dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
M. FAURE: It bears as a heading, "Gaudirektion-Auxiliary Bureau of Strasbourg."' If it please the Tribunal, I shall read the beginning of this document: "Evaluation of recruiting possibilities of the Party, its subdivisions and related groups in Alsace. "In the framework of the drive of 19 June organized for the recruiting of party members, the Kreisleiter in collaboration with the Ortsgruppenleiter have to investigate Alsatians above the age of 18, even if their membership is not yet to be obtained within this drive which may be"-the word "which" was omitted in the text-"considered for prospective membership of the Party, its sections, and affiliated organizations and which men between the age of 17 and 48 could be actively employed in the Party or in its subdivisions. In order to gain a numerical survey, these investigations should also comprise all persons already enrolled in the Party, in the Opferring"-this is the collecting organization of the Party-"in the sections, and affiliated organizations. "The Kreisleiter may call upon the collaboration of the Kreisorganisationsleiter"-these are the organizing directors of the section- "and of the Kreispersonalamtsleiter"-the personnel information offices of the sections-"In spite of this work the 19 June drive for recruiting members should not suffer but must be carried on by all possible means and gain the goal set by the Gauleiter at the given date..
M. FAURE: "The results of the screening of the population are to be compiled in five lists, namely: List 1a; List 1b; List 2a; List 2b; Control list." I shall skip over the following paragraphs, which are rather long and purely administrative, and I shall continue on Page 2 of the document, Paragraph 9: "Since it is the aim of the National Socialist movement to embrace all Germans in a National Socialist organization in order to mould and direct them in compliance with the intentions of the Movement, 90 percent of the population will have to figure on Lists la and b and 2a and b, while on the Control List only those shall be named who, on account of racial inferiority or asocial or anti-German attitude are considered unworthy of belonging to an organization, are not deemed worthy of membership in Party organizations." I shall now enter upon the two most serious questions which are directly interconnected, questions which, on the one hand, concern nationality and, on the other hand, military recruiting. The German policy in the matter of nationality reveals a certain hesitation, which is related to the German policy, in regard to military recruiting. Indeed, the German leaders seem to have been swayed by two contradictory trends. One of these trends was that of bestowing the German nationality on a large number of people, in order to impose the corresponding obligation for military service. The other trend was that of conferring nationality only with discrimination. According to this viewpoint it was considered, first of all, that the possession of nationality was an honor and should to some extent constitute a reward when conferred on those who had not previously possessed it, On the other hand, nationality confers on its possessor a certain special quality. In spite of the abolition of all democracy, it gives that person a certain influence in the German community.
M. FAURE: It should, therefore, be granted only to persons who give guarantees in certain regards, notably that of loyalty; and we know that, from the German point of view, loyalty is not only a matter of mental attitude and choice but that it also applies to certain well-known physical elements, such as those of blood, race, and origin. These are the two opposed trends in the German policy of conferring nationality. This is how they develop: At first-and up to the month of August 1942-the Reich, not yet requiring soldiers as urgently as it did later, deferred the introduction of compulsory recruiting. Along with this they also deferred any action to impose German nationality on the population generally. During this earlier period the Nazis did not resort to compulsory recruiting but relied simply on voluntary recruiting which, however, they tried to render more effective by offering all kinds of inducements and exercising pressure in various ways. I shall not go into details regarding these German procedures for voluntary recruitment. I should like simply to give, by way of example, the subject matter of Document Number RF-733. It is an appeal posted in Alsace on 15 January 1942 and constitutes one of the appendices of the governmental report, which was submitted previously under Document Number UK-72. In this document, I shall read simply the first sentence of the second paragraph: "Alsatians: Since the beginning of the campaign in the East, hundreds of Alsatians have freely decided to march as volunteers, side by side with the men of the other German regions, against the enemy of civilization and European culture." For anyone who knows German propaganda and its technique of exaggeration, the term "hundreds" which is used in this document immediately betrays the failure of the Nazi recruiters. "Hundreds" may obviously be translated by "tens," and it must be admitted that this was a very poor supply for the Wehrmacht.
M. FAURE: During the period that I am speaking of the Nazis practiced, in regard to nationality, a policy similar to their policy in recruiting military forces, that is, a policy of selective nationalization. They appealed for volunteers for German nationality. It is desirable to quote in this regard an ordinance of 20 January 1942, a general ordinance of the Reich, not a special one for the annexed territories. This ordinance in its first article increases the possibilities of naturalization, which until then had been extremely limited, in accordance with the Reich statute book., In Article 3 it gives the following provision: (This ordinance is not produced in the document book, for it is an ordinance of the German Reich and, therefore, a public document.) "The Reich Minister of the Interior may, by means of a general regulation, grant German nationality to categories of foreigners established on a territory placed under the sovereign power of Germany or having their origin in such territory. In connection with this earlier period it is necessary to stress that natives of Alsace-Lorraine who did not become German citizens did not retain their French nationality. They are all considered as German subjects. They are qualified in the documents of the period as "members of the German community Volksdeutsch)," and are consequently liable for German labor service. I submit Document Number RF-734 in this connection, "Regulation of 27 August 1942, on Compulsory Military Service and on Labor Service in Alsace." I shall return to this document presently with regard to military service, but I would like to quote now the passages relative to service in the Hitler Youth, one of which bears an earlier date, the ordinance of 2 January 1942 for Alsace and ordinance of 4 August 1942 for Lorraine. The German policy regarding nationality and military recruiting reaches its turning point in the month of August 1942.
M. FAURE: At this moment, on account of military difficulties and the need for extensive recruiting, the Germans instituted compulsory military service in Lorraine by an ordinance of 19 August 1942 and in Alsace by an ordinance of 25 August 1942. These two ordinances, relative to the introduction of compulsory military service, constitute Document Number RF-735, ordinance for Lorraine, and Document Number RF-736, ordinance for Alsace. At the same time, the Germans promulgated an ordinance-of 23 August 1942 on German nationality in Alsace, Lorraine, and Luxembourg. This text is the subject of a circular issued by the Reich Minister of the Interior, which constitutes Document Number RF-737. These provisions are the following: "Full rights of nationality are acquired by natives of Alsace and Lorraine and Luxembourgers of German origin: "When they have been or will be called upon to serve in the armed forces of the Reich or in SS armed formations; "when they are recognized as having acted as good Germans." As concerns the expression "of German origin," which is used in these texts, this concerns Alsatians and Lorrainers who have become French either through the Treaty of Versailles or subsequently on condition of having previously been German nationals or having transferred their domicile from Alsace or Lorraine to the territory of the Reich after I September 1939; and, finally, children, grandchildren, and spouses of the preceding categories of persons are likewise considered as of German origin. Lastly, it was anticipated that the Alsatians, Lorrainers, and Luxembourgers who did not acquire German nationality absolutely could obtain it provisionally. I should like to mention, to complete this question of nationality, that an ordinance of 2 February 1943 gave details as to the German nationality laws applicable in Alsace, and that an ordinance of 2 November 1943 likewise conferred German nationality upon persons who had been in concentration camps during the war.
M. FAURE: The German texts indicate that, on the one hand, German nationality was imposed upon a great number of persons; and, on the other hand, that Alsatians and Lorrainers who were French were forced to comply with the exorbitant and truly criminal requirements of military service in the German Army against their own country. These military obligations were constantly extended by the calling- up of successive classes, as far as, the 1908 class. These German exigencies provoked a solemn protest on the part of the French National Committee, which in London represented the Free French Government authority. I should like to read to the Tribunal the text of this protest, which is dated 16 September 1942, and which I submit as Exhibit Number RF-739. I shall read only the three paragraphs of the official protest, which constitute the beginning of this document of the Information Agency in London. "After having proclaimed, in the course of the war, the annexation of Alsace and of Lorraine, banished and robbed a great number of the inhabitants, and enforced the most rigorous measures of Germanization, the Reich now constrains Alsatians and Lorrainers- declared German by the Reich-to serve in the German armies against their own compatriots and against the allies of France. "The National Committee, defender of the integrity and of the unity of France and trustee of the principle of the rights of peoples, protests, in the face of the civilized world, against these new crimes committed in contempt of international conventions against the will of populations ardently attached to France. It proclaims inviolable the right of Alsatians and of Lorrainers to remain members of the French family." This protest could not have been unknown to the Germans, for it was read and commented on over the radio by the French National Commissioner of Justice, Professor Rene Cassin, on a number of occasions.
M. FAURE: In regard to this solemn protest on the part of France, I shall allow myself to quote the justifications, if one may use this term, which were furnished in a speech by Gauleiter Wagner delivered in Colmar on 20 June 1943. This quotation is drawn from the Muhlhauser Tageblatt of 21 June 1943. In view of its importance I shall not deal with it simply as a quotation, but I produce it as a document and submit it as Document Number RF-740. The clerk has been given this paper. I read the explanations of Gauleiter Wagner, as they are reproduced in this newspaper under the title "Alsace will not Stand Aloof": "The decisive event for Alsace in 1942 was therefore the introduction of compulsory military service. It cannot be my intention to justify legally a measure which strikes so deeply at the life of Alsace. There is no reason for this either. Every decision which the Greater Reich is taking here is motivated and cannot be attacked as to its juridical and its de facto form. Naturally, the Alsatians and Lorrainers refused to accept the criminal orders of the German authorities, and they undertook to avoid these by every means. The Nazis then decided to compel them by means of merciless measures. The frontiers were strictly guarded, and the guards had orders to fire on the numerous recalcitrants who attempted to escape across the border. I should like to quote in this connection a sentence from a newspaper article, which appeared in the Dernieres Nouvelles de Strasbourg of 28 August 1942. This is Document Number RF-741. This article deals with the death of one of these men who refused to serve in the German Army, and it concludes with the following sentence: "We insist most particularly on the fact that it is suicidal to attempt to cross the frontier illegally." Naturally, judicial penalties were applied with great severity and in a large number of cases. I do not consider that I should bring to the Tribunal all the instances of these cases, which would take too long; but I should like simply to insist on the principle that governed this form of repression.
M. FAURE: I shall quote first of all a document which is entirely characteristic of the conception which the German administration had of justice and of the independence of judicial power. This is Document Number RF-742. It is a part of a series of documents discovered in the files of the Gauleitung. It is a teletype message dated Strasbourg, 8 June 1944, addressed by Gauleiter Wagner to the Chief of the Court of Appeals in Karlsruhe. I shall read Paragraph 2 of this document, which is on Page 1 of the same, document: "Especially in Alsace it is required that the sentences for refusal of military service should be intimidating. But upon those trying to evade military service, for fear of personal danger, this intimidating effect can be produced only by the death penalty, the more so, as an Alsatian bent upon escaping military service by emigration counts generally on an early victory of the enemy and, therefore, in case of conviction with punishment other than death, with a near cancellation of the penalty. The death penalty is, therefore, to be applied in all cases in which after 6 June 1944 an evasion of military service is attempted by illegal emigration, irrespectively of any other legal practice used in Germany proper." But I wish to indicate that the consideration of personal risk, even that of being killed at the frontier or condemned to death, was not sufficient to make the people of Alsace and Lorraine acknowledge the obligation for military service. Thus the Nazis decided to have recourse to the only threat which could be effective, the threat of reprisals against families. After 4 September 1942, there appeared in the Dernieres Nouvelles de Strasbourg a notice entitled "Severe Sanctions Against Those Who Fail to Appear Before the Revision Council." An extract from this notice constitutes Document Number RF-743. I shall read from it: "In the case mentioned above it has been shown that parents have not given proof of authority in this regard.
M. FAURE: They have thus proved that they do not yet understand the requirements of the present time, which can tolerate in Alsace only reliable persons. The parents of the above-named young men will therefore shortly be deported to the Altreich in order to re-acquire, in a National Socialist atmosphere, an-attitude in conformity with the German spirit." Thus the deportation of families was decreed, not to punish a definite insubordination, but to punish failure to appear before the recruiting board. In order to avoid repeated readings, I shall now present to the Tribunal, under the heading of Document Number RF-744, the ordinance of 1 October 1943, to check failure to perform military service (Official Bulletin of the Reich for 1943, Page 152). I shall read the first two articles: "Article 1: The chief of the civil administration in Alsace may deny residence in Alsace to deserters and to persons who fail to fulfill their military obligations or those of the compulsory labor service, as well as to members of their families. This prohibition entails, for persons of German origin whom it may affect, transplantation to Reich territory by the Plenipotentiary for the Reich, Reich Commissioner for the Preservation of German Nationality. Measures to be taken in regard to property, seizure, indemnity, et cetera, are prescribed in the ordinance of 2 February 1943, concerning property measures to be applied in the case of persons of German origin transferred from Alsace to Reich territory. "Paragraph 2: Independently of the preceding measures, criminal proceedings may be instituted under the penal code for violation of the provisions of the penal laws."
THE PRESIDENT: Exactly what did "souche allemande" mean? How far did it go?
M. FAURE: The term "souche allemande" applies, as indicated in connection with the preceding text, to the following categories of persons: In the first place, persons who were in Alsace and Lorraine before the, Treaty of Versailles and who became French by the treaty; persons whose nationality before 1919 was German are considered as of German origin, as well as their children, their grandchildren, and their spouses. This affects the great majority of the population of the three departments. I continue reading Paragraph 2 of the first article of Document Number RF-744. "Independently of the foregoing measures, penal prosecutions may be brought for violation of the provisions of the penal laws." According to Article 52, Paragraph 2, of the Reich Penal Code, members of the family who bring proof of their genuine efforts to prevent or dissuade the fugitive from committing his act or avoiding the necessity of flight shall not be punishable. These abominable measures, the obligation of denunciation, punishment inflicted upon families, permitted the German authorities to carry out the enlistment of Alsatians and Lorrainers, which for many of them had fatal consequences and which was for all of them a particularly tragic ordeal. I must finally indicate, to conclude this part, that the Germans proceeded to the mobilization of women for war work. I produce a Document Number RF-745, the ordinance of 26 January 1942, completing the war organization of labor service for the young women of Lorraine. Then we find an ordinance of 2 February 1943, Document Number RF-746, concerning the declaration of men and women for the accomplishment of tasks pertaining to national defense. (Official Bulletin of the Reich, 1943, Page 26.) This ordinance concerns Alsace. The following Document, Number RF-747, deals with Lorraine. This is an ordinance of 8 February 1943 concerning the enrollment of men and women for tasks relating to the organization of labor.
M. FAURE: The Tribunal will note that the ordinance concerning Alsace used the expression "tasks of interest to national defense," whereas' the ordinance relative to Lorraine specifies simply "tasks concerning the organization of labor"; but in principle these are the same. Article 1 of this second ordinance, Document Number RF-747, refers to the ordinance of the General Delegate for the Organization of Labor, relative to the declaration of men and women for tasks of interest to national defense, et cetera. This is a question -of making not only men, but also women, work for the German' war effort. I shall read for the Tribunal an extract from a newspaper article which comments on this legislation and likewise on the measures which Gauleiter Wagner proposed to undertake in this connection. This constitutes Document Number RF-748, taken from the newspaper Dernieres Nouvelles de Strasbourg, dated 23 February 1943. "In his speech at Karlsruhe Gauleiter Robert Wagner stressed that measures of total mobilization would be applied to Alsace and that the authorities would abstain from any bureaucratic working method. The Alsatian labor offices have already invited the first category of young women liable for mobilization to fill out the enlistment form. "In principle, all women who until the present have worked only at home, who have had to care only for their husbands, and who have no other relatives, shall work a full day. Many married men who until now had never offered to help their wives with the household work will be obliged to put their shoulder to the wheel. They will work in the household and do errands. With a little goodwill, everything will work out. Women who have received a professional education shall be put, if possible, to tasks that relate to their professions, on condition that they have an important bearing on the war effort.
M. FAURE: This prescription applies only to all feminine professions which imply care given to other persons." Here again a rather comical or clumsily worded presentation should not prevent one from perceiving the odious character of these measures, which obliged French women to work for the German war effort.
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now for ten minutes. [A recess was taken.]
M. FAURE: Mr. Dodd would like to speak to the Tribunal concerning a question he wishes to put to the Tribunal.
MR. DODD: Mr. President, I ask to be heard briefly to inform the Tribunal that the affiant Andreas Pfaffenberger, whom the Tribunal directed the Prosecution for the United States to locate, if possible, was located yesterday and he is here in Nuremberg today. He is available for the cross-examination which, if I remember correctly, was requested by Counsel for the Defendant Kaltenbrunner.
THE PRESIDENT: Was his affidavit read?
MR. DODD: Yes, Your Honor, it was.
THE PRESIDENT: It was read, and on the condition that he should be brought here for cross-examination?
MR. DODD: Yes, Sir. He asked for him to be brought, if I recall it.
THE PRESIDENT: Does counsel for Kaltenbrunner wish to cross-examine him now-I mean, not this moment-does he still wish to cross-examine him?
DR. KAUFFMANN: I believe that the Defendant Kaltenbrunner does not need the testimony of this witness. However, I would have to take this question up with him once more, for up till today it was not certain that Pfaffenberger would be in court, and if lie is to be cross-examined and to testify, I believe Kaltenbrunner would have to be present at the hearing.
THE PRESIDENT: It seems somewhat unfortunate that the witness should be brought here for cross-examination and that then you should be saying that you don't want to cross-examine him after reading the affidavit. It seems to me that the reasonable thing to do would be to make up your mind whether you do, or do not, want to cross-examine him; and I should have thought that would have been done and he would have been brought here, if you want to cross-examine, and not brought here if you did not want to cross- examine. Anyway, as he has been brought here now, it seems to me that if you want to cross-examine him you must do so. Mr. Dodd, can he be kept here for some time?
MR. DODD: He can, Your Honor, except that he was in a concentration camp for 6 years; and we have to keep him here under certain security, and it is somewhat of a hardship on him to be kept too long. We would like not to keep him any longer than necessary. We located him with some difficulty with the help of the United States Forces.
DR. KAUFFMANN: In perhaps 2 or 3 days we might wish to cross-examine; perhaps two or three days.