dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
THE PRESIDENT: I can understand the difficulty. Will you continue, M. Dubost, and do as I say, going very slowly so as to give the defendants' counsel, el, as far as possible, the opportunity to find the document. And I think that you ought to do something satisfactory, if possible, to make it possible for them to find that document-by pagination or some other letters. An index, for instance, giving the order in which the documents are set out.
M. DUBOST: Three days ago, two document books in French, paginated like the books which the Tribunal has before it, were handed to the Defense. We were able to hand only two to them, for reasons of a technical nature. But at the same time we handed to the Defense a sufficient number of documents in German to enable each Defense Counsel to have his Me in German. Does the Tribunal ask me to collate the pages of the French document book which we submit to the Defense with the pages of a document book which we set up, when the Defense can do it and has the time to do it? Three days ago the two French document books were handed to the Defense. They had the possibility of comparing the French texts with the German texts to make sure that our translations were correct, and to prepare themselves for the sessions.
THE PRESIDENT: Go on, M. Dubost. As I say, do it slowly.
DR. STAHMER: It is not correct that we received it 3 days ago. We found this pile in our compartment yesterday evening. We simply have not had time to number these pages. As I say, this was in our compartment yesterday evening or this morning.
THE PRESIDENT: Let's go on now, M. Dubost, and go slowly in describing the identification of the document.
M. DUBOST: We shall pass to Document F-357, which will be submitted as Exhibit Number RF-381. This document deals with the carrying out of general orders concerning the execution of prisoners of war. It contains the testimony of a German gendarme who was made prisoner on 25 May 1945, and who, declares (Page 127): "All prisoners of war, who had fallen into our hands in whatever circumstances, were to be slain by us instead of being handed over to the Wehrmacht as had been done hitherto." This concerned an order which was given in the middle of August 1944. The witness continues: "This execution was to be carried out in a deserted spot." On Page 128, the same witness gives the names of Germans who had executed prisoners of war. We shall now submit Document 1634-PS, which will become Exhibit Number RF-382. The Tribunal will find it on Page 129 in their document book. It is a document which has not yet been read. It relates to the murder of 129 American prisoners of war which was perpetrated by the German Army in a field in the southwest, and west of Baignes in Belgium, on 17 December 1944 during the German offensive. The author of this report summarizes the facts. The American prisoners were brought together near the crossroad. A few soldiers, whose names are indicated, rushed across the field toward the west, hid among the trees in the high grass, in thickets, and ditches, and thus escaped the massacre of their companions. A few others who, at the moment when this massacre began, were in the proximity of a barn, were able to hide in it. They also are survivors. Page 129: "...the artillery and machine gun fire on the column of American vehicles continued for about 10 to 15 minutes, and then two German tanks and some armored cars came down the road from the direction of Weismes. Upon reaching the intersection, these vehicles turned south on the road toward St. Vith.
M. DUBOST: The tanks directed machine gun fire into the ditch along the side of the road in which the American soldiers were crouching; and upon seeing this, the other American soldiers dropped their weapons and raised their hands over their heads. The surrendered American soldiers were then made to march back to the crossroad, and as they passed by some of the German vehicles on highway N-23, German soldiers on these vehicles took from the American prisoners of war such personal belongings as wrist watches, rings, and gloves. The American soldiers were then assembled on the St. Vith road in front of a house standing on the southwest corner of the crossroad. Other German soldiers, in tanks and armored cars, halted at the crossroad and also searched some of the captured Americans and took valuables from them ...... Top of Page 131: ". . . an American prisoner was questioned and taken with his other comrades to the crossroads just referred to. . . . at about this same time a German light tank attempted to maneuver itself into position on the road so that its cannon would be directed at the group of American prisoners gathered in the field approximately 20 to 25 yards from the road ...... I again skip four lines. " . . . some of these tanks stopped when they came opposite the field in which the unarmed American prisoners were standing in a group, with their hands up or clasped behind their heads. A German soldier, either an officer or a noncommissioned officer, in one of these vehicles which had stopped, got up, drew his revolver, took deliberate aim and fired into the group of American prisoners. One of the American soldiers fell. This was repeated a second time and another American soldier in the group fell to the ground. At about the same time, from two of the vehicles on the road, fire was opened on the group of American prisoners in the field. All, or most, of the American soldiers dropped to the ground and stayed there while the firing continued, for 2 or 3 minutes. Most of the soldiers in the field were hit by this machine gun fire.
M. DUBOST: The German vehicles then moved off toward the south and were followed by more vehicles which also came from the direction of Weismes. As these latter vehicles came opposite the field in which the American soldiers were lying, they also fired with small arms from the moving vehicles at the prostrate bodies in the field ...... Page 132: " . . . some German soldiers, evidently from the group of those who were on guard at the crossroad, then walked to the group of the wounded American prisoners who were still lying on the ground in the field ... and shot with pistol or rifle, or clubbed with a rifle butt or other heavy object, any of the American soldiers who still showed any sign of life. In some instances, American prisoners were evidently shot at close range, squarely between the eyes, in the temple, or the back of the head ...... This deed constitutes an act of pure terrorism, the shame of which will remain on the German Army, for nothing justified this. These prisoners were unarmed and had surrendered. The Tribunal authorized me yesterday to present the documents on which the French accusation is based for establishing the guilt of Goering): Keitel, Jodl, Bormann, Frank, Rosenberg, Streicher, Schirach, Hess, Frick, the OKW, OKH, OKL, the Reich Cabinet, and the Nazi Leadership Corps, as well as of the SS and the Gestapo, for atrocities committed in the camps. I shall be very brief. I have very few new documents to present. The first concerns Kaltenbrunner. It is the American Document L-35 which the Tribunal will find on Page 246 of the document book concerning concentration camps, that is the second book. This document has not been submitted. It is the testimony of Rudolf Mildner, Doctor of Law, Colonel of the Police, who declares: "The internment orders were signed by the Chief of the Sipo and SD, Dr. Kaltenbrunner, or, as deputy by the head of Amt IV, SS GruppenFuehrer Muller." In submitting this it becomes Exhibit Number PY-383 (bis). Concerning Goering): we submit the American Document 343-PS, Exhibit Number RF-384.
M. DUBOST: This is a letter from Meld Marshal Milch to Wolff. This letter concludes with this phrase: "I express to the SS the special thanks of the Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe for the aid they have rendered." Now, from what precedes, one can conclude that these thanks refer to the biological experiments of Dr. Rascher. Thus, Goering is involved in these. The German SS Medical Corps is implicated. This one can gather from Document 1635-PS, which has not yet been handed to the Tribunal, which becomes Exhibit Number RF-385, and which the Tribunal will find in the annex of the second document book. These are extracts from reviews of microscopic and anatomical research. They deal with experiments made on persons who died suddenly, although in good health. The circumstances of their death are stated by the experimenters in such a way that no reader can be in any doubt as to the conditions under which they were put to death. With the permission of the Tribunal, I shall read a few brief extracts. Page 132 of the document which we submit to the Tribunal: "The thyroid glands of 21 persons between 20 and 40 years of age, who were in supposedly good health and who suddenly died, were examined. "The persons in question, 19 men and 2 women, until their death lived for several months under identical conditions, also with regard to food. The last food taken consisted chiefly of carbohydrates. "Replacement products and examination methods:" That is the title. "Over a considerable period, substance for experiments was taken from the livers of 24 adults in good health, who suddenly died between 5 and 6 o'clock in the morning." On examining these documents, as well as the originals, the Tribunal will see that German medical literature is very rich in experiments carried out on "adults in good health who died suddenly between 5 and 6 o'clock in the morning." No one in Germany could be deceived as to the conditions under which these deaths occurred, since the accounts of the SS doctors' experiments in the camps were printed and published.
M. DUBOST: One of the last documents is F-185(b), and (a), relative to an experiment with poisoned bullets carried out on 11 August 1944, in the presence of SS SturmbannFuehrer Dr. Ding and Dr. Widmann-Page 187 of the second document book concerning concentration camps. These two documents are submitted as Exhibit Numbers RF-386 and RF-387. The Tribunal will find the description of this experiment, in which the victims are described as persons sentenced to death.
THE PRESIDENT: The document has been read already, I think.
M. DUBOST: It is a document from the French archives. However, Mr. President, I doubt whether the Tribunal has heard Document F-185(b), Exhibit RF-386, which is the opinion of the French professor, M. May, Fellow of Surgery, to whom the pseudoscientific documents to which I alluded just now were submitted the reports from scientific reviews of experiments. He wrote, Page 222: "The wickedness and the stupidity of the experimenters amazed us. The symptoms of aconitine nitrate poisoning have been known from time immemorial. This poison is sometimes employed by certain savage tribes to poison their war arrows. But one has never heard of them writing observations in a pretentious style, on the anticipated result of their experiments-observations which are completely inadequate and puerile-nor that they would have them signed by a 'Doz,' that is to say, a professor." We now submit Document F-278(a) as Exhibit Number RF-388. It involves Keitel. It is a letter signed: "By order of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, Dr. Lehmann." It is dated 17 February 1942 and is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and it implicates him. It concerns the regime in the internment camps: "Delinquents brought to Germany in application of the decree of the Fuehrer are to have no communication of any kind with the outside world. They must, therefore, neither write themselves, nor receive letters, packages, or visits. The letters, packages, and visits are to be refused with the remark that all communication with the outside world is forbidden." The High Command gives its point, of view in a letter of 31 January 1942, according to which there can be no question of Belgian lawyers being permitted for Belgian prisoners. We now submit Document 682-PS, which becomes Exhibit Number RF-389, Page 134 of the second document book. This document implicates the German Government and the Reich Cabinet. It is a record of a conversation between Dr. Goebbels and Thierack, Minister of Justice, in Berlin, on 14 September 1942, from 1300 hours to 1415 hours.
M. DUBOST: "With regard to the destruction of asocial life, Dr. Goebbels is of the opinion that the following should be exterminated: All Jews and Gypsies, Poles having to serve 3-4 years of penal servitude, and Czechs and Germans sentenced to death, to penal servitude for life, or to security custody (Sicherungsverwahrung). The idea of exterminating -them by work is the best ...... We stress this last phrase which shows, even in the heart of the German Government itself, the will to "exterminate by work." The last document that we shall submit with regard to the concentration camps is Document F-662, which becomes Exhibit Number RF-390, Pages 77 and 78, second document book. This document is the testimony of M. Poutiers, living in Paris, Place de Breteuil, who points out that the internees in the detachments of Mauthausen Ebens worked under the direct control of civilians, the SS dealing only with the guarding of the prisoners. This witness, who was in numerous work units, states that all were ordered and controlled by civilians and only supervised by the SS and that the inhabitants of the country, as the internees went to and from their work and while at work, could therefore observe their misery; which confirms the testimony which has already been given before the Tribunal during these last few days. We shall summarize the increasing advance of the German criminal policy in the West: At the beginning of the occupation, violation of Article 50 of the Hague Convention ; execution of hostages, but creation of a pseudo "law of hostages" to legalize these executions in the eyes of the occupied countries. In the years that follow, contempt for the rights of the human individual increases, until it becomes complete in the last months of the occupation. By that time arbitrary imprisonment, parodies of trials, or executions without trial have become daily practice.
M. DUBOST: The sentences, the Tribunal will remember, were not put into effect in cases of acquittal or pardon; people acquitted by German tribunals, who should have been set at liberty, were deported and died in concentration camps. At the same time there developed and grew in strength the organization of Frenchmen who remained on the soil of France and refused to let their country die. At this stage German terrorism was intensified against them ever increasingly. What follows is the description of the terrorist repression carried out by the Germans against the patriots of the west of Europe, against what was called the "Resistance," without giving this word any other meaning than its generic sense. From the time Germany understood that her policy of collaboration was doomed to defeat, that her policy of hostages only exasperated the fury of the people whom she was trying to subdue, instead of modifying her policy with regard to the citizens of the occupied countries, she reinforced the terror which already reigned there and tried to justify it by saying it was an anti-Communist campaign. The Tribunal will recall Keitel's order and will understand what was thought of this pretext. All the French, all the citizens of Europe without distinction, without any distinction of party, profession, religion, or race, were involved in the resistance against Germany and their heroes were mingled in the graves and in the collective charnel houses into which the Germans threw them after their extermination. But this confusion was voluntary; it was calculated; it justified to a certain degree the arbitrary measures of repression of which we already had evidence in Document F-278, which we submit under Number RF-391.
M. DUBOST: It is dated 12 January 1943, and is signed "Von Falkenhausen." "Persons who are found, without valid authorization, in possession of explosives and military firearms, pistols of all kinds, sub- machine guns, rifles, et cetera, with ammunition, are liable in future to be shot immediately without trial." This order and others analogous to it continued to be executed even after the allied landing in the west of Europe. These orders were even carried out against organized forces in Belgium as well as in France, although the Germans themselves considered these forces as troops to a certain extent. This can be verified by reference to Document F-673, submitted under Exhibit Number RF-392, entitled "Terrorist action against patriots."
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps this would be a convenient time to break off. [A recess was taken.]
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, M. Dubost.
M. DUBOST: The document I have just submitted under Exhibit Number RF-392 is a memorandum to the Wiesbaden Commission. We read the following: "The action of the German troops, even if we admit the truth of the facts presented by the French, is taking place in the form of combat by far exceeding in scope any purely police action against isolated outlaws. On the enemy side we have organizations which absolutely refuse to accept the sovereignty of the French Government of Vichy and which from the point of view of numbers as well as of armament and command should almost be designated as troops. It has been reiterated that these revolutionary units consider themselves as being a part of the forces fighting against Germany. "General Eisenhower has described the terrorists who are fighting in France as troops under his command. It is against such troops"-on the original is written in red pencil "unfortunately not only"-"that repressive measures are directed." This document shows us that when in action the French Forces of the Interior, as well as all French forces in the western occupied countries, were considered as troops by the German Army.
THE PRESIDENT: I see that it may be useful for the record. It is in the document book on the extermination of innocent populations, on Page 167.
M. DUBOST: I thank you, Mr. President. Are then these patriots, who were consequently considered by the German Army as constituting regular troops, treated as soldiers? No. The order of Falkenhausen is proof thereof. They were either to be killed on the spot-and, after all, that is the fate of a combatant-or else delivered to the Sipo, to the SD, and tortured to death by these organisms, who dispensed with any legal formalities, as is shown by Document 835-PS, which has already been submitted under Number USA-527, and also by Document F-673, Page 6 in your document book, which we submit under Exhibit Number RF-392. Document Number P-673 is a considerable bundle of papers which comes from the archives of the German Commission at Wiesbaden, and we are submitting it in its entirety under Exhibit Number RF-392. Whenever we refer to Document F-673, it will be one of the documents in this big German book. "Letter from the Fuehrer's headquarters, 18 August 1944, 30 copies; copy 26; top secret. "Subject: Combatting terrorists and saboteurs in occupied territories .... 2. Jurisdiction over non-German civilians in occupied territories. "1) Enclosed herewith" - says the writer of this letter - "we are transmitting a copy of the order of the Fuehrer of 30 July 1944 ...... This order of the Fuehrer will be found, on Page 9 of your document book. Paragraph 3. "I therefore order the troops and every individual member of the Wehrmacht, the SS, and the police to shoot immediately on the spot terrorists and saboteurs who are caught in the act .... "2) Whoever is captured later is to be transferred to the nearest local office of the Security Police and of the SD. "3) Sympathizers, particularly women, who do not take an actual part in hostilities, are to be assigned to work." We know what that means. We know the regime of labor in concentration camps. But I shall proceed with reading the text of the covering letter of this order of the Fuehrer, Paragraph 4.
M. DUBOST: This paragraph is a commentary on the order itself: "Present legal proceedings relating to any act of terror or sabotage or any other crime committed by non-German civilians in the occupied territories, which endanger the security or the readiness for battle of the occupying power, are to be suspended. Indictments are to be withdrawn. The carrying out of sentences is not to be imposed. The accused and the records are to be turned over to the nearest local office of the Security Police and SD." This order, to be transmitted to all commanding officers, as indicated on Page 7, is accompanied by one last comment, Page 8, the penultimate paragraph: "Non-German civilians in the occupied territories who endanger the security or readiness for battle of the occupying power in a manner other than through acts of terrorism and sabotage are to be turned over to the SD." This order is signed by Keitel. By this comment, Keitel has associated himself in spirit with the order of his Fuehrer, He has brought about the execution of numerous individuals, for an order to kill without control any one suspected of being a terrorist affects not only the terrorists but the innocent and affects the innocent more than the terrorists. Moreover, Keitel's comment exceeds even Hitler's own orders. Keitel applied Hitler's stipulation-on Page 9 of your document book-to a hypothetical case which had not been foreseen, to wit: "Acts committed by non-German civilians in occupied territories which endanger the security or readiness for battle of the occupying power." This is on the general's own initiative. It is a political act which has nothing to do with the conduct of war. It is a political act which compromises and involves him. It makes him participate in the development and extension of the Hitlerian policy; for it is the interpretation of an order from Hitler, within the spirit of the order perhaps, but beyond its scope. Instructions were given to the Sipo and the SD to execute without judgment, These instructions were carried out.
M. DUBOST: Document P-574 on Page 10 of your document book, submitted as Exhibit Number RF-393, is the testimony of a certain Goldberg, an adjutant to the Sicherheitspolizei in Chalon-sur-Saone before the liberation of that city. He was captured by the patriots and interrogated by the divisional commissioner, who was head of the regional judicial police officials at Dijon. The Defense will certainly not accuse us of having had him examined by a subordinate police officer. It was the chief himself of the judicial police officials for the Dijon region who interrogated this witness. The witness declared, Page 12: "At the end of May 1944, without my having seen any written order on this subject, the Sicherheitspolizei of Chalon were given the right to pronounce capital punishment and to have the sentence executed without those concerned having appeared before a tribunal and without the case having been submitted for approval to the commander at Dijon. The chief of the SD in -Chalon, that is Kruger, had all necessary authority to make such decisions. There was no opposition, so far as I know, on the part of the SD of Dijon. I therefore conclude that this procedure was regular and was the consequence of instructions which were not officially communicated to me but which emanated from higher authorities." Execution was carried out by members of the SD. Their names are given by the witness, but they are not of particular interest to. this Tribunal, which is only concerned with the punishment of the principal criminals-those who gave the orders and from whom the orders emanated. How were these orders applied in the various countries of the West?