M. DUBOST: Here are a few examples of terrorist extermination in Holland, in Belgium, and in other occupied countries of the West.
In Holland, as one example out of a thousand, there were the massacres of Putten of 30 September 1944. They are included in Document Number F-224, which we submit as Exhibit Number RF-324 and which is to be found on Page 46 of the document book. On 30 September 1944 an attack was made at Putten by members of the Dutch resistance against a German automobile. The Germans concluded that the village was a refuge for partisans. They searched the houses and assembled the population in the church.
A wounded German officer had been taken prisoner by the Dutch resistance. The Germans declared that if this officer was released within 24 hours no reprisals would be made. The officer was released, after having received medical care from the soldiers of the Dutch resistance who had captured him. However, in spite of the pledge given, reprisals were made upon the village of Putten, whose inhabitants were all innocent.
I now cite Paragraph 2 of the Dutch report:
“The population gathered in the church was informed that the men would be deported and the women had to leave the village because it would be destroyed.
“150 houses were burned down (the total amount of houses in the built-up area being about 2,000).
“Eight people, amongst whom a woman who tried to escape, were shot.