“An enemy who surrenders must not be killed even though he is a franc-tireur or a spy. The latter will receive just punishment through the courts.”
But this is only the text of stipulations to be applied within Germany.
We submit Document F-706, Exhibit Number RF-437, which is a note from the French Secretary of State for Defense to the German general protesting against the measures of destruction taken by the German troops in Chaudebonne and Chaveroche. We shall not read this document. The Tribunal may take judicial notice of it, if it deems it necessary.
We now come to the statement of the events of Tulle, in which 120 Frenchmen were hanged, Page 169 (Document F-673, Exhibit RF-392). I am quoting:
“On 7 June a large group of francs-tireurs attacked the French forces employed in the maintenance of order and succeeded in seizing the greater part of the town of Tulle after a struggle which lasted until dawn. . . .
“The same day, at about 2000 hours, important German armored forces came to the assistance of the garrison and penetrated into the city from which the terrorists withdrew in haste. . . .”
These troops, which re-took Tulle, decided to carry out reprisals. The French Forces of the Interior that had taken the town had withdrawn. The Germans had taken no prisoners. The reprisals were carried out upon civilians. Without discrimination they were arrested.
“The victims were selected without any inquiry, without even any questioning, haphazardly; workmen, students, professors, industrialists. There were even among them some militia sympathizers and candidates for the Waffen SS. The 120 corpses which were hanged from the balconies and lamp-posts of the Avenue de la Gare, along a distance of 500 meters, were a horrible spectacle that will remain in the memory of the unfortunate population of Tulle for a long time.”
We now come to the crowning event in these German atrocities: the destruction of Oradour-sur-Glane, in the month of June 1944. The Tribunal will accept, we hope, the presentation of Document F-236, which now becomes Exhibit Number RF-438. This is an official book, published by the French Government, which gives a full description of the events. I will give you a brief analysis of the report which the de facto government of the time sent to the German general who was Commander-in-Chief for the regions of the West: