Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-06/tgmwc-06-49.01
Last-Modified: 1999/09/16

          VERBATIM PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL
           MILITARY TRIBUNAL SITTING AT NUREMBERG,
                           GERMANY
                              
                       FORTY-NINTH DAY
                              
                SATURDAY, 2ND FEBRUARY, 1946
                              
THE 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 will, therefore, be able to
shorten my explanations of this file, but it is nevertheless
indispensable that I should submit some documents to the Tribunal.

The annexation of Luxembourg has quite a special character, in that ib
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 "dabellatio" 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 11th May, 1867, and the Treaty of Arbitration and Conciliation of 2nd
September, 1929. The Tribunal knows by the testimony of M. Reuter that
these pledges were confirmed, first by a spontaneous diplomatic step
taken in 1939 by M. von Radowitz, the Minister Plenipotentiary for
Germany, and afterwards by a reassuring 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 defacto annexation, had
to issue special regulations concerning the suppression of public
institutions; and this they did. Two decrees of 2nd and 9th October,
1940, announced, on the one hand, the dissolution of the Chamber of
Deputies and the State Council, and, on the other hand, banned
Luxembourg's political parties. These two decrees are submitted as
exhibits under RF 801 and 802. I request the Tribunal only to take
judicial notice of these documents, which are public documents.

Moreover, on 26th August, 1940, 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 15th 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 which are peculiar to Luxembourg.

                                                                [Page 2]

As in the case of Alsace and Lorraine, the Germans attempted to
extirpate the national sentiment of Luxembourg and to render impossible
all minifestations of the traditional culture of this country. Thus, the
decrees of 28th August, 1940, and of 23rd October, 1940, banned all
associations of a cultural or educational nature.

As in Alsace and Lorraine, the Germans imposed Germanisation of family
names and Christian names. This is clear from a decree of 31st January,
1941, concerning the change of Christian names and family names in
Luxembourg, Exhibit RF 803. I point out in passing that the wearing of a
beret was also forbidden in Luxembourg, by decree of 14th February,
1941.

At the same time as 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 Gustay 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 Service. From
the point of view of 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
institutions, which were 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 parallel
between the provisions which concern Luxembourg and those which concern
other annexed countries.

On 30th August, 1942, two decrees were promulgated. It must be pointed
out that these two decrees, the one concerning nationality and the other
military service, bear the same date.

The decree concerning military service is submitted as Exhibit RF 804
and the decree concerning nationality is submitted as Exhibit 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 organisations of the Nazi
type, of which the main one was the "Volksdeutsche Bewegung" (German
Movement), and here is the special circumstance which I wish to point
out. The decree concerning nationality, of 30th August, 1942, 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 the title of this
decree. In fact, the conferring of nationality in this special case was
valid for two years only. It was provisional.

At the same time as the Nazis were establishing conscription, they made
it compulsory for all young Luxembourgers to serve in the pre-military
formations of the Hitler Youth. This is laid down in a decree of 25th
August, 1942, concerning the Hitler Youth camps, which is Exhibit RF
806. Just as in Alsace and Lorraine, compulsory labour was imposed in
Luxembourg, not only for men, but also for women, and also for work of
military importance. These provisions are found in three decrees; the
decree of 23rd May, 1941, the decree of 10th February, 1943, and the
decree of 12th February, 1943. These last two decrees are introduced as
Exhibits RF 807 and 808.

I would now like to cite another circumstance which is peculiar to
Luxembourg and of which proof is found in the official report of the
Government of Luxembourg, already submitted to the Tribunal. According
to this report,

                                                                [Page 3]

Page 4, paragraphs 7 to 8, it is stipulated -- I will cite only one
sentence which bears the reference I have given it --

     "By decree, wnich appearead 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 semi-military
     formation, which had to do military drills. A part 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 high German. Having developed this theory,
they took a census of the population, as mentioned by the witness who
gave evidence before the Tribunal yesterday. I specially mention that
this census took place on 10th October, 1941. I wished the witness to
speak on this point, because no information on the result of the census
was furnished in the official Government report, and the Tribunal now
knows that the reason for this was that the German authorities
immediately stopped the census as soon as they observed that the number
of persons who responded 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 13th
January, 1942, which I submit as Exhibit RF 809, they forbade officials
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 supplement
this merely by citing a sentence from the Luxembourg report, viz.:

     "Membership in the `Volksdeutsche Bewegung' was the sine qua non by
     which officials were allowed to keep their positions, private
     employees their places, professional people, such as lawyers,
     doctors, etc., 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 offers 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 fulfil, 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 S.A. Organisation.

THE PRESIDENT: 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 I did not put it in
the document book.

                                                                [Page 4]

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, M. Faure, it would help us if, when you are citing a
document which is not in the document book, you gave me the page of the
dossier, on which ...

M. FAURE: I shall give this page to the Tribunal in a moment. It is Page
4, Mr. President. My colleague tells me that it is Page 4 of the report
on Luxembourg.

The Nazis also used all kinds of constraint to obtain members for their
S.A. formation as well as for the motorised group of the S.A., which is
known under the initials "N.S.K.K."

I would like now to point out to the Tribunal that a special effort was
directed to 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 Exhibit RF 810, which is a circular
dated 22nd May, 1941, addressed to the Headmasters of High Schools. This
is a very short document and I ask you to permit me to read it:

     "At the order of the Gauleiter, all members of the teaching
     profession shall acquire, before 1st January, 1941, the Fuehrer's
     book, 'Mein KampU Between then and 1st September, 1941, every
     member of the teaching profession must make a statement on his
     honour to the effect 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 exhibit, RF 811, which I should like to read to the
Tribunal, because it is not long, and is very characteristic. Extract
from a collection of circulars addressed to the pupils of Alhenaunix:

     "Luxembourg, 16th June, 1941:
     
     (1) All pupils must stand up when the teacher enters to give the
     lesson, also when he leaves the class at the end of the lesson.
     
     (2) The German salute will be given as follows: (a) Lift the right
     hand to the height of the shoulder. (b) Say 'Heil Hitler.'

     (3) The pupils must return the salute of the teacher, who will
     begin and end the lesson by the same salute. I expect also from all
     pupils that they give the German salute in the street, especially
     to those gentlemen whom they know to much appreciate this form of
     greeting."

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. 1 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 endeavours were made
to break the resistance by terror. I must mention a quite special
regulation which was the decree of 2nd June, 1941. This will be Exhibit
RF 812, which has as its title, -Decree on the putting into force in
Luxembourg of the law of February, 1936, concerning the Gestapo." This
title suffices to show the subject.

The Gestapo established special tribunals in Luxembourg known as
"Standgericht," which were S.S. tribunals. These jurisdictions, if we
can use the term jurisdiction, passed many sentences for political
reasons. A detailed table of these convictions is appended to the
Government report. One tribunal, the Standgericht of which I spoke just
now, passed sixteen death sentences, and sentenced 380 people to
penalties involving loss of their liberty. But this

                                                                [Page 5]

tribunal was not the  only one and the report states, and the witnesses
also confirm 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 Germanisation,
the measures concerning deporation, 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 the 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
only give one figure which is striking -- the Germans expelled or
deported 75 clergymen, which, having 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 colonisation: An organisation called
"Fuer Deutsches Volkstum und Siedlung" (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 colonisation: 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 general counts, I think the best method is to
give a documentary example, and also because from this example, from
this document that I am going to cite, I think you will be able to draw
some important conclusions from the point of view of the Prosecution.

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