Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-05/tgmwc-05-47.07
Last-Modified: 1999/10/05

Page 76: medical certificate from Doctor Nicolaides, who
examined the women who were raped in this region.

   "To terrorise the inhabitants at Trebeurden in Brittany
   they hanged innocent people, and slashed the corpses to
   make the blood flow."

I proceed: F-912, submitted as Exhibit RF 421, Page 82 of
your book: It is the recital of the massacre of thirty-five
Jews at St. Amand-Montrond. These men were arrested, and
killed with pistol shots in the back by members of the
Gestapo and of the German Army. They were innocent of any
crime.

I proceed: Document F-913, submitted as Exhibit RF 422, Page
96, at the bottom of the page. I am quoting:

   "On 6 of April 1944 German soldiers of the Gestapo
   arrested young Bezillon, eighteen years of age, dwelling
   at Oyonnaxain, whose brother is in the Maquis."

On Page 97:

   "The body of this young man was discovered on 11 April
   1944 at Sieges (Jura) frightfully mutilated. His nose
   and tongue had been cut off. There were traces of blows
   over his whole body and of slashes on his legs. Four
   other young men were also found at Sieges at the same
   time as Bezillon. All of them had been mutilated in such
   a manner that they could not be identified. They bore no
   trace of bullets, which clearly indicates that they died
   from the consequences of ill-treatment "

I proceed: F-615, which I submit as Exhibit RF 423, Page 98
of your document book. "Destruction of the village of
Cerisay, Page 100 of your document book, next to the last
paragraph:

   "The fire did not cause any accident to persons, but the
   bodies of the two persons killed by German convoys and
   those of two victims of the bombardment were burned."

This village was destroyed by artillery fire. One hundred
and seventy-two buildings were destroyed and five hundred
and fifty-nine people were left homeless. That is from the
last line on Page 100 of your document book.

We place before you Document F-919 as Exhibit RF 424 and we
shall quote only Page 103, paragraph 5: This is the murder
of a young man of Tourch in the Finistere Dept. The
murderers compelled the mother to prepare a meal for them. I
am quoting:

   "Having been fed, they disinterred the victim. They
   searched and
   
                                                  [Page 327]
   
   found that the body bore a card of identity bearing the
   same name and address as his mother, brothers, and
   sisters, who were present and who were in tears. One of
   the soldiers, finding no excuse to explain this crime,
   said dryly before going away, "It is too bad," and the
   body was again buried.

Document F-616, submitted as Exhibit RF 425, Page 104: This
concerns the report of the operations of the German Army in
the region of Nice around 20 July 1944, Page 105 of your
document book, second paragraph: I quote:

   "Having been attacked at Presle by several groups of
   Maquis in the region, by way of reprisals, a Mongolian
   detachment, still under the SS, went to a farm where two
   French members of the Resistance had been hidden.
   
   Being unable to take them prisoner, these soldiers then
   took the proprietors of that farm, (the husband and
   wife), and after subjecting them to numerous atrocities
   (knifing, rape, et cetera) they shot them down with sub-
   machine guns. Then they took the son of these victims
   who was only three years of age, and, after having
   frightfully tortured him, they crucified him on the gate
   of the farmhouse."

We present Document 914 as Exhibit RF 426, Page 107 of your
document book. This was a long recital of the murders
committed without any cause whatever by the German Army in
Rus Tronchet at Lyons. Page 109 at the end of the last
paragraph. I now read:

   "Without preliminary warning, without any effort having
   been made to verify the exact character of the situation
   and, if necessary, to seize those responsible for the
   act, the soldiers opened fire. A certain number of
   civilians, men and women and children, fell. Others who
   were untouched or only slightly wounded fled in haste."

On Page 110 or 111 the Tribunal will find the official
testimony that was drawn up on the occasion of this murder.
We submit without quoting, which we ask you to take judicial
notice of, only the minutes relating to the crimes of the
German Army committed in the region of Loches (Indre-et-
Loire), Document F-617, placed before you as Exhibit RF 427
and on Page 115 of your document book.

Document F-607, submitted as Exhibit RF 428, which is on
Page 119 of your document book, describes the looting, rape,
and burnings at Saillan during the months of July and of
August 1944. I quote the third paragraph:

   "During their sojourn in the region - I mean the German
   soldiers - three rapes were committed against three
   women in that area."

I pass on to F-608, Page 120 of your document book,
submitted as Exhibit RF 429: A person was burned alive at
Puisots by a punitive expedition. This person was innocent.
I present Document F-610 as Exhibit RF 430, Page 122 of your
document book. The whole region of Vassieux in the Vercors
is devastated. This Document, F-610, is a report by the Red
Cross prepared prior to the liberation. Page 123 of your
document book. I am quoting:

   "We find in a farm a man wounded. He was struck by eight
   bullets under the following circumstances. The Germans
   forced him to set fire to his own house, and tried to
   prevent him from emerging by shooting at him with their
   pistols. In spite of his wounds he was miraculously able
   to escape.

We present Document F-618 as Exhibit RF 431, Page 124 of the
document book, also Page 125, the next to the last line. I
quote, concerning people who were executed:

   "Before being shot these people were tortured. One of
   them, M. Francis Duperrier, had his arm broken and his
   face completely mutilated,

                                                  [Page 328]
   
   and M. Perroud Plattet, had been completely
   disembowelled with a piece of sharp wood. His jaw bone
   was also crushed."

We present Document 605 as Exhibit RF 432, Page 126. This
document relates and describes the burning of the hamlet,
Des Plaines near Moutiers, in the Department of Savoy. I
read at the beginning of the eighth line, and end of the
second paragraph: "Two women, Mine. Romanet, 72 years old
and her daughter, age 41, were burned in a small room of
their dwelling, where they had sought refuge. In the same
place a man, M. Charvaz, who had had his thigh shattered by
a bullet, was found burnt to a cinder.

We now present as Exhibit RF 433, French Document F-298,
Page 127, and the following, in your document book, which
describes the destruction of Naille in the department of
Indre-et-Loire. That area was entirely destroyed on 25
August 1944, and a large number of its inhabitants were
killed or seriously wounded. This destruction and these
crimes were motivated by no terrorist action, by no action
of the French Forces of the Interior. We place before you
Document F-907 as Exhibit RF-434, Page 132 and the
following, in your document book. This document related to
the crimes committed by the German Army at Montpezat-de-
Quercy. This is a letter written to the French Delegation by
the Bishop of Montauban, Monseigneur Theas, on 2 May. I
quote the second paragraph of Page 132, " On 2 May 1944
under the pretext of combating the Maquis. . .

THE PRESIDENT: Can I see your document?

M. DUBOST: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: M. Dubost, how do you make out this exhibit?
It is not an official document, is it, in any shape or form?

M. DUBOST: Document F 673, Page 129 of your document book,
refers to the events.

THE PRESIDENT: There is some other document, you mean?

M. DUBOST: Document F-907 really explains Document F-673,
which is on Page 139 of the document book, and this document
authenticates the letter by Monseigneur Theas, who is Bishop
of Montauban. I wish to present that by referring to
Document F-673 if the Tribunal is not disposed to grant
sufficient credit to Document F-907.

THE PRESIDENT: I think that would be better.

M. DUBOST: F-673, submitted as Exhibit RF 392, Page 139 of
your document book, related to the incident leading to
crimes by the Germans at Montprezat-de-Quercy. . . Paragraph
1, Page 139, is a letter by the French Armistice Commission,
and is extracted from the archives of the Armistice
Commission in Wiesbaden.

   "On the night of 6 or 7 June last, at the time of an
   operation in the region of Montpezat-de-Quercy, German
   troops set fire to four farmhouses which formed the
   hamlet called Perches. Three men, two women and two
   children, 14 and 4 years old, were burned alive. Two
   women and a child of ten disappeared, having suffered
   the same fate.
   
   On Saturday, 10 June, having been shot at by two
   refractories in the village of Marsoulas, German troops
   killed these two men. Moreover, they massacred, without
   any explanation, all the other inhabitants of the
   village that they could lay their hands on.
   
   Thus seven men, six women, and 14 children were killed,
   most of them still in their beds at the early hour when
   this happened.
   
   On 10 June, at about 1900 hours, five Luftwaffe fliers
   attacked the town of Tarbes for half-an-hour with bombs
   and machine guns. Several buildings were destroyed,
   among them the Hotel des Ponts et Chaussdes, and the
   Academic Inspectorate. There were seven dead and about
   ten
   
                                                  [Page 329]
   
   wounded who were naturally hit by chance among the
   population of the city.
   
   On this occasion the general in command of the VS 659 at
   Tarbes immediately announced to the Prefect of the
   Department of Basses-Pyrenees that the operation had
   been neither provoked nor ordered by him.
   
   Following each of these events the Prefect of the Region
   of Toulouse addressed to the General commanding the HVS.
   564, letters in which, in dignified and measured terms
   he protested against the acts in question through which
   innocent women and children were deliberately put to
   death. He formulated quite accurately the opinion that
   under no circumstances could children in the cradle be
   considered as accomplices of the terror raids. He
   requested finally that instructions be given to avoid
   the recurrence of such painful scenes.
   
   Answering in toto on 19 June, to the three letters of
   the Regional Prefect of Toulouse, the chief of staff of
   the general commanding the Principal General Staff
   Liaison 564 announced the principal position taken by
   his chief. This justified the acts of reprisal
   cited because of the following :
   
   The French population has the duty not only of fleeing
   from terrorists but also of rendering their operations
   impossible, which will avoid any reprisals against
   innocents.
   
   In the struggle against terrorism the German Army must
   employ and will employ all means at its disposal, even
   methods of combat new in Western Europe.
   
   The terroristic raids of the Anglo-Americans are now
   causing the massacre of thousands and thousands of
   innocent women and children in Germany. That their
   innocent blood has been shed is the guilt of the enemy,
   wherefore the German soldier is obliged to use his arms
   in the South of France.
   
   I have the honour to ask you," concluded General
   Bridoux, who was with the German Commission "whether the
   French Government is to consider the arguments cited
   above as reflecting accurately the position taken by the
   German High Command, in view of the facts disclosed in
   the first part of the present letter."

We now place before you Document F-190, Exhibit RF-435, Page
141 of the document book, which describes the crimes
committed at Aseq by a German unit, which, in reprisal for
the destruction of the railway, massacred 77 men of all
categories and all ages, among whom were 22 railway workers,
employees, industrialists, business men and workmen. I quote
the last part of the penultimate paragraph of Page 145:

   "The oldest of these victims, M. Briet, retired, was 74
   years old, born on 3 October, 1869, at Ascq. The
   youngest, Jean Roques, a student, son of the postmaster,
   was 15 years old, born on 4 January, 1929, at Saint
   Quentin. Father Gilleron, a priest of Ascq, and his two
   protegees, M. Averlon and sons, who had fled from the
   coastal area, were shot."

This massacre was the cause of a protest made by the French
Government at that time, to which Commander-in-Chief von
Rundstedt replied on 2 May 1944, Document F-673, which we
have already placed before you. That is on Page 154; it was
submitted as Exhibit RF 392. The reply of this superior
officer of the German Army is the last paragraph of 154:

   "The population of Aseq bears the responsibility for the
   consequences of its treacherous conduct, which I can
   only severely condemn."

General Berard, president of the French delegation attached
to the German Armistice Commission, was not satisfied with
the reply given by Rundstedt, and on 21 June, 1944 he
reiterated the French protest, addressing it this time

                                                  [Page 330]

to General Vogl, president of the German Armistice
Commission. This is F-673, Page 155, of your document book.
I now quote the second paragraph of Page 155:

   "In all, from 10 October 1943 to May 1944, more than
   1200 persons were thus made victims of those measures of
   repression."

The last two lines of Page 155:

   "These measures of repression strike innocents and cause
   terror to reign against the French population."

Page 157, next to the last paragraph:

   "A great number of the acts that have been mentioned
   took place in the course of repressive operations
   directed against populations accused of having had
   relations with the Resistance. In such operations there
   was never any concern about discovering whether the
   people suspected of having rendered service to the
   Maquis were really guilty; and still less in this case,
   to ascertain whether these people had acted voluntarily
   or under duress. The number of innocent people executed
   is therefore considerable."

The last paragraph:

   "The repressive operation in Dordogne of 26 March to 3
   April 1944, and  particularly the tragic incident of
   Ascq, which have already brought about the intervention
   of the French Government, are grievous examples: At Ascq
   specifically, 86 innocents paid with their lives for one
   attempt, which, according to my information, did not
   cause the death of a single German soldier."

End of paragraph 3, Page 158:

   "Such acts can only stimulate the spirit of revolt in
   the adversaries of Germany, who after all are the only
   beneficiaries."

The reply of the Armistice Commission, Document F-707,
submitted as Exhibit RF 436, is the rejection of General
Berard's request. The document is before you. I do not think
it is necessary for me to quote it.

General Berard, on 3 August, 1944, reiterated this protest.
This is Document 673, already deposited before you, Page 160
and Page 162 in your document book. At the end of his
protest he writes :

   "An enemy who surrenders must not be killed even though
   he is a franc-tireur or a spy. The latter is to receive
   just punishment through legal procedure." But this is
   only the text of the German stipulations applying to
   domestic matters.

We place Document F-706, which becomes Exhibit RF 437,
before the Tribunal; it is a note from the French State
Secretary for Defence to the German general, a protest
against measures of destruction taken by the German troops
in Chaudebonne and Chavroches. We shall not read this
document. The Tribunal may take judicial notice of it if it
deems it necessary.

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