I shall not dwell on the introduction of German civilian and penal legislation, which was introduced in the same way as in Alsace and Lorraine. Sufficient proof of this must be considered to have been given by the submission of the official report of the government of the Grand Duchy.
As regards nationality and conscription, we also notice a parallelism between the provisions which concern Luxembourg and those which concern other annexed countries.
On 30 August 1942, two ordinances were promulgated. It must be pointed out that these two ordinances, the one concerning nationality and the other military service, bear the same date. The ordinance concerning military service is submitted as Document Number RF-804 and the one concerning nationality is submitted as Document Number RF-805. The legislation concerning nationality includes, moreover, a provision which is peculiar to Luxembourg, although it is in conformity with the general spirit of German legislation concerning nationality in annexed countries.
The Germans had created in Luxembourg various organizations of the Nazi type, of which the main one was the Volksdeutsche Bewegung (German nationalist movement); and here is the special circumstance which I wish to point out. The ordinance of 30 August 1942 concerning nationality grants German nationality to persons who gave their adherence to this association, the Volksdeutsche Bewegung. But this nationality could be revoked. This is shown in the last paragraph of title 1 of this ordinance, Document Number RF-805. In fact, this conferring of nationality in this special case was valid provisionally for 2 years only.
At the same time that the Nazis were establishing conscription, they made it obligatory for all young Luxembourgers to serve in the premilitary formations of the Hitler Youth. This is laid down in an ordinance of 25 August 1942 concerning the Hitler Youth camps, which is Document Number RF-806.
Just as in Alsace and Lorraine, compulsory labor was imposed in Luxembourg, not only for men but also for women and for work of military concern. These provisions are found chiefly in three ordinances: the ordinance of 23 May 1941, the ordinance of 10 February 1943, and the ordinance of 12 February 1943. These last two ordinances are introduced as Documents RF-807 and RF-808.
I should now like to cite another circumstance, which is peculiar to Luxembourg and of which proof is found in the official report of the Luxembourg Government already submitted to the Tribunal. According to this report, Page 4, Paragraphs 7 to 8, it is stipulated—the quotation is very short and I did put the whole of the Luxembourg report in my document book; I shall cite only one sentence which bears the reference I have given:
“By ordinance, which appeared in the Official Gazette for Luxembourg, 1942, Page 232, part of the Luxembourg population was forced to join the formations of a corps called Sicherheits- und Hilfsdienst (Security and Emergency Service), a premilitary formation which had to do military drills. Part of it was sent forcibly to Germany to carry out very dangerous tasks at the time of the air attacks of the Allied forces.”
The Nazis made a special effort to bring about the nazification of Luxembourg; and for this country they thought out a special method, the basic point of which was the language element. They developed the official thesis that the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg belonged to the German language group. By means of propaganda they spread the idea that the dialect spoken in Luxembourg was a Franconian dialect of the Moselle and constituted a variant of the High German. Having developed this theory, they took a census of the population, as mentioned yesterday by the witness who gave evidence before the Tribunal. I especially mention that this census took place on 10 October 1941. I wished to have the witness speak on this point because no information on the result of the census was furnished in the government report; and the Tribunal knows now the reason why the German authorities immediately stopped the census as soon as they discovered that the number of persons answering in the way they desired was ridiculously small.
After this failure the Germans considered that the Luxembourg dialect was no longer their political friend and in a circular dated 13 January 1942, which I submit as Document Number RF-809, they forbade the civil servants to use this dialect in conversations with the public or on the telephone. This was very inconvenient to a great many people.