Fiftieth Day:
Monday, 4nd February, 1946
[Page 21]
M. FAURE: May it please the Tribunal, Mr. Dodd would like to give some
explanations.
MR. DODD: May it please the Court, with reference to the prospective
witness Pfaffenberger, it occurred to us over the weekend, after talking
with him, that if defence counsel had an opportunity to talk to him we
might perhaps save some time for the Court. Accordingly we made this
witness available to Dr. Kauff:rnarm for conversation and interview; he
has talked with him as long as he pleased, and has notified us that in
view of his conversation he does not care to cross-examine him, nor do
other counsel for the defence.
THE PRESIDENT: Then the witness Pfaffenberger can be released?
MR. DODD: That is what we would like to do, at the order of the Court.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
M. FAURE: Gentlemen, during the last session I reached the end of the
first period of the German occupation of Denmark. In connection with
that first period I should still like to mention a circumstance which is
established by the Danish report, Page 4. I quote:
The second instrument of German interference was, as might be expected,
the local National Socialist Party of Fritz Clausen, about which I spoke
previously. The Germans hoped that in the favourable circumstances of
the occupation, and thanks to the support they would bring to it, this
Party might develop enormously. But their calculations were completely
wrong. In effect, in March, 1943, elections took place in Denmark, and
these elections resulted in the total defeat of the Nazi Party. This
Party obtained only a proportion which represented 2.5 per cent. of the
votes, and it only obtained 3 seats in the Chamber of Deputies out of
149. I point out to the Tribunal that in some copies of my brief that is
a printing mistake and that 25 per cent. is indicated instead of 2.5 per
cent., which is the correct figure, and which shows what very little
success the Clausen Party had at the elections.
The conduct of the Germans in Denmark showed a notable change in the
period following the month of August, 1943. The first reason for this
change was clearly the failure of the plan, which consisted in seizing
power in a legal manner, thanks to the aid of the Clausen Party. On the
other hand, about the same time the Germans were equally disappointed in
another direction. They had sought, as has been shown in my brief on
economic questions, to
[Page 21]
In this connection we read in the Government report, Page 6 of the
second memorandum, the following sentence:
The state of military emergency must include the following special
measures:
(1) Prohibition of public gatherings of more than five persons.
(2) Prohibition of all strikes and of any aid given to strikers.
(3) Prohibition of all meetings in closed premises or in the open
air; prohibition to be in the streets between 20.30 hours and 5.50
hours; closing of restaurants at 19.30 hours. By the 1st September,
1943, all firearms and explosives to be handed over to the
Government.
(4) Prohibition to hamper in any way whatsoever Danish nationals
because of their collaboration, or the collaboration of their
relatives, with the German authorities, or because of their
relations with the Germans.
(5) Establishment of a Press censorship with German collaboration.
(6) Establishment of courts martial to judge acts contravening the
measures taken to maintain order and security.
Infringement of the measures mentioned above will be punished by
the most severe penalties which can be imposed in conformity with
the law in force concerning the power of the Government to take
measures to maintain calm, order and security. The death penalty
must be introduced without delay for acts of sabotage and for any
aid given in committing these acts, for attacks against the German
Forces, or for possession after the lst September, 1943, of
firearms and explosives.
The Reich Government expects to receive to-day before 16.00 hours
the acceptance by the Danish Government of the above-mentioned
demands." [Page 23]
Secondly, the military authority under the orders of General
Hannecken, replaced subsequently by General Lindemann; and
Thirdly, the German police.
The Tribunal will find in the Danish Government's report, on which I
base this information, a chart showing the German officials in Denmark.
This chart is to be found in the second memorandum, Page 2. It is
interesting - although we are not concerned here with individual cases
- in so far as it shows the organisation of the German network in this
country. During the whole period which I am now speaking about, of the
three German authorities already mentioned, the police played the most
important role and was the principal organ of usurpation of sovereignty
by the Germans. For that reason we might consider that while Norway and
Holland represent cases of civil administration, and Belgium and France
represent cases of military administration, Denmark represents the
typical case of police administration. At the same time we must never
forget that these different types of administration in all these
occupied countries were always interdependent. The seizure of authority
by the German police in Denmark during the period from September, 1943,
until the liberation, was responsible for an extraordinary number of
crimes. Unlike other administrations, the police did not act under legal
or statutory regulations, but it interfered very effectually in the life
of the country by the exercise of orderly and systematic club-law. I
shall have the opportunity of treating certain aspects of this police
administration in the fourth section of my brief. For the moment, within
the scope of my subject, I should like simply to cite the facts which
constitute direct and general violation of sovereignty. In this
connection, I believe that it is indispensable that 1 inform the
Tribunal of a quite exceptional event which took place on 19th
September, 1944. At that date the Germans did away with the Danish
police - I mean the national police of Denmark - and totally abolished
this institution, which is naturally indispensable and essential in all
States.
I am going to read here what the Government report says, second
memorandum, that is to say, still the third book of the file, Page 29. I
will begin in the middle of the paragraph, after the first sentence. The
extract is to be found in my brief. I quote:
[Page 24]
At 11 o'clock in the morning of 19th September, 1944, the Germans
caused a false air-raid alarm to be given. Immediately afterwards,
the military police forcibly entered the police headquarters in
Copenhagen as well as the police stations in the city. Some
policemen were killed. They acted in the same way throughout the
whole country. Most of the policemen on duty were captured. In
Copenhagen and in the large cities of the country the prisoners
were taken to Germany in ships, which Kaltenbrunner had sent for
this purpose, or in trucks. As has already been said before, the
treatment to which they were subjected in German concentration
camps was horrible beyond description. In the small country towns
the policemen were freed.
At the same time Pancke decreed what he called a state of police
emergency. The exact meaning of this expression has never been
explained, and even the Germans do not seem to have understood what
it meant. In practice, the result was that all police activities,
ordinary as well as judicial, were suspended. Maintenance of order
and public security was left to the inhabitants themselves.
During the last six months of the occupation, the Danish nation
found itself in the unheard of situation - unknown in other
civilised countries - of being deprived of its police force and
the possibility to maintain order and public security. This state
of affairs might have ended in complete chaos if the respect for
the law and the discipline of the population - strengthened by the
indignation at this act of violence - had not warded off the most
serious consequences."
[Page 25]
Denmark. In Denmark, because of the taking over of power by S.S.
Gruppenfuehrer Doctor Best, the situation is extremely encouraging.
We may be convinced that the S.S. Gruppenfuehrer Doctor Best will
furnish a classical example of the ethnical policy of the Reich.
The relations with the Party Leader Clausen have recently become
difficult. Clausen only agreed to the project for the establishment
of a Front Combatant Corps as a preliminary to the Germanic
Schutzstaffel in Denmark, on the condition that those who belong to
this corps will not belong to the Party. Negotiations concerning
this urgently needed collective organisation of front combatants
are going on. The Party's monopolistic attitude is not tenable; all
replenishment elements must be brought in even if Clausen
personally, but without his clique, has to figure in the
foreground.
Netherlands: In the Netherlands, Mussert has in the meantime been
proclaimed FUhrer of the Dutch people by the Reichskommissar, Seyss-
Inquart. This measure has had an extremely disquieting influence in
other Germanic countries, particularly in Flanders. The decisive
role again falls to the General Kornmissar whose principle of
exploiting Mussert and then dropping him cannot be accepted under a
Germanic Reich Policy as approved by the S.S.
Flanders: In Flanders the development of the V.N.V. (the Flemish
National Movement) continues to be unfavourable. In this respect,
the very clever policy of the new leader of the V.N.V., Doctor
Elias, can no longer deceive us. Besides, did he not, once, express
the opinion that Germany was ready to make concessions in the
ethnic domain only when things went badly with her?"
The institution of Reichskommissar was applied in Norway and in the
Netherlands, and in these two countries only; it constitutes a definite
concept in the general plan of Germanisation, in which these two
countries occupy parallel positions. In both cases the establishment of
the civil administration
[Page 26] [
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(Part 1 of 8)
"When the German aggression against Russia took place on 22nd June,
1941 " - that is the third book of the report - "one of the most
serious encroachments was made on the political liberties which the
Germans had promised to respect. They forcibly obliged the
Government to intern the Communists, the total number of which was
three hundred."
The explanations which I gave in the previous session related to the
improper interference on the part of the first instrument of German
usurpation, the diplomatic representation.
"As a result of these events, the Plenipotentiary of the German
Reich, Doctor Best, was on 24th August, 1943, called to Berlin,
from whence he returned with claims in the nature of an ultimatum
addressed to the Danish Government."
I should now like to submit the text of this ultimatum, which is also to
be found in the official Danish report. This is Appendix No. 2 of this
report. The ultimatum is dated Copenhagen, 28th August, 1943. At the end
of the first three books there are several loose sheets which are the
appendices. 1 now come to the second appendix-on Saturday I read the
first appendixwhich is the second sheet and it has also been copied in
my brief. Claims of the Reich Government:
"The Danish Government must immediately declare the entire country
in a state of military emergency.
The Danish Government, mindful of its dignity, courageously refused to
yield to that ultimatum, although it found itself under the material
constraint of the military occupation. Direct encroachments upon its
sovereignty then started. The Germans themselves took the measures which
they had not succeeded in getting the National Government to accept.
They declared a state of military emergency, they took hostages, they
attacked without warning, which is contrary to the laws of war, and at a
time when, let me recall it, a state
First, the Plenipotentiary, who was still Doctor Best;
Indeed, the German police were installed in Denmark a few days after the
crisis of which I have just spoken to you. The S.S. Standartenfuehrer,
Colonel Dr. Mildner, arrived in September as Chief of the German
Security; and on 1st November there arrived in Denmark as the Supreme
Chief of the Police the Obergruppenfuehrer and Lieutenant-General of the
Police, Guenther Pancke, of whom I shall have occasion to speak again.
General of Police Guenther Pancke had under his authority Dr. Mildner,
whose name I mentioned at first and who was replaced on 5th January,
1944, by S.S. Standartenfuehrer Bovensiepen.
"The fact that the Germans had not succeeded in exerting any
influence among the Danish police or among their leaders or in the
ranks was partly the reason why the German military authorities at
the end of the summer of 1944 began to fear the police. Pancke
explained that General Hannecken himself was afraid that the
police, numbering eight to ten
Despite the bearing of the Danish population, the absence of the police
during these last six months of the occupation naturally resulted in a
recrudescence of all forms of criminality. You can get an idea of this
if you consider - and that detail will suffice - that the premiums of
insurance companies had to be raised by 480 per cent. - it says so in
the report - whereas previously they were limited to half of the
normal rate. We are justified in considering that the crimes committed
under these conditions involved the responsibility of the German
authorities who could not fail to foresee and who accepted this state of
affairs. We see here further proof of the total indifference of the
Germans to the consequences arising from decisions taken by them to suit
their ends at the time.
Finally I would like to conclude this section on Denmark by quoting to
the Tribunal a passage from a document which I shall present as Exhibit
RF 902. This document belongs to the American documentation under the
number 705-PS, but it has not yet been submitted, and I would like to
read an extract, one quotation, which seems to me to be interesting.
This is a report drawn up in Berlin on 20th January, 1943, and concerns
a meeting of the S.S. Committee of the Research Institute for Germanic
Regions (Ausschuss der Arbeitsgemeinschaft fuer den Germanischen Raum).
At this meeting there were present fourteen of the S.S. This report
contains a special paragraph which concerns Denmark. Other paragraphs of
the same document are of interest in connection with the section which
will follow this. Therefore in order to avoid having
"In Norway the Minister Fuglesang meanwhile has become the
successor to the Minister Lunde, who had died through an accident.
Despite the promises made by Quisling's party, Norway must not be
expected to furnish an important quota.
This information is quite characteristic. In the first place, it is
firmly established that the Germanic regions should include Norway,
Denmark, the Netherlands and Flanders. Naturally I speak only of the
Western countries. In the second place, we clearly see how the Germans
used the Nazi-inspired local parties as an instrument for the usurpation
of sovereignty. In the third place, we see it is quite true that the
German diplomatic agents were also instruments for this policy of
usurpation and completely exceeded their normal functions. In the fourth
place, the document confirms the interdependence which existed between
the different agents of German interference, and which we stressed a
short time ago and on which we cannot lay too much emphasis. Tne case of
Dr. Best is a good example. Dr. Best was a Minister with plenipotentiary
powers; therefore, he was a diplomatic agent. We have seen that this
same Dr. Best was previously an agent of the military administration in
France, and we see by this document that besides his being a
Plenipotentiary Minister he is a General in the S.S., and in this
capacity, so the document states, he seized power in Denmark. The
information contained in the document concerning Norway and the
Netherlands is a stepping stone to the following part of this section,
and I ask the Tribunal to take the file entitled "Norway and the
Netherlands."