It is worthy of note, in passing, that the defendant has testified at this trial that he knew of this effort at deportation of labor on the part of Germany in the First War and that he was much interested in the investigation conducted by a Reichstag Committee concerning this matter. He could not have followed this investigation, as he admits he did, without learning that the deportation in question was a violation of international law.
The second condition under which deportation becomes a crime occurs when the purpose of the displacement is illegal. A conspicuous example of illegality of purpose is found when the deportation is for the purpose of compelling the deportees to manufacture weapons for use against their homeland or to be assimilated in the working economy of the occupying country.
An attempt has been made by the defense in this trial to show that persons were deported from France into Germany legally and for a legal purpose, by pointing out that such deportations were authorized by agreements between Nazi and Vichy French authorities. This defense is both technically and substantially deficient. Many of the Vichy Government’s highest officials, who held office by reason of and under the protection of Nazi power, have been punished for treason by the present legitimate government. And, too, the agreements themselves were illegal—because they were exacted under duress, and because they were void ab initio because of their immoral content. It is common knowledge that even the puppets of Vichy did not of their own accord agree to the Nazi deportation measures. It is equally clear that these agreements were contra bonos mores. Then, too, it was illegal for any French Government to conclude agreements which provided for the compulsory mass deportation of French workers to aid the enemy’s war effort. At the time of the agreement between Germany and Vichy there was merely a state of suspension of hostilities. French resistance had not ceased, and the outcome of the war continued to be uncertain. Lastly, the deportation agreements were invalid because their manifest purpose was to aid Germany in the commission of the crime of aggressive war. That an agreement in furtherance of an act which is illegal in international law is invalid has been stated by various authorities. For example, Professor Charles Cheney Hyde, of Columbia University, defines as internationally illegal “agreements which are concluded for the purpose of, and with a view to, causing the performance of acts which it (international law) proscribes.”
Professor Hall, page 382 of the 8th Edition of International Law (1924), declares:
“The requirement that contracts shall be in conformity with law invalidates, or at least renders voidable, all agreements which are at variance with the fundamental principles of international law and their undisputed applications * * *.”
Lauterpacht on International Law by L. Oppenheim, in volume I, page 706, states:
“It is a unanimously recognized customary rule of international law that obligations which are at variance with universally recognized principles of international law cannot be the object of a treaty.”
The final condition under which deportation becomes illegal occurs whenever generally recognized standards of decency and humanity are disregarded. This flows from the established principle of law that an otherwise permissible act becomes a crime when carried out in a criminal manner.
A study of the pertinent parts of Control Council Law No. 10 strengthens the conclusions of the foregoing statements, that deportation of the population is criminal whenever there is no title in the deporting authority or whenever the purpose of the displacement is illegal, or whenever the deportation is characterized by inhumane or illegal methods.
Article II (1) (b) lists under war crimes “ill-treatment or deportation to slave labor or for any other purpose, of civilian population from occupied territory.” It is clear that Law No. 10 establishes the following separate and distinct crimes: ill-treatment of civilians from occupied territories; deportation to slave labor of such civilians; and deportation for any other purposes of such civilians.