dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
M. DUBOST: I did not think that I had brought cumulative proof to the Tribunal in reading documents which had not previously been read; but since that is so, I shall continue, but not without emphasizing that, in our view, the responsibility of Keitel is seriously involved by the orders which were given and by the execution of these orders. Document Number 510-PS, Page 48, has not been read. We submit it as Exhibit Number RF-367, and we ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of it. It concerns the carrying out of the orders which were given concerning the landing of British detachments at Patmos. A memorandum from the General Staff to the commander of the different units, Document Number 532-PS, which is the appendix to the Tribunals document book, repeats and specifies the instructions which the Tribunal knows and does not bring anything new to the case. We submit this document as Exhibit Number RF-368, and we ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice Of it. We shall now deal with the execution of Allied airmen who were captured. From the statement which was made on this question, the Tribunal has learned that a certain number of air operations were considered as criminal acts by the German Government, which indirectly encouraged the lynching of the airmen by the population or their immediate extermination by the action "Sonderbehandlung" (special treatment); and need not be discussed again. This was the subject of Document Number USA-333, which has already been cited, and Document Number USA-334. Within the scope of these instructions, orders were given by the letter of 4 June 1944 to the Minister of Justice to forbid any prosecution of German civilians in connection with the murder of Allied airmen. This is the subject of. Document Number 635-PS, which you will find in the appendix to the document book. This document will become Exhibit Number RF-370. "The Reich Minister and Head of the Reich Chancellery, 4 June 1944. "To the Reich Minister of Justice, Doctor Thierack. "Subject: Lynch law for Anglo-American murderers. "My dear Dr.
M. DUBOST: Thierack: "The Chief of the Party Chancellery has informed me of his secret memorandum, a copy of which is enclosed, and has asked me to make it known to you also. I am complying with this, and ask you to consider to what extent you wish to inform the tribunals and the public prosecutors." On 6 June, two important conferences were held between Kaltenbrunner, Ribbentrop, Goering (all three defendants), Himmler, Von Brauchitsch, officers of the Luftwaffe, and members of the SS. They decided to draw up a definite list of air operations which would be considered as acts of terrorism. The original transcript, drawn up by Warlimont and bearing written notes by Jodl and Keitel, is Document Number 735-PS, which I submit as Exhibit Number RF-371. It was decided during this conference that lynching would be the ideal punishment to stop certain types of air operations directed against the civilian population. Kaltenbrunner, for his part, promised the active collaboration of the SD.
THE PRESIDENT: Was it already read?
M. DUBOST: This document, so far as I know, was never read.
PROFESSOR DOCTOR FRANZ EXNER (Counsel for Defendant Jodl): I am protesting against the presentation of Document 532-PS, dated 24 June 1944. That is a draft of an order which was presented to Jodl but which was crossed out by him and therefore annulled. At this opportunity I would also like to call the attention of the Court to the fact that we, the Counsel for the Defense, did not receive a document book like the one presented to the Tribunal; and it is therefore very hard for us to check and to follow the presentations of the Prosecution. Every morning we receive a pile of documents, some of which partly refer to future and some to past proceedings. But I have not seen a document book in chronological order for weeks. Furthermore, it would be desirable for us to receive the documents the day before. In that case, when testimony is presented, we could be of assistance to both sides.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Exner, are you saying that you have not received the document book or that you have not received the dossier?
DR. EXNER: I did not receive the document book. I would like to add something further. Some of the documents which have just been presented were quoted without signatures and without date, and it is questionable whether these so-called documents are to be considered as documents at all.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I imagine that you have just heard I have told M. Dubost that he must announce the exhibit number which the French Prosecutor is giving to any document which he puts in evidence. As I understand it, he has been putting numbers upon the documents; but in certain cases he has not announced the number in open court. The document, as you have seen, has been presented; and, as I understand, it has a number upon it, but he has not in every case announced the number; and the Tribunal has told M. Dubost that it wishes and it orders that every document put in by the French Prosecutor should have an exhibit number announced in Court. That meets the one point that you raised. As to your not having the document book, that is, of course, a breach of the order which the Tribunal has made that a certain number of copies of the documents should be deposited in the defendants' Information Center or otherwise furnished to defendants' counsel. As to Document 532-PS .... [There was a pause in the proceedings while the Judges conferred.] Dr. Exner, is there anything further you wish to say upon these points, because we are just about to have a recess for a few moments. We would like to hear what you have to say before we have the recess.
DR. EXNER: I have nothing further to add to that; but if I may be permitted to make a further remark, we were advised that it was Your Honor's wish -that we should hear every day what is to be the subject of the proceedings on the following day, which would, of course, be a great help to our preparations. So far, that has never been the case. I myself have never heard what was to be dealt with the following day.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. M. Dubost, the Tribunal would like to hear what you have to say upon the points raised by Dr. Exner. First of all, upon the Document 532-PS; secondly, why he did not receive a document book; and lastly, why he has not received any program as to what is to be gone into on the following day.
M. DUBOST: As to the question of program, as Dr. Exner pointed out, the custom of providing it has not been established by the Prosecution. No one has ever given it, neither the French Prosecution nor its predecessors. Perhaps I did not attend the session the day the Tribunal requested that the program should be given. In any case I do not remember that the Prosecution was ever requested to do that. As far as the document book is concerned, it is possible that this book was not handed to the Defense in the form which is before the Tribunal, that is to say, with the pages numbered in a certain order. However, I am certain that yesterday I sent to the Defense Counsel's rooms the text in German and several texts in French of all the documents which I was to submit today. I cannot assure the Tribunal that they were handed over in the order in which you have them before you, but I am sure that they were sent.
THE PRESIDENT: As to Document 532-PS?
M. DUBOST: I had not begun to read Document 532-PS, Mr. President, so I could not have concealed the fact that there was a handwritten note in the margin.
THE PRESIDENT: Is it a document that had been put in before?
M. DUBOST: I do not believe so, Mr. President. In my dossier there are a certain number of documents which I have not read, as I knew it was the Tribunal's wish that I should shorten my presentation; and Document 532-PS, which I submitted under Exhibit Number RF-368, is one of those.
THE PRESIDENT: The document, according to Dr. Exner, is a draft of a decree which was presented to Jodl but was not granted by him. Those were his words, as they came through on the translation; and, therefore, he submits that it is not to be considered and there is nothing to show that the document was ever anything more than a draft. If so, isn't it clear that it ought not to be received in evidence?
M. DUBOST: This is a question which the Tribunal will decide after having heard the explanation of Dr. Exner. This document did not seem to me of major importance to my presentation, since I did not read from it. In any case, as I did not read it, I could not have hidden from the Tribunal that there was a handwritten note in the margin. It is certain that this handwritten note is an element to be taken into consideration, and on which the Tribunal will base its decision whether Exhibit Number RF-368 should be accepted or rejected, after having heard the explanation of the Defense. [A recess was taken.]
DR. NELTE: Mr. President, I had occasion during the recess to talk to my client, Keitel. Before the recess, the French Prosecutor had submitted as evidence Document Number F-668, Exhibit Number RF-361, an extract from a note from Admiral Darlan, addressed to the French Ambassador Scapini. The French Prosecutor believes, as I presume from his words, that he has proved by this that the agreements between German generals and French troops, who had laid down their arms, had not been kept. In view of the gravity of these accusations I would be obliged to the French Prosecution if they would declare, with respect to this document, first, whether these serious accusations of the French Government had also been brought to the attention of the German Government? The French Prosecutor had concluded from this document that the information contained therein was also proved. I would like to point out that it is an excerpt from a note from Admiral Darlan to the French Ambassador, Scapini. It is not clear from this document whether Ambassador Scapini had taken the necessary steps with the German Government or, furthermore, what reply was made by the German Government to this note. For this reason I would like to ask the French Prosecutor to declare whether he can establish from the documents he had whether these serious accusations were brought to the attention of the German Government, and secondly, what reply was made by the German Government. Since these documents of the Armistice Commission are in possession of the victorious powers, it is neither possible for the defendants nor the Defense to produce evidence themselves. [M. Dubost approached the lectern.]
THE PRESIDENT: [Turning to M. Dubost.] Perhaps the most convenient course would be, if you wish to say anything about the objection which Dr. Nelte has just made, for you to say it now. As I understand it, that objection is that this document, F-668 (RF-361), is a note by Admiral Darlan complaining that certain French troops were surrendered on the terms that they were not to be made prisoners of war, but were afterwards sent to Germany as prisoners of war. What Dr. Nelte says is, was that matter taken up with the German Government and if so, what answer did the German Government give? That seems to the Tribunal to be a reasonable request for Dr. Nelte to make.
M. DUBOST: The reply was given, Mr. President, by Ambassador Scapini's letter addressed to Ambassador Abetz.
THE PRESIDENT: My attention is drawn to the fact that the two documents to which you refer are dated 4 April. The document to which Dr. Nelte refers is a subsequent document, namely, 22 April. Therefore it does not appear, from documents which were anterior to the document of 22 April, as to what happened afterwards.
M. DUBOST: Mr. President, I, myself, am not aware of this. These documents were forwarded to me by the Prisoners-of-War Department. They are fragmentary archives forwarded by an official French office, which I shall inform of the Tribunal's wish.
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps it should be investigated and found out whether the matter was taken up with the German Government and what answer the German Government gave.
M. DUBOST: I shall do so, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Not at the moment, but in the course of time.
M. DUBOST: I shall have to apply to the French Government in order to discover whether in our archives there is any trace of a communication from the French Government to the German Government dated later than 26 April.
THE PRESIDENT: In the event of your not being able to get any satisfactory explanation, the Tribunal will take notice of Dr. Nelte's objection, or criticism rather, of the document. It is pointed out to me, too, the fact that the two earlier documents to which you are referring are documents addressed by the Ambassador of France to M. Abetz, the Ambassador of Germany; and it may be, therefore, that there is a similar correspondence in reference to Document Number F-668 (Exhibit Number RF-361) here in the same Me, which is the file of which the French Government presumably has copies, or might have copies.
M. DUBOST: It is possible, but that is only a hypothesis which I do not want to formulate before the Tribunal. I prefer to produce the documents.
THE PRESIDENT: I quite follow; you cannot deal with it for the moment. As to the other matter which is raised by Dr. Exner, the Tribunal considers that Document Number 532-PS, which has been submitted under Exhibit Number RF-368, should be struck out of the Record in so far as it is in the Record. If the United States and the French Prosecutors wish the document to be put in evidence at a future date, they may apply to do so. Similarly the defendants counsel, Dr. Exner, for instance, if he wishes to make any use of the document, of course he is at liberty to do so. In reference to the other matters which Dr. Exner raised, it is the wish of the Tribunal to assist defendants' counsel in any way possible in their work; and they are, therefore, most anxious that the rules which they have laid down as to documents should be strictly complied with, and they think that copies of the original documents certainly should contain anything the original documents themselves contain. This particular document, Number 532-PS, as a copy, I think I am right in saying, does not contain the marginal note in the script which the original contains. At any rate it is important that copies should contain everything which is on the originals. Then there is another matter to which I wish to refer. I have already said that it is very important that documents, when they are put in evidence, should not only be numbered as exhibits, but that the exhibit number should be stated at the time; and also even more important, or as important, that the certificate certifying where the document comes from should also be produced for the Tribunal. Every document put in by the United States bore upon it a certificate stating where it had been found or what was its origin, and it is important that that practice should be adopted in every case. The only other thing I want to say is that it would be very convenient, both to defendants' counsel and to the Tribunal too, that they should be informed at least the night before of the program which counsel proposes to adopt for the following day.
THE PRESIDENT: It is true, as was said, that perhaps that has not been absolutely regularly carried out by the Prosecutor on all occasions; but it has been done on quite a number of occasions within my recollection, and it is at any rate the most convenient practice, which the Tribunal desires should be carried out; and they would be glad to know above all what you, M. Dubost, propose to address yourself to tomorrow; and the Tribunal would be very grateful to know how long the French Prosecutors anticipate their case will take. They would like you, before you finish or at the conclusion of your address this afternoon, to indicate to the Tribunal and to the defendants' counsel, what the program for tomorrow is to be.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: If Your Honor please, I wonder if I could say one word in regard to the position as to documents, because I had an opportunity during recess of consulting with my friend Mr. Dodd, and also with my friend M. Dubost. All PS documents form a series of captured documents, whose origin and the process taken subsequent to the article, were verified on 22 November by an affidavit by Major Coogan, which was put in by my friend Colonel Storey. It' is the submission of the Prosecution, which, of course, it is delighted to elaborate any time convenient to the Tribunal, that all such documents being captured and verified in that way are admissible. I stress the word admissible, but the weight which the Tribunal will attach to any respective documents is, of course, a matter at which the Tribunal would arrive from the contents of the document and the circumstances under which it came into being. That, I fear, is the only reason I ventured to intervene at the moment, that there might be some confusion between the general verification of the document as a captured document, which is done by Major Coogan's affidavit, and the individual certificate of translation, that is, of the correctness of the translation of the different documents, which appeared at the end of each individual American document. The fact is that my friend, Mr. Dodd, and I were very anxious that that matter should be before the Tribunal, and we should be only too delighted to give to the Tribunal any further information which it desires.
THE PRESIDENT: Does that affidavit of Major Coogan apply to all the other series of documents put in by the United States?
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: It applies to PS and I think it is D, C, L, R and EC.
THE PRESIDENT: Does that certificate then cover this particular sheet of paper which is marked 532-PS, and has on it no other identifying mark?
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Yes. The affidavit proves that that was a document captured from German sources; it gives the whole process--what happens after. I have not troubled the Tribunal by reading it, because as such we submit that it is admissible as a submission. Of course, the matter of weight may vary. I do not want the Tribunal to be under a misapprehension that every document was certified individually; what is certified is, of course, a non-captured document. If a document comes from any of the sources mentioned in Article 21 , then someone with authority from his government certifies it as coming from one of these sources and that we do individually., But concerning captured documents, we do not make any individual certification; we depend on Major Coogan's affidavit.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but just a moment. Sir David, it is perhaps right to say in reference to this particular document, 532-PS, or the portion of it which has been produced, first of all that the copy which was put before us did not contain the marginal note, and that it is, therefore, wrong. We are in agreement with your submission that it has been certified, as you say, by Major Coogan's affidavit, which is admissible,. but, of course, that has nothing to do with its weight. That is the' point on which Dr. Exner was addressing us.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: So I appreciated it, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: It is a document-being a private document and not a document of which we can take judicial notice-which has not been read in court by the United States or other prosecutors, and it is not in evidence now because it has not been read by M. Dubost.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Your Honor, with that, of course, I do not desire anything further. That is the ruling of the Tribunal. The only part that I did want to stress was that the PS as such is being verified and, of course, subject to reading it in Court, it could be put in.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. We quite understand that. I ought to say, on behalf of the Tribunal, that we owe an apology to the French Prosecutor and his staff, because it has just been pointed out to me that this marginal note does appear upon the translation and, therefore, M. Dubost, I tender to you my apology.
M. DUBOST: I thank you, A/fr. President. The Tribunal will certainly remember that this morning Document Number 1553-PS was set aside, which includes in it bills for gas destined for Oranienburg and Auschwitz. I believe that, after the explanation given by Sir David, this Document 1553-PS may now be admitted by the Tribunal since it has already been certified.
THE PRESIDENT: Was it read, M. Dubost?
M. DUBOST: Yes, Mr. President. I was in the process of reading it this morning. It is the 27th document in the second document book of this morning, but the Tribunal rejected it, with the demand that I furnish an affidavit. The intervention of Sir David constitutes this affidavit. I beg the Tribunal to forgive my making this request, but I should be grateful if it would accept the document which was refused this morning.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
M. DUBOST: I thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: M. Dubost, it was a question of gas, was it not?
M. DUBOST: That is right.
THE PRESIDENT: There was one bill of lading and then there were a number of other bills of lading which were referred to.
M. DUBOST: Yes. And the whole constituted Document Number 1553-PS, submitted under Exhibit Number RF-350. This document is included in the series covered by the affidavit of which Sir David has spoken to you.
THE PRESIDENT: M. Dubost, if you attach importance to it, would it not be possible for you to give us the figures from these other bills of lading? I mean the amount of the gas.
M. DUBOST: Certainly, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Just in order that it may be upon the shorthand note.
M. DUBOST: 14 February 1944, gross weight 832 kilos, net weight 555 kilos (destination Auschwitz); 16 February 1944, gross weight 832 kilos, net weight 555 kilos (destination Oranienburg); 13 March 1944, gross weight 896 kilos, net weight 598 kilos (destination Auschwitz); 13 March 1944, gross weight 896 kilos, net weight 598 kilos (destination Oranienburg); 30 April 1944, gross weight 832 kilos, net weight 555 kilos (destination Auschwitz); 30 April 1944, gross weight 832 kilos, net weight 555 kilos (destination Oranienburg); 18 May 1944, gross weight 832 kilos, net weight 555 kilos (destination Oranienburg); 31 May 1944, gross weight 832 kilos, net weight 555 kilos (destination Auschwitz). This appears to me to be all. To Document 1553-PS is added the statement by Gerstein, and also the statement by the chief of the American service who collected this document. With the permission of the Tribunal, I shall proceed with the presentation of the crimes of which we accuse the defendants against Allied prisoners of war who were interned in Germany. Document Number 735-PS, Page 68 of the document book, which we submitted a short time ago under Exhibit Number RF-371, is a report on important meetings which brought together Kaltenbrunner, Ribbentrop, and Goering, in the course of which the list of air operations which constituted acts of terrorism was drawn up. It was decided in these meetings that lynching would be the ideal punishment for all actions directed against civilian populations, which the German Government claimed had the character of terrorism. On Page 68 Ribbentrop is involved. We read in one of the three copies of the notes of the meetings that were held that day, in the first paragraph, 11th line: "Contrary to the first proposals of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who wanted to include all terrorist attacks against the civilian population and consequently air attacks against cities ...... The proposals made by Ribbentrop were far in excess of what was accepted at the time of this meeting.