The most restrained testimonies report that this crowding together of naked men barely having room to breathe, was a horrible sight. When escapes occurred in spite of the precautions, hostages were taken from the cars and shot. Testimony to this effect is provided by the same document—five deportees were executed:
“That was how, near Montmorency, five deportees from the train of 15 August 1944 were buried, and five others of the same train were killed by pistol shots by German police and officers of the Wehrmacht at Domprémy (Marne).”
Added to this quotation is that of another official document, which we have already submitted under F-321, Exhibit Number 331:
“Several young men were rapidly chosen. The moment they reached the trench the policemen each seized a prisoner, pushed him against the side of the trench, and fired a pistol into the nape of his neck.”
The same thing prevailed in deportations from Denmark. The Danish Jews were particularly affected. A certain number, warned in time, had been able to escape to Sweden with the help of Danish patriots. Unfortunately, eight to nine thousand persons were arrested by the Germans and deported. It is estimated that 475 of them were transported by boat and truck under inhuman conditions to Bohemia and Moravia to Theresienstadt. This is stated in the Danish document submitted under Document Number F-666, Exhibit Number RF-338.
In connection with this country it is necessary to inform the Tribunal of the deportation of the frontier guards:
“At most places, however, the policemen were dismissed as soon as they had been disarmed. Only in Copenhagen and in the large provincial towns were they retained, and partly by ship and partly by goods vans, taken southwards to Germany.
“The policemen were taken via Neuengamme to the concentration camp at Buchenwald. They were quartered there under indescribably insanitary conditions; a very large proportion of them were taken ill; about one hundred policemen and frontier guardsmen died and several still bear traces of the sojourn.”
When these deportations had been carried out, all the citizens of the subjugated countries of the west of Europe found themselves in the company of their comrades of misfortune of the east, in the concentration camps of Germany. These camps were merely a means of realizing the policy of extermination which Germany had pursued ever since the National Socialists seized power. This policy of extermination would lead, according to Hitler, to installing 250 million Germans in Europe in the territories adjoining Germany, which constituted her vital space.