“2. The German salute will be given in the following manner: a) Raise the outstretched right arm to shoulder level, b) Shout: ‘Heil Hitler.’
“3. The pupils must return the same salute which the teachers use at the beginning and end of the lessons.
“4. I also expect all pupils to give the German salute in the street, especially to those gentlemen known to be enthusiastic partisans of the German salute.”
These German methods reached their culminating point with the imposition of the oath of allegiance to Hitler, which oath was imposed upon the gendarmes and the police. I refer here to the testimony of M. Reuter, who made the terrible statement that those who refused to do so were deported and afterwards most of them were shot. I also submit as proof of this the government report which gives the same information, on Page 12.
Naturally, as in the other annexed territories, the Luxembourgers did not yield to these German methods; and there also endeavors were made to break the resistance by terror. I must mention a quite special regulation, the ordinance of 2 June 1941. This will be Document Number RF-812, which has as title “Ordinance on the Putting into Force in Luxembourg of the Law of 10 February 1936 Concerning the Gestapo.” This title suffices to show the subject.
The Gestapo established in Luxembourg special tribunals, a special summary court known as Standgericht, and SS tribunals. These jurisdictions, if we can use the term jurisdiction, passed many sentences for political reasons. A detailed list of these convictions is appended to the government report. One tribunal, the Standgericht of which I spoke just now, passed 16 death sentences and sentenced 384 people to penalties involving loss of their liberty. But this tribunal was not the only one, and the report states—and the witnesses also confirmed it—that about 500 were condemned to death in this country, which is a considerable number, because the population is not very large.
I think I should likewise mention, in connection with the Germanization, the measures concerning deportation already known to the Tribunal through the testimony of M. Reuter. These measures concerning deportation were applied systematically to the intellectual elite of the country, to the clergy, and to persons who had served in the army. This proves that it was deliberately intended to do away with the social, intellectual, and moral structure of this country.
To the Luxembourg report is appended a list of names of deportees, including officers, magistrates, men who took part in politics in the Grand Duchy, writers, economic leaders, and in particular—I shall give only one figure which is striking—the Germans expelled or deported 75 clergymen, which, with regard to a population as small as that of Luxembourg, shows clearly the will to abolish completely the right to worship. The official report also states that the property of religious orders was confiscated, and most of the places of worship were either destroyed or desecrated.