THE PRESIDENT: Well, we have had a good deal of evidence already about the treatment of commandos and sabotage groups, evidence, if I remember right, which attempted to draw some distinction between troops which were dropped from the air, for instance, close up to the battle zone and troops that were dropped at a distance behind the battle zone. You had quite a lot of evidence upon that subject. If there is anything which is of special interest to the case of France we would be most willing to hear it, but we do not desire to hear cumulative evidence upon subjects which we have already heard.
M. DUBOST: I did not think that I had brought cumulative proof to the Tribunal in reading documents which had not previously been read; but since that is so, I shall continue, but not without emphasizing that, in our view, the responsibility of Keitel is seriously involved by the orders which were given and by the execution of these orders.
Document Number 510-PS, Page 48, has not been read. We submit it as Exhibit Number RF-367, and we ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of it. It concerns the carrying out of the orders which were given concerning the landing of British detachments at Patmos.
A memorandum from the General Staff to the commander of the different units, Document Number 532-PS, which is the appendix to the Tribunal’s document book, repeats and specifies the instructions which the Tribunal knows and does not bring anything new to the case. We submit this document as Exhibit Number RF-368, and we ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of it.
We shall now deal with the execution of Allied airmen who were captured. From the statement which was made on this question, the Tribunal has learned that a certain number of air operations were considered as criminal acts by the German Government, which indirectly encouraged the lynching of the airmen by the population or their immediate extermination by the action “Sonderbehandlung” (special treatment); and need not be discussed again. This was the subject of Document Number USA-333, which has already been cited, and Document Number USA-334.
Within the scope of these instructions, orders were given by the letter of 4 June 1944 to the Minister of Justice to forbid any prosecution of German civilians in connection with the murder of Allied airmen. This is the subject of Document Number 635-PS, which you will find in the appendix to the document book. This document will become Exhibit Number RF-370.
“The Reich Minister and Head of the Reich Chancellery, 4 June 1944.
“To the Reich Minister of Justice, Doctor Thierack.