dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
M. HENRY DELPECH (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): Article 49 of the Hague Convention stipulates that if the occupier makes a levy in money, it will be only for the needs of the army of occupation or for the administration of the territory. The occupier can, therefore, impose a tax for the maintenance of his army; but this must not exceed the effective force strictly necessary. On the other hand, the words "needs of the army of occupation" do not mean the expenses of armament and equipment but solely the costs of billeting, food, and normal pay, which excludes, in all cases, luxury expenses. Moreover, Article 52 authorizes the occupying authority to exact, for the use of its army, requisitions in kind and in service on the express condition that they shall be proportionate to the resources of the country and that they should not involve the population with the obligation to take part in military operations against their own country. The same Article 52 stipulates, moreover, that levies in kind will be, as far as possible, paid in cash. Consequently the Germans exacted a monthly indemnity of 1,000 million up to August 1941. On that date the indemnity was increased to 1,500 million per month. By the end of August 1944, the payments under that designation totaled 67,000 million Belgian francs. This number cannot be contested by the Defense, since in the report quoted, Pages 103 and following, the said Wetter wrote in June 1944 that the total sum of Belgian francs paid for the army of occupation was 64,181 million-the passage in the report is submitted as Document Number RF-147. But this sum of 64,000 million was completely disproportionate to the needs of the occupying army. This is shown in the report of Wetter, in a passage which is submitted as Exhibit Number RF-148. On Page 245 of this report it is said that on 17 January 1941 the general who was Commander-in-Chief in Belgium had asked the High Command of the Army if the indemnity covered only the expenses of occupation.
M. HENRY DELPECH (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): This point of view was not accepted by the commanding general, who, by order of 29 October 1941, specified that the indemnity of occupation was to be used not only for the needs of the occupying army but also for those of the operating armies. Moreover, on Page 11 of the original German text of the same report it is written-and I shall read to the Tribunal an excerpt which will be found in the document book under Document Number RF-149, the second paragraph: "As the increase in the expenses of the Wehrmacht made it clear that it would be impossible to manage with this amount, the military administration demanded that the calculation of the occupation costs should be straightened out by deducting all expenses foreign to the occupation proper. This concerned especially the larger purchases of all kinds which the military services made in Belgium, such as horses, motor vehicles, equipment, all of which was designated for other territories and was written off as occupation costs. "By a decision of the Delegate for the Four Year Plan, dated 11 June 1941, the financing of other than true occupation costs was to be met by clearing. To comply with this decree, beginning in July 1941, the administration of the military commander ordered a monthly report to be rendered of all expenses other than those required for the occupation but which so far had been paid under the account of occupation costs, in order to have these expenses refunded through clearing. Thanks to this, large sums could be recovered and put into the account of occupation costs." Before concluding the examination of this point concerning war tribute, that tribute called occupation costs, it is necessary to point out that the Germans had already demanded, by the decree of 17 December 1940, submitted as Document Number RF-150, that the costs of billeting their troops should be charged to Belgium. Owing to this, the country had to meet expenses totalling 5,900 million francs, which went for billeting German troops, costs of installation, supplies, and furniture.
M. HENRY DELPECH (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): In his report Wetter writes on Page 104-the excerpt submitted as Document Number RF-147-that at the end of June 1944 the Belgian payments for billeting troops totalled 5,423 million francs. Clearing. We now come to the third part of German plundering-clearing. The issuing of Reichskreditkasse notes and the war tribute, called "occupation costs," were not sufficient for Germany. Her leaders created a system of clearing which enabled them to procure, unduly, means of payment totalling 62,200 million Belgian francs. As soon as they arrived in Belgium, by the decrees of 10 July, 2 August, and 5 December, 1940-which appear in the document book under the Numbers RF-151, RF-152, and RF-153-the Germans specified: 1) That all payments on debts of people resident in Belgium to their creditors in Germany had to be paid into an account called the "Deutsche Verrechnungskasse, Berlin." This was an open account on the books of the National Bank of Belgium in Brussels, an account kept in belgas in spite of the prohibition on currency of 17 June 1940, the prohibition to which I have already referred concerning the blocking of means of payment in the country. By the decision of 4 August 1940, it was moreover prescribed that the carrying out of clearing would henceforth no longer be entrusted to the National Bank of Belgium but to the issuing bank in Brussels, which, as I have already had the honor of pointing out, had been established by the occupying power and was under their absolute control. 2) The Germans laid down a second measure whereby all debtors resident in the Reich should pay their Belgian creditors by way of the open account at the issuing bank in Brussels, at the following rate of exchange; 100 belgas to 40 marks, that is to say, I mark for 12.50 Belgian francs. These arrangements, moreover, were extended to the countries occupied by Germany with a view to facilitating their operations in those countries; they were even extended to certain neutral countries by various similar decrees appearing in the ordinance book.
M. HENRY DELPECH (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): The mission of the issuing bank in Brussels consisted, therefore, on the one hand, of receiving payments from all persons or agencies established in Belgium which had foreign engagements and, on the other hand, to pay those persons or agencies established in Belgium which had foreign credit. In other words, every time an exporter delivered goods to an importer of another country which belonged to the clearing system, it was the issuing bank which settled the invoice and which entered as equivalent, in the ledgers, a corresponding credit at the Deutsche Verrechnungskasse in Berlin-the German Clearing Institute in Berlin. In the case of imports, the inverse procedure was followed. In fact, under the German direction, this system functioned to the detriment of the Belgian community which, at the moment of the liberation, was creditor in clearing to the extent of 62,665 million Belgian francs. It was the National Bank of Belgium which had been forced to make advances to the issuing bank to balance the account of the German Clearing Institute. A large number of operations made through clearing had no commercial character whatever but were purely and simply military and political expenses. From information given by the Belgian Government, the clearing operations could be summarized in the following manner -and I take the figures from a report of the Belgian Government previously cited, which has been presented as Document Number RF-146: Of the total transactions, 93 percent were Belgium-German clearing operations; merchandise amounted to 93 percent, and services 91 percent. If one considers the part taken respectively by merchandise, services, or capital, one obtains a very significant picture. The entire clearing transactions of Belgium with foreign countries totalled, on 2 September 1944, the sum of 61,636 million Belgian francs, of which 57,298 million were for Belgium-German operations, 4,000 million only with France, 1,000 million with the Netherlands, and 929 million with other countries.
M. HENRY DELPECH (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): It is only in the sector of goods and services that the want of equilibrium is apparent due in large measure to requisitions of property and services made by Germany for her own account. It is known that the so-called exports affected especially metals and metal products, machines, and textile products, nine-tenths of which were seized by the Reich, which made itself thereby guilty of real spoliation. As to the transfer of capital, during the first period of the occupation it was particularly intense. It concerned the forced realization of Belgian capital in foreign countries, as well as the forced cession to German groups of Belgian assets blocked in Germany. No effective compensation was given in exchange. The transfers made for services were principally for payments for Belgian labor in foreign countries. The credit balance of these services on 2 September 1944 is as follows, in Belgian francs: Total clearing operations dealing with services, 20,016 million-that is to say, for payment of labor 73 percent of the total. For Germany alone, 18,227 million-that is, 72 percent of the total amount. For France only 1,621 million Belgian francs-that is to say, a very small part. Not content with requisitioning workers for forced labor in Germany or in the occupied territories, the Germans compelled Belgium to bear the financial burden and imposed it either through the liquidation of the transferred savings in clearing or by the remittance of Belgian notes to the Directorate of the Reich Bank in Berlin for payment of workers in national currency:
THE PRESIDENT: Do you think it is necessary to go into these clearing operations again? In each case of the various countries which have been dealt with, the same clearing operations have taken place, have they not? Then perhaps it is really unnecessary to do it over again for Belgium.
M. DELPECH: Very well, Your Honor. At all events, the Germans recognized the fact, and the figures taken from the report previously cited support the conclusions of our statement. Before ending this chapter concerning German seizure of the means of payment, it is fitting that the attention of the Tribunal be brought to the order of 22 July 1940, by which the Germans fixed the rate of the Belgian franc at 8 Reichspfennig, that is to say 12.50 francs per mark; and in the forementioned report Wetter writes concerning this matter, on Pages 37 and 38, a passage which I ask the Tribunal's permission to read and which is in the document book as Document Number RF-158. "The de facto maintenance of the pre-war parity was moreover of considerable political importance because a large group of the population would have considered a sharp devaluation or a repeated change of parity as a maneuver of exploitation." The following observation in connection with this conception must be made: The occupiers had no need in Belgium to decree, with the view of promoting their economic exploitation, that the Belgian franc should have a lesser value when, as a matter of fact - contrary to what occurred in France-they had, at the moment they entered Belgium, instituted new currency over which they had the control. Lastly, let us mention that Germany obliged the Vichy Government to deliver 221,730 kilos of gold amounting, at the 1939 value, to 9,500 million francs; but as France had returned this gold to the Bank of Belgium, this question will be treated under the economic exploitation of. France. Recapitulation. To sum up, the means of payment seized by the army of occupation may be seen from the following figures: Reichskreditkasse notes, 3,567 million; various bills and accounts on the books of the Reichskreditkasse, 656 million; war tribute under the pretext of occupation costs, 67,000 million; to which may be added the credit balance of clearing 62,665 million; total (in Belgian francs), 133,838 million.
M. DELPECH: The Germans thus seized no less than 130,000 million Belgian francs, which they used for outwardly regular purchases, for payment of their requisitions, and to make clandestine purchases on the black market. These so-called purchases and requisitions will be treated in the following chapters. Chapter 2, clandestine purchases, black market. As in all the other occupied territories, the Germans organized a black market in Belgium as early as October 1941. According to a secret report on the black market, called "Final Report of the Control Office of the Military Commander in Belgium and in the North of France, Concerning the Legalized Emptying of the Black Market in Belgium and in the North of France," a report covering the period from 13 March 1942 to 31 May 1943-Exhibit Number RP-159 (Document Number ECH-7) in the document book-the reasons given by the Germans for this organization of the black market are three in number: 1) To check competition on the black market between various German buyers; 2) to make the best use of the Belgian resources for the purposes of German war economy; 3) to do away with the pressure exercised on the general standard of prices and by this to avoid all danger of inflation which would result in endangering German currency itself. This same report tells us, Pages 3 and following, that an actual administrative organization was set up by the Germans for carrying out this policy. The bookkeeping was done by the Clearing Institute of the Wehrmacht, which combined all the operations in its books. The direction of purchases was regulated by a central organization, the name of which changed as the years went by and which had a certain number of organizations subordinate to it, particularly a whole series of purchasing offices. The central organization was set up in accordance with the decree of the military commander in Belgium, dated 20 February 1942.
M. DELPECH: It was formed on the 13th of the following March; and as soon as it was created it received special directives from the delegate of the Reich Marshal, Defendant Goering. This delegate was Lieutenant Colonel Veltjens, of whom we spoke this morning. This organization was only established to co-ordinate the legalization and direction of the black market, as had been determined upon, 'and planned following conferences between the Commissioner General and the Military Commander of Belgium with the Chief of the Armament Inspection. According to the terms of that agreement, which reinforced a declaration of 16 February 1942 emanating from the Reich Minister for Economics, the aim was to drain the black market and in accordance with directives, in a legal form, with the main idea of safeguarding the supply requirements of the German Reich. This organization had its offices in Brussels. The purchases themselves were regulated by a certain number of specialized offices, the list of which is given on Page 5 of the forementioned report. These organisms received their orders from the Rohstoffhandelsgesellsehaft, which has already been mentioned at the beginning of the statement on the economic exploitation of Western Europe. The role of Roges was very important in the organization of the black market. In effect it was four-fold: 1) The purchasing directives, once the authorization had been given by the central office in Brussels, were transmitted by Roges to the proper purchasing office. 2) The delivery of goods bought and marked for the Reich were made through Roges which took charge of their distribution in Germany. 3) Roges financed the operations. 4) It was Roges which was entrusted with paying the difference between the rate of purchase-generally very high because of the black market rate-and the fixed official rate of sale on the German domestic market.
M. DELPECH: The difference was covered by an equalizing fund, supplied from the occupation costs account, to which the Reich Minister of Finance put sums at the disposal of Roges through the channel of the Ministry of Armament. The forementioned report furnishes a complete series of interesting particulars on the functioning of the central organization itself. It is interesting to note that the central office in Brussels was instructed by order of the Military Commander in Belgium, dated 3 November 1942, to have a branch at Lille set up for the north of France. At the same time, the Brussels office was authorized to instruct its branch office at Lille. In the document book, under Document Number RF-160, a final report of the Lille office is mentioned. This report, drawn up on 20 May 1943, gives a whole series of interesting particulars on the functioning of this organization.
THE PRESIDENT: It is 5 o'clock now. M. Delpech, I think it would be the wish of the Tribunal, if it were possible, for you to omit any parts of this document which are on precisely the same principles with those which have already been submitted to us in connection with the other countries. If you could, I think that would be convenient for the Tribunal. Of course, if there are any essential differences. in the treatment of Belgium then, no doubt, you would draw our attention to them.
M. DELPECH: Certainly, Your Honor. [The Tribunal adjourned until 22 January 1946 at 1000 hours.].
M. HENRY DELPECH (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): Mr. President, Your Honors, I had the honor yesterday of beginning to explain before the Tribunal the methods of economic spoliation of Belgium by the Germans in the course of their occupation of the country. Coming back to what was said in the course of the general considerations on economic pillage and on the behavior of the Germans in Norway and Denmark and in Holland, I have been able to show that in all places the determination to economic domination of National Socialism had manifested itself. The methods were the same everywhere, at least in their broad outlines. Therefore in immediate response to the wish expressed yesterday by the Tribunal and to fulfill the mission entrusted to the French Prosecution by the Belgian Government to plead its case before your high jurisdiction, I shall confine myself to the main outlines of the development, and I shall take the liberty of referring to the details of the German seizure of Belgian production, to the text of the report submitted to the Tribunal, and to the numerous documents which are quoted in our document book. I have had the honor of calling your attention to the existence of the black market in Belgium, its organization by the occupation troops, and their final decision to suppress -this black market. One may, with respect to this, conclude, as has already been indicated in the course of the general observations, that in spite of their claims it was not in order to avoid inflation in Belgium that the German authorities led a campaign against the black market. The day the Germans decided to suppress the black market, they loudly proclaimed their anxiety to spare the Belgian economy and the Belgian population the very serious consequences of the threatening inflation. In reality, the German authorities intervened against the black market in order to prevent its ever growing extension from reaching the point where it would absorb all the available merchandise and completely strangle the official market.
M. HENRY DELPECH (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): In a word, the survival of the official market with its lower prices was finally much more profitable for the army of occupation. I now come, gentlemen, to Page 46 of my presentation, to the third Chapter-purchases which were regular in appearance, which had only one aim, namely the subjugation of Belgian productive power. Carrying out their program of domination of the countries of Western Europe as it had been established since before 1939, the Germans, from the moment they entered Belgium in May 1940, took all the measures which seemed to them appropriate to assure the subjugation of Belgian production. No sector of Belgian economy was to be spared. If the pillage seems more noticeable in the economic sphere, that is only because of the very marked industrial character of Belgian economy. Agriculture and transport were not to escape the German hold, and I propose to discuss first the levies in kind in industry. Belgian industry was the first to be attacked. Thus, the military commander in Belgium, in agreement with the various offices of the Reich for raw materials and with the Office of the Four Year Plan and the Ministry of Economics, drew up a program the purpose of which was to convert almost the whole of Belgian production to the bellicose ends of the Reich. Already on the 13th of September 1940 he was able to make known to the higher authorities a series of plans for iron, coal, textiles, and copper. I submit Exhibit Number RF-162 (Document Number ECH-2) in support of this statement. Also a report by Lieutenant Colonel, Dr. Hedler, entitled "Change in Economic Direction," states that from 14 September 1940 the Army Ordnance Branch sent to its subordinate formations the following instructions, to be found in the document book under Exhibit Number RF-163 (Document Number ECH-84).
M. HENRY DELPECH (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): I read the last paragraph of Page 41 of the German text: "I attach the greatest importance to the proposition that the factories in the occupied western territories, Holland, Belgium, and France, be utilized as much as possible to ease the strain on the German armament production and to increase the war potential. Enterprises located in Denmark are also to be employed to an increasing extent for subcontracts. In doing so the operational directives of the regulation of the Reich Marshal as well as the regulations concerning the economy of raw materials in the occupied territories are to be strictly observed." All these arrangements quickly enabled the Germans to control and to direct Belgium's whole production and distribution for the German war effort. The decree of 27 May 1940, VOBEL Number 2, submitted as Document Number RF-164, established commodity control offices whose task was-and I quote from the third paragraph: "... to issue, in compliance with Army Group directives, general regulations or individual orders to enterprises which are producing, dealing with, or using controlled commodities, in order to regulate production and ensure just distribution and rational utilization while keeping to the place of work, as far as possible." Article 4 of the same text indicated in detail the powers of these commodity control offices, and in particular they were given the right: "To force enterprises to sell their products to specified purchasers; to forbid or require the utilization of certain raw materials; to subject to their approval every sale or purchase of commodities." To conceal more effectively their real objective, the Germans gave these commodity control offices independence and the status of a corporation. Thus, there were set up 11 commodity control offices which embraced the whole economy except coal, the direction of which was left under the Belgian Office of Coal. Exhibit Number RF-165 (Document Number ECH-3), gives proof of this.