The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

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Last-Modified: 1998/04/29

Here is an exhibit which I submit as RF 1203 and which comes
from the Military Command in France under date of 4th
February, 1942. (We are no longer dealing with the S.S. but
with the Military Command.)

     "The Reichsfuehrer S.S. and Chief of the German Police,
     in the Reich Ministry of the Interior, with a view to
     prohibiting on principle the emigration of Jews from
     Germany and the occupied territories."

The rest of the letter indicates that exceptions may be
made. This document establishes the collaboration between
the Army and the police, the Army assuring the execution of
the orders given by the supreme chief of Police.

I now submit Exhibit RF 1205. This document relates to the
same subject, but I nevertheless submit it because it shows
the intervention of a third German authority, the diplomatic
authority. This is a note of the German Consulate General in
Casablanca. I read the first sentence:

     "The number of European emigrants leaving for the
     American continent and who used to leave Casablanca at
     long intervals has greatly increased in the last month.
     15th March..."
     
The rest of the letter indicates that these are Jewish
emigrants.

Exhibit RF 1204, which is joined to this one, constitutes a
new report to the same effect from the Consul General in
Casablanca, under the date of 8th June, 1942. I read the
last paragraph of this document:

     "As regards the emigrants leaving Casablanca, these are
     for the most part Jewish families from Germany and
     Central Europe, as well as Jewish families from France.
     There is no reason to suspect that young people of
     military age have left Casablanca with the avowed
     intention of entering military service on the side of
     the enemy. We suggest the military authorities be
     advised."
     
I have quoted this document to show that there was no
question of such emigration which they would have had an
interest in preventing, and also to

                                                   [Page 84]
                                                            
show that this document would normally have concerned
firstly the German Embassy, to which it was addressed, and
secondly the military services which it suggests should be
informed.

Now, what is the sequel to these two communications? The
sequel is shown by Exhibit RF 1206, of which the two
documents just read constitute appendices. This emanates
from Berlin, from the R.S.H.A., and is addressed to the
Chief of Police for France and Belgium.

     "Attached are two copies of confidential reports from
     the German Consulate General in Casablanca to the
     Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for your information.
     
     You are asked to give your special attention to the
     state of affairs described and to oppose, as far as
     possible, an emigration of this kind."
     
I therefore draw three conclusions. Firstly, as I have
indicated, the Nazis opposed the emigration of the Jews,
although they claimed that they were undesirable. Secondly,
this decision was made at a higher level and with a general
application. Thirdly, all the services, the police, the Army
and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, intervened to ensure
the execution of these barbarous orders.

I now present to the Tribunal Exhibit RF 1207. This is a
voluminous German report. It is in fact 70 pages in length.
It was found in the German archives in Paris. This document
is interleaved with a series of graphs, drawings and models
of census cards. It is mimeographed, and the copy which we
present does not bear the author's signature, but simply the
indication "SS Obersturmfuehrer." This is Obersturmfuehrer
Dannecker, who played an important role in regulating Jewish
questions in France and who was chief of this bureau.

THE PRESIDENT: That fact which you have just stated to us,
has that been verified by the French authorities -- namely,
that it was a captured document in Paris?

M. FAURE: According to the report submitted to the Tribunal,
we took possession of these documents at the archives of the
Surete Nationale. They were among the documents found in the
German offices at the time of the liberation. Besides, I
point out to the Tribunal that the other documents produced
do bear the signatures of the German officials. This report
is the only document without a signature. The fact that it
was written by Dannecker will be proved by other documents,
which constitute a resume of it.

I shall not read to the Tribunal the 70 pages of this
report, but I should like to read certain paragraphs which I
think may interest the Tribunal. Here is the first page. To
begin with, it is entitled, "The Jewish Question in France
and Its Treatment. -- Paris, 1st July, 1941." First page:

     "Final solution of the Jewish Question. Average reasons
     and general aim of the operations in France of the
     Jewish section of the Sipo and S.D. From now on it is
     clear that practical results cannot be achieved without
     a study of the political situation in general as well
     as of the situation of the Jews.
     
     The pages that follow are meant to give a view of the
     whole of our plan and to provide a comment on the
     results achieved up to now as well as on the immediate
     aims. All the principles which follow are to be
     considered from the following point of view.
     
     Inasmuch as the chief of the Sipo and S.D. has been
     charged by the Fuehrer with the preparation of the
     solution of the Jewish Question in Europe, these
     offices in France are to carry out the preliminary work
     so that, when the time comes, they will be able to
     function on absolutely sure ground as branch offices of
     the European Commissariat of Jewish questions."
     
                                                   [Page 85]
                                                            
I shall now point out to the Tribunal the chief headings of
the paragraphs in order to pursue the development of the
idea and of the operations of this German office.

THE PRESIDENT: I was considering, M. Faure, why this
document has not got any identifying mark upon it. I mean,
of course, we do not doubt for an instant what you say to us
is true, but at the same time it is not the correct way to
do it -- for us to have to rely on counsel's statement as to
the nature of the evidence. And there is nothing on the
document itself to show that it was captured in Paris or to
show what it is except what it states.

M. FAURE: Mr. President, this document was included in the
file of the French prosecution on the strength of a report
made in Paris which I shall present to the Tribunal. As this
report concerns several  documents it was not attached to
the file which includes this particular one. On the other
hand, when I received these documents from the police, I did
not wish to write anything on the document or to place it
under a seal, for I wished to avoid altering its original
appearance in any way.

I must state that if the Tribunal prefers not to receive
this document, then, as I do recognise that it does not bear
a signature, I shall not submit it, for I have a second
report by Dannecker which is signed by him. I submitted both
in order to make clear the continuity of the operation.

THE PRESIDENT: M. Faure, in the case of the captured
documents presented by the United States, as Sir David
Maxwell Fyfe reminded us the other day, there is an
affidavit, I think, of Major Coogan, which states that all
those documents of a certain series -- PS, L, R, and various
other series -- were captured in Germany by the United
States Forces. If there were such an affidavit with
reference to documents captured in Paris which might be
identified by some letter such as PS or other similar
letters, the matter would seem to us to be in order. But
when a document is presented to us which has no identifying
mark upon it at all, we are in the position in which we now
are of simply hearing the statement of counsel, which of
course is not evidence, that the document was found in Paris
or found somewhere else; and therefore it occurs to me that
one way that it might be dealt with would be an affidavit by
somebody who knows the fact that this document and any other
documents of a similar sort were captured in the archives of
the German Forces in Paris or elsewhere.

M. FAURE: I could very easily produce before the Tribunal
the affidavit which it requests. I say that if we do not
have it in this form it is because our habitual procedure is
not exactly the same as that which may be followed in the
United States. In fact, as the Charter of the Tribunal
indicates that the prosecution was charged with the
collection of evidence, we ourselves have authorised
magistrates in our service to look for documents in the
archives of the police; and if the Tribunal wishes I shall
ask the police in addition for attestation of the seizure of
these documents in the German archives. I shall then ask the
Tribunal to allow me to produce this affidavit in a few
days' time.

THE PRESIDENT: M. Faure, the Tribunal think that we might
admit the document subject to your undertaking that you
would do that in the course of a day or two.

M. FAURE: I cannot guarantee that I will have this document
in a day or two.

THE PRESIDENT: I was not stressing the number of days. If
you will undertake to do it that is sufficient.


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