“The population of these communities must expect that reprisals will be taken against private property and that houses or whole blocks will be destroyed.”
THE PRESIDENT: I am afraid I don’t know where you are reading. Which paragraph are you reading?
M. DUBOST: I am told, Mr. President, that this document has not been bound with the Dutch report; I shall file it at the end of the hearing, if I may.
M. DUBOST: I quote now another document, the warning of Seyss-Inquart to Holland.
M. DUBOST: Number 152 in your document book, concerning German justice, which will be submitted at the hearing tomorrow.
For Norway and Denmark we have several documents which establish that the same policy of execution of hostages was followed. We have, in particular, Document C-48 (Exhibit Number RF-280) from which I read a short time ago.
All those special orders for each of the occupied regions of the West are the result of the general order of Keitel, which my American colleagues have already read and on which I merely gave a comment this morning. The responsibility of Keitel in the development of the policy of execution of hostages is total. He was given warning; German generals even told him that this policy went beyond the aim pursued and might become dangerous.
On 16 September 1942, General Falkenhausen addressed a letter to him, from which I extract the following passage—it is Document Number 1594-PS, which I submit as Exhibit Number RF-283:
“Enclosed is a list of the shootings of hostages which have taken place until now in my area and the incidents on account of which these shootings took place.
“In a great number of cases, particularly in the most serious, the perpetrators were later apprehended and sentenced.
“This result is undoubtedly very unsatisfactory. The effect is not so much deterrent as destructive of the feeling of the population for right and security; the cleft between the people influenced by communism and the remainder of the population is being bridged; all circles are becoming filled with a feeling of hatred toward the occupying forces and effective inciting material is given to enemy propaganda. Thereby military danger and general political reaction of an entirely unwanted nature. . . .”—Signed—“Von Falkenhausen.”