“The demand of the French Delegation shall be considered unfounded. The lodging of war prisoners in camps situated in the vicinity of aviation fields is not in contradiction to the rules of the rights of nations.
“According to Article 9, Paragraph 4, of the Convention on the Treatment of War Prisoners, of 27 July 1929, no prisoners of war shall be exposed to the fire of the combat zone. Combat zone in this sense is to be understood as the space in which normally a battle between two armies is carried on, thus extending to a depth of about 20 kilometers from the advance line. Places exposed to possible aerial attacks, however, do not belong to the combat zone. In this age of air warfare there no longer exists any sure shelter. The fact of using war prisoners for the construction of a camp and for the repairing of destroyed runways does not seem to lend itself to any controversy.
“According to Article 31 of the Convention quoted above, war prisoners must not be used in works directly related to war activity. The construction of shelters, houses, and camps is not directly a war act. It is recognized that war prisoners may be employed in the construction of roads. Accordingly their utilization for the reconstruction of aviation camps that have been destroyed is permissible. On the roads, trucks, tanks, ammunition cars, et cetera, are driven, and on the aviation fields there are planes. It is all the same.
“On the other hand, it would be illegal to use war prisoners for loading bombs, munitions, et cetera on bombers. This would be work directly related to war activity.
“By reason of the legal position explained above, the OKH has rejected the idea of withdrawing French prisoners of war employed on work in the aviation camps.”
I draw the attention of the Tribunal to this document. It emphasized the bad faith of the leaders of National Socialist Germany, which was two-fold: In the first place, the note of 7 October 1940, which I have read, acknowledges that it is forbidden by international law to use prisoners of war for the loading of bombs and ammunitions on bombers. But I have just brought proof to the Tribunal that the French prisoners of war were used for this purpose. In the second place, the note of the OKH disputes the dangerous character of the work carried out on the aviation fields.