advanced with the resistance prisoners in front of them. After 2 hours the fighting stopped for lack of ammunition. The Germans promised to spare the lives of those who surrendered. Some of the prisoners were loaded on a lorry; others, in spite of the promise given, were massacred after having been tortured. The castle and the corpses were sprinkled with gasoline and set on fire: 20 men perished in this massacre; 15 others had been killed during combat.”
The examples are numerous. This testimony to heroic Belgium was necessary. It was necessary that we should be reminded of what we owe her, of what we owe to her combatants of the secret army, and how great their sacrifice has been.
With regard to Luxembourg, we have a document from the Ministry of Justice of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which is Document Number UK-77, already submitted under Exhibit Number RF-322, which the Tribunal will find on Page 53 of the document book.
The Tribunal will note that a special summary tribunal, similar to those which functioned in Holland, was set up in Luxembourg; that it functioned in that country and pronounced a certain number of death sentences, 21—all of them equally arbitrary, in view of the arbitrary character of the tribunal which pronounced them.
The document contains the official indictment of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg against all the members of the Reich Cabinet, specifically against the Ministers of the Interior, of Justice, and the Party Chancellery, and against the leaders of the SS and Police, and especially against the Reich Commissioner for the Preservation of German Nationality.
In the case of Norway, Document UK-79 already submitted under Exhibit Number RF-323, Page 55 of the document book, shows that tribunals similar to the special tribunal set up in Holland by the police were in operation in Norway. They were called the SS tribunals. More than 150 Norwegians were condemned to death. Besides, the Tribunal will remember the testimony of M. Cappelen, who gave an account of what his country and his compatriots had endured.
Regarding Denmark, on Page 57 of your document book, Document Number F-666, already submitted as Exhibit Number RF-338, the Tribunal will note that according to this official report of the Danish Government police courts-martial similar to those which functioned in Luxembourg, in Norway, and in Holland, functioned against Danish patriots. These summary police tribunals, composed of SS or police, in reality disguised the arbitrary measures of the police and of the SS; measures not only tolerated, but willed by the government, as can be shown by documents which we placed before you at the beginning of this statement.
We, therefore, can assert that the victims of those tribunals were murdered without having been able to justify or defend themselves.
In the case of France the question should be carefully examined. The Tribunal knows that from the moment of the landing, answering the call of the General Staff, the French Secret Army rose and began battle. Undoubtedly, in spite of the warning given by the Allied General Staff, these combatants, who a few weeks later were officially recognized by the German side as being combatants, at the beginning found themselves in a rather irregular situation. We do not contest that in many instances they were francs-tireurs; we admit that they could be condemned to death; but we protest because they were not condemned to death, but were murdered after having been brutally tortured. We are going to give you proof thereof.
Document F-577, which is submitted under Exhibit Number RF-395, to be found on Page 62 of your document book, states that on 17 August, the day before the liberation of Rodez, the Germans shot 30 patriots with a submachine gun. Then, to finish them off, they tore large stones from the wall of the trench in which they were and hurled them on the bodies with some earth. The chests and the skulls were crushed.
Document F-580, Page 79 of your document book, which is submitted to you as Exhibit Number RF-396, shows that five oblates from the order of Marie—as far as I know these lay brothers were not communists—were murdered after having been tortured, because they belonged to a group of the Secret Army. In all, 36 corpses were discovered after this execution, a “punitive measure” carried out by the German Army.
On Page 85 the Tribunal will read the result of the inquiry and will see under what conditions these 5 monks were killed after having been tortured and under what conditions the staff of a resistance group, which had been betrayed, was arrested and deported, together with a few members of the same religious order.
Evidence is produced that men from the Maquis in the forest of Achères were arrested and tortured after having been incarcerated in the prison of Fontainebleau. We even know the name of the German member of the Gestapo who tortured these patriots. His name is unimportant—this German, Korf, carried out orders that were given by Keitel and by the other defendants whose names I mentioned just now.
Document F-584, submitted under Exhibit Number RF-397, Pages 87 and 88, shows the Tribunal that when the bodies were found it was discovered that 10 of them had been blindfolded before being shot, that 8 had had their arms broken by injury or torture, and many had wounds in the lower parts of their legs as the result of being very tightly bound. That is the report of the commissioner of the police at Pau, drawn up on 28 August 1944, on the day following the liberation of Pau.
We now submit Document F-585 as Exhibit Number RF-398. The Tribunal will find it on Page 96 of the document book. I will give a summary:
The day following the liberation, 38 corpses were found in two graves near Signes in the mountain of Var. One of the leaders of the Resistance of the Côte d’Azur, Valmy, and with him two parachutists, Pageot and Manuel, were identified. Of this massacre a witness was found—his name is Tuirot—whose statements are copied on Pages 105, 106, and 107 of your document book.
Tuirot was tortured, with his comrades, without having been given the opportunity of help from a counsel or a chaplain. The 38 men were taken to the woods. They appeared before a parody of a tribunal composed of SS. They were condemned to death and the sentence was executed.
We place now before the Tribunal Document F-586 as Exhibit Number RF-399. The Tribunal will find it on Page 110 of the document book. It deals with the execution at Saint Nazaire and Royans of 37 patriots, members of the French Secret Army, who were tortured before being executed. Here is the statement of facts by an eyewitness:
“I came through the ruins and arrived at the Château of Madame Laurent, a widow. There a frightful spectacle confronted me. The castle, which the Gestapo had used as a place of torture for the young Maquis, had been set on fire. In a cellar there was the calcinated skeleton which prior to death had had its forearms and a foot pulled off and which had perhaps been burned while still alive.”
But I proceed. Wherever the Gestapo was in operation there were the same methods.
Now we place before the Tribunal Document F-699, which relates to the murder at Grenoble of 48 members of the Secret Army all of whom were tortured. This document is submitted as Exhibit Number RF-400.
I now come to Document F-587, which we submit as Exhibit Number RF-401. The Tribunal will find this document on Page 115 of the document book. It concerns the execution by hanging of 12 patriots at Nîmes, 2 of whom were dragged from the hospital where they were under care for wounds received in battle. These young men had all been captured in combat at St. Hippolyte-du-Fort. The bodies of these wretched men had been defiled. On their chests was a placard saying: “Thus are French terrorists punished.” When the French authorities wished to perform funeral rites for these unfortunate men, the bodies had disappeared. The German Army had removed them. They have never been discovered. It is a fact that two of these victims were dragged from the hospital. Document F-587 contains particularly the report of a witness who saw the men taken from the hospital ward where they were being cared for.
I now submit Document F-561 as Exhibit Number RF-402—Page 118 of your book. It deals with the execution at Lyons of 109 patriots who were shot under inhuman conditions. They were killed at the end of a day’s toil. On 14 August Allied planes had bombed the Bron airfield. From 16 to 22 August the German authorities had employed requisitioned civilians and prisoners from the Fort of Montluc at Lyons to fill the bomb craters. At the end of the day, when the work was finished, the civilian laborers went away; but the prisoners were shot on the spot after having been more or less ill-treated. Their bodies were stacked in half-filled craters.
Document F-591, which we submit as Exhibit Number RF-403, Page 119 of the document book, is a report of atrocities committed by the German Army on 30 August 1944 at Tavaux (Aisne):
“During the afternoon of that day soldiers of the Adolf Hitler Division arrived at Tavaux. They appeared at the home of M. Maujean, who was leader of the resistance. His wife opened the door. Without explanation they shot at her, wounding her in the thigh and also in the lower jaw. They dragged her to the kitchen and broke one arm and one leg in the presence of her children, aged 9, 8, 7, and 6 years, and 8 months. They poured inflammable liquid over Madame Maujean and set fire to her in front of the children. The elder son held his little sister, 8 months old, in his arms. Then they told the children that they would shoot them if they did not tell them where their father was. The children said nothing, although they knew the whereabouts of their father. Before leaving they took the children to the cellar and locked them in. Then the Germans poured gasoline on the house and set it on fire. The fire was put out and the children were saved. These facts were told to M. Maujean by his eldest child. No other person was a witness to these facts because the inhabitants, frightened by the first houses set on fire, had sought refuge either in trenches or in the neighboring fields and woods.
“During the same evening 21 persons were killed at Tavaux and 83 houses were set on fire.”
Next comes a report by the gendarme, Carlier, on the events of the following day.
Document F-589, which we submit as Exhibit Number RF-404, shows the number of murders of patriots committed in the region of Lyons. It is dated 29 September 1944: 713 victims were found in 8 departments; 217 only have been identified. This figure is approximate; it is definitely less than the number of people who are missing in the 8 departments of Ain, Ardèche, Drôme, Isère, Loire, Rhône, Savoie, and Haute Savoie.
A German general, General Von Brodowski, confessed in his diary, which fell into our hands, that he had caused the murder of numerous patriots, and that the Wehrmacht, Police, and SS operated together and were responsible for these murders. These troops murdered wounded men in the hospital camps of the French forces of the interior. This document, which is under Number F-257, is submitted as Exhibit Number RF-405 and is to be found on Page 123 of your document book. In the last four paragraphs the police and the army combine:
“I have been charged with restoring the authority of the Army of Occupation in the Department of Cantal and neighboring regions.”
Dated 6 June 1944:
“General Jesser had been charged with the tactical direction of the undertaking. All troops available for the operation will be subordinate to him, as well as all other forces.
“The Commander of the Sipo and of the SD, Hauptsturmführer Geissler, remains at my immediate disposal; he will submit to me proposals for a possible utilization”—and so forth.
“The staff and two battalions of the SS Panzer Division ‘Das Reich’ are, in addition, to remain available for the operation in Cantal.”
General Brodowski turned over to the SD (which is equivalent to execution without trial) the French prisoners who were wounded on 15 June 1944. The Prefect of Le Puy asked the liaison staff whether the men wounded in the battle of Montmouchet and taken into safety by the Red Cross of Puy could be delivered to Puy as prisoners of war. This German general, executing the orders of the German High Command—particularly of Keitel and Jodl—said that those wounded men were to be treated as francs-tireurs and to be delivered to the SD or to the Abwehr. Those wounded men were turned over to the German Police and tortured and killed without trial.
According to the statement of Goldberg, which I have submitted, any man turned over to the SD was executed. Events took place on 21 June 1944 as indicated by Goldberg, “Twelve suspects were arrested and turned over to the SD.”
Under the date of 16 August 1944, Page 133, this general of the German Army had 40 men murdered after the battles at Bourg-Lastic and at Cosnat:
“In the course of operation Jesser, on 15 July 1944 in the Bourg-Lastic region, 23 persons were executed. Martial law. Attack on Cosnat; 3 kilometers east of St. Hilaire, during the night of 17 July, 40 terrorists were shot.”
On Page 136, this German general admits in his own diary that our comrades were fighting as soldiers and not as assassins. This general of the German Army acknowledges that the French Forces of the Interior took prisoners:
“Southeast of d’Argenton, 30 kilometers southwest of Châteauroux, the ‘Jako’ discovered a center of terrorists; 16 German soldiers were liberated; arms and ammunition were captured; 7 terrorists were killed, 2 of them being captains. One German soldier was seriously wounded.”
Another similar incident is also related further on:
“Discovery of two camps of terrorists in the region of d’Argenton. Nine enemies were killed, two of whom were officers; 16 German soldiers were liberated.”
At the bottom of the page he states, “We liberated two SS men.”
These French soldiers were entitled to the respect of their adversaries. They conducted themselves as soldiers; they were assassinated.
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now until two o’clock.