“On 19 January 1942 and the following days you must remain at your residence to be at the disposal of the representative of the Accumulatoren-Fabrik, A.G., Berlin, Director Von Holtzendorff.”

The Tribunal will recognize the name of Von Holtzendorff, who was the recipient of the letter from the Reich Minister of Economy in the previous document. I continue the quotation:

“Mr. Von Holtzendorff, who is in possession of a special authorization from the Redchssicherheitshauptamt, will discuss business matters with you. Heil Hitler! Signed, Hartmann.”

The Tribunal will understand, I am sure, that if I have read these two documents, it is not because I think it very important in the scope of this Trial that the Tudor battery firm was despoiled, an illicit act which was to their prejudice; but I want especially, and I think it is very important in the Trial, to emphasize—and I shall do it each time when the document gives me the opportunity—the co-ordination which existed between the different German services of which these defendants here were the leaders. Certain persons are sometimes inclined to believe that all the German crimes must be imputed to the Gestapo, and it is true that the Gestapo was a characteristic criminal organization; but the Gestapo did not function all by itself. The Gestapo acted on the order of, and in conjunction with, the civil administrations and with the military command. We heard yesterday, in connection with the pontificals of the Bishopric of Strasbourg and also in connection with the University of Strasbourg, of the scheme which allowed the civil minister or his representative to have recourse to the police agents for the enforcement of orders. We also noted this fact when reading these documents which dealt with economic matters.

I now conclude the first chapter of my brief. I should like to mention that the work on the documentation and the preparation of this chapter was carried out with the aid of my assistant, M. Albert Lentin.

I should like now to hand to the Tribunal the first part of the second chapter, concerning the seizure of sovereignty. This first part includes general ideas which I think I should expound to the Tribunal before supporting them by documents. Consequently, the Tribunal will have before them a file entitled “Exposé” for which there is no corresponding document book.

The Germans occupied the territories of five powers, without counting Luxembourg which was annexed and of which I spoke just now. Of these five countries, three kept governmental authority. These are Denmark, Norway, and France, but even in these three countries the cases are entirely different. The government of Denmark was a legitimate government; the government of France was a de facto government, which at the beginning exercised real authority over unoccupied territories; the government of Norway was also a de facto government, typical example of a puppet government. The two other powers, Belgium and Holland, retained no governmental authority but only administrative authorities, of which the highest were the general secretariats of the ministerial departments.

In view of these situations, the Germans, as I said previously, varied their methods of domination. On the other hand, they did not establish a specific form of government corresponding to the internal organization of each country; therefore looking at it as a whole, it would seem at first sight to be somewhat complex. The usurpation of sovereignty by the occupying power assumed three different forms. We are speaking here of the external procedure.

First form: Direct exercise of power to legislate or issue regulations. By this we mean the exercise of power above and beyond the limited power to issue regulations accorded by international law to occupation armies.

Second form: The indirect exercise of power to legislate or issue regulations through local authorities. This was also done in two ways: 1. By injunction, pure and simple, which is the case when the local authorities are the administrative authorities. 2. By pressure, which is the case when the local authorities are authorities of a governmental character, either de facto or de jure. It should be noted, moreover, that the pressure is sometimes such that it bears a complete resemblance to an injunction, pure and simple. We also understand such pressure to include recourse to the complicity of traitors.