"The National Committee, defender of the integrity and of the unity of France, and trustee of the principle of rights of peoples, protests, in the face of the civilized world, against these new crimes committeed in contempt of international convention against the will of populations ardently attached to France.
"It proclaims as inviolable the right of Alsatians and of Lorrainians to remain members of the French family." of occasions read and commented on over the radio by the French National Commissioner of Justice, Professor Rene Cassin. quote the justifications, if one may use this term, which were furnished in a speech of the Gauleiter Wagner delivered in Colmar on the 20th of June 1943. This quotation is drawn from the Muehlhauser Tageblatt of 21 June 1943. In view of its importance I shall not deal with it simply as a quotation, but I produce it as a document and submit it as document No.740. The paper itself is with the Tribunal. I read the explanations of the Gauleiter Wagner, as they are reproduced in this newspaper under the title "Alsace will not Stand Apart":
"The decisive event for Alsace in 1942 was thus the introduction of obligatory military service. It cannot be part of my intention to justify from the juridical point of view a measure which strikes so deeply at the life of Alsace. There is no reason for making such a justification. Every decision which here touches the Greater German Reich is motivated and cannot be attacked as to its juridical form and its do facto form." criminal orders of the German authorities, and they undertook to avoid these by every means. The Nazis then decided to oblige them by pitiless measures. The frontiers were severely guarded, and the guards had orders to fire on the numerous recalcitrants who attempted to escape and cross the borders.
I should like to quote in this connection a sentence from a newspaper article, which is an article from the Dernieres Nouvelles de Strassbourg of the 28th of August 1942. This is document 741. This article relates the death of one of these men who refused to serve in the German army, and it concludes with the following sentence: "We insist quite particularly on the fact that the attempt to cross the frontier illegally is a suicidal attempt." severity in a great number of cases. I do not consider that I should, bring to the Tribunal all the instances of these cases, which would be too long, but I should like simply to insist on the principle that governed this form of repression. I shall quote first of all a document which is quite characteristic of the conception which the German administration had of justice, and of the independence of judicial power. This is document 742. It is a part of a series of documents discovered in the Gauleitung's files. It is a teletype message dated Strasbourg, the 8th of June 1944, addressed by the Gauleiter Wagner to the Chief of the Court of Appeals of Karlsruhe. Its date is 8 June 1944. I shall read paragraph 2 of this document, which is on page 1 of the same document:
"It is particularly necessary in Alsace that the penalties pronounced against those who refuse to do military service shall produce an effect of intimidation, but the effect of intimidation cannot be obtained in the fear of personal danger to those who refuse to act, but the effect of intimidation can be achieved by the death penalty. All the more so, an Alsatian who emigrates with the intention of escaping military service generally counts on a forthcoming victory of the enemy powers and counts, in case of conviction on a penalty of deprivation of freedom and upon an imminent conclusion of the penalty. Consequently, for all attempts of illegal emigration, after the 6th of June 1944, in order to escape military service, it is required, aside from any other judicial practice in the old Reich, and in principle to apply the penalty of death, which is the only penalty provided."
however great it might be, even that of, being killed at the frontier or being condemned to death, could not be sufficient to make the Alsatians and the Lorrainians accept the military obligation. Thus the Nazis decided to have recourse to the only threat which could be effective. That was the threat of reprisals against families. From the 4th of September 1942, on, one could read in the Derniers Nouvelles de Strasbourg a notice entitled "Severe Sanctions against those who Neglect to Appear before the Revision Council". An extract from this notice constitutes document 743. I shall read from it:
"In the cases mentioned above it has been demonstrated that the parents have not given proof of authority in this regard. They have proved thereby that they have not yet understood the requirements of the present time, which can tolerate in Alsace only reliable persons. The parents of the above-named young men will therefore shortly be deported to the Altreich in order to acquire once more, in a center of National Socialists, an attitude in conform ity with the German spirit." subordination, but now to sanction the failure to appear before the recruitment board. under the heading of document No. 744, the ordinance of the 1st October 1943, for the repression for refusal to perform military service, official bulletin of 1943, page 152, I shall read the first two articles:
"Article 1: The chief of the civil administration in Alsace nay forbid residence in Alsace to deserters and to persons who fail to fulfill their military obligations or these of the obligatory labor service, as well as to members of their families. This prohibition of residence entails for persons of German origin who are affected by it their transplantation to the territory of the Empire through the delegate of the chief of the SS of the Empire, commissioner of empire for the strengthening of Germanism. The measures regarding property seizure, indemnity, etc. are regulated by the ordinance of the 2nd February 1943, concerning the regime of property of persons of German origin transplanted from Alsace to the territory of the Empire.
"2. Independently of the preceding measures, penal prosecution may be brought for violation of the provisions of the penal laws."
THE PRESIDENT: Exactly what did "German origin" mean? How far did it go?
M. FAURE: The term "souche Allemande", German origin, applies, as indicated in connection with the preceding text to the categories of persons who are in the following conditions: In the first place, persons who were in Alsace and Lorraine before the Treaty of Versailles and who became French by the Treaty; these persons who had German nationality before 1919 are considered as of German origin, as well as their children, their grandchildren, and their spouses. This involves a great majority of the population of the throe departments.
"Independently of the measures which precede, penal prosecutions may be brought for violation of the provisions of the penal laws. The members of the family, in the sense of Article 52, paragraph 2, of the Empire Penal Code, who bring proof of their serious efforts to prevent or dissuade the fugitive from committing his act, or avoiding the necessity of flight, shall not be punishable." ment inflicted upon the families - permitted the German authorities to bring about the enrolling of Alsatians and of Lorrainians, which for many of them had fatal consequences and which was for all of them a particularly tragic trial. ceeded to the mobilization of women for war work. I produce as document 745 the ordinance of the 26th of January 1942, completing the war organization of the service of labor for the young women of Lorraine. We find an ordinance of the 2nd of. February 1943, concerning the declaration of men and women for the accomplishment of tasks of interest to national defense.
This is taken from the German official bulletin, 1943, page 26. This ordinance is relative to Alsace. The following document, 747, deals with Lorraine. This is an ordinance of 8 February 1943, concerning the declaration of men and women for tasks concerning the organization of labor. The Tribunal will note that the ordinance concerning Alsace had the expression "tasks of interest to national defense", whereas the ordinance relative to Lorrain specifies simply "concerning declaration of men and women for tasks concerning the organization of labor", but in principle those are the same. Article 1 of this second ordinance, document 747, has reference to the ordinance of the General Delegate for the Organization of Labor, relative to the declaration of men and women for tasks of interest to national defense, etc. It is thus a question of making not only men but women work for the German war effort. I shall read for the Tribunal an extract from a newspaper article which comments on this legislation and which comments likewise on the measures which the Gauleiter Wagner proposes to undertake in this connection. This constitutes document 748, taken from the newspaper Dernieres Nouvelles de Strasbourg, dated 23 February 1943.
"In his Karlsruhe speech the Gauleiter Robert Wagner stressed that measures of total moblization would be applied to Alsace, and that the authorities would abstain from any bureaucratic chicanery.
"In principle, all the women who until the present have worked husbands and who had no other relative, shall work a full day.
Many wheel.
They will work in the household and do errands. With a little goodwill, everything will work out.
The women who have important bearing on the war effort.
This prescription applies only to all feminine professions which imply care given to other persons."
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now for ten minutes.
(A recess was taken from 15.30 to 15.40 hours.)
M. FAURE: Mr. Dodd would like to speak to the Tribunal
MR. DODD: Mr. President, I ask to be heard briefly to inform today.
He is available for the cross-examination which, if I remember
THE PRESIDENT: Was his affidavit read?
MR. DODD: Yes, your Honor, it was,
THE PRESIDENT: It was read, was it?
MR. DODD: It was read.
THE PRESIDENT: It was read.
THE PRESIDENT: And on the condition that if he should be brought here for cross-examination?
MR. DODD: Yes, sir. He asked him to be brought, if I recall it.
THE PRESIDENT: Does Counsel for Kaltenbrunner wish to cross cross-examine him?
DR. KAUFFMAN (Counsel for Defendant Kaltenbrunner): I believe witness.
However, I would have to take this question up with him
THE PRESIDENT: It seems somewhat unfortunate that the witness be saying that you don't want to cross-examine him, after reading the affidavit.
It seems to me that the reasonable thing to do would be to here if you did not want to cross-examine.
Anyway, as he has been him you must do so.
Mr. Dodd, can he be kept here for some time?
MR. DODD: He can your Honor, except that he was in a concentration We would like not to keep him any longer than necessary.
We located
DR. KAUFFMANN: In perhaps two or three days we might wish to cross-examine; perhaps two or three days.
THE PRESIDENT: I imagine that if after the affidavit had been when he is produced.
Mr. Dodd, would it be possible to keep him here until Monday?
MR. DODD: Yes, he can be kept here until Monday.
THE PRESIDENT: We will keep him here until Monday, and you can cross-examine as you wish.
You understand v/hat I mean; when an after reading and considering the affidavit they find that they don't want to cross-examine him; they ought to inform the Prosecution so as distance off.
Do you follow?
DR. KAUFFMANN: Very well, and thank you very much. Then I will
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
M. FAURE: Mr. President, I would ask the Tribunal whether they would agree to hear the witness Emil Reuter at this point?
(EMIL REUTER, a witness on behalf of the French Prosecution, takes the stand.)
THE PRESIDENT: What is your name?
THE WITNESS: Reuter, Emil.
THE PRESIDENT: Emil Reuter, do you swear to speak without hate nor fear, to say the truth, all the truth, only the truth?
Raise the right hand and say, "I swear."
(The witness answered in French.)
THE PRESIDENT: You may sit down.
BY M. FAURE:
Q Mr. Reuter, you were a lawyer of the Luxembourg Bar?
Q You are President of the Chamber of Deputies in Luxembourg?
invasion of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg by the German troops?
intentions?
its own neutrality. A few days before the invasion, in the month of the Moselle River which separates the two countries.
An explanation interest of navigation.
In the general view of public opinion, these the Grand Duchess, and of her Government?
authorities. There was, therefore, no stopping of the power.
authority in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg?
A Yes, indeed; the Germans did make such a declaration. The the administration of the country?
A This statement did not correspond to the reality. It was
Q Mr. Reuter, the Germans never proclaimed by law the annexation of Luxembourg.
Do you consider that the totalitarian annexation?
country. A few days after the invasion the leaders of the Reich in Fuehrer.
The proof of this de facto annexation is shown in a neat called "Census."
In the formula that was placed before the inhabitants as to the racial background of the individual.
Are you prepared to as having the character of a plebiscite?
the political purpose was obvious; therefore public opinion never I spoke a moment ago.
Would you be kind enough to tell us why the statistical data is not now possible to find in any document?
of it. The German authorities then preferred to stop the operation,
Q Do you remember the date of the census?
However, did the date continue through measures of annexation?
will of the Luxembourg population?
police, to give, an oath of allegiance to the Chancellor of the Reich?
A Yes. This constraint was demanded with respect to the even recalcitrants, or any one who disobeyed were deported.
Usually I believe the Germans call it "umsetzung"--of a certain number of inhabitants, and families living in your country?
victims of this transplanting?
of your functions as President of the Chancellery of Deputies?
Q Can you state, Mr. Reuter, how the people who were trans what period they had to be ready, generally speaking?
pre-warning, nor officially so. Say about ten o'clock in the morning the agents, or gestapo, rang at the door, and they notified those who were selected to be ready for departure within one or two hours; forcing them to take with them the minimum of luggage; then they were transferred to the station and embarked on a train to the destination, or the camp to which they were at first to be sent. personally?
A I knew them personally. I knew personally there were a large number of people who were transplanted, among them members of my own family, a great number of the colleagues of the Chamber of Deputies, and many members of the Bar, and a lot of other people, etc. concentration? This is a different question. knew about. The number of such deportations in the Grand Duchy may be approximately four thousand.
Q Mr. Reuter, has there not been established, by its virtue, an ordinance by which the German authorities prescribed compulsory military service, such therefore -- I will not ask you any question on this particular point. However, I would like to ask you whether you are able to state approximately the number of Luxembourg citizens who were enrolled in the German Army, or of young people #10 were incorporated by force in the German Army? the class of 1920 say the number is about eleven thousand to twelve thousand at least. A certain number of them, I consider about one-third, succeeded in avoiding conscription, and were considered as rebels. They succeeded to escape, and they went away. a result of their forced enrollment, and who died ultimately? five hundred dead, and research has continued, and we have established at least about three thousand casualties and dead.
Luxembourgers, were they severe?
A Several instructions were extremely severe. First of all, the young people who were refractory were pursued and hunted by the police, and by the Gestapo. Then they were brought before various types of Tribunals, either in Luxembourg, or in France, or in Belgium, or in Germany. Their families were deported also; the fortune of their family was confiscated. The penalties practiced and enforced by the Tribunals against these young people were likewise extreme in their recurrence, and that there were penalties of death, generally speaking, imprisonment, forced labor, deportation to concentration camps. Some of those usually obtained mercy later on, and there were some who were shot after having obtained a pardon.
Q I would like to ask one last question. Do you think it is possible with the fatality of the measure, which constituted a deportation of Luxembourgers, that could have been ignored as to any of the people who belonged to the Reich Government, or to the German High Command? have been ignored by the members of the Reich and by the Supreme Military Authority. My point is based on the following facts: First of all, young people who were mobilized by force frequently protested at the time of their arrival in the German Army in Germany by invoking the fact that they were all of Luxembourg nationality, and by force each there were made the victim, So that the military authorities must have been informed of the situation in the Grand Duchy. In the second place, several Ministers of the Reich, among them Thierack and Mr. Ley, paid visits to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and could discover the situation of the country under reaction of the population, and those officials under the political personality of the Reich came also in visits, the Reichministers, such as Bormann and Sauckel, and families. denationalization of certain categories of Luxembourg citizens. These ordinances bore the signature of the Minister of the Reich. All these measures, and the execution of all of these ordinances were published in the Amtsblatt, a military fuer das innenministerium, "A innenamtlich an alle oberen Reichs stellen," and were still under the signature of the Minister of Interior Frick,
M. FAURE: I thank you. That is all the questioning I have to put
THE PRESIDENT: Is there any member of the defendants' counsel who wishes to ask the witness any questions.
(No response) Then the witness can retire.
One moment. Then the witness can retire.
M. FAURE: Mr. President, am I to understand that the witness will not to his home?
THE PRESIDENT: Certainly.
M. FAURE: I had stopped my presentation at the end of the second part.
port and colonization within Alsace-Lorraine. The German authorities applied transport of populations.
It so happens that, as I have already stated territories.
The situation which I am about to indicate with respect to with regard to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
The application of such expelled.
A second advantage was the elimination of groups who were considered especially difficult to assimilate.
I should like to quote "Today we must make up our mind.
At a period of supreme struggle for the nation, the struggle in which you, too, must participate, I can only say to anyone who states that I am a Frenchman. I can state only one thing: Get the hell out! In Germany there is room only for Germans." expulsion or by small groups concerning specifically the Jews and members of the teaching profession. Moreover, it is shown by a document which I have already cited this morning under No. 701, and which was the first general protest made by the French delegation, under date of 3 September 1940, and it was shown from the text already read that the Germans authorized the Alsatians and Lorrainers to return to their homes only if they acknowledged themselves to be of German origin. Now, the Tribunal will understand that restrictions placed upon the return of refugees were equivalent to the same result as expulsions themselves. The mass expulsions began in September 1940. I now submit in this connection document 750. It is once more a note from the French delegation for the armistice which has been taken from a high court of justice files. I am now reading this document on paragraph 2.
"Since then it has been brought to the knowledge of the French Government that German authorities are proceeding to carry out mass expulsions of families who have been settled in the three departments of the East. Every day French citizens who are forced to abandon on the spot all of their belongings are driven to the part of France which is unoccupied in groups of 800 to 1,000 persons."
We are only on the 19th of September as yet. On the 3rd of November the Germans undertook a systematic operation for the expulsion of the populations of Moselle. This operation was accomplished with extreme perfidy. The Germans, as a matter of fact, first visited the Lorrainers in certain localities where they gave them the choice of either going to eastern Germany or of going into France. They gave them only a few hours to make up their minds. Moreover, they sought to promote the belief that such a choice was imposed upon the Lorrainers as a result of an agreement reached with the French authorities. From the material point of view, the transport of these people was effected under they difficult conditions. The Lorrainers were allowed to take away only a very small bit of their personal belongings and a sum of 2,000 francs, 1,000 francs in the case of each child.
had been seized away from their homes had thus been directed to Lyons. The arrival in unoccupied France of these people who had been so gravely tried was nevertheless for them the occasion of manifesting nobly their patriotic sentiments. On the whole, the facts which I have submitted I place before the Tribunal, document No.751, which is a note of protest on the part of the French delegation over the signature of General Doyen, dated 18 November 1940. I shall read excerpts of this document 751, beginning with paragraph 3 of page 1.
"France is faced with an act of force which is in formal contradiction both with armistice convention as well as with the assurances recently given for a desire of collaboration between the two countries, or quite the contrary. In Article 16, which the German commission had frequently invoked with regard to, specifically, the departments of the East, the armistice convention stipulates the reinstallation of refugees in the regions in which they were domiciled. The creation of new refugees constitutes, therefore, a violation of the armistice convention. France is faced with an unjust act which is striking peaceful populations against whom the Reich has nothing to reproach and who hadn't been settled for centuries, on these territories have made of them a particularly prosperous region. The unexpected decision of the German authorities is likewise an inhuman act. In the very middle of winter, without warning, families had to leave their homes, taking away only a strict minimum of personal property and a sum of money absolutely insufficient to enable them to live even for only a few weeks. Thousands of Frenchmen who were thus suddenly hurled into misery without their country, already so heavily tried and surprised by the suddenness and amplitude of the measures adopted without its knowing of it, should be in a position of insuring for them from one day to the next a normal life. This exodus and the conditions under which it took place brought about the most painful and sorrowful impressions throughout the French nation. The French people were particularly disturbed by the statements that were given to the Lorrainers and, according to which the French Government was reputed to be the source of their misfortune.
"That was what, in fact, the text which was posted sought to make belief amongst the population that was called upon to choose between leaving towards the east of Germany or leaving" -- the word "departement" has been used in the text; it should have been 'departe' --"to the east of Germany or departure to unoccupied France. The poster is appended hereto, but we are not in possession of the text of this poster. It is also what might be the impression that might be given by the affirmation that these populations had requested themselves for the authorization to leave, following the appeal having been disseminated by the radio of Bordeaux. Even if we admit that such appeals had been made, it should be noted that the Bordeaux radio station was under German control. The good faith of the Lorrainers has been deceived as has been shown by their reaction upon their arrival in the free zone."
In spite of these protests, expulsions continued. They reached a total figure of about 70,000 people. They were doubled by the deportation of Alsatians and Lorrainers to Eastern Germany and to Poland. These deportations had the object of creating terror and they particularly struck the families of the men who had rightfully decided to refuse the German demand concerning forced labor and military service.
Since I don't wish to be reading too much to the Tribunal, I submit texts dealing with an identical subject. I submit this document solely to show that this protest was made, and I believe that I can do that without reading its full contest. belonging to the American Prosecution. This document has the number R-114. It is a memorandum containing the minutes of a meeting which took place between several officials of the SS concerning the general direction to be given in regard to the treatment of the Alsatians who were deported. It will be observed that this document has already been submitted by my American colleagues under No. R-114, U.S.A., French No. 753. I merely wish to read from that document one paragraph, which may be interpreted as a supplement to this problem of deportation. I must say that these sentences have not been formally read in Court. The passage that I cite is on page 2 of the document. At the end of that page 2 we have a paragraph which begins with the letter "B" :
"The following persons shall be listed for future deportation" -- this is a citation -- "The Gauleiter does not wish to keep in his district people who speak a patois, only the people who adhere to Germanism in their customs, their language and their general attitude, according to the cases provided for in paragraph (a) and (b) above. It should be noted that we shall first examine the problem of the race and that we shall do so in such a manner that people having a racial value will be deported to Germany Pr per and the people of inferior racial value should be deported to France." newspaper article, in the last issues of "News of Strasbourg," August 31, 1942 -- we are here dealing with a citation and not a document:
"On the 28th of August the families designated hereafter named, of the Arrondissements of Mulhouse and Guebwiller were deported to the Reich in order that they may again find a solid German attitude in a surrounding of united National Socialism. In several cases the persons involved were those who did not conceal their hostility in that they provoked opposition, speaking French publicly in a provocative fashion, did not submit to the ordinances concerning the education of youth, or in other circumstances have shown a lack of loyalty." transportation had for their consequence the spoliation of property. This is not merely a fact; for the Germans it is a law. Indeed, there is an ordinance, of 29 January, 1943, which appeared in the official bulletin of 1943, page 40, bearing the title, "Concerning the Safeguarding of Property in Lorraine as a Result of Transplantation Measures." I have placed this ordinance before you as Document 754. I would like to read Article One and the first paragraph of Article Two. I believe that the text is sufficiently clear:
"Article One. The safeguarding of property of people who were transplanted from Lorraine into the Greater German Empire or in a territory placed under the sovereign power of Germany has been entrusted to the Transfer Services for Lorraine attached to the Chief of the Administration.
"Article Two. These Services are authorized to place under effective safeguarding, the property of the Lorrainers who have been transplanted in order to administer such property, and in so far as the orders may have been given therefore, to exploit them."
This ordinance, therefore, still manifests some formal scruples. The effort is to "safeguard," but we now know what the word "safeguard" means in Nazi terminology. We have already seen what safeguarding of objects of art has meant, and of Jewish property. Even here, we have been specifically warned that to "safeguard" gives the right to dispose of or exploit. Other texts are even more specific or clear.