And a written note reads: “No reply to be given to the French note.”
This note, in fact, was addressed by the Supreme Command of the German Army to the German Armistice Commission, who had asked for instructions as to whether or not they should reply to the request concerning the release of French generals who were ill, a request made by the Vichy Government.
Much more serious measures were undertaken against our prisoners of war by the German authorities when, for reasons of a patriotic nature, some of our prisoners gave the Germans to understand that they were not willing to collaborate with Germany. The German authorities considered them as incapable of being assimilated and dangerous; their courage and their determination gave much concern to Germany, and the measures taken against them amounted to nothing less than murder. We know of numerous examples of murder of prisoners of war. The victims were mainly: 1) men who had taken part in commando actions; 2) airmen; 3) escaped prisoners. These murders were carried out by means of deportation and the internment of these prisoners in concentration camps.
While interned in these camps, they were subjected to the regime about which you know and which was bound to cause their death, or else they were killed quite simply with a bullet in the back of the neck, according to the KA method which has been described by our American colleagues and on which I will not dwell. In other cases they were lynched on the spot by the population, in accordance with direct orders, or with the tacit consent of the German Government. In yet other cases, they were handed over to the Gestapo and the SD, who, as you will see at the end of my statement, during the last years of the occupation had the right to carry out executions.
With the Tribunal’s permission, we shall study two cases of extermination of combat troops captured after military operations: that of commandos and that of airmen.
As the Tribunal knows, men who were commandos were almost always volunteers. In any case, they were selected from among the most courageous fighters and those who showed the greatest physical aptitude for combat. We can consider them, therefore, as the elite and the order to exterminate them as an attempt to annihilate the elite and spread terror through the ranks of the Allied Armies. From a legal point of view the execution of the commandos cannot be justified. The Germans themselves, moreover, used commandos quite extensively; but whereas, in the case of their own men being taken prisoners, they always insisted that they be recognized as belligerents, they denied that right to our men or to those of the Allied Armies.
The main order concerning this was signed by Hitler on 18 October 1942, and it was extensively carried out. Moreover, this order was preceded by other orders of the OKW, which show that the question had been carefully studied by the General Staff before becoming the subject of a final order by the head of the German Government.
Under Document Number 553-PS, the Tribunal will find, on Page 24 of the document book, an order signed by Keitel which we submit as Exhibit Number RF-363. This order prescribes that all isolated parachutists or small groups of parachutists carrying out a mission shall be executed. It is dated 4 August 1942.
THE PRESIDENT: Do not read it.
M. DUBOST: I thank the Tribunal for sparing me the reading of it.