“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: