dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
M. DUBOST: The three lines which follow deserve the attention of the Tribunal: "Lynch law should be the rule. There was, on the other hand, no question of a judgment rendered by a tribunal or handing over to the police." In Paragraph b), bottom of the page: "...one would have to distinguish between enemy airmen. who were suspected of criminal acts of this kind and prepare for their admission in the airmen's camp at Oberursel, and those who should be turned over to the SD for special treatment when the suspicions were confirmed." The Tribunal will certainly remember the description which was given of this "special treatment" by the American prosecution. What is involved is purely and simply the extermination of Allied airmen who had fallen into the hands of the German Army. On Page 69 the Tribunal may read, under Figure 3, the description and the enumeration of the acts which are to be considered as terrorist acts and as justifying lynching. "(a) Firing weapons at the civilian population, and gatherings of civilians. "(b) Firing at German airmen who have bailed out of their aircraft. "(c) Firing weapons at passenger trains and public conveyances. "(d) Firing weapons at hospital or hospital trains that are clearly marked with a red cross." Three lines below: "Should such acts be established in the course of interrogation, the prisoners must be handed over to the SD." This document originates from the Fuehrer's headquarters. It was drawn up there on 6 June 1944, and it bears the stamp of the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Wehrmacht.
THE PRESIDENT: I think that has all been read, M. Dubost. I think that document was all read before.
M. DUBOST: Mr. President, I was told that it had not been read.
THE PRESIDENT: I have not verified it.
M. DUBOST: We submit Document Number 729-PS, as Exhibit Number RF-372. This document confirms the preceding one. It originates from the Fuehrer's headquarters, is dated 15 June 1944, and reiterates the orders I have read. But this document is signed by General Keitel, whereas the preceding one was -signed "J." We have not been able to identify the author of this initial. Document Number 730-PS, which we next submit as Exhibit Number RF-373, is likewise from the Fuehrer's headquarters, and is also dated 15 June 1944. It is addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the attention of Ambassador Ritter. The Tribunal will find it on Page 71 in the document book. This document contains the instructions signed "Keitel" in the preceding document, and it is likewise signed by Keitel. We shall submit as Exhibit Number RF-374, Document 733-PS, which concerns the treatment which is to be meted out to airmen falling into the hands of the German Army. It is a telephone message from the Adjutant of the Reich Marshal, Captain Breuer.
DR. NELTE: I assume that you have finished with the question of lynching. In the presentation of, this case the words "Orders of Keitel" have been used repeatedly. The prosecutor has not read these documents. I would be obliged if the prosecutor would produce a document which contains an order, which raises lynch law to the level of an order, as has been claimed by the Prosecution. The Defendants Keitel and Jodl maintain that such an order was never given, that these conferences concerning which documents have been produced-that these documents never became orders because the authorities concerned prevented this.
THE PRESIDENT: The documents speak for themselves.
M. DUBOST: Does the Tribunal wish to listen to the complete reading of these documents which are signed by Keitel? They are not orders, they are projects. Moreover, I emphasized that point when I announced them to the Tribunal. At Page 80 of our document book, you will find, dated 30 June 1944, with Keitel's visa: "Note for meeting. "Subject: The treatment of enemy terror flyers: "I. Enclosed, draft of written reply by the Reich Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Chief of the OKW for the Operational Staff of the Wehrmacht." I am skipping a paragraph: "II. The Reich Marshal approves the definition of terror flyer communicated by the OKW, as well as the procedure which is proposed." This document is submitted as Exhibit Number RF-375. I have not submitted to the Tribunal a regular formal order; but I have brought three documents which, in my opinion, are equivalent to a formal order because, with the visa of Keitel, we have this note, signed by Warlimont, which states: "The Reich Marshal approves the definition of terror flyer communicated by the OKW, as well as the procedure which is proposed." This document bears the visa of Keitel. We shall now submit a document, Number L-154, which has already been submitted by our American colleagues under Exhibit Number USA-335. My colleague has read this text in extenso. I will merely refer to three lines, in order not to delay the proceedings, "In principle, no fighter-bomber pilots brought down are to be saved from the fury of the people." That text comes from the offices of Albert Hoffmann, Gauleiter and Commissioner for the Defense of the Reich, of the Gau South Westphalia. Under Exhibit Number RF-376 we shall submit Document Number F-686, on Page 82 of our document book. This is the record of an interrogation of Hugo Gruner on -29 December 1945. He was subordinate to Robert Wagner, Gauleiter of Baden and Alsace. 'In the last lines of this document, Page 82, Gruner states: "Wagner gave a formal order to kill all Allied airmen we could capture.
M. DUBOST: In this connection Gauleiter Wagner explained to us that Allied airmen were causing great ravages on German territory, that he considered it was an inhuman war, and that therefore, under the circumstances, any airmen captured should not be considered as prisoners of war and deserved no mercy." Page 83, at the top of the page: "He stated that Kreisleiter, if the occasion offered, should not fail to capture and shoot the Allied airmen themselves. As I have told you, Rohm was assistant to Wagner, but Wagner himself did not speak. I can state that SS General Hoffmann, who was SS chief of the police for the Southwest Region, was present when the order was given to us by Wagner to kill Allied airmen." This witness, Hugo Gruner, confesses that he participated in the execution of Allied airmen in October or November 1944. Passing through Rheinweiler, he Gruner, noticed that some English or American airmen had been taken out of the Rhine by soldiers. The four airmen were wearing khaki uniforms, were bareheaded, and were of average height. He could not speak to them because he did not know the English language. The Wehrmacht refused to take charge of them. That is the third paragraph at the bottom of the page and the witness declares-I am reading: "I told the gendarmes that I had received orders from Wagner to execute any Allied airman taken prisoner. The gendarmes replied that it was the only thing to be done. I then decided to execute the four Allied prisoners and one of the gendarmes present advised the banks of the Rhine as the place of execution." On Page 84, Paragraph 1, Gruner, describes how he proceeded to assassinate these airmen and admits that he killed them with machine gun shots in the back. In the third paragraph he gives the name of one of his accomplices, Erich Meissner, who was a Gestapo agent from Lorrach, and then he denounces Meissner for having himself killed an airman as he was getting out of his car and was walking toward the Rhine.
M. DUBOST: I read: "He killed them by firing a machine gun salvo at each of them in the back, after which each airman was dragged by the feet and thrown into the Rhine." This affidavit was received by the Police Magistrate of Strasbourg. The document which we shall submit was signed by the magistrate's clerk of the court as a certified copy. This is how 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 5 o'clock now, and perhaps you would be able to tell us what your program would be for tomorrow.
M. DUBOST: Tomorrow we shall complete the presentation of the question of prisoners of war. We shall present to you in an abridged form documents which seem to us to be indispensable, in spite of the hearing of witnesses concerning the camps. There are only a few documents, but they all directly inculpate one or other of. the defendants. Then we shall show how the orders given by the leaders of the German Army led subordinates to commit acts of terrorism and banditry in France against the innocent population, and also against patriots who were not treated as francs-tireurs but as ordinary criminals. We expect to finish tomorrow morning. In the afternoon, my colleague, M. Faure, could begin the presentation of this last part of the French charges concerning crimes against humanity.
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.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn now. [The Tribunal adjourned until 31 January 1946 at 1000 hours.]
MARSHAL: 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 Document Number L-166, which we present as Exhibit Number RF-377, Page 65 in your document book. It concerns a note which summarizes an interview with the Reich Marshal, on 15 and 16 May 1944, on the subject of pursuit planes. Page 8, Paragraph Number 20: "The Reich Marshal will propose to the Fuehrer that American and English crews who fire indiscriminately on towns, on civilian trains in motion, or on soldiers dropping by parachute, shall be shot immediately on the spot." The importance of this document need not be emphasized. It shows the guilt of the Defendant Goering in reprisals against Allied airmen brought down in Germany. We shall now read Document R-117, which we submit as Exhibit Number RF-378. Two Liberators, brought down on 21 June 1944 in the District of Mecklenburg, came to earth with their crews intact, 15 men all told. All were shot on the pretext of attempting to escape. The document was found in the files of the headquarters of the 11th Luftgaukommando, and states that nine members of one crew were handed over to the local police. In the next to the last paragraph, third line, we read that they were made prisoners and handed over to the police in Waren. Lieutenants Helton and Ludka were handed over on 21 June 1944 by the protective police to SS UntersturmFuehrer Stempel, of the Security Police, and former Commissioner of the Criminal Police, at Furstenberg: "These seven prisoners were shot en route while attempting to escape. "Lieutenants Helton and Ludka were also shot on the same day while attempting to escape." Regarding the second Liberator, at Page 91 we read: "Subject: Crash of a Liberator on 21 June 1944, at 11:30 a.m. ... six members of the crew shot while attempting to escape; one, seriously wounded, brought to the garrison hospital at Schwerin." We now submit as Exhibit Number RF-379, Document F-553, which the Tribunal will find on Page 101 of the document book.
M. DUBOST: This document concerns the internment in concentration camps and extermination camps of prisoners of war. Among the escaped prisoners a discrimination was made. If they were privates and noncommissioned officers who had agreed to work, they were generally sent back to the camp and punished in conformity with Articles 47 , and following, of the Geneva Convention . If it was a question of officers or noncommissioned officers-this is a comment I am making on the document which I shall read to the Tribunal-if it was a question of officers or noncommissioned officers who had refused to work, they were handed over to the police and generally murdered without trial. One can understand the aim of this discrimination. Those French noncommissioned officers who, in spite of the pressure of the German authorities, refused to work in the German war industry had a very high conception 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. Extermination of these elite assumed a systematic character from the beginning of 1944; and the responsibility of Keitel is unquestionably involved in this extermination, which he approved if he did not specifically order. The document which the Tribunal has before it is a letter of protest by General Berard, head of the French Delegation to the German Armistice Commission, addressed to the German General Vogl, the president of the said commission. It deals specifically with information reaching France concerning the extermination of escaped prisoners. First paragraph, fourth line: "This note reveals the existence of a German organization, independent of the Army, under whose authority escaped prisoners would come." This note was addressed on 29 April 1944 by the commandant of Oflag X-C.
M. DUBOST: I read from Page 102: "Captain Lussus"-declares General Berard to the German Armistice Commission-"of Oflag X-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 French senior officer of Oflag X-C received two funeral urns containing the ashes of these two' officers...." No particulars could be given to this French officer as to the cause of the deaths of Captain Lussus and 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 by the commandant of Oflag X-C to the French senior officer at that Oflag: "You will bring to the attention of your comrades the fact that there exists, for the control of people moving about unlawfully, a German organization whose field of action extends over regions in a state of war from Poland to the Spanish frontier. Each escaped prisoner who is recaptured and found in possession of civilian clothes, false papers and identification cards, and false photographs, falls under the authority of this organization. What becomes of him then, I cannot tell you. Warn your comrades that this matter is particularly serious." The last two lines of this note assumed their full significance when the urns containing the ashes of the two escaped French officers were handed to the senior officer of the camp. Our Soviet colleagues of the Prosecution will present the conditions under which the escapes of the officers from the Sagan Camp were repressed.
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, Berard to the German head of the Armistice -Commission, is that right?
M. DUBOST: Mr. President, I do not know if there was an answer. I know only that the archives in Vichy at the time of the liberation were partly pillaged and partly destroyed through military action. If there was an answer we would have had it in the Vichy archives, for the documents we present now are the documents from the German archives of the German Armistice Commission. As to the French archives, I do not know what has become of them. In any case it is possible they may have disappeared as a result of military action. I was about to inform the Tribunal that my Soviet colleagues would set forth the conditions und which repressive measures were carried out at the camp of Sagan for attempts to escape. We submit as Exhibit Number RF-380, Document Number F-672, which the Tribunal will find on Page 115 of its document book. This is a report from the Service for War Prisoners and Deportees, dated 9 January 1946, which relates to the deportation to Buchenwald of 20 French prisoners of war. This report must be considered as an authentic document, as well as the reports of war prisoners which are annexed thereto. On Page 116 is the report of Claude Petit, former prisoners' representative in Stalag VI-G. "In September 1943 the French civilian workers in Germany and the French prisoners of war who had been converted"that means converted into workers-"were deprived of all spiritual help, there being no priest among them. Lieutenant Piard, head chaplain of Stalag VI-G, after having spoken with the prisoners of war chaplain, Abbe Rodhain, decided to turn into workers six prisoner-of- war priests who volunteered to exercise their ministerial functions among the French civilians. "This change in classification of priests was difficult to accomplish, as the Gestapo did not authorize the presence of chaplains among civilian workers...." These priests and a few scouts organized a scout group, and a group of Catholic Action. On Page 117: "From the beginning of 1944 the priests felt themselves being watched by the Gestapo in their various activities. . .
M. DUBOST: "At the end of July 1944, the six priests were arrested almost simultaneously and taken to the prison of Brauweiler, near Cologne ...... Page 118, the same happened to the scouts. I quote: "Against this flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention I took numerous steps and made several protests; for the prisoners of war arrested by the Gestapo I even asked the reason for their arrest.... "Owing to the rapid advance of the allies, who were approaching Aachen, all the prisoners of Brauweiler were taken to Cologne. . . ." [Dr. Stahmer approached the lectern.]
M. DUBOST: Mr. President, before allowing the Defense Counsel to interrupt, permit me to finish reading this document.
THE PRESIDENT: Continue.
M. DUBOST: Thank you, Mr. President. With the end of this paragraph the Tribunal learns that the German military authorities themselves took steps in order to learn the fate of these prisoners: "The military authorities having no knowledge thereof, immediately undertook correspondence with Buchenwald, correspondence which remained without answer." And again: "At the beginning of March, Major Bramkamp, chief of the Abwehr group, had to go personally to Buchenwald ...... On Pages 120-121 the Tribunal will find the list of the prisoners who thus disappeared. On Page 122 there is a confirmation of this testimony by M. Souche, prisoners' representative at Kommando 624, who writes: "Certain war prisoners, converted into workers, and French civilian workers had organized in Cologne a Catholic Action group under the direction of the re-classified war-prisoner priests, Pannier and Cleton...." Finally, Page 123: ". . . the arrests began with members of the Catholic Action!'and the accusations were-"anti-German maneuvers...."
THE PRESIDENT: I do not know what Dr. Stahmer's objection is.
DR. OTTO STAHMER (Counsel for Defendant Goering): We are not in a position to follow the expose of the French Prosecutor. First of all, the translation is not very good. Some 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 therefore we cannot follow the page citations. Also my colleagues complain that they are not in a position to follow the proceedings under this manner of presentation.
THE PRESIDENT: May I see your document? [The document was handed to the President.]
DR. STAHMER: This number was just mentioned, as can be confirmed by the other gentlemen.
THE PRESIDENT: The document which M. Dubost was reading was 672. The Document you have got there is a different number.
DR. STAHMER: But this was the number that came through to us, 612, and not only I, but the other gentlemen heard the same number. And not only this number, but all the numbers have been given incorrectly. Another difficulty is that we have not the document book. Page 118 had been referred to, but the number of the page does not mean anything to us. We cannot follow at this rate.
THE PRESIDENT: M. 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 many numbers spoken very quickly. It is essential that the defendants should be able to follow the document; and as I understand it, they have not got the document books 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 document books, all the documents, have been handed 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 have not got that page, I should not be able to find the document.
M. DUBOST: Mr. President, I announced at the same time RF-380, which is the number of the exhibit. F-672 is the classification number. All our documents bear a classification number. It was not possible to hand to the Defense a document book paginated like the one the Tribunal has, for it is not submitted in the same language. It is submitted in German and the pages are not in the same place. There is not an absolute identity of pagination between the German document book and yours.
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 shall conform to the wishes of the Tribunal, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Stahmer, the document being read was Document F-672.
DR. STAHMER: We cannot find Document 672. We have 673. We have nothing but loose sheets, and we have to hunt through them first to find the number. We have Number 673, but we have not yet found Number 672 among our documents. It is very difficult for us to follow a citation, because it takes us so much time to find the numbers even if they have been mentioned correctly.