M. DUBOST: The International Military Tribunal in Paris. It is our office in Paris at Place Vendôme—it is an office of the French Ministry of Justice. The telegram begins, “General Giraud.” It is a telegraphic declaration. The letters “OFF” at the beginning of the telegram mean “Official.” Please forgive me for insisting that the three letters “OFF” at the beginning of the telegram mean “Government, official” from Paris. No French telegraph office could transmit such a telegram if it did not come from an official authority. This official authority is the French Delegation of the IMT in Paris, which received the statement made by General Giraud and transmitted it to us: “By General Giraud, French Delegation of the IMT.”
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, the Tribunal will receive the document under Article 21 of the Charter.
M. DUBOST: I am grateful to the Tribunal. I read further on, at Page 150:
“On the other hand, the death of Madame Granger on 24 September 1943 is undoubtedly due to lack of care and medicine, in spite of her reiterated requests for both. After an autopsy of her body, which took place in the presence of a French doctor, specially summoned from Paris after her death, authorization was given to this doctor, Dr. Claque to bring the four children back to France, and then to Spain, where they would be handed over to their father. This was refused by the Gestapo in Paris, and the children were sent back to Germany as hostages, where their grandmother found them only 6 months later.”
The last four lines:
“The health of Madame Giraud, her daughter Marie Theresa, and two of her grandchildren has been gravely impaired by the physical, and particularly by the moral, hardships of their deportation.”
As a reprisal for the escape of General Giraud, 17 persons were arrested, all innocent of his escape.
I have frequently shown that in their determination to impose their reign of terror the Germans resorted to means which revolt the conscience of decent people. Of these means one of the most repugnant is the call for informers.
Document F-278(b), Page 152, which we submit as Exhibit Number RF-408, is a reproduction of an ordinance of 20 December 1941, which is so obviously contrary to international law that the Foreign Ministry of the Reich itself took cognizance of it. The ordinance of 27 December 1941 prescribes the following:
“Whosoever may have knowledge that arms are in the possession or keeping of an unauthorized person or persons is obliged to declare that at the nearest police headquarters.”