The Nuremberg Trials (Vol.2). International Military Tribunal
throughout the German occupation of Denmark large numbers of Danish subjects were subjected to torture and ill-treatment of all sorts. In addition, approximately five hundred Danish subjects were murdered, by torture and otherwise, in German prisons and concentration camps.
In Belgium, between 1940 and 1944, torture by various means, but identical in each place, was carried out at Brussels, Liége, Mons, Ghent, Namur, Antwerp, Tournai, Arlon, Charleroi, and Dinant.
At Vught, in Holland, when the camp was evacuated, about four hundred 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 Ardeatine Caves in Rome, and at other places.
(B) Deportation, for slave labor 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 civilized 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 to 2,500 deportees:
1940, 3 transports; 1941, 14 transports; 1942, 104 transports; 1943, 257 transports; 1944, 326 transports.
These 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 Compiègne for Buchenwald, on the 17th of September 1943, 80 men died out of 130.
On 4 June 1944, 484 bodies were taken out of a train at Sarrebourg.
In a train which left Compiègne on 2 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 Compiègne on 16th of 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 1945, of 12,000 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 1940 and 1944, at least 190,000 civilians were deported to Germany and used as slave labor. 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 labor 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 civilized 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 X C 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 the camps until they completely collapsed. Some of them walked more than 600 kilometers 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 of the camps were withdrawn before the Allied advance, particularly during the withdrawal of the prisoners 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 non-commissioned officers 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 jails, 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 1942, 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