The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

First Day: Tuesday, 20th November, 1945
(Part 4 of 10)


In Belgium between 1940 and 1944 torture by various means, but identical in each place, was carried out at Brussels, Liege, Mons, Ghent, Namur, Antwerp, Tournai, Arlon, Charleroi and Dinant.

At Vught, in Holland, when the camp was evacuated, about 400 persons were shot.

In Luxembourg, during the German occupation, 500 persons were murdered and, in addition, another 521 were illegally executed, by order of such special tribunals as the so- called "Sondergericht." Many more persons in Luxembourg were subjected to torture and ill-treatment by the Gestapo. At least 4,000 Luxembourg nationals were imprisoned during the period of German occupation, and of these at least 400 were murdered.

Between March, 1944, and April, 1945, in Italy, at least 7,500 men, women and children, ranging in years from infancy to extreme old age, were murdered by the German soldiery at Civitella, in the Ardestine Caves in Rome, and at other places.

(B) DEPORTATION, FOR SLAVE LABOUR AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, OF THE CIVILIAN POPULATIONS OF AND IN OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

During the whole period of the occupation by Germany of both the Western and the Eastern Countries, it was the policy of the German Government and of the German High Command to deport able-bodied citizens from such occupied countries to Germany and to other occupied countries to force them to work on fortifications, in factories, and in other tasks connected with the German War effort.

In pursuance of such policy there were mass deportations from all the Western and Eastern Countries for such purposes during the whole period of the occupation.

These deportations were contrary to the international conventions, in particular to Article 46 of the Hague Regulations, 1907, the laws and customs of war, the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws of all civilised nations, the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed, and to Article 6 (b) of the Charter.

Particulars of deportations, by way of example only and without prejudice to the production of evidence of other cases, are as follows:-

1. From the Western Countries:-

From France the following "deportations" of persons for political and racial reasons took place-each of which consisted of from 1,500-2,500 deportees:-

1940 ----- 3 Transports.
194I ---- 14 Transports.
1942 --- 104 Transports.
1943 --- 257 Transports.
1944 --- 326 Transports.

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Such deportees were subjected to the most barbarous conditions of overcrowding; they were provided with wholly insufficient clothing and were given little or no food for several days.

The conditions of transport were such that many deportees died in the course of the voyage, for example:

In one of the wagons of the train which left Compiegne for Buchenwald, on the 17th of September, 1943, 80 men died out of 130.

On 4th June, 1944, 484 bodies were taken out of a train at Sarrebourg.

In a train which left Compiegne on the 2nd July, 1944, for Dachau, more than 600 dead were found on arrival, i.e., one- third of the total number.

In a train which left Compiegne on the 16th January, 1944, for Buchenwald, more than 100 persons were confined in each wagon, the dead and the wounded being heaped in the last wagon during the voyage.

In April, I945, Of I2,000 internees evacuated from Buchenwald, 4,000 only were still alive when the marching column arrived near Regensburg.

During the German occupation of Denmark, 5,200 Danish subjects were deported to Germany and there imprisoned in concentration camps and other places.

In 1942 and thereafter, 6,000 nationals of Luxembourg were deported from their country under deplorable conditions and many of them perished.

From Belgium between 194o and 1944, at least 190,000 civilians were deported to Germany and used as slave labour. Such deportees were subjected to ill-treatment and many of them were compelled to work in armament factories.

From Holland, between 1940 and 1944 nearly half a million civilians were deported to Germany and to other occupied countries.

(C) MURDER AND ILL-TREATMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR, AND OF OTHER MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE COUNTRIES WITH WHOM GERMANY WAS AT WAR, AND OF PERSONS ON THE HIGH SEAS

The defendants ill-treated and murdered prisoners of war by denying them suitable food, shelter, clothing and medical care and other attention; by forcing them to labour in inhumane conditions; by humiliating them, torturing them and by killing them. The German Government and the German High Command imprisoned prisoners of war in various concentration camps, where they were killed or subjected to inhuman treatment by the various methods set forth in paragraph VIII (A).

Members of the armed forces of the countries with whom Germany was at war were frequently murdered while in the act of surrendering. These murders and ill-treatment were contrary to International Conventions, particularly Articles 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the Hague Regulations, 1907, and to Articles 2,3, 4 and 6 of the Prisoners of War Convention (Geneva, 1929), the laws and customs of war, the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws of all civilised nations, the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed and to Article 6 (b) of the Charter.

Particulars by way of example and without prejudice to the production of evidence of other cases, are as follows:-

In the Western Countries :-

French officers who escaped from Oflag XC were handed over to the Gestapo and disappeared; others were murdered by their guards; others sent to concentration camps and exterminated. Among others, the men of Stalag VI C were sent to Buchenwald.

Frequently prisoners captured on the Western Front were obliged to march to camps until they completely collapsed. Some of them walked more than 600 kilometres with hardly any food; they marched on for 48 hours running, without being fed; among them a certain number died of exhaustion or of hunger; stragglers were systematically murdered.

The same crimes were committed in 1943, 1944 and 1945, when the occupants

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of the camps were withdrawn before the Allied advance, particularly during the withdrawal of the prisoner from Sagan on February 8th, 1945.

Bodily punishments were inflicted upon non-commissioned officers and cadets who refused to work. On December 24th, 1943, three French N.C.0's. were murdered for that motive in Stalag IV A. Much ill-treatment was inflicted without motive on other ranks; stabbing with bayonets, striking with rifle- butts and whipping; in Stalag XX B the sick themselves were beaten many times by sentries; in Stalag III B and Stalag III C, worn-out prisoners were murdered or grievously wounded. In military gaols, in Graudenz for instance, in reprisal camps as in Rava-Ruska, the food was so insufficient that the men lost more than 15 kilograms in a few weeks. In May, one loaf of bread only was distributed in Rava-Ruska to each group of 35 men.

Orders were given to transfer French officers in chains to the camp of Mauthausen after they had tried to escape. At their arrival in camp they were murdered, either by shooting or by gas and their bodies destroyed in the crematorium.

American prisoners, officers and men, were murdered in Normandy during the summer of 1944 and in the Ardennes in December, 1944. American prisoners were starved, beaten and mutilated in various ways in numerous Stalags in Germany or in the occupied countries, particularly in 1943, 1944 and 1945.

(D) KILLING OF HOSTAGES

Throughout the territories occupied by the German armed forces in the course of waging their aggressive wars, the defendants adopted and put into effect on a wide scale the practice of taking and killing hostages from the civilian population. These acts were contrary to International Conventions, particularly Article 50 of the Hague Regulations, 1907, the laws and customs of war, the general principles of criminal law, as derived from the criminal laws of all civilised nations, the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed and to Article 6(b) of the Charter.

Particulars by way of example and without prejudice to the production of evidence of other cases, are as follows:-

In the Western Countries :-

In France hostages were executed either individually or collectively; these executions took place in all the big cities of France, among others in Paris, Bordeaux and Nantes, as well as at Chateaubriant.

In Holland many hundreds of hostages were shot at the following among other places - Rotterdam, Apeldoorn, Amsterdam, Benschop and Haarlem.

In Belgium many hundreds of hostages were shot during the period 1940 to 1944.

M. GERTHOFFER (continuing the reading of the Indictment)

(E) PLUNDER OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PROPERTY

The defendants ruthlessly exploited the people and the material resources of the countries they occupied, in order to strengthen the Nazi war machine, to depopulate and impoverish the rest of Europe, to enrich themselves and their adherents, and to promote German economic supremacy over Europe.

The defendants engaged in the following acts and practices, among others:

1. They degraded the standard of life of the people of occupied countries and caused starvation, by stripping occupied countries of foodstuffs for removal to Germany.

2. They seized raw materials and industrial machinery in all of the occupied countries, removed them to Germany and used them in the interest of the German war effort, and the German economy.

In all the occupied countries, in varying degrees, they confiscated businesses, plants and other property.

4. In an attempt to give colour of legality to illegal acquisitions of property, the forced owners of property to go through the forms of "voluntary" and "legal" transfers.

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5. They established comprehensive controls over the economies of all of the occupied countries and directed their resources, their production and their labour in the interests of the German war economy, depriving the local populations of the, products of essential industries.

6. By a variety of financial mechanisms, they despoiled all of the occupied countries of essential commodities and accumulated wealth, debased the local currency systems and disrupted the local economics. They financed extensive purchases in occupied countries through clearing arrangements by which they exacted loans from the occupied countries. They imposed occupation levies, exacted financial contributions, and issued occupation currency, far in excess of occupation costs. They used these excess funds to finance the purchase of business properties and supplies in the occupied countries.

7. They abrogated the rights of the local populations in the occupied portions of the U.S.S.R. and in Poland and in other countries to develop or manage agricultural and industrial properties, and reserved this area for exclusive settlement, development, and ownership by Germans and their so-called racial brethren.

8. In further development of their plan of criminal exploitation, they destroyed industrial cities, cultural. monuments, scientific institutions, and property of all types in the occupied territories to eliminate the possibility of competition with Germany.

9. From their programme of terror, slavery, spoliation and organised outrage, the Nazi conspirators created an instrument for the personal profit and aggrandisement of themselves and their adherents. They secured for themselves and their adherents:

(a) Positions in administration of business involving power, influence, and lucrative prerequisites.

(b) The use of cheap forced labour.

(c) The acquisition on advantageous terms of foreign properties, raw materials, and business interests.

(d) The basis for the industrial supremacy of Germany.

These acts were contrary to International Conventions, particularly Articles 46 to 56 inclusive of the Hague Regulations, 1907, the laws and customs of war, the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws of all civilised nations, the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed and to Article 6 (b) of the Charter.

Particulars by way of example and without prejudice to the production of evidence of other cases are as follows:-

1. Western Countries :

There was plundered from the Western Countries from 1940 to 1944, works of art, artistic objects, pictures, plastics, furniture, textiles, antique pieces and similar articles of enormous value to the number of 21,903.

In France statistics show the following:

REMOVAL OF RAW MATERIALS

Coal ..................................... 63,000,000 tons
Electric energy ............................. 20,976 kw
Petrol and fuel ...................... 1,943,750 tons
Iron ore ................................ 74,848,000 tons
Siderurgical products.......... 3,822,000 tons
Bauxite ................................... 1,211,800 tons
Cement .................................. 5,984,000 tons
Lime ....................................... 1,888,000 tons
Quarry products 25,872,000 tons
and various other by-products to a total value of 79,961,423,000 francs.

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REMOVAL OF INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT
Total 9,759,861,000 francs,
of which 2,626,479,000 francs of machine tools.

REMOVAL OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE
Total .............................................126,655,852,000 francs.

i.e., for the principal products-
Wheat ................................................. 2,947,337 tons
Oats .................................................... 2,354,080 tons
Milk .......................................................790,000 hectolitres
Milk (concentrated and in powder) 460,000 hectolitres
Butter ...................................................... 76,000 tons
Cheese ................................................. 49,000 tons
Potatoes .............................................. 725,975 tons
Various vegetables ........................... 575,000 tons
Wine ................................................. 7,647,000 hectolitres
Champagne .................................. 87,000,000 bottles
Beer ................................................... 3,821,520 hectolitres
Various kinds of alcohol ................ 1,830,000 hectolitres

REMOVAL OF MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS
to a total of 184,640,000,000 francs.

PLUNDERING
Francs 257,020,024,000 from private enterprise.
Francs 55,000,100,000 from the state.

FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION
From June, 1940, to September, 1944, the French Treasury was compelled to pay to Germany 631,966,000,000 francs.

LOOTING AND DESTRUCTION OF WORKS OF ART
The museums of Nantes, Nancy, Old-Marseilles were looted. Private collections of great value were stolen. In this way, Raphaels, Vermeers, Van Dycks and works of Rubens, Holbein, Rembrandt, Watteau, Boucher disappeared. Germany compelled France to deliver up "The Mystic Lamb" by Van Eyck, which Belgium had entrusted to her.

In Norway and other occupied countries decrees were made by which the property of many civilians, societies, etc., was confiscated. An immense amount of property of every kind was plundered from France, Belgium, Norway, Holland and Luxembourg.

As a result of the economic plundering of Belgium between 1940 and 1944 the damage suffered amounted to 175 billions of Belgian francs.


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