Third form: The third form is purely and simply that of assault and battery. We do not mean physical force used in individual cases, for this does not concern us here: but physical force used as a result of the order of a competent occupation authority, which consequently entails the responsibility of a superior.
If we now consider the question of determining who or what the instruments of usurpation were, we observe that these instruments fall into five categories:
In the first place, we have the Reich Commissioner, who was appointed in Norway and Holland only, that is to say, in the one case in a country which retained governmental authority at least in appearance and for a certain length of time, and in the other, in a country which retained administrative authority only.
In the second place, we have the military administration. In all countries the military authorities exercised powers absolutely disproportionate to those which belonged to them lawfully.
I must note here that only these two instruments, the Reich Commissioner and the military authority, were able to carry out usurpation by issuing direct legislative or regulatory decrees. In each of the two powers where there was a Reich Commissioner, the powers conferred were naturally shared by the Reich Commissioner and the military authority.
A third instrument of usurpation took the form of diplomatic administration responsible to the Foreign Office. Diplomatic representations existed only in countries which had governmental authorities and where there was no Reich Commissioner. We refer to Denmark and France.
These diplomatic representatives of the Reich, unlike the Reich Commissioner and the military occupation authority, did not have power—illicit but formal power—to legislate or issue regulations. However, this does not mean that their role in the usurpation of sovereignty is a secondary one. On the contrary, it is an important one. Their principal activity consisted, naturally, in bringing pressure to bear on local authorities to whom they were accredited.
I should like to bring out two points here. It might be thought from a logical point of view, that in an occupied country such as France, the intervention by the occupying power in the administration of the local authorities would be the exclusive competence of the diplomatic representatives. That is not the case. The military authority also intervened on frequent occasions through direct contact with the French authorities. In their turn, the diplomatic representatives did not limit themselves to the powers conferred by their functions. One of the characteristics of the Nazi method is this exceeding of powers conferred. It is, moreover, when one thinks of it, a necessary result of the Nazi enterprise.
In view of the fact that the usurpation of sovereignty in a country which is militarily occupied is an illegal and abnormal thing, it does not come within the normal competency of the categories of public functions as understood by civilized nations. Thus the diplomats, as well as the military authorities, exceeded their powers; and there was also an overlapping of functions. The diplomats and the military authorities dealt with the same things. We see this in regard to propaganda, for instance; and in regard to the persecution of the Jews. Generally speaking, the military authority acted in a more obvious way; the diplomatic administration preferred to act in domains where publicity could be evaded. There was a constant liaison between them on all questions concerning the occupied country.
The fourth instrument of usurpation was the police administration. The German police was installed in all occupied countries, often under several distinct administrations, according to the principles which were presented to the Tribunal when the American Prosecution revealed the inner workings of the immense, complex, and terrible police organism of the Nazis. Neither did the police have limited or exclusive functions. They acted in close and constant liaison with the other instruments we have defined.