THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly, call him tomorrow.
M. FAURE: If it please the Tribunal, his testimony could be taken after
the recess tomorrow morning.
DR. GUSTAV STEINBAUER (Counsel for Defendant Seyss-Inquart): Mr.
President, I do not wish to prolong the proceedings; but I believe it
will be in the interest of justice if I ask that the Dutch witness be
heard, not tomorrow but Monday, on the assumption that Seyss-Inquart who
is now ill may be expected back on that date.
THE PRESIDENT: M. Faure, would it be equally convenient to you to call
him on Monday?
M. FAURE: Mr. President, I do not desire to vex the Defense; but the
witness might like to leave Nuremberg fairly promptly. Perhaps I might
suggest that he be heard tomorrow and that after he has been heard, if
Counsel for Defendant Seyss-Inquart expresses his desire to
cross-examine him, the witness could remain until Monday’s session.
If, on the other hand, after having heard the questions involved, the
Counsel considers that there is no need for any cross-examination, then
Seyss-Inquart’s absence would not matter. But I will naturally accept
the decision of the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: That seems a very reasonable suggestion.
DR. STEINBAUER: I am agreeable to the suggestion of the French
Prosecutor.
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now.
[_The Tribunal adjourned until 2 February 1946 at 1000 hours._]
FORTY-NINTH DAY
Saturday, 2 February 1946
_Morning Session_
MARSHAL: May it please the Court, I desire to announce that the
Defendants Kaltenbrunner, Seyss-Inquart, and Streicher will be absent
from this morning’s session due to illness.
M. FAURE: Gentlemen, I shall ask the Tribunal to be kind enough now to
take the file which is entitled “Luxembourg.”
The Tribunal has already been informed of the essential elements of the
situation concerning Luxembourg by the testimony of President Reuter,
who was heard during yesterday’s session. I shall, therefore, be able to
shorten my explanations about this file; but it is nevertheless
indispensable that I submit some documents to the Tribunal.
The annexation of Luxembourg has quite a special character, in that it
carried with it the total abolition of the sovereignty of this occupied
country. It therefore concerns a case which corresponds to the
hypothesis which we call “_debellatio_” in classic law, that is to say,
the cessation of hostilities by the disappearance of the body of public
law of one of the belligerents.
This total annexation of Luxembourg completes the proof that there was
criminal premeditation on the part of the Reich against this State to
which it was bound by diplomatic treaties, notably the Treaty of London
of 11 May 1867, and the Treaty of Arbitration and Conciliation of 2
September 1929. And the Tribunal knows by the testimony of Mr. Reuter
that these pledges were confirmed, first by a spontaneous diplomatic
step taken on 26 August 1939 by M. Von Radowitz, the Minister
Plenipotentiary for Germany, and afterwards by a re-assuring declaration
a few days before the invasion, in circumstances which have already been
explained to the Tribunal.
In view of the fact that Luxembourg—unlike Alsace and Lorraine, which
were French departments—I say, in view of the fact that Luxembourg was
a state, the Germans, in order to carry out this _de facto_ annexation,
had to issue special regulations concerning the suppression of public
institutions; and this they did. Two ordinances of 23 August and 22
October 1940 announced, on the one hand, the ban on Luxembourg’s
political parties; and, on the other, the dissolution of the Chamber of
Deputies and the State Council. These two decrees are submitted as
Documents RF-801 and RF-802. I request the Tribunal only to take
judicial notice of these documents which are public texts.
Moreover, from 26 August 1940 on, a German decree had abolished the
constitutional executive formula, according to which justice is rendered
in the name of the sovereign. A formula, according to which justice is
rendered in the name of the people, was substituted at that time for
this executive formula. On 15 October 1941, the formula was again
modified in a more obvious way and became “In the name of the German
people.”
I shall now follow in my supplementary explanation the order of ideas
which I adopted for Alsace and Lorraine; and naturally I shall dwell
only on those circumstances peculiar to Luxembourg.
As in the case of Alsace and Lorraine, the Germans attempted to
extirpate the national sentiment of Luxembourg and to render impossible
all manifestations of the traditional culture of this country. Thus, the
ordinances of 28 August 1940 and 23 October 1940 banned all associations
of a cultural or educational nature.
As in Alsace and Lorraine, the Germans imposed Germanization of family
and Christian names. This was the object of a decree of 31 January 1941,
Document Number RF-803. I point out, in passing, that the wearing of a
beret was also forbidden in Luxembourg, by a decree of 14 February 1941.
At the same time they did away with national institutions, the Germans
set up, according to their custom, their own administration and
appointed a Gauleiter in the person of Gustav Simon, the former
Gauleiter of Koblenz-Trier.
From the administrative point of view, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was
administered as a Bezirk (district) of the Chief of the Civilian
Administrative Service but by the German administrative services. As far
as the Party was concerned—the National Socialist Party—it was
officially joined to the Reich, as a dependency of the Mosel Gau.
I shall not dwell on the introduction of German civilian and penal
legislation, which was introduced in the same way as in Alsace and
Lorraine. Sufficient proof of this must be considered to have been given
by the submission of the official report of the government of the Grand
Duchy.
As regards nationality and conscription, we also notice a parallelism
between the provisions which concern Luxembourg and those which concern
other annexed countries.
On 30 August 1942, two ordinances were promulgated. It must be pointed
out that these two ordinances, the one concerning nationality and the
other military service, bear the same date. The ordinance concerning
military service is submitted as Document Number RF-804 and the one
concerning nationality is submitted as Document Number RF-805. The
legislation concerning nationality includes, moreover, a provision which
is peculiar to Luxembourg, although it is in conformity with the general
spirit of German legislation concerning nationality in annexed
countries.
The Germans had created in Luxembourg various organizations of the Nazi
type, of which the main one was the Volksdeutsche Bewegung (German
nationalist movement); and here is the special circumstance which I wish
to point out. The ordinance of 30 August 1942 concerning nationality
grants German nationality to persons who gave their adherence to this
association, the Volksdeutsche Bewegung. But this nationality could be
revoked. This is shown in the last paragraph of title 1 of this
ordinance, Document Number RF-805. In fact, this conferring of
nationality in this special case was valid provisionally for 2 years
only.
At the same time that the Nazis were establishing conscription, they
made it obligatory for all young Luxembourgers to serve in the
premilitary formations of the Hitler Youth. This is laid down in an
ordinance of 25 August 1942 concerning the Hitler Youth camps, which is
Document Number RF-806.
Just as in Alsace and Lorraine, compulsory labor was imposed in
Luxembourg, not only for men but also for women and for work of military
concern. These provisions are found chiefly in three ordinances: the
ordinance of 23 May 1941, the ordinance of 10 February 1943, and the
ordinance of 12 February 1943. These last two ordinances are introduced
as Documents RF-807 and RF-808.
I should now like to cite another circumstance, which is peculiar to
Luxembourg and of which proof is found in the official report of the
Luxembourg Government already submitted to the Tribunal. According to
this report, Page 4, Paragraphs 7 to 8, it is stipulated—the quotation
is very short and I did put the whole of the Luxembourg report in my
document book; I shall cite only one sentence which bears the reference
I have given:
“By ordinance, which appeared in the Official Gazette for
Luxembourg, 1942, Page 232, part of the Luxembourg population
was forced to join the formations of a corps called
Sicherheits- und Hilfsdienst (Security and Emergency Service), a
premilitary formation which had to do military drills. Part of
it was sent forcibly to Germany to carry out very dangerous
tasks at the time of the air attacks of the Allied forces.”
The Nazis made a special effort to bring about the nazification of
Luxembourg; and for this country they thought out a special method, the
basic point of which was the language element. They developed the
official thesis that the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg belonged to the
German language group. By means of propaganda they spread the idea that
the dialect spoken in Luxembourg was a Franconian dialect of the Moselle
and constituted a variant of the High German. Having developed this
theory, they took a census of the population, as mentioned yesterday by
the witness who gave evidence before the Tribunal. I especially mention
that this census took place on 10 October 1941. I wished to have the
witness speak on this point because no information on the result of the
census was furnished in the government report; and the Tribunal knows
now the reason why the German authorities immediately stopped the census
as soon as they discovered that the number of persons answering in the
way they desired was ridiculously small.
After this failure the Germans considered that the Luxembourg dialect
was no longer their political friend and in a circular dated 13 January
1942, which I submit as Document Number RF-809, they forbade the civil
servants to use this dialect in conversations with the public or on the
telephone. This was very inconvenient to a great many people.
The nazification campaign was carried out also by the creation of groups
with the same end in view. I have already said that the most important
of these groups was the Volksdeutsche Bewegung and I shall merely
supplement this by citing a sentence from the Luxembourg report, namely:
“Membership in the Volksdeutsche Bewegung was the condition
_sine qua non_ on which civil servants were allowed to keep
their positions, private employees their positions, professional
people—such as lawyers, doctors, _et cetera_—to exercise their
profession, industrialists to run their factories, and everybody
to earn his livelihood. Failure to comply meant dismissal,
expulsion from the country, and the deportation of whole
families.”
The penalties imposed on the Luxembourgers who refused these
solicitations were accompanied by a formula which shows very well the
Nazi mentality and which I shall read to the Tribunal from the text of
the government report. It is a very short quotation.
“Because of their attitude these persons do not offer the
guarantee that they will fulfill, in an exemplary manner at all
times and without any reservation, during and outside their
professional activity, the duties which have their foundation in
the establishment of the civil administration in Luxembourg and
in the pro-German attitude.”
The Nazis also sought to develop in Luxembourg the SA formation.
THE PRESIDENT: Have we got this report? Has this governmental report
been deposited?
M. FAURE: The report of the Luxembourg Government was submitted to the
Tribunal by my colleague, M. Dubost.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
M. FAURE: As I am making only very short quotations from it I did not
put it in my document book.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, M. Faure, it would help me if you would give me the
page of the dossier, when you are citing a document which is not in the
document book.
M. FAURE: The Nazis also used all kinds of constraint to obtain members
for their SA formation as well as for the motorized group of the SA
which is known under the initials NSKK.
I would like now to point out to the Tribunal that a special effort was
directed towards the youth, because the Nazis thought it would be easier
to get young people—and I may say, even children—to accept their
precepts and doctrines.
I think I may submit to the Tribunal Document Number RF-810, which is a
circular dated 22 May 1941, addressed to the principals of high schools.
This is a very short document and I ask your permission to read it.
“By order of the Gauleiter, all teachers are bound to buy the
book of the Führer, _Mein Kampf_, before 1 June 1941. By
September 1941 every member of the teaching profession must make
a declaration on his honor that he has read this work.”
The Germans thought that the compulsory reading of _Mein Kampf_—they
allowed three months to assimilate this important work—might convince
the teachers, who in turn would teach it to their pupils in the
prescribed spirit.
I have here another document, Number RF-811, which I should like to read
to the Tribunal, because it is not long and is also very characteristic.
It is an extract from a collection of circulars addressed to the pupils
of the Athenaeum:
“Luxembourg, 16 June 1941:
“1. All pupils must stand up when the teacher enters to begin
the lesson and when leaving the classroom at the end of the
lesson.
“2. The German salute will be given in the following manner: a)
Raise the outstretched right arm to shoulder level, b) Shout:
‘Heil Hitler.’
“3. The pupils must return the same salute which the teachers
use at the beginning and end of the lessons.
“4. I also expect all pupils to give the German salute in the
street, especially to those gentlemen known to be enthusiastic
partisans of the German salute.”
These German methods reached their culminating point with the imposition
of the oath of allegiance to Hitler, which oath was imposed upon the
gendarmes and the police. I refer here to the testimony of M. Reuter,
who made the terrible statement that those who refused to do so were
deported and afterwards most of them were shot. I also submit as proof
of this the government report which gives the same information, on Page
12.
Naturally, as in the other annexed territories, the Luxembourgers did
not yield to these German methods; and there also endeavors were made to
break the resistance by terror. I must mention a quite special
regulation, the ordinance of 2 June 1941. This will be Document Number
RF-812, which has as title “Ordinance on the Putting into Force in
Luxembourg of the Law of 10 February 1936 Concerning the Gestapo.” This
title suffices to show the subject.
The Gestapo established in Luxembourg special tribunals, a special
summary court known as Standgericht, and SS tribunals. These
jurisdictions, if we can use the term jurisdiction, passed many
sentences for political reasons. A detailed list of these convictions is
appended to the government report. One tribunal, the Standgericht of
which I spoke just now, passed 16 death sentences and sentenced 384
people to penalties involving loss of their liberty. But this tribunal
was not the only one, and the report states—and the witnesses also
confirmed it—that about 500 were condemned to death in this country,
which is a considerable number, because the population is not very
large.
I think I should likewise mention, in connection with the Germanization,
the measures concerning deportation already known to the Tribunal
through the testimony of M. Reuter. These measures concerning
deportation were applied systematically to the intellectual elite of the
country, to the clergy, and to persons who had served in the army. This
proves that it was deliberately intended to do away with the social,
intellectual, and moral structure of this country.
To the Luxembourg report is appended a list of names of deportees,
including officers, magistrates, men who took part in politics in the
Grand Duchy, writers, economic leaders, and in particular—I shall give
only one figure which is striking—the Germans expelled or deported 75
clergymen, which, with regard to a population as small as that of
Luxembourg, shows clearly the will to abolish completely the right to
worship. The official report also states that the property of religious
orders was confiscated, and most of the places of worship were either
destroyed or desecrated.
Just a word about agricultural colonization: An organization called “Für
Deutsches Volkstum und Siedelung” (For the Settlement of Racial Germans)
was entrusted with the liquidation of the property of Luxembourg
deportees for the benefit of southern Tyroleans who were settled in the
Grand Duchy. Also, industrial and economic colonization: Here we find
the same methods, the same spoliations, and therefore I do not want to
go over this ground again. The Tribunal already knows the way in which
this was carried out. But I should like to give one example concerning
Luxembourg because when dealing with points, even general points, I
think the best method is to give a documentary example, and also
because, from this document that I am going to cite, I think it is
possible to draw some important conclusions from the point of view of
the Prosecution.
The document which I am going to cite concerns many cases where the
German authorities compelled private citizens and firms to transfer
their assets and the control of their businesses to Germans. That was
called colonization, and consisted in putting German nationals into the
businesses with large assets and economic functions. The Reich Minister
of Economy himself devised these illicit methods by which it was
intended to plunder private citizens and to germanize the economy of the
country. The document that I am going to read to the Tribunal bears the
Document Number 813. It is offered as a document by the Luxembourg
Government, and it is an original document with the signature, bearing
the heading “The Reich Minister of Economy,” Berlin, 5 January 1942.
This letter with the heading “The Minister of Reich Economy” is signed
“By order: Dr. Saager.” He is a subordinate who is acting regularly,
administratively, by order of his minister. It is Number RF-813, the
last but one. This letter is marked “Secret.” It concerns the
“Accumulateurs Tudor, S. A., Bruxelles,” and is addressed to the battery
factory in the hands of Mr. Von Holtzendorff of Berlin, Askanischer
Platz 3. The Tribunal will understand that the Minister of Economy is
writing to the German firm which is going to benefit by the pressure to
be exercised on the Luxembourg firm.
“Referring to our repeated conversations I confirm that in the
interest of the Reich it would be considered very desirable if
your company would obtain a participation in the stock of the
Tudor Batteries. The interest of the Reich is based in no small
degree on economic requirements of national defense.
“In order to obtain a majority the stock owned by M. Léon Laval,
formerly in Luxembourg and now in Bad Mergentheim, would have to
be considered first. This concerns not only the shares which M.
Laval possesses personally, but also the 3,000 shares deposited
with Sogeco.”