“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.