I come now to several documents dealing with the question of the rescue of survivors. These documents can be found in Document Books 1 and 2.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Kranzbühler, do you not think it would be sufficient if you were to refer to these documents and give us the numbers without reading from them? They are all dealing, as you say, with rescue.
FLOTTENRICHTER KRANZBÜHLER: I believe I can do this with most of them. On Page 9 there is reproduced the Hague Convention regarding the application of the Geneva Convention to naval warfare. Page 10 is Document Dönitz-8, the order of 4 October 1939 concerning the sinking of armed merchantmen. It contains the order already read, namely, that rescues should be effected wherever possible without endangering their own ship.
Dönitz-9, Page 12, gives examples of exaggerated rescue measures by German submarines which even let enemy ships pass without attack while so engaged. Dönitz-10 deals with the same subject and gives a further example.
The collection of statements made by commanding officers in Dönitz-13 can be found on Pages 19 to 26. I should like to deal with it along with War Order 154, which is the Prosecution’s Exhibit GB-196. These statements contain numerous examples, taken from all the war years, of rescue measures on the part of German submarines. One of these statements is supplemented by photographs—Page 21—which are included in the original. The facts stated in these statements are confirmed by Document Dönitz-14, Page 27, where there is a report on rescue measures in the war diary of a submarine; and at the end we find the sentence: “Taking British airmen on board is sanctioned.” It is signed by the Commander of U-boats.
The next document, Donitz-15, is again an excerpt from the war diary, giving an example of rescue measures after a battle with a convoy on 21 October 1941. It is on Page 28. The next two documents concern the Laconia order. The Tribunal has permitted me to use Standing War Orders 511 and 513 in cross-examining Möhle. They deal with the capture of captains, chief engineers, and air crews. I submit them as Dönitz-24 and 25, and they can be found on Pages 46 and 47. I should like to point out that both orders explicitly state that capture should only be effected as far as is possible without endangering the boats.
Document Dönitz-24 explains that the British Admiralty, on their part, had issued orders to prevent the capture of British captains by German submarines. The next excerpt, on Page 48, cites an example showing that this British order was carried out and that a U-boat searched in vain among the lifeboats for the captain.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Kranzbühler, could you inform the Tribunal what Paragraph 2 on Page 46 refers to and means?
FLOTTENRICHTER KRANZBÜHLER: The paragraph refers to Standing War Order Number 101, that is, the order specifying which neutral ships can be sunk. That is, of course, in the blockade area.
THE PRESIDENT: Would it mean that those officers have to be sunk with the ship, or what?