their relations with the German authorities was absolutely nil. The fact that the second organization was qualified as governmental corresponded to no strengthening of autonomous authority. There were only differences of power form, of which I shall point out the major to the Tribunal. I present, in relation to these two documents, No. 921 and No. 922. By comparing these two documents you will see the exactness of which I have just affirmed. These two documents are instructions addressed by the Reichskommissar to these organizations concerning legislative procedure. I shall point out to the Tribunal the date when these documents were numbered. I shall consider first Document 922 and subsequently Document 921. The two documents, however, are closely allied. beginning of the period of the State Councils. I quote an extract from this document:
"All the decrees of the State Counselor must be submitted beofre their publication to the Reichskommissar."This is to be found in the second paragraph. It is the only point which I would like to make in this document. All the decrees of the higher Norwegian administration were under the control of the Reichskommissar.
The second document, Document 921, is dated 8 April 1942. It relates to the period shortly after the establishment of the second Quisling Government. I read a part of the second sentence of this document:
"Given the formation of the National Norwegian Government, the Reichskommissar decided that henceforth this form of agreement -- a prior agreement in writing -- is no longer required. Nevertheless, this modification of form of legislative procedure should not have for a result the proclamation of law decreed by the Norwegian Government and instituted by the competent service of the Reichskommissariat. His Honor, the Reichskommissar, expects every department chief to inform himself through close contacts with the competent Norwegian bureaus of all legislative measures which are in preparation, and he should examine in each case to see that these measures concern German interests, and that he will assure himself, in case of need, that German interests will be taken account of."
it is an internal control by information handed over between the different offices; but the principle is the same. The establishment of local authority under one form or under another form corresponded only to the search for the best way of deceiving the public. When the Germans put Quisling into the background it was because they thought the State Counsellors, being less well known, might more easily deceive the public. When they had Quisling return, it was because the first maneuvers had failed obviously, and because they thought that perhaps the official establishment of a qualified authority would give the impression that the sovereignty of the country was not abolished. One might, however, wonder what was the reason for these artifices and why the Nazis used them instead of simply and purely annexing the country. There is a very important reason for that. It is valid for Norway and it will be valid for Holland. The Nazis preferred to keep the fiction of independent states and to insure for themselves a definite empire from within by the utilization and by the development of a local party. It is with this view in mind that they granted to the party in Norway advantages of prestige, and if they did not act in Holland in an identical manner, we shall see that their general conduct is, however, inspired by the same point of view.
Norwegian law, an alleged Norwegian law of March 12, 1942, official Norwegian Journal, 1942, page 215, which I offer in evidence as Document No. 923, I quote:
"Law concerning the party and the State, March 12, 1942, No. 2, paragraph 1: In Norway the National Samling is the fundamental party of the State and closely allied with the State.
"Paragraph 2: The organization of the party, its activity, and the duties of its members are fixed by the Tribunal of the National Samling.
"Oslo, March 12, 1942, signed Quisling, President of the Council." reduplication which exists in the higher authority. It is the transposition of the German system, which includes constant parallelism between the State Administration and the party organizations. Everywhere the German Nazis were appointed and established to second and supervise the Norwegian. Nazis who had been in official positions. (and the way in which it was carried out) and the administration. I would like to submit two documents, which are Documents 924 and 925. These are extracts of judicial interrogations by the Norwegian Justice of two German high officials of the Reichskommissariat at Oslo. Document 924 refers to the interrogation of George Wilhelm Mueller, interrogation dated January 5, 1946. Wilhelm Mueller was the leader of the Bureau for the Education of the People and for Propaganda. The information which he gives is relative to the functioning of the Propaganda Bureau, and also analogous methods which were used for all bureaus, as this deposition documents. I quote Document 924:
"Question: In 1941 no one thought in your country that there would be military difficulties. At that time they certainly tried to form the Norwegian people in the Nationalist Socialist sense?
"Reply: That is what they did until the very end.
"Question: what were the measures practised for this National Socialist formation?
"Reply: They Supported the M.S. Samling as fat as possible, and they did it, in the first place, by strengthening from the organizational point of view the structure very strongly." is comprehensible.
"Question: In what way was it strengthened?
"Reply: In each fylking, or province, they appointed National Socialists who had been particularly selected to aid the Norwegian National Socialists.
"Question: Were there other measures which were carried out?
"Reply: That was done in all documents, even in the domain of propaganda, the Einsatzstab putting propagandists at their disposal. They also did it at Oslo under the central direction of the N.S. Samling.
"Question: How did these propagandists work?
"Reply: They were in close relation with similar Norwegian propagandists and also to the leaders suggestions. Grell did that in a double capacity as Chief of Propaganda in the Reichskommissariat and the leader in the Landsgruppe.
"Question: What was the method that was utilized?
"Reply: These constant conferences were continued to the very top of the hierarchy. There was a man who was particularly entrusted, first Wegener, then Neumann, then Schnaubusch, who had the position of intensigying National Socialist ideas within the N. S. Samling.
"Question: In the Einsatzstab there were experts in the different branches who were to be in contact with Norwegians in order to advise them. In what domain?
"Reply: There were organizers, and especially counsellors, far the Hird, the leaders of the SA and SS. We had as a leader one man for the press, a propagandist, Mr. Schnaubusch, until be became himself leader of the Einsatzstab a financier, a counsellor for social questions, as with the NSV in Germany. " the leader of the Einsatzstab, which was the organization which had control of the local party. I would like now to read an extract of the interrogation of Schnaubusch, which is found in Document 925.
THE PRESIDENT: Are you putting these documents in?
M. FAURE: Yes, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you say, for the purposes of the shorthand note, that you offer them in evidence?
M. FAURE: Will you excise me? I offer these documents in evidence. Schnaubusch, leader of the liaison service in the Reichskommissariat:
"Question: How did the German departments try to carry out this National Socialist transformation?" not consider to be of any great interest, so I omitted them.
"Reply: We sought to strengthen this movement with all the customary ways of leading the masses as we re accustomed to do in Germany. The National Samling took advantage of the fact that they had all means of transmission and propaganda. But we see very cl early that the purpose could not be obtained. After September 25, 1940, the atmosphere in Norway changed from one day to the other when some State Counsellors were appointed as N. S. State Counsellors, and that because the acts of Quisling during the days of April, 1940 were considered as a betrayal.
"Question: In what way did you assist from the material point of view the N. S. Samling in this propaganda? In what way did you give your advice to the N. S. Samling?
"Reply: At the time I was in office was when propaganda activity was to be carried out. It harmonized with the propaganda which was taking place in Germany.
"Question: Did you issue any directives for the N. S. Samling?
"Reply: No. In my time the N. S. Samling worked in an autonomous manner in this domain, and even in part contrary to our advice. The N. S. Samling invoked the fact that it understood the public, the Norwegian mentality, but it committed numerous mistakes.
"Question: Were pecuniary means put at its disposal?
"Reply: In every fashion. Financial means were given, but I don't know the exact sum."
THE PRESIDENT: Shall we adjourn for ten minutes?
(Whereupon at 1120 hours a ten-minute recess was taken.)
its permission, I should like to have heard this afternoon the witness Van der Essen, about whom a regular request has already been submitted.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
M. FAURE: This witness can then be called at the beginning of the afternoon session. utilize the local Party as an official agent of the government. The government authority belonged, in an integral fashion, to the Kommissar of the Reich, which was made up of a sort of Ministry, including four general Kommisars, respectively competent for government and justice, for public security, for finances and the economic affairs, and for special matters. This organization was created by a decree of 3 June, 1940, Official Journal of Holland, 1940, Number 5. As the Dutch official Journal has been submitted in evidence to the Tribunal, I shall not again submit each text, which is a part of it. I shall, therefore, simply ask the Tribunal to take notice of it and I shall consider it as proof. the Secretaries General of the Ministries, who are entirely responsible to the Reich Kommissar and to the General Kommissars. 1940, page 8, specifies in its first article;
"The Kommissars of the government exercise the powers given until now to the King and to the Government."
And in Article 3 of the same document:
"The General Secretaries of the Dutch Ministries are responsible before the Reich Kommissar." received an official consecration. likewise is in the Dutch Official Journal, 1943, page 63. I read the following passage:
"The representative of the political will of the Dutch people is the National Socialist movement of the Netherlands. I have ordered that all the German offices under my orders, in order to assure the coordination between the tasks of the administration and that of the National Socialist movement, maintain close relations with the Chief of the movement, as concerns the execution of important administrative measures and particularly for all matters concerning personnel." necessary through the witness who has been heard, how outrageously inaccurate it was to claim that the Dutch National Socialist Party represented the political will of the people of this country. of sovereignty, I should now like to point out to the Tribunal the essential lines, the various ways in which these usurpations were committed by the Germans. countries to participate in the war and at the very least, to develop in them recruiting for the German Army. In Norway the Nazis created the "SS Norge", an organization which later was to be called the "Germanske SS Norge." I submit as evidence Document 926, which is an ordinance of 21 July, 1942, concerning the Germanske SS Norge, and I quote paragraph 2 of this ordinance, which is an ordinance of Quisling.
"2. The Germanske SS Norge is a National Socialist order of soldiers which is to be composed of men of Nordic blood and ideas. It is an independent subdivision of the National-Samling, directly under the NS Foreren (that is the Fuehrer of the National-Samling and is responsible to it). It is, at the same time, a section of the Stor Germanske SS, (the SS of Greater Germany) and is to contribute to the carrying out of the following work:
"Directing the Germanic people toward a new future and creat the basis of a Germanic community." Norwegian government, is perfectly clear the undertaking of Germanization.
not hesitate to upset the civil legislation and to violate the constant principles of the rights of family by having a law which dispenses minors from the consent of their parents, put into effect. This is a law of the first of February, 1941, Norwegian Official Journal, 1941, 153, which I submit in evidence as Document 927. legislation in order to permit military recruiting. As they did not create any factious government and as the legitimate government was still at war with the Reich, the volunteers fell under the force of Article 101 the Dutch penal code, which punished the enrolling in the Army of a foreign power and likewise the fact of giving aid to the enemy. chance of these penalties being effectively applied but it is very curious and very revealing to observe that the Reich Kommissar referred to a decree of 25 July, 1941, Dutch Official Journal, 1941, Number 1935. This decree declares that the taking into service of Dutchmen -- into the German Army, the Waffen SS or the Legion of Netherlands Volunteers -- did not fall under the provisions of the penal texts quoted above and this decree is declared retroactive to 10 May, 1940. It is therefore quite convenient when one commits a criminal act, according to the general code to modify the law to suppress or eliminate the crime in question.
Another decree of 25 July 1941, Official Journal of 1941, page 546; stipulates that enrollment in the German Army does not involve loss of Dutch nationality. 622, declares that the acquisition of German nationality is no longer punishable by the loss of Dutch nationality. Although this last text seems to refer to a point of detail, it may be regarded as an initial attempt to create later a double nationality, which would be Dutch and German and which is a procedure which fits into the whole plan of Germanization. to indicate in detail the intent of the accusation. This results from the examination or cross-examination of the witness Vorrink, who was heard on Saturday. The accusation does not consider that the criminal character of this military recruiting is subordinate to the fact of having recruited persons by force, by pressure against their will.
These pressures and these restraints are an aggravating aspect and a characteristic one butnot a necessary one for the criminal enterprise or undertaking which we reproach. The fact of having recruited persons, even on a voluntary basis, in the occupied countries into the German Service, is considered by us as a crime, which is punishable by the domestic legislation of all these countries, such as the legislation which is applicable to the acts which were committed in these countries, and in terms of the rules of law in matters of legislative competence.
was favored or not by particular pressure according to the occasion in which they found themselves personally. the accusation does not consider, that the recruiting of traitors, whether in the Army or in other activities, is for the Nazi leaders an extenuating circumstance or an absolving one. On the contrary, it is one of the characteristics of their criminal activity and the responsibility of the traitors does in no way exclude their own. We hold, on the contrary, against them the corruption which they attempted to extend into the occupied countries by making appeals to what the population of a country may contain of elements of weak morality and by provoking and seeking in the minds of everyone, the possibilities of immoral service, immoral and criminal service against the country. troops. ing to the abolition of public freedom and the setting up of the Fuehrer principle. I shall quote by way of example some of these measures. September, 1941, which is in the Official Journal of 1940, page 19; an ordinance forbidding all activity in favor of the legitimate dynasty, ordinance of 7 October 1940, in the Official Journal of 1940, page 10; the guarantees of the status of officials are suppressed, they may be transferred or dismissed for political reasons, German ordinance of 4 October 1940, Official Journal 1940, page 24. Finally a Norwegian law of 18 December, 1943, setting up a very characteristic institution, that of Departmental Chief of the Party. I submit this under Document 928. I simply sant to quote from it an expression, according to which the Departmental Chief, representing the Party, "is subject to the Minister President and to no other authority of the State. He exercises in the department the supreme political control over all public authorities of the department."
associations with the application of the Fuehrer principle. of 11 August, 1941, Official Journal 1941, page 637, confirmed by decree of 21 June, 1940, Official Journal of 1940, page 54, the dissolution of political parties, ordinance of 4 July 1941, Official Journal 1941, page 513; creation of the Labor Fron, decree of 30 April 1942, Official Journal 1942, page 211; setting up of the Peasant Corporation, decree of the 22 of October 1941, Official Journal 1941, page 838. finally, a decree of the 12 of August 1941, Official Journal 1941, page 34, which creates a special judicial authority for all offenses and infractions against peace and order, against political interests or committed through political motives. In fact, the justices of the peace charged with exercising these oppressive powers were always chosen amongst members of the Nazi Party. as a systematic enterprise against the elite of the country and against the spiritual life of the country. It is always here that the Nazis find the greatest pressure of resistance against their designs. They attack the universities and teaching establishments. to the administration the right of closing arbitrarily all private institutions. In Holland, likewise, the University of Leyden was closed down on the 11 November, 1941. Journal 1943, page 127, forced the students to sign a declaration of Loyalty conceived in the following terms:
"The undersigned solemnly declares hereby that he will conform in honor and conscience to the laws, decrees and other dispositions in force in the Dutch occupied territory and will abstain from any act directed against the German Reich, the German Army or the Dutch authorities as actions and deeds which would imperil public order in the higher teaching institutions in view of the present circumstances of danger."
I offer in evidence before the Tribunal Document 933. I point out to the Tribunal that the order is not correct here, that Document 933 is the last in the document book.
This document Number 933 is an article of the "Deutsche Zeitung", of 1 December 1943, reproduced in a Norwegian newspaper. It is entitled, "A house-cleaning measure necessary in Oslo." I shall read simply a few paragraphs of this article, I begin with the second paragraph:
"The students of the University of Oslo" - will the Tribunal excuse me. I shall read also the first paragraph:
"By order of the Oberfuehrer and General of the SS Polise is made known the following to the students of the University of Oslo:
"The students of the University of Oslo have attempted since the occupation of Norway, that is, since 1940, to play as resistance against the German Army of occupation, and against the Norwegian Government recognized by the Reich."
I shall end the quotation here, and I continue at paragraph 5:
"To protect, the interests of the occupying power and to assure the maintenance of peace and order within this country, rigorious measures are indispensable. This is why, in the name of the Reichskommissar, I must advise you of the following;
"First, the students of the University of Oslo will be transferred to a special campaign Germany.
"Second, the woman students will be dismissed from the University and will have to receive to their communities where they will present themselves immediately to the names, until further orders they will be allowed to leave these communities only upon order of the police." before the last on the on the second page of this document 933.
"You must be thankful to the Kommissar of the Reich for the fact that other much more drastic measures are web, being applied. Moreover, thanks to this measure, most of you escaped for the future the danger of losing your lives and your property," End of quotation.
As concerns religious life, the Germans multiplied the attacks. By way of example, I offer in evidence Document 929, which I shall read:
"Oslo, 28 May 1941: to the Commanders of the SIPO and the SD in Bergen, Stavanger, Drontheim, Tromso,. Subject: Surveillance of religious services during the Pentecostal Festival. Result: nothing:
"You will kindly supervise the religious services and address to this address a report on the result.
It is signed - "The Commander" - the signature is illegible, but it is for the SIPO. End of quotation. I offer in evidence this document as Number 930. I shall read this document, which is very brief.
"Trondheim, 5 June 1941.
"The surveillance of religious services during the Pentecostal Festival gave no new essential elements. Domprost Fjellbu continues his activity as a conscientious preacher, but he does it in a sufficiently skillful manner to be able to defend each turn of phrase as being of a religious and not political nature," the one hand the constant immorality of the German methods, and, on the other hand, the just protests to which they gave rise on the part of the most qualified authorities. The first example concerns Holland. arrests, and by the concentration camps, found occasion to make known their disapproval under a form which entered into the normal carrying out of their juridical functions. On the occasion of a particular affair the Court of Appeals of Leeuwarder made a declaration, which I quote to you. This is submitted to you as Document 931. I read to you an extract from this document, 931:
"Considering that the Court cannot declare itself in agreement in the matter of the penalty inflicted upon the accused by the head Judge and its presentation of motives, the Court is of the opinion that this penalty would be determined as follows:
"Regarding the penalty that is to be inflicted: That the Court desires to take account of the fact that for some time various penalities of imprisonment inflicted by the Dutch Judge upon delinquents of masculine sex, in violation of legal principles and in violation of the intention of the legislator and of the Judge, have been executed or are being executed in camps in a manner aggravating the penalty to such a degree that it was impossible for the Judge to foresee it or even to assume it in determining the degree of the penalty.
"Whereas the Court, in taking account of the possibility of this manner of executing the penalty to be inflicted at present, will abstain from condemning the suspect to an imprisonment in conformity in this case with the gravity of the offense committed by the defendant, because the latter would be exposed to the possibility of an execution of the penalty indicated here above.
"Whereas the Court, basing itself upon this consideration, will limit itself to condemning the defendant to a penalty of imprisonment or confinement to be determined hereafter, with deduction of the time spent by him in preventive detention of such a duration that the penalty at the moment of the making of this decree or the pronouncing of the penalty will almost entirely have experied during the period of preventive detention." that as a result of this decision of the Court of Appeals, the defendant Seyss-Inquart dismissed the president of the Court by a decree of the 9th of April 1943, which is equally offered in evidence, but under the same document number, 931. These two documents will constitute a single document.
"By virtue of paragraph 3 of my decree," et cetera, "I remove from his office as councillor of the Court of Appeals Leeuwarder to take effect imme diately, Doctor of Law FF Viehoff," Signed, "Seyss-Inquart."
End of quotation. Norway, and this involves a solemn protest made by the Norwegian Bishops, The special occasion of this protest is the following: The Minister for Police had issued a decree, dated 13 December 1940, by which he arrogated to himself the right of suppressing for priests the obligation of professional secrecy, and provided that priests who had refused to break the secrecy of the confession box would be subject to imprisonment. Public Education and Church Affairs and handed to it a memorandum. In this memorandum they made known their protests against this extraordinary intervention of the police, and at the same time they protested against other abuses, violent acts committed by Nazi organizations, and illegal acts in the judicial field. This protest of the Norwegian Bishops is transcribed in a pastoral letter addressed to their parishes in February 1941. I submit it as Document 932. I shall read an extract from this document on page 9, top of the page:
"The decree of the Ministry of the Police, dated 13 December 1940, just published, gravely affects the mission of the priest. According to this decree, the obligation of professional secrecy for priests and ministers may be suppressed by the Ministry of the Police.
"Our obligation to maintain professional secrecy is not only established by law but has also been a fundamental condition for the work of the Church and of the ministers in the exercise of their care of souls and when they receive the confession of persons in distress. This is an inalterable condition for this work of the Church, that a person may have absolute and unlimited confidence in the commitment of the priest, the unreserved commitment of the priest, to his obligation to maintain professional secrecy, as it has been normally in the Norwegian legislation and in the regulations of the Church at all times and in all Christian countries.
"To abolish this Magna Charta of conscience is a blow against the vital cord of the work of the church, an attack which is of utmost gravity because of the fact that paragraph 5 of the decree stipulates that the Ministry of the Police may imprison the priest in question in order to obtain in this manner, by force, an explanation without the case having been submitted to a tribunal."
but already the highest spiritual authorities of Norway found themselves in a situation, not only of having to protest against a particularly intolerable act, but also to bear upon the whole of the occupation, an exposition which appears on page 16 in the pastoral letter, and which I shall read to the Tribunal, last paragraph:
"This is why the Bishops of the Church have placed before the Ministry some of the acts and official proclamations in regard to the government of the society of these latter times, acts and proclamations which the Church finds in contradiction with theCommandments of God, and which give the impression that there exists a revolutionary state in the country, and not a state of occupation under which the laws are maintained to the degree to which this is not directly incompatible with the state of occupation." Tribunal, I should also like to read a last sentence which preceded this on page 16:
"When the public authority of society permits violence and injustice and exercises pressure over souls, the Church then is the guardian of consciences. A human soul, is of more importance than the entire world."
I shall ask the Tribunal now to Lake the file entitled "Belgium." I point out immediately to the Tribunal that this file does not include the document book. This statement, which is relative to very general facts, will be supported by way of proof by the report of the Belgian Government, which has already been submitted by my colleagues under member 394. The section which I take up now is a general section, relative to the military administration with Belgium and France, taken as two specific cases, and I shall begin by the file concerning Belgium. can be imputed to the military command which affected them either by direct ordinances or by enjoining the administrative authorities of Belgium, who in this case were the Secretaries General of the Ministries.
Tribunal two paragraphs of the Belgian report, Chapter 4, concerning Germanization and Nazification. Page 3, paragraph 3:
"The legal government of Belgium having withdrawn to France and to London, that is to say, the highest officials in the hierarchic order, who by virtue of Article 5 of the law of 10 May 1940, exercise in the framework of their professional activity and for casesof urgency, all the powers of higher authority." first months of the occupation by the intention of keeping the occupying authorities as much as possible free of the administration of the country, gathered into their hands the Governmental powers and powers of regulation. On the order of the Germans this power of regulation became in the long run a real legislative power. to theseposts Belgians so they could maintain in Belgium all appearance of legality. They could carry out absolutely radical reforms, which would make of this country a National Socialist state. hold on the public power through the local authorities, the Germans did not hesitate by an ordinance of 14 May 1942, which is related in the official report, to suppress the jurisdictional control of the legality of the decrees of the Secretaries General, which was a violation of Article 107 of the constitution of Belgium. The Belgian report specifies in the following paragraphs what is the responsibility in this matter of threats of assault upon public law and order, and I shall quote here the very precise terms of this report on page 4, paragraph 3:
"In conclusion, whether the transformation of the legal institutions be the consequence of German ordinances or that of decrees emanating from the Secretaries General makes no difference. It is the Germans who bear the responsibility for these, the Secretaries General being in respect to them only faithful agents to carry out their instructions." paragraphs of the report, for they reveal characteristic facts as to German methods in their seizure of power.