“. . . as I would not admit anything, one of the interrogators
put my scarf around my mouth to stifle my cries. Another German
policeman took my head between his legs and two others, one on
each side of me, beat me with clubs over the loins. Each of them
struck me 25 times . . . . This lasted over two hours. The next
morning they began again and it lasted as long as the day
before. These tortures were inflicted upon me because, on 11
November, I with my comrades of the resistance had taken part in
a demonstration by placing a wreath on the monument to the dead
of the 1914-18 war . . . .”
I now quote the report of Mr. Alfred Deudon. Here is the ill-treatment
to which he was subjected:
“18 August, sensitive parts were struck with a hammer. 19
August, was held under water; 20 August, my head was squeezed
with an iron band; 21 and 24 August, I was chained day and
night; 26 August, I was chained again day and night; and at one
time hung up by the arms.”
I will now read an extract from the report of M. Delltombe, arrested by
the Gestapo 14 June 1944:
“Thursday, 15 June, at 8 o’clock in the morning, I was taken to
the torture cellar. There they demanded that I should confess to
the sabotage which I had carried out with my groups and denounce
my comrades as well as name my hiding places. Because I did not
answer quickly enough, the torture commenced. They made me put
my hands behind my back. They put on special handcuffs and hung
me up by my wrists. Then they flogged me, principally on the
loins, and in the face. That day the torture lasted 3 hours.
“Friday, 16 June, the same thing took place; but only for an
hour and a half, for I could not stand it any longer; and they
took me back to my cell on a stretcher.
“Saturday the tortures began again with even more severity. Then
I was obliged to confess my sabotage, for the brutes stuck
needles in my arms. After that they left me alone until 10
August; then they had me called to the office and told me I was
condemned to death. I was put on a train of deportees going to
Brussels, from which I was freed on 3 September by Brussels
patriots.
“. . . women were subjected to the same treatment as men. To the
physical pain, the sadism of the torturers added the moral
anguish, especially mortifying for a woman or a young girl, of
being stripped nude by her torturers. Pregnancy did not save
them from lashes. When brutality brought about a miscarriage,
they were left without any care, exposed to all the hazards and
complications of these criminal abortions.”
This is the text of the summary drawn up by the American officer who
carried out this investigation.
Here is the report of Madame Sindemans, who was arrested in Paris 24
February 1944:
“. . . by four soldiers, each armed with a submachine gun, and
two other Germans in civilian clothes holding revolvers.
“Having looked into my handbag, they found three identification
cards. Then they searched my room and discovered the pads and
stamp of the Kommandantur and some German passes and employment
cards which I had succeeded in stealing from them the day before
. . . .
“Immediately, they placed handcuffs upon me and took me to be
interrogated. When I gave no reply, they slapped me in the face
with such force that I fell from my chair. Then they struck me
with a rubber ring across the face. This interrogation began at
10 o’clock in the morning and ended at 11 o’clock that night. I
must tell you that I had been pregnant for 3 months.”
We shall submit now Documents F-563 and 564 under the one number Exhibit
Number RF-308. It is a report concerning the atrocities committed by the
Gestapo in Bourges. We shall read a part of this report.
THE PRESIDENT: M. Dubost, how do you establish what this document is? It
appears to be the report of M. Marc Toledano.
M. DUBOST: That is correct, Mr. President. This report, with the rest of
the documents in the same bundle, was incorporated in the document
presented by the French Office for Inquiry into War Crimes, as is
evident from the official signature of M. Zambeaux on the original,
which is in the hands of the Secretary of the Court. I shall read the
first page of the original:
“I, the undersigned, Madame Bondoux, supervisor at the prison in
Bourges, certify that nine men, mostly youths, were subjected to
abominable treatment. They remained with their hands bound
behind their backs and with chains on their feet for 15 to 20
days; it was absolutely impossible for them to take their food
in a normal way and they were screaming with hunger. In the face
of this situation several of the ordinary criminal prisoners
showed their willingness to help these martyrs by making small
packets from their own rations which I had passed to them in the
evening. A certain German supervisor, whom I knew under his
first name of Michel, threw their bread in a corner of the cell,
and at night came to beat them. All these young men were shot on
20 November 1943.
“Then, too, a woman named Hartwig, who lived at Chevannes, I
believe, told me that she had remained for 4 days bound to a
chair. At all events, I can testify that her body was completely
bruised.”
We read in the statement of M. Labussiere, who is a captain of the
reserve and a teacher at Marseilles-les-Aubigny:
“. . . On the 11th I was twice flogged with a lash. I had to
bend over a bench and the muscles of my thighs and calves were
fully stretched. At first I received some 30 lashes with a heavy
whip, then another instrument was used which had a buckle at the
end. I then was struck on the buttocks, on the thighs, and on
the calves. To do this my torturer got up on a bench and made me
spread my legs. Then with a very thin thong he finished off by
giving me some 20 more biting lashes. When I picked myself up I
was dizzy and I fell to the ground. I was always picked up
again. Needless to say, the handcuffs were never taken off my
wrists . . .”
I recoil from reading the remainder of this testimony. The details which
precede are atrocious.
“At 10 o’clock on the 12th, after having beaten a woman, Paoli
came to find me and said: ‘Dog, you have no heart. It was your
wife I have just beaten. I’ll go on doing it as long as you
refuse to talk.’ He wanted me to give the place of our meetings
and the names of my comrades.”
On the following line:
“. . . on the 14th at 6 o’clock in the evening I was taken once
again to the torture chamber. I could hardly crawl. Before he
let me come in, Paoli said: ‘I give you 5 minutes to tell me all
you know. If after these 5 minutes you’ve said nothing, you’ll
be shot at 3 o’clock; your wife will be shot at six, and your
boy will be sent to Germany.’”
We read that after signing the record of the interrogation his torturer
said to him:
“‘Look at yourself! See what we can make of a man in 5 days! You
haven’t seen the finish yet!’ And he added: ‘Now get out of
here. You make us sick!’”—and the witness concluded with—“I
was, in fact, covered with filth from head to foot. They put me
in a cart and took me back to my cell . . . . During those 5
days I had certainly received more than 700 strokes from a lash
. . . .”
A large hematosis (blood clot) appeared on both his buttocks. A doctor
had to operate. His comrades in custody would not go near him because of
the foul smell from the abscesses covering his body as a result of the
ill-treatment. On 24 November, the date on which he was interrogated, he
had not yet recovered from his wounds.
His testimony concludes with a general statement of the methods of
torture which were used:
“1) The lash.
“2) The bath: The victim was plunged headfirst into a tub full
of cold water until he was asphyxiated. Then they applied
artificial respiration. If he would not talk they repeated the
process several times consecutively. With his clothes soaking,
he spent the night in a cold cell.
“3) Electric current: The terminals were placed on the hands,
then on the feet, in the ears, and then one in the anus and
another on the end of the penis.
“4) Crushing the testicles in a press specially made for the
purpose. Twisting the testicles was frequent.
“5) Hanging: The patient’s hands were handcuffed together behind
his back. A hook was slipped through his handcuffs and the
victim was lifted by a pulley. At first they jerked him up and
down. Later, they left him suspended for varying, fairly long,
periods. The arms were often dislocated. In the camp I saw
Lieutenant Lefevre, who, having been suspended like that for
more than 4 hours, had lost the use of both arms.
“6) Burning with a soldering lamp or with matches:
“On 2 July my comrade Laloue, a teacher from Cher, came to the
camp. He had been subjected to most of these tortures at
Bourges. One arm had been put out of joint and he was unable to
move the fingers of his right hand as a result of the hanging.
He had been subjected to flogging and electricity. Sharp-pointed
matches had been driven under the nails of his hands and feet.
His wrists and ankles had been wrapped with rolls of wadding and
the matches had been set on fire. While they were burning, a
German plunged a pointed knife into the soles of his feet
several times and another lashed him with a whip. Phosphorous
burns had eaten away several fingers as far as the second joint.
Abscesses which had developed had burst and this saved him from
blood poisoning.”
Under the signature of one of the chiefs of the General Staff of the
French Forces of the Interior, who freed the Department of Cher, M.
Magnon—whose signature is authenticated by the French official
authorities whom you know—we read that since the liberation of Bourges,
6 September 1944, an inspection of the Gestapo cellars disclosed an
instrument of torture, a bracelet composed of several balls of hard wood
with steel spikes. There was a device for tightening the bracelet round
the victim’s wrist. This bracelet was seen by numerous soldiers and
leaders of the Maquis of Manetou-Salon. It was in the hands of Adjutant
Neuilly, now in the 1st Battalion of the 34th Demi-Brigade. A drawing is
attached to this declaration. Commander Magnon certifies having seen the
instrument described above.
We now submit Document F-565, from the military service of the
department of Vaucluse, which becomes Exhibit Number RF-309. It is a
repetition of the same methods. We do not consider it necessary to dwell
upon them.
We will now turn to Document F-567, which we submit as Exhibit Number
RF-310. It refers to the tortures practiced by the German police in
Besançon. It is a deposition of M. Dommergues, a professor at Besançon.
This deposition was received by the American War Crimes Commission—the
mission of Captain Miller. We shall read about the statement of M.
Dommergues, professor at Besançon:
“He was arrested on 11 February 1944; was violently struck with
a lash during the interrogation. When a woman who was being
tortured uttered screams, they made M. Dommergues believe that
it was his own wife. He saw a comrade hung up with a weight of
50 kilograms on each foot. Another had his eyes pierced with
pins. A child lost its voice completely.”
This is from the American War Crimes Commission, summing up M.
Dommergues’ deposition. This document includes a second part under the
same Number F-567(b). We shall read some excerpts from this document.
THE PRESIDENT: One of the members has not got his document marked, and I
want to know whose statement it is you are referring to. Is it Dr.
Gomet?
M. DUBOST: It is not a statement; it is rather a letter sent by Dr.
Gomet, Secretary of the Council of the Departmental College of Doubs of
the National Order of Physicians. This letter was sent by him to the
chief medical officer of the Feldkommandantur in Besançon on 11
September 1943. Here is the text of this letter:
“Dear Doctor and Colleague,
“I have the Honor to deliver to you the note which I drafted at
your request and sent to our colleagues of the department in a
circular of 1 September.
“My conscience compels me on the other hand, to take up another
subject with you.
“Quite recently I had to treat a Frenchman who had wounds and
multiple ecchymosis on his face and body, as a result of the
torture apparatus employed by the German security service. He is
a man of good standing, holding an important appointment under
the French Government; and he was arrested because they thought
he could furnish certain information. They could make no
accusation against him, as is proved by the fact that he was
freed in a few days, when the interrogation to which they wanted
to subject him was finished.
“He was subjected to torture, not as a legal penalty or in
legitimate defense; but for the sole purpose of forcing him to
speak under stress of violence and pain.
“As for myself, representing the French medical body here, my
conscience and a strict conception of my duty compel me to
inform you of what I have observed in the exercise of my
profession. I appeal to your conscience as a doctor and ask you
whether by virtue of our mission of protecting the physical
health of our fellow-beings, which is the mission of every
doctor, it is not our duty to intervene.”
He must have had a reply from the German doctor, for Dr. Gomet writes
him a second letter, and here is the text:
“Dear Doctor and Colleague,
“You were good enough to note the facts which I put before you
in my letter of 11 September 1943 regarding the torture
apparatus utilized by the German Security Service during the
interrogation of a French official for whom I had subsequently
to prescribe treatment. You asked me, as was quite natural, if
you could visit the person in question yourself. I replied at
our recent meeting that the person concerned did not know of the
step which I had taken; and I did not know whether he would
authorize me to give his name. I wish to emphasize, in fact,
that I myself am solely responsible for this initiative. The
person through whom I learned, by virtue of my profession, the
facts which I have just related to you, had nothing to do with
this report. The question is strictly professional. My
conscience as a doctor has forced me to bring this matter to
your attention. I advance only what I know from absolutely
certain observation, and I guarantee the truth of my statement
on my honor as a man, a physician, and a Frenchman.
“My patient was interrogated twice by the German Security
Service about the end of August 1943. I had to examine him on 8
September 1943, that is to say, about 10 days after he left
prison, where he had in vain asked for medical attention. He had
a palpebral ecchymosis on the left side and abrasions in the
region of his right temple, which he said were made with a sort
of circle which they had placed upon his head and which they
struck with small clubs. He had ecchymosis on the backs of his
hands, these having been placed, according to what he told me,
in a squeezing apparatus. On the front of his legs there were
still scars with scabs and small surface wounds—the result, he
told me, of blows administered with flexible rods studded with
short spikes.
“Obviously, I cannot swear to the means by which the ecchymosis
and wounds were produced, but I note that their appearance is in
complete agreement with the explanations given me.
“It will be easy for you, Sir, to learn if apparatus of the kind
to which I allude is really in use in the German Security
Service.”