assassinated an airman at the time when he was getting out of a car and was on his way toward the Rhine. I read: "He murdered them by shotting a machine gun at each of them in the back, after which each prisoner was dragged by the feet and thrown into the Rhine River." This affidavit was received by the Interrogating Magistrate of Strassbourg. The document which we place before you has been signed by the Secretary of the Tribunal as a certified copy: therefore, the orders given by the leaders of the German Government were carried out by the German people.
THE PRESIDENT: M. Dubost, I see that it is five o'clock now, and perhaps you would be able to tell us what your program would be for tomorrow, for the assistance of defense counsel, and also what length you expect the French Prosecution to take.
M. DUBOST: Tomorrow we shall complete the presentation of the question of prisoners of war. We will summarily present to you documents which seem to us to be indispensable in spite of our hearing of witnesses in regard to the camps - only very few documents - but pplying to some of the defendants directly. Then we shall develop how the orders given by the loaders of the German Army led the subordinates to commit acts of terrorism and banditry in France towards the innocent population; towards also the patriots of the Resistance who were not treated as Franc-tiereur but really as common law criminals. We expect to complete tomorrow morning. In the afternoon, my colleague, M. Faure, could give the presentation of this last part of the French charges concerning crimes against human conditions or the human person.
THE PRESIDENT: Are you not able to give us any estimate of the length of the whole of the French Prosecution?
M. DUBOST: I believe that three days will be sufficient for M. Faure. The individual charges will be summarized in one-half day by our colleague M. Mounier, and that will be the end, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn now.
(Whereupon at 1705 hours the Tribunal adjourned to reconvene the following day, Thursday, 31 January 1946, at 1000 hours).
Military Tribunal, in the matter of: The
THE MARSHAL OF THE TRIBUNAL: May it please the Court, I desire to announce that the Defendants, Kaltenbrunner and Seyss-Inquart, will be absent from this morning's session on account of illness.
M. DUBOST: Before finishing, gentlemen, I must read you a few more documents concerning war prisoners.
First of all, it will be a document, No. 166, which we present under No. RF-377, in your book of documents. It concerns a note summarizing an interview with the Reichsmarshal on the 15th and 16th of May, 1944. Page 8, No. 22 -- extract from page 8, No. 20. The Reichsmarshal wants to propose to the Fuehrer that American and British who fire on towns by chance, on civilian trains that are running or on soldiers hanging by their parachutes shall be immediately shot on the spot. The importance of this documentneed not be underscored. It shows the guilt of the defendant Goering in reprisals against Allied military aviators brought down in Germany.
THE PRESIDENT: What page?
M. DUBOST: Page 88. Mecklenburg arrived at Klink with their crews intact, fifteen men all told. All were shot on the pretext of attempting to escape. The documents which we present to you on page 88 and which we submit under No. 378 relate to this murder. They were found in the files of the headquarters of the Eleventh Aerial Division and they give details as to the fact that nine members of the crew were handed over to the local police.
Paragraph before the last, third line. They were made prisoners and handed over to the protection police in the Warren Service. Lieutenants Helton and Ludka were handed over on the 21st of June by the protection police to the SS Untersturmfuehrer and police commissar of the Criminal Police Stempel of the Security Police in Fuerstenberg (Mecklenburg).Last paragraph.
These seven prisoners were shot on the way while attempting to escape.
Last line of the page. Lieutenants Helton and Ludka are also supposed to have been shot on the same day, while attempting to escape.
Regarding the same Liberator, page 19: "Subject, Fall of the Liberator. "On 21 Jane 1944 at 11:30 A.M." -- this is the third paragraph -- "seven of them brought down or shot while attempting to escape."
Now, under No. RF-379, we submit F-553, which the Tribunal will find on page 101 of the Document Book. This document concerns the internment in concentration camps and extermination camps of war prisoners. Among the escaped prisoners a discrimination was made. If these were privates and non-commissioned officers who refused to work, they were generally sent to the camp and punished in conformity with Articles 47 and following of the Geneva Convention. If they were officers or non-commissioned officers - this is a commentary I am making on the document; I shall read it -- On the other hand, if it was a question of officers or non-commissioned officers having refused to work they were handed over to the police and in general murdered without trial.
One understands the aim of this discrimination. Those of the French commissioned officers who in spite of the pressure of the German authorities refused to work in the German war industry, had a very high idea of their patriotic duty. Their attempt to escape therefore created against them a kind of presumption of inadaptability to the Nazi order, and they had to be eliminated. the beginning of 1944, and the responsibility of Keitel is unquestionably involved in this question of extermination which he approved if he did not specifically order. of General Berard, President of the French Delegation, with the German Armistice Commission, addressed to the German General, Vogl, the President of the German Armistice Commission. Its subject is information reaching France concerning the extermination of escapted prisoners.
First paragraph, fourth line: This note takes notice of a German organization independent of the Wehrmacht under whose authority the escaped prisoners fall. This letter was addressed on the 19th of April. This note was addressed on the 29th of April, 1944. Page 102.
"Captain Lussus, declares General Berard to the German Armistice Commission of Oflag, 10-C, and Lieutenant Girot of the same Oflag who had made an attempt to escape on 27 April 1944, were recaptured in the immediate vicinity by the camp guard. On 23 June 1944 the chief of the officers of Oflag 10-C received two funeral urns containing the ashes of these two officers. No details could be given to this French officer as to the causes of the death of Captain Lussus and of Lieutenant Girot. General Berard pointed out at the same time to the German Armistice Commission that the note -- which the Tribunal will find on page 104 -had been communicated to Oflag 10-C to the French officer responsible for his comrades at Oflag 10-C "You will bring to the attention of your comrades the fact that there exist for the control of people moving about illicitly a German organization which extends its activity over a region in state of war reaching from Poland to the Spanish frontier. Each war prisoner who escapes and is recaptured and finds himself in possession of civilian objects, or false identification cards and photographs, falls under the provision and authority of this organization. What becomes of him, I cannot tell you. Warn your comrades that this is a particularly serious question." urns of the escaped officers, handed to the French officer of the camp. under which escaped officers were reprised.
THE PRESIDENT: Was there any answer to this complaint? What you have just been reading, as I understand it, is a complaint made by the French General, Girot, to the German head of the Armistice Commission, is that right?
M. DUBOST: Mr. President, I don't know if there was an answer. What I know is that the Archives were in part saved and in part destroyed.
THE PRESIDENT: The Archives were --
M. DUBOST: If we had an answer we would have then in the Vichy Archives, for the documents we present now are the documents of the German Archives of the German Armistice Commission.
As to the French Archives, I don't know what has become of them. In any case it is possible they may have disappeared through acts of war.
Will the Tribunal forgive me? I was bringing to its attention that my Soviet colleagues would expound the conditions under which the repression of escapes was carried out at the camp of Sougan.
We submit under No. 380, Documents 672-F, which the Tribunal will find on page 115 in its Document Book. This is a report from the Service of War Prisoners and Deportees, dated 9 January 1946, which relates to the deportation to Buchenwald of twenty French war prisoners. This report must be considered as an authentic document, as well as the reports of war prisoners which are annexed thereto. At page 115, the Tribunal may read the report of Claude Petit, former chief confidence man in Stalag 6-G. In September, 1943 and French war prisoners transformed into workers, it is to be understood, being deprived of all spiritual assistance, having no priests among them, Lieutenant Piard, chief aumonier of Stalag 6-G, after having spoken with the aumonier of the war prisoners of the Rodhain, decided to transform six war prisoner priests as volunteers to carry out their ministerial functions among the French civilians.
I quote only three lines of the following paragraph; the first:
"This transformation of priests, difficult to execute, since the Gestapo did not authorize the presence of aumoniers among civilian workers, these priests and a few scouts organized on the one hand a scout group, on the other hand a group of Catholic Action." On page 157, paragraph 3: "From the beginning of 1944 the priests felt themselves watched by the Gestapo in their various activities." were almost simultaneously arrested and led to the prison of Brauweiler, near Cologne.
Page 118, first and second paragraphs:
"The same happened to the scouts."
I quote:
"Against this flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention, I took numerous steps and made numerous protests, in order that the prisoners of war arrested by the Gestapo might be handed over to the German authorities.
I likewise asked to know the reason for their arrest."
Fifth paragraph:
"By reason of the rapid advance of the Allies who were approaching, all prisoners of Brauweiler were taken to Poland."
(Dr. Stahmer, Counsel for Defendant Goering, approached the lectern.)
Mr. President, before allowing the Defense Counsel to interrupt me, allow me to finish the reading of this document. German military authorities took steps in order that the fate of these prisoners be pointed out to them. The military authorities having no knowledge thereof, immediately undertook a correspondence with Buchenwald, a correspondence which remained without answer. And again, at the beginning of March, Major Bramkamp, chief of the Abwehr group was to go personally to Buchenwald. disappeared. Souche, page 624, who in paragraph 3 writes :
"Certain war prisoners transformed into workers and French civilian workers had organized in Cologne a group of Catholic Action under the direction of the transformed war prisoners who were priests, Pannier and Cleton."
"The arrests began by the members of the Catholic Action and the accusations -
THE PRESIDENT: I do not know what Dr. Stahmer's objection is.
DR. STAHMER (Counsel for Defendant Goering): That we are not in a position to follow the expose. First of all, the translation is not very good. Some phrases -- sentences -- are left out. Especially, wrong numbers are mentioned. For instance, 612 has been mentioned. I have it here. It is quite a different document. We have not the document books and we can't follow the number of the page. It is not only myself, but also my colleagues who complain that they are not in a position to follow the proceedings under these circumstances.
THE PRESIDENT: May I see your document?
(Handed up to the Bench)
DR. STAHMER: This number was just mentioned and is confirmed by the other gentlemen.
THE PRESIDENT: The document from which Monsieur Dubost was reading was 672. The document you have got there is a different number.
DR. STAHMER: But this number was given us over the microphone and it was only I but the other gentlemen next to me -- quite independently -- who heard the same number. And it is not only this number, but all through, the numbers have been mentioned incorrectly.
Another difficulty is that we don't have the document bock, and the number of the page doesn't mean anything to us. We don't have the document book.
THE PRESIDENT: Monsieur Dubost, I think the trouble really arises from the fact that you give the numbers too fast and the numbers are very often wrongly translated, not only into German but sometimes into English. It is very difficult for the interpreters to pick up all these numbers. First of all, you are giving the number of the document, then the number of the exhibit, then the page of the document book -- and that means that the interpreters have got to translate that many numbers spoken very quickly. and as I understand it, they haven't got the document book in the same shape we have. It is the only way we can follow. But we have them now in this particular document book by page, and therefore it is absolutely essential that you go slowly.
M. DUBOST: Mr. President, the documents have all been handed to the Defense. All the documents have been presented to the Defense.
THE PRESIDENT: Are you telling us that document books have been handed to the Defense in the same shape they are handed to us, let us say, with pages on them? Speaking for myself, that is the only way I am able to follow the document. You mentioned page 115 and that does show me where the document is. If I haven't got that page, I shouldn't be able to find the document.
M. DUBOST: Mr. President, I announced at the same time RF-380, which is the number of the document.
The 672 which is the number classification. All our documents bear a classification letter 672-F. On the other hand, it was not possible to hand to the Defense a document book paginated like the one of the Tribunal, for it is not in the same text that this book is submitted.
It is in German and the page is not in the same place. There is not absolute identify of pagination to constitute a German Document Book. We can't -
THE PRESIDENT: I am telling you the difficulties under which the Defendants' Counsel are working, and if we had simply a number of documents without the pagination we should be under a similar difficulty. And it is a very great difficulty. Therefore you must go very slowly in giving the identification of the document.
M. DUBOST: I will conform to the wishes of the Tribunal.
Mr. President -
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Stahmer, the document being read was Document 672.
DR. STAHMER: I cannot find this number in the document I have at my disposal. We have 673 and all the rest is loose-leaf. We had 672, but we don't have 673. I beg your pardon -- 673 we have, but I haven't been able to find 672 so far. So far we have not been able to find the document. It thereby makes it very difficult for us to follow the Prosecution, because it takes us so much time to find the number which has been mentioned.
THE PRESIDENT: I can understand the difficulty. Will you continue, Mr. Dubust, and do as I say, going very slowly so as to give the Defendants' Counsel, as far as possible, the opportunity to find the document. And I think that you ought to do something satisfactory, if possible, to make it possible for them to find that document -- by pagination or some other letters. An index, for instance, gives the ardor in which the documents are set out.
M. DUBOST: Three days ago two document books in French, paginated like the books that the Tribunal has before it, were handed to the Defense. We were only able to hand two to them, for reasons of a technical nature. At the same time, we handed to the Defense a sufficient number of documents in German to enable each defending counsel to have his file in German. Will the Tribunal ask me to bring together the pages of the French document which we submit to the Defense with the pages of the document book? Whereas the Defense can do it and had time to do it. Two days ago the document books were handed to the Germans. They had the possibility of collating the French texts with the German texts, to make sure that our translations were correct and to prepare themselves for the sessions.
THE PRESIDENT: Go on, Mr. Dubost. As I say, do it slowly -
DR. STAHMER: That is not quite correct, that we have received the book three days in advance. We received -- or we found -- in our room, these documents yesterday, not in good order, and we just didn't have the time to put order into these papers. That was in our room this morning.
THE PRESIDENT: Let's go on now, Mr. Dubost, and go slowly in describing the identification of the document.
M. DUBOST: We shall pass to Document F-357, which will be submitted under No. 381, which is on page 125 in the French Document Book. This document deals with the execution of general orders concerning the treatment of prisoners of war, and it contains the testimony of a German police officer who was made prisoner on 25 May 1945 and who on page 27, paragraph before the last, under-scored lines -
"All the war prisoners who we might have in our possession for any reason whatsoever were to be shot down by us instead of being handed over to the nearest Wehrmacht post as was being done until now." This has to do with an order which was given in the middle of May, 1944. And the witness continues:
"This execution was to be carried out in a deserted spot." Germans having had to do with the war prisoners.
We shall now submit a document, which will become No. 382. The Tribunal will find it on page 129 in its Document Book. This is Document 1634-PS. This is a document which has not yet been read, which relates to the murder of 129 American war prisoners carried out by the German Army, in a field southeast and west of Baignez in Belgium on 17 December 1944 during the German offensive.
Page 129, bottom of the page. The author of this report summarizes the facts.
"Prisoners are gathered together in the proximity of the cross-roads"-
THE PRESIDENT: Where are you reading?
M. DUBOST: I am summarizing, Mr. President, page 130 -- 129 and 130.
The American prisoners are brought together near the cross-roads. A few soldiers whose names are indicated rush across the fields towards the west, hide among the trees in the high grass and thickets and ditches, and thus escape the massacre of their companions.
A few others who at the moment when this massacre began were in the proximity of a barn were able to hide in it. These are other survivors.
Third paragraph. The artillery and machine-gun fire on this column of American vehicles lasted from ten to fifteen minutes. Then there appeared on the national highway two German tanks and a few caterpillar trucks which came from Weismes. When these vehicles reached the crossing they turned out on the St. Vith Road. The tanks fired with machine guns into the ditches of the road where the American soldiers were crouching. At the site the other American soldiers threw down their weapons and raised their arms above their heads. All the American soldiers who had surrendered were given the order to return to the road crossing and German soldiers who were on some German vehicles before which the American war prisoners were passing made them hand over their personal objects, like watches, rings and gloves. The American soldiers were then gathered on the road of St. Vith before a house situated on the southeast corner of the crossing. Other German soldiers arriving in tanks or small caterpillar trucks continued to search the American prisoners at this pot and likewise removed from them objects of value.
Top of page 131, before the end of the paragraph: An American prisoner was questioned and led with his other comrades to the crossroads which have just been referred to.
Third paragraph: At about the same moment, a German vehicle (I skip two lines) tried to maneuver in such a way as to be able to point its guns on the group of American prisoners who were in the field 20 to 25 metres from the road. (I skip again four lines.) Some of these a (this refers to the German vehicles) stopped before the field where the American prisoners were standing with their arms lifted or their hands drawn behind their heads. A German soldier, undoubtedly an officer or a non-commissioned officer, got up in one of the stopped vehicles and pulled out his revolver, aimed, and fired into the group of American war prisoners. One of the Americans fell. The same thing happened again and another American soldier of the group fell. Almost at the game moment -- and this is at the beginning of the massacre -the machine guns of two of the vehicles on the road opened fire on the group of American soldiers in the field. All or most of the American soldiers threw themselves to the ground and remained there during the firing, which lasted two to three minutes. Most of the soldiers in the field were hit by the firing of the machine guns. They were followed by other vehicles, likewise coming from Weismes, and when these last vehicles passed before the field where the American soldiers were stretched out, individual shots were fired from these moving vehicles on the recumbent corpses in the field.
Page 132, first paragraph. I summarize: German soldiers who were mounting guard at the crossroads went over to the wounded prisoners who were lying on the ground and who still gave some sign of life.
Fifth line before the last of the paragraph: They struck them with blows of their gun butts or with other hard objects. On several occasions American prisoners received a shot, fired apparently at a very short distance, exactly between their eyes or in the temple or behind the head. This act constitutes an act of pure terrorism, the shame of which will remain upon the German Army, for nothing justified this. They knew that the prisoners were unarmed and had surrendered.
the French accusation is based to establish the guilt of Goering, of Keitel, of Jodl, or Bormann, of Frank, of Rosenberg, of Streicher, of Schirach, of Hess, of Frick, of the OKW, of the OKH and the OKR, of the government of the Reich, and the Corps of the Nazi Party leaders, as well as of the SS and the Gestapo in the atrocities committed in the camps. I shall be very brief. I have very few documents present in addition to those which have already been presented.
The first puts Kaltenbrunner under accusation. The Tribunal will find this document on page 246. The number is L-35 in the document book concerning concentration camps. This document has not yet been submitted. Paragraph 3, page 246, L-35: This is the testimony of Rudolf Miltner, Doctor of Law, Colonel of the Police, who declares, paragraph 2 of his declaration:
"The internment orders were signed by the Chief of the SIPO and of the SD, Dr. Kaltenbrunner, or by delegation by the chief of service for the SS, Gruppenfuehrer Mueller." second document book. This is a letter from Field Marshal Milch to Wolff. On page 204, this letter concludes with this phrase:
"I express to the SS the special thanks of the Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe for the considerable aid brought by them." Now, from what precedes one can conclude that these thanks are relative to the biological experiments of Dr. Rascher. Thus, Goering is involved in these. The German Medical Corps is implicated; the SS Medical Corps is implicated. This one can gather from document 1635, which has not yet been handed to the Tribunal, which becomes document RF-385, which the Tribunal will find in tie annex of the second document book. The number of the document is 1635-PS. These are extracts from reviews of microscopic anatomic research. These extracts deal with experiments made on persons who died suddenly, although they were in full health, and the conditions of their death are put forth by the experimenter.
in such a way that no reader can be in any doubt as to the conditions under which they were brought to their death. extracts. Page 132, at the very top of the document which we submit to the Tribunal:
"The thyroid glands of 21 persons between 20 and 40 years of age who were supposedly in good health and who suddenly died were examined."
The following paragraph: "The persons in question, 19 men and 2 women lived until their death for several months in uniform outward conditions, and likewise as concerns their food. The food absorbed at the end consisted chiefly of hydrocarbon."
Paragraph before the last: "In the course of a rather long period, substance for the experiment was taken from the liver of 24 adults in good health, who suddenly died between 5 and 6 o'clock in the morning." will see that the German medical literature is very rich in experiments carried out on adults in good health who died suddenly between five and six o'clock in the morning. No one in Germany could be a dupe or could be fooled since in this way publicly the accounts of experiments were published. These were the experiments of SS doctors in the camps. poison bullets, carried out on the 11 of August 1944, in the presence of SS Sturmbannfuehrer Dr. Ding and Dr. Widmann, page 187 of the second document book concerning the concentration camps. These two documents are submitted under numbers 386 and 387. The Tribunal will find on page 187 the description of this experiment, in which the victims are persons sentenced to death, and where, in fact -
THE PRESIDENT: The document has been read already, I think.
M. DUBOST:F-185. It is a French document.
THE PRESIDENT: But I can't help that. It has been read already, I think.
M. DUBOST: I beg the Tribunal's pardon. I didn't realize that. It is a document from the French archives. However, Mr. President, I doubt that the Tribunal has heard the reading of document 185b, which is by the French Professor, Mr. May, a surgeon.
This document is on page 222, second paragraph. Profess or May, Agrege of Surgery, to whom the pseudo-scientific documents to which I alluded a while ago were submitted -- accounts from scientific reviews of experiments -- wrote:
"The wickedness and the stupidity of the experimenters fill us with amazement and stupefaction. The symptoms of intoxication with aconitine have been known from time immemorial. This poison is sometimes employed by certain savage tribes to poison the arrows of their arsenal. Never has one heard that it has been seen that observations should be presented in such a pretentious style on the foreseeable result of their experiments, nor that these could be signed by a D.O.Z., that is to say, a professor."
We now submit document 278a, under number 388. The Tribunal will find it on page 75. It involves Keitel. It is a letter signed by order, Dr. Lehmann, 17 February 1942. It is addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and it involves Keitel.
I quote paragraphs 2 and 3 on page 75, which concern the regime in the internment camps:
"The delinquents brought to Germany in application of the edicts of the Fuehrer are to have no relation of any kind with the outside world. They must, therefore, heither write themselves nor receive letters nor packages nor visits. The letters, packages, and visits are to be refused with the remark that all relations with the outside world are forbidden. The high command shares the point of view of the receiver of this letter, in his letter of 31 January 1942, according to which access of Belgian lawyers to Belgian prisoners shall not be permitted." which becomes No. 389. This document involves the German Government and the Cabinet of the Reich. A conversation between Dr. Goebbels and Thierack, Minister of Justice, 1942, in Berlin:
"As concerns the extermination of the asocials, Dr. Goebbels is of the opinion that the following groups should be exterminated: Jews and nomads without discrimination; Poles who have three or four years of penalty to be executed; Czechs and Germans sentenced to death or to forced labor for life or placed in the security detention for life."
THE PRESIDENT: Has that document been read before?
M. DUBOST: This document does not seem to have been read before. We informed ourselves. I am sorry; that was my fault: "The idea of exterminating them by work is the best idea." camps is document F-162, which becomes document 390. Page 77 and 78, second document book. This document is the testimony of M. Poutiers, living in Paris, Place de Breteuil, who indicates that the prisoners in the commandos of Mauthausen worked under the direct control of civilians, the SS dealing only with the surveillance of the prisoners. This witness, who was in numerous work commandos, specifies that all were controlled by civilians, and only supervised by the SS, and that, thus, the inhabitants of the country, in the going and coming of the workers to work, could observe the distress of the prisoners, which confirms the testimony which has already been given before your Tribunal.
the West: At the beginning of the occupation, violation of Article 50, Execution of Hostages, brought the creation of a psuedo law of hostages, in order to justify these executions in the eyes of the populations of the occupied countries. person increase. It will be complete in the last months of the occupation. At that time arbitrary imprisonment with summary trials or without trials will become daily practice. The sentences, the Tribunal will remember, will cease to be observed in cases of acquittal or of pardon, and the people acquitted by German tribunals, who should be put at liberty, will be deported and will die in concentration camps. In a parallel way, the organization of the French who remain on the soil of France and who refuse to let their country die. At this stage the German terrorism becomes more violent against them and grows from month to month, and what follows is the description of the terroristic repression of the German against the patriots of the West of Europe, against what was called the "Resistance", without giving this word any other meaning than its generic sense. collaboration is doomed to defeat, that its policy of hostages only exasperates the fury of the people which it is trying to subdue, then, instead of modifying its policy with regard to the citizens of the occupied countries, it reinforces the terror which already reigns over these countries, and tries to justify itself by saying it is an anti-communist campaign.
What one must think of this pretext the Tribunal already knows. All the French, all the citizens of Europe, without distinction, without any distinction of party, profession, religion or race, were involved in the resistance against Germany and were involved in the collective charnel houses to which Germany sent them. But this deliberate and calculated confusion justified to a certain arbitrary degree the repressive measures, this arbitrariness which we have already witnessed by document F-278, page 4 of the document book, which we submit under No. 391, dated 12 January 1943, signed "Falkenhausen."
THE PRESIDENT: Which document book is it?
M. DUBOST: Terrorist Actions against the Patriots, document F-278, page 4, second paragraph:
"Persons who are found without a valid authorization, having in their possession explosives and firearms, may be immediately shot in the future without any judicial process." Western Europe. These orders are even executed against organized forces in Belgium as well as in France, although the Germans themselves considered these forces as troops in a certain measure. This can be verified by reference to document FS-673, page 167, third paragraph.
THE PRESIDENT: That is in a different book, I am afraid, isn't it?
M. DUBOST: We are now dealing with the Terrorist Actions Against Patriots, and is in the document book entitled "Terrorist Actions Against the Patriots."
THE PRESIDENT: The number of the page came through to me as one hundred sixty something, and my pages end at 155.
M. DUBOST: Excuse me; I made the mistake. It is page 6 of the document book, paragraph 3, third line:
"The action of the German troops, even taking account of the guilt of these killed" -
THE PRESIDENT: Is this from 673? Are you reading from 673?
M. DUBOST: Excuse me, Mr. President, this document is surely not before the Tribunal, and I shall not quote it.
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps this would be a convenient time to break off.
(Whereupon a recess was taken from 1125 to 1140 hours.)
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, M. Dubost.
M. DUBOST: During the few minutes recess the opportunity was afforded me to submit RF-673, which I submitted to you, and I am thankful to the Tribunal. This document is now before you. It has just been given to you. In paragraph three of this document, which is a note of presentation to the Wiesbaden Commission, we read the following:
"The action of the German troops, even if we take account of the realities of the presenting of facts by the French, is taking place within the scope of combats which by far exceed any police action against isolated outlaws. On the enemy side we have organizations which absolutely refuse to accept the sovereignty of the French Government of Vichy, which also from the point of view of numbers as well as of armament and as well as with regard to the command, must also be designated as troop units. It has often been reiterated that these revolutionary units consider themselves as being incorporated in the Allied forces which are fighting against Germany.
"General Eisenhower has designated the terrorists who are fighting in France as 'Troops under my orders.' It is against the latter (and the original is written in red pencil unfortunately) that preventative measures are intended." forces of the interior as well as all French forces in the Western countries were considered as troops by the German Army itself.
THE PRESIDENT: I see that it may be useful for the record. It is in the document book, on the extermination of innocent populations, at page 167.
M. DUBOST: I thank you, Mr. President. The patriots who were therefore considered by the German Army as constituting regular troops, are they then to be treated as soldiers? No. The order of Falkenhausen is proof thereof. They were either to be brought down on the spot, and nevertheless they are combatants, or else they will be turned over to the Sicherheitspolizei, and they will be tortured to death by organizations which are free of any legal compulsion.
835-PS, which is already deposited under No. USA-527. Proof thereof is also given in F-673, page six in your document book, which we are now placing before you.