we observe that these agents may be classified in five categories:
1. In the first place, we have the establishment of the Reichkommissar, which was only applied in Norway and in Holland. That is to say, on the one hand it was applied to a country which kept a governmental authority, at least in appearance and during a definite period; on the other hand, it was applied to a country which had only administrative authority.
2. In the second place, we have the military administration. The military authorities exercised in all countries powers absolutely disproportionate to those which belonged to thorn lawfully. the military authority, were able to carry out usurpation through issuing directly legislative acts or regulations. In the two powers, where there existed a Reichkommissar, there was naturally a sharing of powers between this Reichkommissar and the military authority.
3. The third agent of usurpation is established by the diplomatic administration which depends on the Foreign Office. Diplomatic representations existed only in countries which had governmental authorities and where there did not exist a Reichkommissar. We are talking of Denmark and of France. the Reichkommissar and the military authority - did not have illicit power, but formal power of legislation or issuing regulations. Nevertheless, their role in the usurpation of sovereignty is not secondary. It is, on the contrary, very important. Their principal activity was manifested, naturally, in direct pressure upon 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 like France, the intervention of the occupying powers with the local authorities would be the exclusive authority of diplomatic representatives. Such is not the case. The military authority also intervened on frequent occasions through direct contact with French authorities. Inversely, the diplomatic representatives die not limit themselves to the powers inherent to their functions. That is one of the characteristics of the Nazi method, exceeding general powers.
It is, moreover, upon reflection, a necessary result of the undertaking. occupied in a military fashion is an illicit and abnormal matter, it does not come within the normal competency of the categories of public functions as understood by civilized nations. The diplomatics, as well as the military, exceeded their powers, and there was also an overlapping of functions. The diplomats and the military were concerned with the same things. We shall see this in relation to propaganda, for instance; we shall see it in relation to the persecution of the Jews. The military authority, in general, acted in a more obvious way: The diplomatic administration acted, by preference, in domains which were not publicized. There existed between them a constant liaison for all questions which concerned the occupied countries.
4. The fourth agent of usurpation was the police administration. The German police was set up in all occupied countries, often under the form of 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. The police did not have limited or exclusive functions. They acted in close and constant relation with the other agents which we have defined.
5. The fifth agent which we must mention is represented by the local branches of the National Socialist party and the organizations similarly inspired which sought to group the nations of the occupied countries. These organizations served as auxiliaries to the German authorities, and in a specific case in Norway they furnished the foundation of a so-called government. from it a conclusion which has a direct bearing on the accusation which I have already touched upon during my exposition on Luxembourg. ereignty, was carried out by means of different organs which were associated in this action. We must not forget that in the occupied countries this usurpation was the method of realization.
This usurpation, as I said, was not the exclusive work of one official or of one ambassador or of one military commander. In countries which had a Reichkommissar there also existed a military administration. In countries placed under the sole regulating authority of the Army there also existed diplomatic agents. In all cases there existed police authorities. from the usurpation of the sovereignty, abuses and systematic crimes. The Tribunal already knows many of them. Others will be pointed out to the Tribunal. for these abuses does not involve only one or the other of the administrations which we have mentioned. It involves all of the administrations. If, for instance, it is true that in Belgium there was no diplomatic representation, this representative existed in France and in Denmark. Thus, the Department of Foreign Affairs and its leader could not be ignorant of the occupation conditions which, as far as the principal features are concerned, were established in the different countries. fixed division of functions. Even if this division of functions had existed, it must be pointed out that the responsibility and the complicity of each in the action of the others would have sufficiently resulted from their obvious knowledge and their approval - which was at least implicit - as far as this action was concerned. However, this division did not exist, and we shall show that all were associated and accessory to a common action.
Now, this very fact involves a more extensive consequence. The association and the complicity of these different departments involves a responsibility of a general nature as far as all the leaders and all the organization. accused here are concerned.
I wish to speak of this a little further. If, for instance, all the abuses and all the crimes were the work only of the Army without any interference, perhaps it would be possible for one personage, for one organization which did not have military functions, to claim that it had no knowledge of these abuses and of these crimes.
I think that this thesis would be, even in this case, difficult to uphold since the extraordinary character of the undertakings which we denounce did not permit them to be ignored by anyone who exercised a higher authority. However, since several administrations are jointly responsible, it follows necessarily that the other authorities are also responsible for the matter. As far as this point is concerned, it was the affair of not one administration or even of three administrations, but the affair of all the administrations. It involved all the authorities of the state. show that this order was the result of a common action of the military administration, the diplomatic administration, and the Security Police in the case of France. It follows that in the first place the leader of the High Command, in the second place, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and in the third place the Chief of the Security Police and the Reich Security Service were all necessarily informed and necessarily approved, this action, for it is evident that their offices did not keep them in ignorance of such actions concerning important affairs, where, moreover, decisions were planned in common in each echelon among the throe different administrations.
Then, there are three personages who are responsible and guilty. But can it be thought that by an extraordinary chance, among the persons who directed the Reich as ministers or with equivalent titles, those three persons were criminals and were the only ones who were criminals and they had conspired among themselves to hide from the others their criminal actions This idea is evidently absured. With the interpenetration of all the executive branches in a modern state, all the leaders of the Reich necessarily were aware of the usurpation of sovereignty in the occupied countries and were aware of the criminal abuses which resulted from them. a special case. Then I shall speak of the civil administration which existed in Norway and in Holland, and finally I shall speak of the military administration which was the regime in Belgium and in France.
this moment, or, if the Tribunal prefers, I can Continue now.
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now, M. Faure.
M. FAURE: Mr. President, after the recess I should like to call the witness of whom I spoke yesterday to the Tribunal. I would like to mention one fact, however. Yesterday the lawyer for Seyss-Inquart requested that it be made possible for him to cross examine this witness on Monday. Now, Mr. Vorrink, who is my witness, finds himself absolutely forced to leave Nurnberg this evening. I think, then, that the lawyer for Seyss-Inquart might cross examine him today. 'I should like, in any event, to note the modifications of the request which I made yesterday.
THE PRESIDENT: Wouldn't it be possible, if counsel for Seyss-Inquart wants to cross examine the witness, for the witness to be brought back at some other date?
M. FAURE: My witness can come back, naturally, at another date in the event that it is necessary.
THE PRESIDENT: Let him go this evening in accordance with arrangements that he has made, and then at some date convenient to him he could be brought back if the defendant's counsel want to cross examine him.
(Whereupon a recess was taken from 1120 to 1130 hours).
THE PRESIDENT: Monsieur Faure?
M. FAURE: Mr, President, may I ask the Tribunal if you are willing to have a witness called at this point?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
M. FAURE: May I state to the Tribunal that this witness, speaks Dutch as his native tongue, which language is not provided for in the interpreting system, but he will speak in the German language, which he knows well.
(The witness took his place in the box).
Q. What is your name?
A. Vorrink.
Q. Your Christian name, your first name?
A. Jacobus.
Q. Do you swear to speak without hate or fear, to say the truth, all the truth and only the truth? Will you raise your right hand and say, "I swear"?
(The witness raised his right hand).
A. I swear.
BY M. FAURE:
Q. Mr. Vorrink, you are a Senator in the Netherlands?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. You are President of the Socialist Party in the Low Countries?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. You exercised these functions in 1940 at the time of the invasion of the Low Countries by the Germans?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. I would like to ask you to give a few explanations on the following situations: There existed in the Low Countries, even before the invasion, a National Socialist Party. I would like you to state what the situation was after the invasion by the Germans and the Occupation, with regard to the different political parties in the Low Countries, and specifically with regard to the National Socialist Party. And what were the interventions of this Party in liaison with the German Occupation?
A. I would prefer to speak in the Dutch language - I am sorry that I do not know French and English well enough to use these languages - but in order not to delay the proceedings I will give my answers in German. This is the sole reason I am using the German language. such that in the first place the German Army wanted to maintain public order in Holland, but at once the real Nazis came with Wehrmacht and tried at once to influence and direct the life in Holland, and according to their concepts. There were among the Germans, three tendencies. In the first place, there were those who believed in "blood and soil". They wanted to convert all of Holland to their uses. I must say that this was in certain respects our misfortune, for those people have on the basis of their theory -- they loved us too much and when that love was not reciprocated the love turned into hate.
informed and these people knew perfectly well that the Dutch National Socialists formed only a very small part of the population hated by the others They received at the elections of 1935 only 8 per cent of the votes. However, two years later this percentage had been reduced to one-half, and these people were tactlessness itself. For instance, they were able when the ruins of Rotterdam were smoking to make a demonstration at which the Dutch representative dedicated to Goering a new bell, so to speak, as thanks for his achievements for the benefit of Holland. Thank God it has not prevented him from being defeated. wanted to destroy the national unity of Holland. These people in the first place tried through Seyss-Inquart to gain the favor of the Dutch people. Just as Seyss-Inquart did, they always emphasized the affinity between the two people, that they should cooperate; and behind the scenes they have placed one Nazi group against the other. Party. There was the real Nationalist movement of Holland. And there was the so-called National Front. And these three movements had all their contacts with certain German places. The Germans first tried to find out whether it was possible to use these groups for their purposes. Slowly, however, they recognized that it was not possible to work with these groups satisfactorily and so eventually they decided to stick to the National Socialist movement. Dutch administration. They were accorded prominent positions in the administration. They became Kommissars of the Provinces. They became Mayors.
I would like to point out some little details as to that. There was not enough people qualified as Mayors, so there upon they instituted short courses of instruction, and it really was a record: They turned out Mayors in Holland within three weeks. You can imagine what kind of Mayors they were. had been Nazified, and in commercial enterprises, and thereby, of course, they occupied positions of power in Holland.
In these posts they behaved just like cowards and knaves, as Nazis would. Russia in the name of the fight against Bolshevism.
Eventually, in December 1942, Seyss-Inquart declared the Nazi Party as the representative of the political development of 'Holland. I would say that if it hadn't been so sad, one might have laughed at that. I must add that the Nazi Party in political respects was nothing but a shadow, with the single but important exception that these people had occasionally the opportunity to deal with personal matters. I would add in the second place that sometimes they persuaded young Dutchmen to enter the SS formations -and during the last years that became even worse. Then they even put the young boys, without their parents' permission, into the SS. That went so far that they forced young boys from correctional institutions into the SS. Sometimes young boys who for certain reasons were at odds with their parents were taken into the SS. And to sum up, I would say that one should -- as I have done -speak to these boys and children in Holland in order to see what a crime was committed against these young people.
Q Mr. Vorrink, am I to understand that the whole of the procedure employed by the Germans was intended to achieve the Nazification of Holland and that if there existed -- as you have indicated -- several varying tendencies amongst the Germans, these tendencies differed only in so far as the means to be employed were concerned and not with respect to the purpose of Germanization? spheres of our national life. They tried in every domain to introduce the system of the Fuehrer. I would like to point out that contrary to our original expectations, they did not express the Socialist formations, but one just tried to swallow them. Very simply, they sent Nasi Kommissars and told the people that the era of democracy had passed, "Just go on under the leadership of the Kommissar and you can still help the workers. It is not necessary that there be any change." They even tried that with the Dutch political party. conversation with Mr. von Tonningen who told me that it was a pity that the good cultural work in the case of the workmen should cease, and that after all I should be willing to cooperate with him for Socialist purposes and this cooperation should be possible. In this long conversation I refused that. I told him that for us, democracy was not a question of opportunism, but a part of our general ideology, and that we were not prepared to commit that treason as far as our convictions were concerned.
slowly the workers -- thousands and tens of thousands of them -- left their organizations. when finally the National Labor Front was created, with the Catholic and Christian Trade Unions, there was an organization all right, but no members. occurred against the Jews? the persecution of the Jews. They may know that we in Holland -- and especially in Amsterdam -- had strong Jewish minorities. These Jews took a very active part in the public and cultural life of Holland, and I might say there was no anti-Semitism in Holland. they would not harm the Jews at all. Nevertheless, as early as the first weeks there was a wave of suicides, and during the following month there came the measures against the Jews. The professors in the University were forced to resign. The president of the highest court in Holland was dismissed. Then the Jews had to register. Finally the time came when the Jews were deporte in great numbers.
protesting. The Dutch students went on strike when the Jewish professors were chased away, and the workmen of Amsterdam went into strike for several days when the first persecution of the Jews went into effect. But perhaps it is necessary that one has seen it with one's own eyes to know what a barbaric system this National Socialist system was. apartments, occupied the roofs of the houses, and chased out young and old and deported them in their lorries. In that respect there was no difference made between young and old. We have seen old women, over 70 years old, who were ill and sick at home and had no other desire than to be allowed to die quietly in their own home, they were put on stretchers and carried out of their home. They were sent to the concentration camp and from there to Germany. home, gave her baby to a stranger, to a strange woman who was not a Jewess, to look after the little baby. At this moment there still are hundreds of families in Holland where these small Jewish children are being looked after and brought up just like their own childredn. the Germans concerned themselves with other denominations, other churches? in order to subject the Church, and the Church never ceased -- I must say, all churches together, the Catholic Church as well as the Protestant Church -they have protested from the beginning whenever the Germans violated human rights. The Churches have protested against the arrest of persons, there were protests of the workmen, and the Church has also decisively supported these protests. pastors and priests have been brought to concentration camps. And of the approximately 20 persons and priests whom I have known in Sachsenhausen, only one has returned to Holland.
propaganda, teaching, for example? military defeat. We were a small people. I may say that during those days we fought as well as we could, but perhaps it would have been possible to maintain a correct attitude with the occupation forces if it hadn't been for the Nazis' determination to dominate us, not only by military measures but also to break our spirits and to suppress us morally. Therefore, they couldn't refrain from dealing with every mode of life and to try to nazify us. as to force us to publish editorials in our press which were written by Germans, and to publish these editorials under the name of our journalists, to create the impression that our editors-in-chief had written them. One can even say that these measures were the starting point for the very extensive illegal press in Holland, because we wouldn't tolerate it and wouldn't be lied at systematically by the Germans. We wanted to have a press which would say the truth.
It was the same as far as the radio was concerned. As far as the radio was concerned, it was soon forbidden to listen to foreign stations, and they did not refrain from dealing out exceedingly harsh punishment if people listened to foreign stations. It happened very often that a great many people in Holland listened to the foreign radio, especially the British Broadcasting Company. And we in Hollandwere always proud that the British radio has never hesitated to bring in extenso the pathetic speeches of Hitler and Goering, while we were not allowed to listen to Churchill's speeches. For in those moments we have known very well and very profoundly why we built up our resistance, and we also knew why our Allied friends strove with all their might to deliver the world from the Nazi tyranny.
It was the same in the field of the arts. They created quite a number of guilds for the painters, the musicians, the writers, and they forced the artists that they should organize themselves. It happened that an author could not even publish a book without submitting it to some Nazi illiterate.
influence the elementary schools by decreeing that in the simplest books for the children of six to 12 years whole sentences should be struck out, sentence like the following: "That when the Queen was visiting a certain place the children were jubilant. In the school buildings they organized real hunts for pictures of our Royal Family.
M. FAURE: I thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: You have finished your examination, have you?
M. FAURE: Yes, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: General Rudenko?
GENERAL RUDENKO: No questions.
THE PRESIDENT: Does any member of the defendants' counsel wish now to cross examine?
DR. STEINBAUER (Counsel for Seyss-Inquart): In order to avoid that the witness must make the long trip from Holland a second time, I would like, although my client is absent, to cross-examine him today. BY DR. STEINBAUER:
Q Mr. Witness, when Seyss-Inquart took over the Government in Holland under the decree of May 18, 1940, was the Queen or members of the Dutch Government still on Dutch territory? leave in office the functionaries of the former Government? office from the royal times only one has been dismissed? only four were dismissed for political reasons?
A I don't know the exact number, but that is possible. in office at the termination of the occupation especially? Is it correct that there were still more than one-half of the royal mayors in office?
Q You haven't answered quite fully the question which was asked you by the Prosecutor about which political parties were represented in parliament. liberal parties, the Social Democratic Party, and the Communist Party, and then some minor parties.
Q I would now talk about schools and churches. Is it correct that the Dutch school system, during the entire time of Seyss-Inquart, was under the direction of the Dutch?
A It was under the Dutch during the entire time, but we don't consider him as a Dutchman, This Dutchman is today in prison because he committed treason.
Q But he was not a German ? School System?
A I can't remember that. into the labor service? wish of the Dutch as far as spelling was concerned, appointing a special investigating committee? expenses thereby?
against the schools of economics and that these measures were rescinded upon the action of Seyss-Inquart?
A Will you repeat the question? I did not understand it. protest that the University in Rotterdam should not be interfered with.
A I don't know. political reasons, has the exercise of the Catholic and Protestant religion beer made difficult or not? They put stool pigeons into the churches who were to listen to the sermons and to denounce the priests.
Q It has happened in other countries too. Please tell me, could the priest or the parson still continue to preach according to his conscience? had the right to pray for the Queen?
A It was certainly not allowed. Several ministers have been arrested exactly for that reason. confiscated, and that he has refused to allow them to be confiscated?
A I don't know. synagogues in Rotterdam and in the Hague. The police wanted to destroy them, and he prevented them from it.
A I don't know whether he wanted to prevent it, but actually they have been destroyed, and those who destroyed them have not been punished, and they were those who cooperated in the worst persecutions of the Jews. ministers that were sent to Germany were concerned, that two-thirds of them, Catholic and Protestant, were allowed to return to Holland?
A I don't know. cultural matters like libraries, which were already ready for transportation, to remain in Holland?
A I don't know whether Seyss-Inquart has done anything in that respect I only know that many of these were transported to Germany, and maybe he was not in a position to prevent it. resistance. Would you have allowed it?
A I would by all means allow the radio. I am of the opinion that people cannot properly function as human beings if they have not a possibility to form their opinions by listening to the pro and con. because Seyss-Inquart objected?
AActually I don't know, but perhaps you may be right in that respect, that Seyss-Inquart was not a friend of Muessert. Plenty of things happened behind the scenes. While in prison I was taken out of my cell to write an article on the National movement in Holland, and I was requested to give my own personal opinion as far as Muessert was concerned. I answered, "Why should I do it? You know how I think of Muessert and the Dutch movement." They answered: "You can't make it vile enough." I interpreted this as one of the many machinations of the N cliques which fought each other.
DR. STEINBAUER: I thank you. I have no further questions. BY DR. BABEL (Counsel for the SS) the SS. Could you tell me the total number approximately. were forced?
A I can't give you an exact figure, but I think that minors, if they entered the organizations without permission of their parents, they didn't do it voluntarily because they couldn't judge their actions.
Q I haven't asked that question. I asked you how many, in your opinion, joined the SS voluntarily or were forced. Will you answer the question?
A I already said that I can't give you the exact number.
A I would say several hundred were forced; those were youngsters who for some reason or another left their home, and they were taken by the Green police or the Security Police and pressed into the SS. I have met quite a few in the Dutch concentration camps, and as an old leader in the Youth Movement I have persuaded them to tell me everything about their life.
THE INTERPRETER: I am sorry; I didn't get the question tions. Has that been done on a voluntary basis, or what reasons were there? trade union and to submit to the Fuehrer principle. They wanted to be in their old trade unions where they had to say something themselves.
Q The resignations, therefore, were voluntary? first, it was said nothing should happen to the Jews, but that nevertheless there was a wave of suicide. What was the reasons of those suicides in spite of what had been said?
A Among the Jews there were those who were really sensible.
We didn't live on an island, and we knew all that had happened between 1933 and 1940 in Germany. We knew that in Germany the Jews had been persecuted to death, and I personally have in my possession even today quite a few affidavits of Jews who emigrated; who informed us exactly from hour to hour how they had been tortured by the SS during the period before the war. That of course was known to the Dutch Jews, and in that respect they were more sensible since they knew that they would suffer the same fate.
Q You first said that that happened in large measure? in Holland, where we value a life very highly, that is quite a number.
Q Now, you used the word "Nazi illiterate." You used that word, "Nazi illiterate". Have you -- quite apart from, I would say, your not quite friendly attitude towards the Germans -- have you any basis for saying that you have met a German who was illiterate?
A I am rather surprised at this question. I mean by an "illiterate Nazi" a man who talks about things he doesn't understand anything about and in this case, those who judged the work of authors were people who had only to investigate whether in that book a Jew might be mentioned and presented as a good and humane character. In such a case, if that was found, such a book could not be published, and if I used the word "Nazi illiterate", I may add that there were found in German cities in the country of Goethe and Schiller great piles of burned books, books that we had read and admired.
THE PRESIDENT: It is very difficult for us to follow the translation if you speak so fast. might justify this derogatory word of "Nazi illiterate". BY DR. PANNENBECKER (Counsel for defendant Frick):
Q I have just one question. You just said that young people were threatened with prison who didn't enter the SS. Do I understand in this way that they would be given prison sentences for prior crimes or that they should be imprisoned just because they didn't enter the SS?
Whether they would have done it or not, I don't know, but it was a threat. It was one of the usual methods of the Nazis to say, "If you don't do this or that which we want, then we will put you in prison," and the examples of this are so ample that in that respect, one shouldn't have any illusions whatsoever. who had run away from home because of differences with their parents?
THE PRESIDENT: Does any other Defense Counsel wish to ask any questions?
(No response)
THE PRESIDENT: M. Faure, do you wish to ask any questions?
M. FAURE: I have no further questions.
THE PRESIDENT: Then, the Witness can retire.
(Witness excused).
M. FAURE: I'll ask the Tribunal to be kind enough to take the dossier of the presentation and the document book, the book bearing the title, "Denmark." as in other cases, of treaties, and specifially of a treaty which was not very ancient, since it was a non-aggression pact which had been concluded on 31 May 1939.
this invasion, the Germans sought to establish and to maintain the fiction according to which that country would not, in fact, be an occupied country. They therefore did not set up civil administrations with regulatory powers, as they were going to do in the case of Belgium and Holland. troops were there in garrison, but this military command, contrary to what happened in other occupied countries, did not exercise the official authority under the power of formulating ordinances or general regulations. this country which they proclaimed not to be occupying, usurpations of sovereignty. This usurpation was the more to be noted in that it did not, even in German eyes, have any trace of juridical justification. German usurpations assumed a discreet and camouflaged appearance. For this, two reasons may be given. The first was that one had to take into account international public opinion, inasmuch as Denmark was not officially under occupation. this country from within by developing their political propaganda along National Socialist lines. to proceed with the internal Germanization had already begun before the war. It is set forth in detail and in a most interesting manner in part of a report, an official report submitted by the Danish Government, which I place before the Tribunal as Document No. 901.
This document, No. 901, is the totality of the green dossier which the Tribunal has before it. It comprises several parts. The subject of which I am now speaking is, more specifically, treated in the first document of this bundle. This first document bears at the top as a first formula "Aide Memoire", or "Memorandum," an information service which was supplemented by a sly espionage service.