They had been arrested in March, month of May, 1942.
On the 19th of August, 1942, 96 hostages went out from this fort; among them Monsieur Le Gall, Municipal Councillor of Paris.
All were taken to Romainville and executed.
under letter "B"--at 402 B. This notice was written in these "As a result of assaults committed by Communist agents and civilians have been killed or wounded.
By way of reprisal against by confessions.
In addition, severe measures of repression have planned by the Communists for 20 September, 1942.
I ordered the "From Saturday, 19 September, 1942, at 3 o'clock in the Seine, Seine-et-Oise, Seine-et-Marne; all public demonstrations, "From Sunday, 20 September, 1942, from 3 o'clock in the of the Seine, the Seine-et-Oise and the Seine-et-Marne.
The only exceptions are persons representing official services, etc."
that 46 of these hostages in the list of 116 were chosen. The Command.
It is, therefore, through the newspapers that the squad.
All lived during the day in expectation of the call that would be made that evening.
Those who were called knew their fate beforehand.
All died innocent of the crimes for which they were the Rex theatre were subsequently arrested.
It was in Bordeaux that 1943, in Paris.
You will find in this same file, 402-C, a people the reprisals against terroristic acts.
The assaults and acts of sabotage have multiplied in France in recent days.
For this 1943, on the order of the Higher SS and the Polizeifuehrer.
All of our collaborators.
You will find this testimony under letter "A" submitted under number 287.
That is number 402 A at the bottom of the page number 1. You will read:
"There were 70 of us, among whom the Professors Jacques Solomon, Decourtemanche, Goerges Politzer, Dr. Boer, Mrs.
Engros, in Paris.
We were questioned in turn by a Gestapo officer in the quarters of the rue des Saussaies.
Certain of us, more particularly "In questioning me the Gestapo officer confirmed this to me.
"'Rabate, you will have to speak. Professor Langevin's son-in-law came in here arrogant.
He went out crawling.'
"This is how the occupying power treated our intellectuals.
"After a period of five months in the prison of Cherche Midi, we were.
On the doors of our cells was written, 'Alles Verboten" (Everything is Forbidden). We received only the strict food ration and two hundred drams of black bread per day.
The crackers sent an expression corresponding to the "NN", Nacht und Nebel, which we have heard of in Germany."
THE PRESIDENT: M. Dubost, the Tribunal thinks that, unless who were put to death and they think that it really doesn't add to
M. DUBOST: I thought, Mr. President, that I had not spoken to German Army.
I thought that it was my duty to enlighten the
THE PRESIDENT: If there are matters of that sort which you summarize.
But if there are particular atrocities which you wish
M. DUBOST: This was what I had thought I should do. I give
THE PRESIDENT: Go on.
M. DUBOST: In the region of the North of France, which was practised.
You will find document RF-123, submitted under No. 288, arrests or executions or deportations.
Certain of these posters to those which I read to you in connection with France.
Perhaps it France, we have a very great number of eases.
You will find in Tournai on 18 September 1941 of twenty-five inhabitants as hostages, on which it specifies the condition under which certain ones of them will be shot if the guilty are not discovered.
But you will find, especially, under No.680, a remarkable document because it comes from the German authorities themselves, which is the secret report of the German Chief of Police in Belgium under date of 13 September 1944; that is to say, when Belgium was totally liberated and this German official was summarizing for his chiefs his service during the occupation of Belgium. This document will be deposited under No. 290. On the first page of this document you will find the following passage, which is taken from it:
"The growing excitement of the population by the radio and the press of the enemy which urge them to acts of terrorism and sabotage" -- this is applied to Belgium -- "the passive attitude to the population and, in particular, to the Belgian administration, the complete failure of the public ministries, the prosecutions of the judges and of the judicial police in discouraging and preventing terrorist acts have at last led to preventive and repressive measures of the most rigorous kind, that is to say, to the execution of persons closely related to the groups which have committed guilty acts.
"Already, on the 19th of October 1941, on the occasion of the murder of two police officials in Tournai, the military commander-in-chief declared by an announcement appearing in the press that all the political prisoners in Belgium would be considered as hostages, effective immediately. In provinces of the north of France, subject to the jurisdiction of the same military commander-in-chief, this ordinance went into effect on the 26th of August 1941. Through repeated notices appearing in the press the civilian population has been informed that political prisoners taken as hostages will be executed if the murders continue to be perpetrated.
"Consequent upon the assassination of Mr. Teughels, Rexist Mayor of Charleroi, and other attempts at assassination against public officials, the military commander-in-chief has been obliged to order for the first time in Belgium the execution of eight terrorists. The date of the execution is 27 November 1942."
order under date of 22 April 1944, secret, sent by the military commander in Belgium and in the north of France, having as its subject, "Measures of Expiation." For the murder of two Wallons SS, five hostages were shot on that day. On the following page nine hostages are added to these five, and a tenth still on the following page. Then five others on the following page. You will find, finally, on the next to the last page of the document, a projected list of persons to be shot in expiation of the murder of SS men. Compare the dates, and judge the ferocity with which the execution of these two Wallon traitors were expiated. patriots who were thus murdered.
THE PRESIDENT: Which page did you say?
M. DUBOST: The last page, page 6, the last document reproduced, on the last page. I have not read it not to lengthen the case, but I shall read it, if you will.
"Nouveau Journal" -- the New Paper notice -- "25 April 1944.
"Measures of expiation for the murder of the fighters of Tcherkassy. The German authority communicates: the author, the perpetrators of the attempted assassination, perpetrated on 6 of April against members of the SS Sturmbrigade Wallonie, and fighters of Tcherkassy Hubert Stassen and Francois Musch -- M-u-s-c-h -- have not been apprehended until up to now. In consequence, and in accordance with the communication dated 10 April 1944, the 20 terrorists whose names follow have been executed:
"Renatuo Dierick of Louvain; Antoine Smets of Louvain; Jacques van Tilt of Holsbeck; Emilien van Tilt of Holsbeck; Franciscus Aerts of Herent; Jean Van der Elst of Herent; Gustave Morren of Louvain; Eugene Hupin of Chapelle-lez-Herlaimont; Pierre Leroy of Boussois; Leon Hermann of Montigny-sur-Sambre; Felix Trousson of Chaudfontaine; Joseph Grab of Tirlemont; Octave Wintgens of Baelen-Hontem; Stanislaw Mrozowski of Grace-Berleur; Marcel Boeur of Athus; Marcel Dehon of Ghlin; Andre Croquebois de Pont-des-Briques b. Boulogne; Gustave Hos of Mons; and Walter Kriss of Herent."
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now for ten minutes.
(Whereupon at 1540 hours a short recess was taken)
M. DUBOST: As far as the other Western countries are concerned, as Holland, Norway, we have received documents which we submit under the number F-228. We submit this document as Document 291. Page 2 of the document 224 in the French text you will find a long list of civilians who were executed. And on pages 4 and 5 you will find a report of the chief of the criminal police, Munt, in connection with these executions, and you will observe that Munt tries to prove his own innocence without succeeding, I believe. was present in Holland, and the result of the discovery of numerous bodies -
THE PRESIDENT: I am not following this. Did you say 224? Which document is it you are on?
M. DUBOST: 224.
THE PRESIDENT: I see the list of names, and then what was it you were referring to at the end of it? You said page 6. I have only got page 5.
M. DUBOST: Document 224-A in your document book, which was submitted under the number 277.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I have 6 now.
M. DUBOST: On this page you will find, page 6, the account of an investigation relative to mass executions which the Germans carried out in Holland. I don't think it is necessary to read this investigation. It brings no new factual element and simply emphasizes the thesis that I have been presenting since this morning: that in all the Western countries systematically the German military authorities carried out executions of hostages in reprisal.
was given to shot eighty prisoners, and the authority who gave this order said: "I don't care where you get the prisoners" -- execution without any designation of age or profession or origin. attained -- that is on line 6 and 7. for a murder committed against an SS soldier, a house was destroyed and several Dutchmen were executed and, in addition, two other houses were destroyed. Under Number 2, several others were executed, and under number 3, fourteen. In total, three thousand Dutchmen were executed under these conditions, according to the testimony of this document, which was established by the War Crimes Commission, signed by the Chief of the Dutch Delegation to the International Military Tribunal. region by region. The Tribunal will excuse me if I do not read this page, it seems unnecessary. Holland without drawing the attention of the Tribunal to Document 224B, which gives a long list of hostages, prisoners or those who are dead, arrested by the Germans in Holland. The Tribunal will observe that most of these hostages were intellectuals or very highly placed personages in Holland. We note therein, names of assemblymen, lawyers, senators, Protestant clergymen, judges, and amongst them we find a former Minister of Justice. The arrests were made systematically among the intellectual elite of the country. submitted under Number 292, a short report as to the executions which the Germans carried out in that country. two Norwegian patriots, were killed on an island on the west coast of Norway. In order to avenge this, four days later eighteen young boys were shot without trial. All these eighteen Norwegians had been in prison since the 22 of February of the same yaar and therefore had nothing to do with this affair.
and which is page 22 of the Norwegian original, it states that on the 6 of October, 1942 ten Norwegian citizens were executed in reprisal for various attempts at sabotage. shot without trial. They had all been taken from a concentration camp. The reason for this is unknown. were found in graves. All had been shot and we do not know the reason for their execution; it has never been published, and we do not believe they were tried. The executions were effected by a shot through the back of the neck or a revolver bullet through the ear, the hands of the victims being tied back. This information, as given, comes from the Royal Government of Norway and was sent to this Tribunal. by Terboven, which is relative to the execution of eighteen Norwegians who were prisoners, who tried in an illegal fashion to reach England. countries citizens were executed without trial, in reprisal for acts in which they never participated. It does not seem necessary to me to multiply these examples. Each of these examples inculpates each individual and some individuals who are not within the competency of this Tribunal. The examples are only of interest in the measure that they show that the orders of the defendants were carried out and notably the orders of Keitel. I believe that I have amply proved this. It is incontestable that in every case the German Army was concerned with these executions and it was not done by the police or the SS.
It did not achieve the desired results. Far from reducing the number of crimes, it increased them. Each attempt was followed by an execution of hostages. Every shooting of hostages occasioned more attempts on lives. In a general way, new executions of hostages plunged the country out of a sort of stupor and forced every citizen to become conscious of the fate of the country, despite the efforts of the German propaganda. Before this terroristic policy we might believe that the defendants might have modified their practice.
Far from modifying them, they reinforced them. I shall strive to show how this policy was carried out from the time when the policy of hostages had failed, it was necessary to appeal to the German police to keep in servitude the occupied countries. With the failure of the policy of the execution of hostages there followed, as you remember, by General Falkenhausen in Belgium, arbitrary arrests to the point of becoming a constant practice, substituted for that of arrests of hostages.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you say the number of the document again?
M. DUBOST: 715-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: That is the first document in the document book?
M. DUBOST: The first document in the book. transferred to Germany in protective custody.
"Purpose: Measures to be taken against French Officers.
"In agreement with the German Embassy in Paris and with the Chief of the Security Police in the Security Department, the High Command in the West makes the following proposals;
"First: The general officers enumerated below will be arrested and transferred to Germany in honorable custody: The Generals of the Army Frere-who died subsequently in Germany after his deportation -- "Gerodias, Cartier, Revers, de Latre de Tassigny, Fornel de la Laurencie, Robert de Saint-Vincent, Laure, Doyen, Pisquendar, Mittelhauser, Paquin; Aviation Generals Bouscat, Carayon, de Geferier, D'Harcourt, Mouchard, Mendigal, Rozoy; Colonels Loriot and Fonck I continue on Page 2:"It concerns generals whose names have a propaganda value in France and in foreign countries or whose attitude and capacities represented a danger."
"Moreover, the information service in France has put in its files in two years have come into the foreground.
For its part, the Security later date, depending on the situation was to be prepared."
The sixth paragraph at the bottom of the page:
"Concerning all officers of the French Army of the Armistice, the Chief territory, a check of domiciles and of professional occupation."
Page 3, paragraphs 7 and 8:
"As a measure of reprisal, families of suspected persons having already solved.
Afterwards we can contemplate as a later measure the withdrawal out in other cases by Laval.
The police and the army will be joined in all of these arrests."
is concerned in this. Document 723-PS, which becomes Document 295, will be read in this session. It is the third document of the document book. It is addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and is dated Paris, June 5, 1943:
"In the course of a conference which took place yesterday with the to be taken:
"These measures must have for a purpose to make impossible through the same time to prevent these personages from organizing themselves, in the event of an Anglo-Saxon invasion of France, in any resistance movement.
"The personages to whom these measures apply all belong to the military circles--officers who by their rank and experience or by their name would strengthen in a capital fashion the milltary command or the political credit of the dissenters in the event that they should decide to join them. In the event of military operations in France, we must consider them as being of the same importance."
Page 2, fourth paragraph:
"The list has been established in agreement with the High Command of the West, the Chief of the Security Police, and the General of Aviation in Paris."
I'll not read these new names of High French Officers who were to be arrested, but I'll ask you to go to Page 4, where the Tribunal will see in the second paragraph that the German authorities contemplate "causing officers already arrested by the French Government to undergo the same fate as officers who had been placed under the surveillance of the French authorities, such as Lattre de Tassigny, Laure, Fornel, La Laurencie. These generals should be literally torn away from the French authorities to be deported."
Paragraph 3 as follows:
"Considering the general situation at present and the security measures which are envisaged, all officers present are even now considering it inopportune to keep these generals in French custody, for they might, either through negligence or with the voluntary aid of the personnel of the guard, escape and recover their liberties." families:
"General Warlimont had asked the Commander in Chief of the Western Front to raise the question of reprisal measures to be taken against the families of persons who had become dissenters and to make certain proposals concerning them eventually. President Laval declared himself ready, not long ago, to take measures of this kind in behalf of France, but to limit himself, nevertheless, to famil ies of several outstanding personalities." 3,486 of May 29, 1943:
"They were to wait to see if Laval really was ready to apply in a practical way such measures.
All those present at the meetings were in agreement, in any event, that such measures should be taken as rapidly as possible against families of well-known personages who had become dissenters. For example, members of the family of General Giraud, Juin, Georges, the former Minister of the Interior, Pucheu, Inspector of Finance, Couvre de Murville, Roy Beaulieu and others. The measures may also be carried out by the Germans, since the persons who have become dissenters may be considered as foreigners belonging to an enemy power, and the members of their families may be considered as such. In our opinion, the members of these families were to be interned. We must verify with care how these measures are carried out in fact."
I skip one paragraph:
"We might also study the question of whether these families should be interned in regions particularly exposed to air attacks; for instance, proximity to Talsperren or industrial regions which are particularly bomb targets. A list of families who are being interned is to be formulated in collaboration with the Embassy." Ribbentrop, the defendant Goering, the Defendant Keitel; for it is their departments who made these proposals, and we know that these proposals were agreed to.
THE PRESIDENT: In my document book it is what?
MR. DUBOST: It is the second in the document book which was handed to the Tribunal before this session, 720-PS. S-293. We must point out the participation of foreign arrests through the OKW. It is a fact that these arrests were carried out on members of the family of General Calier who were deported. General Frere was deported and died in the concentration camp. The orders were carried out. They were approved, before being carried out, to the approbation and recommendation of the defendants, whose names I just gave you. The arrests were not only directed at the officers, but were general. They were much more extensive, and theyvaried to a great number of French officers, who were arrested. We have no exact statistics.
THE PRESIDENT: Did you produce any facts for your last statement?
M. DUBOST: I believe on the arrest of General Frere and his being in the concentration camp; I shall bring you the proof when I treat the concentration camps; of the arrest and death of several French generals in the concentration camps in Dachau, and, generally, the Tribunal still remembers the testimony of Blaha so far as the family of General Sicherheit is concerned. I shall bring this proof to you. I didn't believe it was necessary, as this was a well-known public fact, that the family of General Georges was deported. It is a matter of public knowledge.
THE PRESIDENT: Are you sure that we can take judicial notice of all the facts which may be public knowledge in France?
M. DUBOST: I shall submit to the Tribunal the supplemental proof concerning these people as soon as I receive it. It is in a camp that I will show you how he was murdered. On the other hand, there exists a document in the Document Book under No. 470, submitted as 297, which was captured from the German Armistice Commission, which establishes that the German authorities refused to free French generals who were prisoners.
as this question was concerned, an attitude of refusal, not only from the point of view of their freeing, but so far as their hospitalization in neutral countries was concerned. That is S-417, the fourth document in your document book.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
M. DUBOST: "As to the freeing and hospitalization today, we will now consider the Fuehrer as ordering the transfer to Germany of all French generals living in France. That was signed by Warlimont, and in the manuscript it is noted, "No reply to be given to the French". A "no" to approve this last paragraph, after the Fuehrer had ordered a transfer to Germany of all the French generals living in France. But I shall show you these arrests were surpassed by an infinite number, -- or a limited scope of generals, -- or the families of well known persons, who were envisaged by the document which I just read to the Tribunal. A very great number of French were arrested. We have no statistics, but we have an idea of the number, which is considerable according to the figures of the French, who died in the one French prison alone under a German commander and supervised by German personnel under the General Doenick occupation; that forty thousand Frenchmen died in one French prison alone in France. This is shown in a document which will be submitted later in the case against atrocities, and which I shall submit at the end of my statement, which comes from the Ministry of Prisoners and Deportees, an official figure produced by the Ministry on the prison registry of the Reich Security and Custody, presented by my American Colleague and shown the Tribunal. It is on the case of custody when they read document 1723-PS, submitted under No. 266. It is useless that we should go back to this document. It is adequate to remind the Tribunal that the Prison and Security Custody were considered by the German authorities as the strongest measure destined to inform one in visit fashion of all foreigners who through mutual arrangement should neglect their attitude towards the German community, and compromise the security of the German State; they have to conform to the general interes, and to the doctrine as a disciplinary measure of the state.
remembers clearly; an arbitrary custody of arrest of those who were interned in security arrests that had no right. They could not justify themselves. There were no tribunals before which they could ask for justice. Now we know through official documents which were given to us, notably by Luxembourg, of a very abundant application of this particular custody being carried out. The Tribunal will read in Document S-229, already submitted as USA 243, S-215, a list of twenty-five persons arrested and placed in different concentration camps under protective custody. Tribunal to the case of the arrest of Ludwig, because he was strongly suspected of having aided deserters. Bottom of the page. The testimony of the application of protective custody in France is given in our Document RS-300, submitted under No. 300, which follows in your document book.
THE PRESIDENT: 278.
M. DUBOST: Marked S-278 at the top, at the right. Copy marked VAA-723, Secret Minister of Foreign Affairs, Berlin, 18 September 1941. There is an error there. The date is not clear but we know it is 1941. "Relating to the report of August 30, 1941, the explanations of the military command of the 1st of August are considered in general to be satisfactory for us to reply to the French note. Here, also, we consider there is every reason to avoid any new discussion with the French concerning preventive arrest, for this discussion can only end in a clear expression of the limits of the exercise of this power by the occupying power, which is not desirable in the interest of the liberty of action of the military authorities. The signature cannot be read; and below, the Representative of Ministry of Foreign affairs at Wiesbaden -- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs -- VAA P7 236, SECRET, Weisbaden, 3 February 1941 -- 23 of September, 1941, copy." suitable time of the reply made to the French note. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was still concerned with this question of protective custody.
Affairs and according to the testimony of this Document, this document was based on a very fragile foundation; nevertheless, the Minister for Foreign affairs does not forbit it. The arrests were carried out under multiple pretexts but all these pretexts may be allied to two general ideas; they arrested them either for political reasons or for reasons of race. The arrests were individual or collective, in one case as well as in the other; the pretexts were of a political nature from 1941 on. The French established that there was a certain synchronism between the evolution of political events and the rhythm of arrest. The French Document, which is at the end of your Document Book, Document 300, will show this. Page 3 to 6.
THE PRESIDENT: At the end of the document?
M. DUBOST: At the end of the document book is found, Mr. President, a book like this one; page 3 to 6.
THE PRESIDENT: We have two documents.
M. DUBOST: Page 3 to 6. This book is a report of the Ministry of Prisoners
THE PRESIDENT: You said page 326. I only have 125 pages in the book.
M. DUBOST: Beginning at page 3 to page 6. I believe that the copy which the Tribunal has, has the same appendages as mine. We begin with page 3, a description given by the Ministry of Prisoners and Deportees, the conditions under which these arrests took place, beginning in 1941, a critical period in the history of the war, since it was from 1941 that Germany was at war with the Soviet Union.
Page 7 of the German translations: "The synchronism between the evolution of political events and the rhythm of arrests is evident. The doing away between the line of demarcation between the occupied and nonoccupied zones, the establishment of groups of existence, the formation of the Marquis, the result of the Bureau of Compulsory Labor, invasion of North Africa and invasion in Normandy, obviously relates to the figure of arrests whose maximum curve is found from the period of May to August 1944, especially in the southern zone and particularly in the region of Lyon. We repeat that these arrests were carried out by the Nationals of all the categories of the German repressive system, the Gestapo in uniform or in civilian clothes, SD, the Gendarmery, particularly at the demarcation line: Wehrmacht and SS."
Page 4, second paragraph:
"The arrests took on a characteristic of collective operation. At Paris, as a result of an attempt on someone's life, the 18th Arrondissement was rounded up by the Field Gendarmery. Its inhabitants, men, women, and children could not return to their homes and spent the night "where they could find shelter, A roundup was carried on in the Arrondissement".
I don't think that it is necessary to read the following, which resulted in the arrests at the University of Clairmont-Ferrand, which the Tribunal certainly remembers, which related also to the arrests in Brittany in 1944, at the time of the invasion.
The last paragraph:
"One cannot enumerate the cities and villages where other pretexts of conspiracy for attempted crime of killing families. Then the Germans proceeded roundups within the Bureau. The Germans carried out roundups when the Bureau of Compulsory Labor no longer furnished them sufficient labor. Roundup in Grenoble, the 24th of December 1942, the day, Christmas Day. Roundup at Cluny, in March 1944. Roundup at Figeac in May 1944. Most Frenchmen who thus have been rounded up were in reality not used to work in Germany but were deported, to be interned in concentration lamps."
We might multiply the examples of these arbitrary arrests. In delving into official documents which have been submitted by Luxemburg, by Denmark, by Norway, by Holland, and by Belgium, these roundups were never justified on any juridical basis. They were never even considered as a penalty. They were always arbitrary and carried out without any apparent reason, for no apparent reason or at any rate, without any act of a Frenchman being notified as a reprisal.
Other collective arrests were made for racial reasons. They were of the same nature, they were of the same odious nature as the arrests made for political reasons. In page 5 of the official document of the Ministry of Prisoners and Deportees, the Tribunal may read a fewdetails, a few odious details which were involved in these arrests. The third line at the bottom of the page. "Certain German policemen were especially entrusted to seek out Jewish persons, according to their physiognomy. They called this group 'The Brigade of Physiognomists'. This verification sometimes took place in a public way as far as men were concerned. (At the station at Nice, some were unclothed with a revolver pointed at them). The Parisians remember these roundups in their quarters. The great police buses transported old men, women and children and brought them en masse to the Velodrome D'Hiver, under dreadful hygienic conditions, before taking them to Drancy, where they awaited deportation. The roundup of the month of August 1941, has remained famous. All the exits of the subway of the 11th Arrondissement were closed and all the Jewish in that quarter were arrested and imprisoned.