One subject rarely discussed in this section of the forum is economic war crimes. On the off-chance that some of our readers might be interested in the field, here is the prosecution case against the Nazi pillage and spoliation policy in occupied Belgium, taken from the Proceedings of the International Military Tribunal (IMT), vol. 5, available on-line at The Avalon Project of the Yale School of Law, at:
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/v5menu.htm
and vol. 6, available from the same site at:
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/v6menu.htm
From vol. 5:
M. HENRY DELPECH (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): Mr. President, Gentlemen, I have the honor of presenting to the Tribunal a statement on the economic plundering of Belgium.
As early as 1940 the National Socialist leaders intended to invade Belgium, Holland, and northern France. They knew that they should find there raw materials, equipment, and the factories which would enable them to increase their war potential.
As soon as Belgium had been occupied, the German military administration did its best to reap the maximum benefit. To this end the German leaders took a series of measures to block all existing resources and to seize all means of payment. Important supplies built up during the years 1936 to 1938 were the object of enormous requisitions. The machines and equipment of numerous enterprises were dismantled and sent to Germany, bringing about the closing down of numerous factories and in many sectors an enforced consolidation. Given the highly industrial character of this country, the occupying authorities imposed, under threats of various kinds, a very heavy tribute upon Belgian industries. Nor was agriculture spared.
The third part of the French economic expose deals with a study of all these measures. This will be the subject of four chapters.
Chapter I deals with the German seizure of the means of payment. The second chapter will be devoted to clandestine purchases and an account of the black market. Chapter 3 will deal with purchases of apparent regularity while the fourth chapter will concern impressment.
In a fifth chapter the acquisition of Belgian investments in foreign concerns will be presented to the Tribunal, before concluding and emphasizing the effect of the German intrusion on the public health. Finally, a few remarks will be presented concerning the conduct of the Germans after they had annexed the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Chapter 1, German seizure of means of payment.
To enslave the country from an economic point of view, the most simple procedure Was to secure the possession of the greater part of the means of payment and to make impossible the export of currency and valuables of all kinds.
There is an ordinance of 17 June 1940 which forbids the export of currency and valuables of all kinds. This ordinance was published in the Verordnungsblatt for Belgium, Northern France, and Luxembourg and will hereafter be called by its usual abbreviated form VOBEL. This ordinance was published in VOBEL, Number 3, and
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was submitted under Document Number RF-99. In the VOBEL of the same day appeared a notice dated 9 May 1940, which regulated the issuing of Reichskreditkasse notes to provide the occupation troops with legal tender. By this means the Germans made possible the buying, without supplying any equivalent, all they desired in a country abounding with products of all kinds, without the inhabitants being able to protect their possessions against the invader. The occupier used, in addition, three other methods for securing the greater part of the means of payment. These three methods were: The creation of an issuing bank, the imposition of war tribute under the pretext of maintaining occupation troops, and the working of a system of clearing to their profit alone. These measures will be fully dealt with in three sections which now follow.
Establishment of an issuing bank.
As soon as they arrived in Belgium the Germans established an office for supervising banks, which was entrusted at the same time with the control of the National Bank of Belgium. This was ordered on 14 June 1940-VOBEL, Number 2, which is submitted as Document Number RF-141.
At this time the directorate of the National Bank of Belgium was outside the occupied territories; but the amount of notes on hand would have been insufficient to insure normal circulation, as a great number of Belgians had fled before the invasion, taking with them a large quantity of paper money. These are, at least, the reasons which the Germans put forward for establishing an issuing bank by the ordinance of 27 June 1940, published in VOBEL, Numbers 4 and 5, which I submit as Document Number RF-142. By virtue of this last ordinance, 27 June 1940, the new issuing bank with a capital of 150 million Belgian francs, 20 percent of which had been issued in coin, received the monopoly for issuing paper money in Belgian francs. As a matter of fact, the National Bank of Belgium no longer had the right to issue money. The cover of the issuing bank was not represented by a gold balance but:
1) by credits from discount operations and loans granted in conformity with Article 8 of the new statutes;
2) monies owed to the National Bank of Belgium, as well as coin which was in circulation for the account of the public treasury;
3) finally, the third means of cover-foreign currency and francs, particularly German money, including Reichskreditkasse notes as well as assets at the Reichsbank, at the Office of Compensation for the Reich, and the Reichskreditkasse.
The German Commissioner who had been appointed by a decree of 26 June 1940 became the controller of the issuing bank-decree
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of 26 June 1940, published in VOBEL, Number 3, Page 88, and submitted as Document Number RF-143.
After the return to Belgium of the directors of the National Bank, on 10 July 1940, an agreement between this bank and the new issuing bank was effected by the nomination of the head of the new issuing bank to the position of director of the National Bank of Belgium.
The issuing bank proceeded to put out a large amount of notes, so much so that on 8 May 1940 the currency in circulation amounted to 29,800 million Belgian francs. On 29 December 1943 it amounted to 83,200 million Belgian francs, and on 31 August 1944 it was 100,200 million Belgian francs, that is to say, an increase of 236 percent.
The issuing bank functioned; but not without certain difficulties, either with the military command, its own staff, or with the National Bank of Belgium. Actually, besides its function of issuing, the new bank had as a principal function operations relating to postal orders and to currency, as well as operations with German authorities, notably as concerned the occupation indemnity and, above all, clearing.
The National Bank of Belgium lost its right to issue paper money but resumed its traditional operations for private as well as state accounts, particularly transactions on the open market.
These data, Gentlemen, are corroborated by the final report of the German military administration in Belgium, ninth part, dealing with currency and finance. This final report of the German military administration in Belgium was discovered by the United States Army, and it is a document to which we shall refer many times. It is Document Number ECH-5 and is submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number RF-144.
The ninth part, which is of interest here, was written by three chiefs of the administration section of Brussels: Wetter, Hofrichter, and Jost. In spite of the establishment of the issuing bank, Reichskreditkasse notes were valid in Belgium until August 1942; but it was the National Bank of Belgium that was obliged to absorb these notes in September 1944, and on account of this, Belgian economy suffered a loss of 3,567 million Belgian francs. This number is given by Wetter in the foregoing report, Page 112, the excerpt of the report being submitted as Document Number RF-145.
Moreover, from information given by the Belgian Government, the issuing bank had in hand at the moment of liberation of the territory a sum totalling 644 million in Reichskreditkasse notes; and further, it had assets in a transfer account of 12 million Reichsmark on the books of the Reichskreditkasse, that is to say, a total loss
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of 656 million Belgian francs-the figure given in a report of the Belgian Government, which is submitted as Document Number RF- 146.
Occupation costs.
Let us now take the occupation costs. Article 49 of the Hague Convention stipulates that if the occupier makes a levy in money, it will be only for the needs of the army of occupation or for the administration of the territory. The occupier can, therefore, impose a tax for the maintenance of his army; but this must not exceed the effective force strictly necessary. On the other hand, the words "needs of the army of occupation" do not mean the expenses of armament and equipment but solely the costs of billeting, food, and normal pay, which excludes, in all cases, luxury expenses.
Moreover, Article 52 authorizes the occupying authority to exact, for the use of its army, requisitions in kind and in service on the express condition that they shall be proportionate to the resources of the country and that they should not involve the population with the obligation to take part in military operations against their own country. The same Article 52 stipulates, moreover, that levies in kind will be, as far as possible, paid in cash.
Consequently the Germans exacted a monthly indemnity of 1,000 million up to August 1941. On that date the indemnity was increased to 1,500 million per month. By the end of August 1944, the payments under that designation totaled 67,000 million Belgian francs. This number cannot be contested by the Defense, since in the report quoted, Pages 103 and following, the said Wetter wrote in June 1944 that the total sum of Belgian francs paid for the army of occupation was 64,181 million -- the passage in the report is submitted as Document Number RF-147.
But this sum of 64,000 million was completely disproportionate to the needs of the occupying army. This is shown in the report of Wetter, in a passage which is submitted as Exhibit Number RF-148. On Page 245 of this report it is said that on 17 January 1941 the general who was Commander-in-Chief in Belgium had asked the High Command of the Army if the indemnity covered only the expenses of occupation. This point of view was not accepted by the commanding general, who, by order of 29 October 1941, specified that the indemnity of occupation was to be used not only for the needs of the occupying army but also for those of the operating armies. Moreover, on Page 11 of the original German text of the same report it is written -- and I shall read to the Tribunal an excerpt which will be found in the document book under Document Number RF-149, the second paragraph:
"As the increase in the expenses of the Wehrmacht made it clear that it would be impossible to manage with this amount,
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the military administration demanded that the calculation of the occupation costs should be straightened out by deducting all expenses foreign to the occupation proper. This concerned especially the larger purchases of all kinds which the military services made in Belgium, such as horses, motor vehicles, equipment, all of which was designated for other territories and was written off as occupation costs.
"By a decision of the Delegate for the Four Year Plan, dated 11 June 1941, the financing of other than true occupation costs was to be met by clearing. To comply with this decree, beginning in July 1941, the administration of the military commander ordered a monthly report to be rendered of all expenses other than those required for the occupation but which so far had been paid under the account of occupation costs, in order to have these expenses refunded through clearing. Thanks to this, large sums could be recovered and put into the account of occupation costs."
Before concluding the examination of this point concerning war tribute, that tribute called occupation costs, it is necessary to point out that the Germans had already demanded, by the decree of 17 December 1940, submitted as Document Number RF-150, that the costs of billeting their troops should be charged to Belgium. Owing to this, the country had to meet expenses totalling 5,900 million francs, which went for billeting German troops, costs of installation, supplies, and furniture.
In his report Wetter writes on Page 104-the excerpt submitted as Document Number RF-147-that at the end of June 1944 the Belgian payments for billeting troops totalled 5,423 million francs.
The Nazi exploitation of occupied Belgium
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Part 2:
Clearing.
We now come to the third part of German plundering -- clearing. The issuing of Reichskreditkasse notes and the war tribute, called "occupation costs," were not sufficient for Germany. Her leaders created a system of clearing which enabled them to procure, unduly, means of payment totalling 62,200 million Belgian francs.
As soon as they arrived in Belgium, by the decrees of 10 July, 2 August, and 5 December, 1940 -- which appear in the document book under the Numbers RF-151, RF-152, and RF-153 -- the Germans specified:
1) That all payments on debts of people resident in Belgium to their creditors in Germany had to be paid into an account called the "Deutsche Verrechnungskasse, Berlin." This was an open account on the books of the National Bank of Belgium in Brussels, an account kept in belgas in spite of the prohibition on currency of 17 June 1940, the prohibition to which I have already referred concerning the blocking of means of payment in the country.
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By the decision of 4 August 1940, it was moreover prescribed that the carrying out of clearing would henceforth no longer be entrusted to the National Bank of Belgium but to the issuing bank in Brussels, which, as I have already had the honor of pointing out, had been established by the occupying power and was under their absolute control.
2) The Germans laid down a second measure whereby all debtors resident in the Reich should pay their Belgian creditors by way of the open account at the issuing bank in Brussels, at the following rate of exchange; 100 belgas to 40 marks, that is to say, I mark for 12.50 Belgian francs. These arrangements, moreover, were extended to the countries occupied by Germany with a view to facilitating their operations in those countries; they were even extended to certain neutral countries by various similar decrees appearing in the ordinance book.
The mission of the issuing bank in Brussels consisted, therefore, on the one hand, of receiving payments from all persons or agencies established in Belgium which had foreign engagements and, on the other hand, to pay those persons or agencies established in Belgium which had foreign credit. In other words, every time an exporter delivered goods to an importer of another country which belonged to the clearing system, it was the issuing bank which settled the invoice and which entered as equivalent, in the ledgers, a corresponding credit at the Deutsche Verrechnungskasse in Berlin -- the German Clearing Institute in Berlin. In the case of imports, the inverse procedure was followed.
In fact, under the German direction, this system functioned to the detriment of the Belgian community which, at the moment of the liberation, was creditor in clearing to the extent of 62,665 million Belgian francs. It was the National Bank of Belgium which had been forced to make advances to the issuing bank to balance the account of the German Clearing Institute. A large number of operations made through clearing had no commercial character whatever but were purely and simply military and political expenses. From information given by the Belgian Government, the clearing operations could be summarized in the following manner -- and I take the figures from a report of the Belgian Government previously cited, which has been presented as Document Number RF-146: Of the total transactions, 93 percent were Belgium-German clearing operations; merchandise amounted to 93 percent, and services 91 percent.
If one considers the part taken respectively by merchandise, services, or capital, one obtains a very significant picture. The
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entire clearing transactions of Belgium with foreign countries totalled, on 2 September 1944, the sum of 61,636 million Belgian francs, of which 57,298 million were for Belgium-German operations, 4,000 million only with France, 1,000 million with the Netherlands, and 929 million with other countries. It is only in the sector of goods and services that the want of equilibrium is apparent due in large measure to requisitions of property and services made by Germany for her own account. It is known that the so-called exports affected especially metals and metal products, machines, and textile products, nine-tenths of which were seized by the Reich, which made itself thereby guilty of real spoliation.
As to the transfer of capital, during the first period of the occupation it was particularly intense. It concerned the forced realization of Belgian capital in foreign countries, as well as the forced cession to German groups of Belgian assets blocked in Germany. No effective compensation was given in exchange. The transfers made for services were principally for payments for Belgian labor in foreign countries.
The credit balance of these services on 2 September 1944 is as follows, in Belgian francs: Total clearing operations dealing with services, 20,016 million -- that is to say, for payment of labor 73 percent of the total. For Germany alone, 18,227 million -- that is, 72 percent of the total amount. For France only 1,621 million Belgian francs -- that is to say, a very small part. Not content with requisitioning workers for forced labor in Germany or in the occupied territories, the Germans compelled Belgium to bear the financial burden and imposed it either through the liquidation of the transferred savings in clearing or by the remittance of Belgian notes to the Directorate of the Reich Bank in Berlin for payment of workers in national currency:
THE PRESIDENT: Do you think it is necessary to go into these clearing operations again? In each case of the various countries which have been dealt with, the same clearing operations have taken place, have they not? Then perhaps it is really unnecessary to do it over again for Belgium.
M. DELPECH: Very well, Your Honor. At all events, the Germans recognized the fact, and the figures taken from the report previously cited support the conclusions of our statement.
Before ending this chapter concerning German seizure of the means of payment, it is fitting that the attention of the Tribunal be brought to the order of 22 July 1940, by which the Germans fixed the rate of the Belgian franc at 8 Reichspfennig, that is to say 12.50 francs per mark; and in the forementioned report Wetter
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writes concerning this matter, on Pages 37 and 38, a passage which I ask the Tribunal's permission to read and which is in the document book as Document Number RF-158.
"The de facto maintenance of the pre-war parity was moreover of considerable political importance because a large group of the population would have considered a sharp devaluation or a repeated change of parity as a maneuver of exploitation."
The following observation in connection with this conception must be made: The occupiers had no need in Belgium to decree, with the view of promoting their economic exploitation, that the Belgian franc should have a lesser value when, as a matter of fact -- contrary to what occurred in France -- they had, at the moment they entered Belgium, instituted new currency over which they had the control.
Lastly, let us mention that Germany obliged the Vichy Government to deliver 221,730 kilos of gold amounting, at the 1939 value, to 9,500 million francs; but as France had returned this gold to the Bank of Belgium, this question will be treated under the economic exploitation of France.
Recapitulation.
To sum up, the means of payment seized by the army of occupation may be seen from the following figures:
Reichskreditkasse notes, 3,567 million; various bills and accounts on the books of the Reichskreditkasse, 656 million; war tribute under the pretext of occupation costs, 67,000 million; to which may be added the credit balance of clearing 62,665 million; total (in Belgian francs), 133,838 million. The Germans thus seized no less than 130,000 million Belgian francs, which they used for outwardly regular purchases, for payment of their requisitions, and to make clandestine purchases on the black market.
These so-called purchases and requisitions will be treated in the following chapters.
Chapter 2, clandestine purchases, black market.
As in all the other occupied territories, the Germans organized a black market in Belgium as early as October 1941.
According to a secret report on the black market, called "Final Report of the Control Office of the Military Commander in Belgium and in the North of France, Concerning the Legalized Emptying of the Black Market in Belgium and in the North of France," a report covering the period from 13 March 1942 to 31 May 1943-Exhibit Number RP-159 (Document Number ECH-7) in the document book -- the reasons given by the Germans for this organization of the black market are three in number:
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1) To check competition on the black market between various German buyers;
2) to make the best use of the Belgian resources for the purposes of German war economy;
3) to do away with the pressure exercised on the general standard of prices and by this to avoid all danger of inflation which would result in endangering German currency itself.
This same report tells us, Pages 3 and following, that an actual administrative organization was set up by the Germans for carrying out this policy. The bookkeeping was done by the Clearing Institute of the Wehrmacht, which combined all the operations in its books. The direction of purchases was regulated by a central organization, the name of which changed as the years went by and which had a certain number of organizations subordinate to it, particularly a whole series of purchasing offices. The central organization was set up in accordance with the decree of the military commander in Belgium, dated 20 February 1942. It was formed on the 13th of the following March; and as soon as it was created it received special directives from the delegate of the Reich Marshal, Defendant Goering. This delegate was Lieutenant Colonel Veltjens, of whom we spoke this morning.
This organization was only established to co-ordinate the legalization and direction of the black market, as had been determined upon, and planned following conferences between the Commissioner General and the Military Commander of Belgium with the Chief of the Armament Inspection. According to the terms of that agreement, which reinforced a declaration of 16 February 1942 emanating from the Reich Minister for Economics, the aim was to drain the black market and in accordance with directives, in a legal form, with the main idea of safeguarding the supply requirements of the German Reich.
This organization had its offices in Brussels. The purchases themselves were regulated by a certain number of specialized offices, the list of which is given on Page 5 of the forementioned report. These organisms received their orders from the Rohstoffhandelsgesellsehaft, which has already been mentioned at the beginning of the statement on the economic exploitation of Western Europe. The role of Roges was very important in the organization of the black market. In effect it was four-fold:
1) The purchasing directives, once the authorization had been given by the central office in Brussels, were transmitted by Roges to the proper purchasing office.
2) The delivery of goods bought and marked for the Reich were made through Roges which took charge of their distribution in Germany.
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3) Roges financed the operations.
4) It was Roges which was entrusted with paying the difference between the rate of purchase -- generally very high because of the black market rate -- and the fixed official rate of sale on the German domestic market. The difference was covered by an equalizing fund, supplied from the occupation costs account, to which the Reich Minister of Finance put sums at the disposal of Roges through the channel of the Ministry of Armament.
The forementioned report furnishes a complete series of interesting particulars on the functioning of the central organization itself. It is interesting to note that the central office in Brussels was instructed by order of the Military Commander in Belgium, dated 3 November 1942, to have a branch at Lille set up for the north of France. At the same time, the Brussels office was authorized to instruct its branch office at Lille. In the document book, under Document Number RF-160, a final report of the Lille office is mentioned. This report, drawn up on 20 May 1943, gives a whole series of interesting particulars on the functioning of this organization.
THE PRESIDENT: It is 5 o'clock now. M. Delpech, I think it would be the wish of the Tribunal, if it were possible, for you to omit any parts of this document which are on precisely the same principles with those which have already been submitted to us in connection with the other countries. If you could, I think that would be convenient for the Tribunal. Of course, if there are any essential differences. in the treatment of Belgium then, no doubt, you would draw our attention to them.
M. DELPECH: Certainly, Your Honor.
[The Tribunal adjourned until 22 January 1946 at 1000 hours.].
573
Clearing.
We now come to the third part of German plundering -- clearing. The issuing of Reichskreditkasse notes and the war tribute, called "occupation costs," were not sufficient for Germany. Her leaders created a system of clearing which enabled them to procure, unduly, means of payment totalling 62,200 million Belgian francs.
As soon as they arrived in Belgium, by the decrees of 10 July, 2 August, and 5 December, 1940 -- which appear in the document book under the Numbers RF-151, RF-152, and RF-153 -- the Germans specified:
1) That all payments on debts of people resident in Belgium to their creditors in Germany had to be paid into an account called the "Deutsche Verrechnungskasse, Berlin." This was an open account on the books of the National Bank of Belgium in Brussels, an account kept in belgas in spite of the prohibition on currency of 17 June 1940, the prohibition to which I have already referred concerning the blocking of means of payment in the country.
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By the decision of 4 August 1940, it was moreover prescribed that the carrying out of clearing would henceforth no longer be entrusted to the National Bank of Belgium but to the issuing bank in Brussels, which, as I have already had the honor of pointing out, had been established by the occupying power and was under their absolute control.
2) The Germans laid down a second measure whereby all debtors resident in the Reich should pay their Belgian creditors by way of the open account at the issuing bank in Brussels, at the following rate of exchange; 100 belgas to 40 marks, that is to say, I mark for 12.50 Belgian francs. These arrangements, moreover, were extended to the countries occupied by Germany with a view to facilitating their operations in those countries; they were even extended to certain neutral countries by various similar decrees appearing in the ordinance book.
The mission of the issuing bank in Brussels consisted, therefore, on the one hand, of receiving payments from all persons or agencies established in Belgium which had foreign engagements and, on the other hand, to pay those persons or agencies established in Belgium which had foreign credit. In other words, every time an exporter delivered goods to an importer of another country which belonged to the clearing system, it was the issuing bank which settled the invoice and which entered as equivalent, in the ledgers, a corresponding credit at the Deutsche Verrechnungskasse in Berlin -- the German Clearing Institute in Berlin. In the case of imports, the inverse procedure was followed.
In fact, under the German direction, this system functioned to the detriment of the Belgian community which, at the moment of the liberation, was creditor in clearing to the extent of 62,665 million Belgian francs. It was the National Bank of Belgium which had been forced to make advances to the issuing bank to balance the account of the German Clearing Institute. A large number of operations made through clearing had no commercial character whatever but were purely and simply military and political expenses. From information given by the Belgian Government, the clearing operations could be summarized in the following manner -- and I take the figures from a report of the Belgian Government previously cited, which has been presented as Document Number RF-146: Of the total transactions, 93 percent were Belgium-German clearing operations; merchandise amounted to 93 percent, and services 91 percent.
If one considers the part taken respectively by merchandise, services, or capital, one obtains a very significant picture. The
569
21 Jan. 46
entire clearing transactions of Belgium with foreign countries totalled, on 2 September 1944, the sum of 61,636 million Belgian francs, of which 57,298 million were for Belgium-German operations, 4,000 million only with France, 1,000 million with the Netherlands, and 929 million with other countries. It is only in the sector of goods and services that the want of equilibrium is apparent due in large measure to requisitions of property and services made by Germany for her own account. It is known that the so-called exports affected especially metals and metal products, machines, and textile products, nine-tenths of which were seized by the Reich, which made itself thereby guilty of real spoliation.
As to the transfer of capital, during the first period of the occupation it was particularly intense. It concerned the forced realization of Belgian capital in foreign countries, as well as the forced cession to German groups of Belgian assets blocked in Germany. No effective compensation was given in exchange. The transfers made for services were principally for payments for Belgian labor in foreign countries.
The credit balance of these services on 2 September 1944 is as follows, in Belgian francs: Total clearing operations dealing with services, 20,016 million -- that is to say, for payment of labor 73 percent of the total. For Germany alone, 18,227 million -- that is, 72 percent of the total amount. For France only 1,621 million Belgian francs -- that is to say, a very small part. Not content with requisitioning workers for forced labor in Germany or in the occupied territories, the Germans compelled Belgium to bear the financial burden and imposed it either through the liquidation of the transferred savings in clearing or by the remittance of Belgian notes to the Directorate of the Reich Bank in Berlin for payment of workers in national currency:
THE PRESIDENT: Do you think it is necessary to go into these clearing operations again? In each case of the various countries which have been dealt with, the same clearing operations have taken place, have they not? Then perhaps it is really unnecessary to do it over again for Belgium.
M. DELPECH: Very well, Your Honor. At all events, the Germans recognized the fact, and the figures taken from the report previously cited support the conclusions of our statement.
Before ending this chapter concerning German seizure of the means of payment, it is fitting that the attention of the Tribunal be brought to the order of 22 July 1940, by which the Germans fixed the rate of the Belgian franc at 8 Reichspfennig, that is to say 12.50 francs per mark; and in the forementioned report Wetter
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21 Jan. 46
writes concerning this matter, on Pages 37 and 38, a passage which I ask the Tribunal's permission to read and which is in the document book as Document Number RF-158.
"The de facto maintenance of the pre-war parity was moreover of considerable political importance because a large group of the population would have considered a sharp devaluation or a repeated change of parity as a maneuver of exploitation."
The following observation in connection with this conception must be made: The occupiers had no need in Belgium to decree, with the view of promoting their economic exploitation, that the Belgian franc should have a lesser value when, as a matter of fact -- contrary to what occurred in France -- they had, at the moment they entered Belgium, instituted new currency over which they had the control.
Lastly, let us mention that Germany obliged the Vichy Government to deliver 221,730 kilos of gold amounting, at the 1939 value, to 9,500 million francs; but as France had returned this gold to the Bank of Belgium, this question will be treated under the economic exploitation of France.
Recapitulation.
To sum up, the means of payment seized by the army of occupation may be seen from the following figures:
Reichskreditkasse notes, 3,567 million; various bills and accounts on the books of the Reichskreditkasse, 656 million; war tribute under the pretext of occupation costs, 67,000 million; to which may be added the credit balance of clearing 62,665 million; total (in Belgian francs), 133,838 million. The Germans thus seized no less than 130,000 million Belgian francs, which they used for outwardly regular purchases, for payment of their requisitions, and to make clandestine purchases on the black market.
These so-called purchases and requisitions will be treated in the following chapters.
Chapter 2, clandestine purchases, black market.
As in all the other occupied territories, the Germans organized a black market in Belgium as early as October 1941.
According to a secret report on the black market, called "Final Report of the Control Office of the Military Commander in Belgium and in the North of France, Concerning the Legalized Emptying of the Black Market in Belgium and in the North of France," a report covering the period from 13 March 1942 to 31 May 1943-Exhibit Number RP-159 (Document Number ECH-7) in the document book -- the reasons given by the Germans for this organization of the black market are three in number:
571
21 Jan. 46
1) To check competition on the black market between various German buyers;
2) to make the best use of the Belgian resources for the purposes of German war economy;
3) to do away with the pressure exercised on the general standard of prices and by this to avoid all danger of inflation which would result in endangering German currency itself.
This same report tells us, Pages 3 and following, that an actual administrative organization was set up by the Germans for carrying out this policy. The bookkeeping was done by the Clearing Institute of the Wehrmacht, which combined all the operations in its books. The direction of purchases was regulated by a central organization, the name of which changed as the years went by and which had a certain number of organizations subordinate to it, particularly a whole series of purchasing offices. The central organization was set up in accordance with the decree of the military commander in Belgium, dated 20 February 1942. It was formed on the 13th of the following March; and as soon as it was created it received special directives from the delegate of the Reich Marshal, Defendant Goering. This delegate was Lieutenant Colonel Veltjens, of whom we spoke this morning.
This organization was only established to co-ordinate the legalization and direction of the black market, as had been determined upon, and planned following conferences between the Commissioner General and the Military Commander of Belgium with the Chief of the Armament Inspection. According to the terms of that agreement, which reinforced a declaration of 16 February 1942 emanating from the Reich Minister for Economics, the aim was to drain the black market and in accordance with directives, in a legal form, with the main idea of safeguarding the supply requirements of the German Reich.
This organization had its offices in Brussels. The purchases themselves were regulated by a certain number of specialized offices, the list of which is given on Page 5 of the forementioned report. These organisms received their orders from the Rohstoffhandelsgesellsehaft, which has already been mentioned at the beginning of the statement on the economic exploitation of Western Europe. The role of Roges was very important in the organization of the black market. In effect it was four-fold:
1) The purchasing directives, once the authorization had been given by the central office in Brussels, were transmitted by Roges to the proper purchasing office.
2) The delivery of goods bought and marked for the Reich were made through Roges which took charge of their distribution in Germany.
572
21 Jan. 46
3) Roges financed the operations.
4) It was Roges which was entrusted with paying the difference between the rate of purchase -- generally very high because of the black market rate -- and the fixed official rate of sale on the German domestic market. The difference was covered by an equalizing fund, supplied from the occupation costs account, to which the Reich Minister of Finance put sums at the disposal of Roges through the channel of the Ministry of Armament.
The forementioned report furnishes a complete series of interesting particulars on the functioning of the central organization itself. It is interesting to note that the central office in Brussels was instructed by order of the Military Commander in Belgium, dated 3 November 1942, to have a branch at Lille set up for the north of France. At the same time, the Brussels office was authorized to instruct its branch office at Lille. In the document book, under Document Number RF-160, a final report of the Lille office is mentioned. This report, drawn up on 20 May 1943, gives a whole series of interesting particulars on the functioning of this organization.
THE PRESIDENT: It is 5 o'clock now. M. Delpech, I think it would be the wish of the Tribunal, if it were possible, for you to omit any parts of this document which are on precisely the same principles with those which have already been submitted to us in connection with the other countries. If you could, I think that would be convenient for the Tribunal. Of course, if there are any essential differences. in the treatment of Belgium then, no doubt, you would draw our attention to them.
M. DELPECH: Certainly, Your Honor.
[The Tribunal adjourned until 22 January 1946 at 1000 hours.].
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Part 3:
M. Delpech's presentation continued in IMT vol. 6:
FORTIETH DAY Tuesday, 22 January 1946
Morning Session
M. HENRY DELPECH (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): Mr. President, Your Honors, I had the honor yesterday of beginning to explain before the Tribunal the methods of economic spoliation of Belgium by the Germans in the course of their occupation of the country.
Coming back to what was said in the course of the general considerations on economic pillage and on the behavior of the Germans in Norway and Denmark and in Holland, I have been able to show that in all places the determination to economic domination of National Socialism had manifested itself. The methods were the same everywhere, at least in their broad outlines. Therefore in immediate response to the wish expressed yesterday by the Tribunal and to fulfill the mission entrusted to the French Prosecution by the Belgian Government to plead its case before your high jurisdiction, I shall confine myself to the main outlines of the development, and I shall take the liberty of referring to the details of the German seizure of Belgian production, to the text of the report submitted to the Tribunal, and to the numerous documents which are quoted in our document book.
I have had the honor of calling your attention to the existence of the black market in Belgium, its organization by the occupation troops, and their final decision to suppress -- this black market. One may, with respect to this, conclude, as has already been indicated in the course of the general observations, that in spite of their claims it was not in order to avoid inflation in Belgium that the German authorities led a campaign against the black market.
The day the Germans decided to suppress the black market, they loudly proclaimed their anxiety to spare the Belgian economy and the Belgian population the very serious consequences of the threatening inflation. In reality, the German authorities intervened against the black market in order to prevent its ever growing extension from reaching the point where it would absorb all the available merchandise and completely strangle the official market. In a word, the survival of the official market with its lower prices was finally much more profitable for the army of occupation.
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22 Jan. 46
I now come, gentlemen, to Page 46 of my presentation, to the third Chapter -- purchases which were regular in appearance, which had only one aim, namely the subjugation of Belgian productive power.
Carrying out their program of domination of the countries of Western Europe as it had been established since before 1939, the Germans, from the moment they entered Belgium in May 1940, took all the measures which seemed to them appropriate to assure the subjugation of Belgian production. No sector of Belgian economy was to be spared. If the pillage seems more noticeable in the economic sphere, that is only because of the very marked industrial character of Belgian economy. Agriculture and transport were not to escape the German hold, and I propose to discuss first the levies in kind in industry.
Belgian industry was the first to be attacked. Thus, the military commander in Belgium, in agreement with the various offices of the Reich for raw materials and with the Office of the Four Year Plan and the Ministry of Economics, drew up a program the purpose of which was to convert almost the whole of Belgian production to the bellicose ends of the Reich. Already on the 13th of September 1940 he was able to make known to the higher authorities a series of plans for iron, coal, textiles, and copper. I submit Exhibit Number RF-162 (Document Number ECH-2) in support of this statement.
Also a report by Lieutenant Colonel, Dr. Hedler, entitled "Change in Economic Direction," states that from 14 September 1940 the Army Ordnance Branch sent to its subordinate formations the following instructions, to be found in the document book under Exhibit Number RF-163 (Document Number ECH-84). I read the last paragraph of Page 41 of the German text:
"I attach the greatest importance to the proposition that the factories in the occupied western territories, Holland, Belgium, and France, be utilized as much as possible to ease the strain on the German armament production and to increase the war potential. Enterprises located in Denmark are also to be employed to an increasing extent for subcontracts. In doing so the operational directives of the regulation of the Reich Marshal as well as the regulations concerning the economy of raw materials in the occupied territories are to be strictly observed."
All these arrangements quickly enabled the Germans to control and to direct Belgium's whole production and distribution for the German war effort.
2
22 Jan. 46
The decree of 27 May 1940, VOBEL Number 2, submitted as Document Number RF-164, established commodity control offices whose task was-and I quote from the third paragraph:
"... to issue, in compliance with Army Group directives, general regulations or individual orders to enterprises which are producing, dealing with, or using controlled commodities, in order to regulate production and ensure just distribution and rational utilization while keeping to the place of work, as far as possible."
Article 4 of the same text indicated in detail the powers of these commodity control offices, and in particular they were given the right:
"To force enterprises to sell their products to specified purchasers; to forbid or require the utilization of certain raw materials; to subject to their approval every sale or purchase of commodities."
To conceal more effectively their real objective, the Germans gave these commodity control offices independence and the status of a corporation. Thus, there were set up 11 commodity control offices which embraced the whole economy except coal, the direction of which was left under the Belgian Office of Coal. Exhibit Number RF-165 (Document Number ECH-3), gives proof of this. The execution of the regulations was ensured by a series of texts promulgated by the Belgian authorities in Brussels. They issued in particular a decree dated 3 September 1940, by virtue of which Belgian organizations took over again the offices which the Germans gave up.
These offices were to experience various vicissitudes. Although originating from the Belgian Ministry of Economics, they were closely controlled by the German military command. In this way, the seizure of Belgian production was completed by the appointment of "Commissioners of Enterprises," under the ordinance of 29 April 1941, submitted as Document Number RF-166. Article 2 of this text defines the powers of the commissioners:
"The duty of the Commissioner is to set or keep in motion the enterprise under his charge, to ensure the systematic fulfillment of orders, and to take all measures which increase the output."
The decline of the commodity control offices began with an ordinance dated 6 August 1942, establishing the principle providing for the prohibition of manufacturing certain products or for ordering the use of certain raw materials. This ordinance is to be found in the document book under Document Number RF-167.
Supervision of the commodity control offices was soon organized by the
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22 Jan. 46
appointment to each of them of a German Commissioner, selected by the competent Reichsstelle.
From the last months of 1943 on, the "Rustungsobmann" Office of the Armament and War Production Ministry (Speer), acquired the habit of passing its orders direct, without having recourse to the channel of the commodity control offices.
Even before this date measures had been taken to prevent any initiative that was not in accord with the German war aims. Further and even before the above ordinance of 6 August 1942, the ordinance of 30 March 1942 should be mentioned, which made the establishment or extension of commercial enterprises subject to previous authorization by the military commissioner.
In the report of the military administration in Belgium that has already been cited, the chief of the administrative staff, Raeder, specifies in Exhibit Number RF-169 (Document Number ECH-335) that for the period of January to March 1943 alone, out of 2,000 iron works, 400 were closed down for working irrationally or being useless to the war aims.
The closing of these factories seems to have been caused less by the concern for a rational production than by the cunning desire to obtain cheaply valuable tools and machines. In this connection, it is appropriate to point to the establishment of a Machine Pool Office. The above quoted report of the military administration in Belgium, in the 11th section, Pages 56 and following, is particularly significant in this respect. Here is an extract from the German text, the last lines of the last paragraph of Page 56, in the French translation, the last lines . . .
THE PRESIDENT (Lord Justice Sir Geoffrey Lawrence): That passage you read about the Defendant Raeder, was that from Document 169 or 170?
M. DELPECH: Mr. President, I spoke yesterday of the chief of the administration section, Raeder. He was section chief in Brussels. He has no connection with the defendant here.
THE PRESIDENT: I see, very well.
M. DELPECH: Exhibit Number RF-171 (Document Number ECH-10), second paragraph of the French text. The paragraph concerns the Machine Pool transactions:
"Proof may be seen by a brief glance at the pool operations dealt with and actually carried out. Altogether 567 demands have been dealt with, to a total value of 4.6 million Reichsmark."
Raeder then gave a number of figures. I shall pass over these and I come to the end of the first paragraph, Page 57 in the German text:
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22 Jan. 46
"The legal basis for the requisition of these machines was the Hague Convention of 1907, Articles 52 and 53. The formulation of the Hague Convention which provides for requisitions only for the benefit and the needs of the occupying power, applied to the circumstances of the year 1907, that is, to a time when war actions were confined within narrowly restricted areas and practically the military front alone was involved in war operations. In view of such space restrictions for war, it was evident that the provisions of the Hague Convention, stipulating that requisitions be made solely for the needs of the occupying power, were sufficient for the conduct of operations. Modern war, however, which by its expansion to total war is no longer bound by space but has developed into a general struggle of peoples and economies, requires that while the regulations of the Hague Convention should be maintained, there should be a sensible interpretation of its principles adapted to the demands of modern warfare." I pass to the end of this quotation:
"Whenever, in requisitioning, reference was made to the ordinance of the military commander of 6 August 1942, this was done in order to give the Belgian population the necessary interpretation of the meaning of the principle of the requisition regulations of the Hague Convention." Such an interpretation may leave jurists wondering, who have not been trained in the school of National Socialism. It cannot in any case justify the pillage of industry and the subjugation of Belgian production. These few considerations show how subtle and varied were the methods employed by the Germans to attain their aims in the economic sphere. In the same way as the preceding statements on clearing operations and the utilization of occupation costs, they make it possible to specify the methods employed for exacting heavy levies from the Belgian economy. Whereas in certain spheres, as in agriculture and transport, it has been possible to assess the extent of economic pillage with a certain exactitude, there are, however, numerous industrial sectors where assessments cannot yet be made. It is true that a considerable part of the industrial losses correspond to the clearing operations, particularly through requisition of stocks. It will therefore be necessary to confine ourselves to the directives of the policy practiced by the Germans. We may examine briefly the way in which economic spoliation took place in three sectors: industry, agriculture, and transport.
5
22 Jan. 46
First the industrial sector: The clearing statistics, in the first place, give particulars of the total burdens imposed upon the various industrial branches. The report of the military administration in Belgium, to which I shall refer constantly, gives the following details, briefly summarized: From the very beginning of the occupation the Germans demanded an inventory of supplies on which they were to impose considerable levies, notably textiles and non-ferrous metals. I shall confine myself to some brief remarks on textiles and nonferrous metals.
The example of the textiles industry is particularly revealing: On the eve of the invasion, the Belgian textile industry, with its 165,000 workers, was the second largest industry in Belgium after the metal industry. Under the pretext of avoiding the exhaustion of the very important supplies then still available, an ordinance of 27 July 1940 prohibited the textile industry to work at more than 30 percent of its 1938 capacity. For the period from May to December 1940 alone requisitions were not less than 1,000 million Belgian francs. They particularly affected nearly half of the wool stock available in the country on May 10, 1940, and nearly one-third of the stock of raw cotton. On the other hand, the forced closing down of factories constituted for the Germans an excellent excuse for taking away, on the pretext of hiring, unused equipment, unless it was requisitioned at a cheap price. The ordinance of 7 September 1942, which is to be found in the document book under Document Number RF-174, laid down the manner in which factories were to be closed in execution of the right accorded to the occupation authorities; and it also gave the right to dissolve certain business and industrial groups and to order their liquidation.
Consolidation of enterprises was the pretext given. In the month of January 1944, 65 percent of the textile factories had been stopped. I shall not go into the details of these operations and I shall pass on to Page 58. The report of the German military administration quoted above gives particularly significant figures as to production. Of a total output of the wool industry of 72,000 tons for the entire period May 1940 to the end of June 1944, representing a value of about 397 million Reichsmark, the distribution of the deliveries between the German and Belgian markets is the following: The German market, 64,700 tons, 314 million Reichsmark; the Belgian market, 7,700 tons, 83 million Reichsmark. The whole spoliation of the textile industry is contained in these figures. Belgian consumption obviously had to suffer a great deal from the German policy of direction of the textile market. The same report of the military administration
furnishes details, stating that
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22 Jan. 46
in 1938 the needs in textile products amounted in Belgium to a monthly average of twelve kilos. The respective figures for the occupation years are the following: 1940 to 1941-2.1 kilos per head, 1941 to 1942-1.4, 1942 to 1943-1.4, 1943 to 1944-0.7. The diminution of Belgian consumption under the Germans is contained in these two figures; twelve kilos per head in 1938; 0.7 kilo at the end of the occupation. - On the other side, the Belgian Government gives the following details on the pillage of this produce. Compulsory deliveries to Germany during the occupation amounted to: Cotton yam, about 40 percent of the production; linen, 75 percent; rayon, 15 percent. Finally, out of the textile stocks remaining in Belgium a great percentage was still taken away by the Germans through purchases on the Belgian markets, purchases of finished or manufactured products. The equivalent of these forced deliveries can generally be found in the clearing statistics, unless it is placed under misrepresented occupation costs. I have finished with textiles.
As to the non-ferrous metal industry, Belgium was in 1939 the largest producer in Europe of non- ferrous metals, of copper, lead, zinc, and tin. The statistics included in the report of the military command, which are to be found in Exhibit Number RF-173 (Document Number ECH-11), will furnish the evidence for the Tribunal. On the 18th of February 1941, in connection with the Four Year Plan, the Reich Office for Metals and the Supreme Command of the Army worked out a "metal" plan which provided for Belgian consumption; the carrying out of German orders; exports to the Reich. These various measures did not satisfy the occupying authorities so they ran a certain number of salvage campaigns which were called "special actions" (Sonderaktionen) in accordance with the method they applied in all the countries of Western Europe. I shall not go into the details of these actions which are described on Page 63 and following of the report; the salvage campaigns for bells, for printing lead, for lead and copper-from information given by the Belgian Government, Document Number RF-146, Page 65 of the report. In other fields, but without admitting it, the Germans pursued a policy intended to eliminate or to restrict Belgian competition, so that in case of a German victory the economic branches concerned would have had to restrict themselves to the Belgian market, which would then have remained wide open to German business.
These attempts at immediate or future suppression of competition were clearly evident in the case of foundries, glass works, textile
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22 Jan. 46
industries, construction works, car assembling, construction of material for narrow-gauge railroads, the leather industry, and especially shoe-manufacturing, for which reconstruction of destroyed factories was systematically prohibited. But in addition, in the textile industry as well as in numerous sectors, especially in the iron-smelting industry, the weakening of the economy cannot be measured only by the scale of the compulsory deliveries but in relation to the policy practiced by the occupying power. Belgian industry, especially coal and iron, suffered considerable losses as a result of directives imposed to finance the war needs at a cheaper rate. I shall pass over the question of prices of coal. The control of the coal industry was assured by the appointment of a plenipotentiary for coal and by centralization of all sales in the hands of a single organism, the "single seller," under Belgian direction but with a German commissioner. I am referring to the Belgian coal office, one seller to a single purchaser, "Rheinisch Westhilisches Koblensyndikat," which ordered deliveries to be made to the Reich, to Alsace-Lorraine and Luxembourg.
According to the same German report, Page 67, in spite of the rise in the price of coal agreed to on 20 August 1940, 1 January 1941, and I January 1943, the coal industry showed considerable losses in the course of the occupation years. In February 1943, the coal office having agreed to an increase of the sales price, the price per ton for the Belgian coal was higher than on the German home market. The German commissioner for the mining industry forced the Belgian industry to pay the difference in rate when exporting to the Reich by means of premiums. From the figures indicated in Exhibits Numbers RF-176 (Document Number ECH-35) and 178 (Document Numbers ECH-26 and 27), the Tribunal may gather information as to the financial losses caused by exploitation. The report of the military administration gives in its eleventh section details regarding the iron-smelting industry: It suffered as greatly as had the coal industry during the occupation. In the Thomas smelting works in particular, the losses resulted from the increase in the cost price and from price fluctuations in respect to certain elements pertaining to the manufacture. In this one sector, according to the memorandum of the Belgian Government, the respective losses may be assessed at 3,000 million Belgian francs. Still, according to the same report, out of a total production of 1,400,000 tons, 1,300,000 tons of various products were exported to Germany not including the metal delivered to Belgian factories working exclusively for Germany.
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22 Jan. 46
According to information furnished by the Belgian Government, the Germans removed in bulk and transported to Germany material of very great value. The total industrial spoliation is estimated by the Belgian Government at a sum of 2,000 million Belgian francs, at the 1940 rate, of course. These removals constitute a real material loss; and from the fragmentary indications given to the Tribunal, this sum of 2,000 million Belgian francs is the figure which I ask
the Tribunal to note. In view of the information available at present it is not easy to estimate the extent of the levies made on industry; it is even more difficult to evaluate it in the agricultural sphere, which I shall briefly present.
Apart from the admissible needs of the occupation troops, the German authorities made an effort to obtain a supplement to the food levies in Belgium for the purpose of increasing the food of the Reich and other territories occupied by its troops. After having employed direct methods of levying, the Germans used the services of unscrupulous agents whose job it was to purchase at any price on the illicit markets; and the black market in this field assumed such proportions that the occupying authorities were frequently alarmed and in 1943 had to suppress it. Apart from the damage to livestock and to the woods and forests, which play an important part in Belgium, the damage resulting from abnormal cutting in the forests brought about an excess in deforestation reaching a figure of 2 million tons; the damage to capital caused by this premature cutting can be estimated at about 200 million Belgian francs. The military operations proper caused damage to an extent of 100 million Belgian francs; and according to the memorandum of the Belgian Government, the total damage caused to forestry reaches a figure of 460 million Belgian francs. Taking into account the damage caused by abnormal cutting in the forests and by the establishment of airfields, the Belgian Government estimates at approximately 1,000 million Belgian francs the losses suffered by its agriculture during the occupation. It must be noted, without going further into this subject, that these are net losses in capital, constituting a veritable exhaustion of substance and a consequent reduction and real consumption of the nation's resources. With this I have concluded my presentation concerning agriculture, and I pass on to transport.
The conduct of war led the Germans to utilize to the utmost the railroad network and the canal and river system of Belgium. The result was that the railroads and river fleet are included in those branches of Belgian economy which suffered most from the occupation and the hostilities which took place on Belgian soil. German
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22 Jan. 46
M. Delpech's presentation continued in IMT vol. 6:
FORTIETH DAY Tuesday, 22 January 1946
Morning Session
M. HENRY DELPECH (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): Mr. President, Your Honors, I had the honor yesterday of beginning to explain before the Tribunal the methods of economic spoliation of Belgium by the Germans in the course of their occupation of the country.
Coming back to what was said in the course of the general considerations on economic pillage and on the behavior of the Germans in Norway and Denmark and in Holland, I have been able to show that in all places the determination to economic domination of National Socialism had manifested itself. The methods were the same everywhere, at least in their broad outlines. Therefore in immediate response to the wish expressed yesterday by the Tribunal and to fulfill the mission entrusted to the French Prosecution by the Belgian Government to plead its case before your high jurisdiction, I shall confine myself to the main outlines of the development, and I shall take the liberty of referring to the details of the German seizure of Belgian production, to the text of the report submitted to the Tribunal, and to the numerous documents which are quoted in our document book.
I have had the honor of calling your attention to the existence of the black market in Belgium, its organization by the occupation troops, and their final decision to suppress -- this black market. One may, with respect to this, conclude, as has already been indicated in the course of the general observations, that in spite of their claims it was not in order to avoid inflation in Belgium that the German authorities led a campaign against the black market.
The day the Germans decided to suppress the black market, they loudly proclaimed their anxiety to spare the Belgian economy and the Belgian population the very serious consequences of the threatening inflation. In reality, the German authorities intervened against the black market in order to prevent its ever growing extension from reaching the point where it would absorb all the available merchandise and completely strangle the official market. In a word, the survival of the official market with its lower prices was finally much more profitable for the army of occupation.
1
22 Jan. 46
I now come, gentlemen, to Page 46 of my presentation, to the third Chapter -- purchases which were regular in appearance, which had only one aim, namely the subjugation of Belgian productive power.
Carrying out their program of domination of the countries of Western Europe as it had been established since before 1939, the Germans, from the moment they entered Belgium in May 1940, took all the measures which seemed to them appropriate to assure the subjugation of Belgian production. No sector of Belgian economy was to be spared. If the pillage seems more noticeable in the economic sphere, that is only because of the very marked industrial character of Belgian economy. Agriculture and transport were not to escape the German hold, and I propose to discuss first the levies in kind in industry.
Belgian industry was the first to be attacked. Thus, the military commander in Belgium, in agreement with the various offices of the Reich for raw materials and with the Office of the Four Year Plan and the Ministry of Economics, drew up a program the purpose of which was to convert almost the whole of Belgian production to the bellicose ends of the Reich. Already on the 13th of September 1940 he was able to make known to the higher authorities a series of plans for iron, coal, textiles, and copper. I submit Exhibit Number RF-162 (Document Number ECH-2) in support of this statement.
Also a report by Lieutenant Colonel, Dr. Hedler, entitled "Change in Economic Direction," states that from 14 September 1940 the Army Ordnance Branch sent to its subordinate formations the following instructions, to be found in the document book under Exhibit Number RF-163 (Document Number ECH-84). I read the last paragraph of Page 41 of the German text:
"I attach the greatest importance to the proposition that the factories in the occupied western territories, Holland, Belgium, and France, be utilized as much as possible to ease the strain on the German armament production and to increase the war potential. Enterprises located in Denmark are also to be employed to an increasing extent for subcontracts. In doing so the operational directives of the regulation of the Reich Marshal as well as the regulations concerning the economy of raw materials in the occupied territories are to be strictly observed."
All these arrangements quickly enabled the Germans to control and to direct Belgium's whole production and distribution for the German war effort.
2
22 Jan. 46
The decree of 27 May 1940, VOBEL Number 2, submitted as Document Number RF-164, established commodity control offices whose task was-and I quote from the third paragraph:
"... to issue, in compliance with Army Group directives, general regulations or individual orders to enterprises which are producing, dealing with, or using controlled commodities, in order to regulate production and ensure just distribution and rational utilization while keeping to the place of work, as far as possible."
Article 4 of the same text indicated in detail the powers of these commodity control offices, and in particular they were given the right:
"To force enterprises to sell their products to specified purchasers; to forbid or require the utilization of certain raw materials; to subject to their approval every sale or purchase of commodities."
To conceal more effectively their real objective, the Germans gave these commodity control offices independence and the status of a corporation. Thus, there were set up 11 commodity control offices which embraced the whole economy except coal, the direction of which was left under the Belgian Office of Coal. Exhibit Number RF-165 (Document Number ECH-3), gives proof of this. The execution of the regulations was ensured by a series of texts promulgated by the Belgian authorities in Brussels. They issued in particular a decree dated 3 September 1940, by virtue of which Belgian organizations took over again the offices which the Germans gave up.
These offices were to experience various vicissitudes. Although originating from the Belgian Ministry of Economics, they were closely controlled by the German military command. In this way, the seizure of Belgian production was completed by the appointment of "Commissioners of Enterprises," under the ordinance of 29 April 1941, submitted as Document Number RF-166. Article 2 of this text defines the powers of the commissioners:
"The duty of the Commissioner is to set or keep in motion the enterprise under his charge, to ensure the systematic fulfillment of orders, and to take all measures which increase the output."
The decline of the commodity control offices began with an ordinance dated 6 August 1942, establishing the principle providing for the prohibition of manufacturing certain products or for ordering the use of certain raw materials. This ordinance is to be found in the document book under Document Number RF-167.
Supervision of the commodity control offices was soon organized by the
3
22 Jan. 46
appointment to each of them of a German Commissioner, selected by the competent Reichsstelle.
From the last months of 1943 on, the "Rustungsobmann" Office of the Armament and War Production Ministry (Speer), acquired the habit of passing its orders direct, without having recourse to the channel of the commodity control offices.
Even before this date measures had been taken to prevent any initiative that was not in accord with the German war aims. Further and even before the above ordinance of 6 August 1942, the ordinance of 30 March 1942 should be mentioned, which made the establishment or extension of commercial enterprises subject to previous authorization by the military commissioner.
In the report of the military administration in Belgium that has already been cited, the chief of the administrative staff, Raeder, specifies in Exhibit Number RF-169 (Document Number ECH-335) that for the period of January to March 1943 alone, out of 2,000 iron works, 400 were closed down for working irrationally or being useless to the war aims.
The closing of these factories seems to have been caused less by the concern for a rational production than by the cunning desire to obtain cheaply valuable tools and machines. In this connection, it is appropriate to point to the establishment of a Machine Pool Office. The above quoted report of the military administration in Belgium, in the 11th section, Pages 56 and following, is particularly significant in this respect. Here is an extract from the German text, the last lines of the last paragraph of Page 56, in the French translation, the last lines . . .
THE PRESIDENT (Lord Justice Sir Geoffrey Lawrence): That passage you read about the Defendant Raeder, was that from Document 169 or 170?
M. DELPECH: Mr. President, I spoke yesterday of the chief of the administration section, Raeder. He was section chief in Brussels. He has no connection with the defendant here.
THE PRESIDENT: I see, very well.
M. DELPECH: Exhibit Number RF-171 (Document Number ECH-10), second paragraph of the French text. The paragraph concerns the Machine Pool transactions:
"Proof may be seen by a brief glance at the pool operations dealt with and actually carried out. Altogether 567 demands have been dealt with, to a total value of 4.6 million Reichsmark."
Raeder then gave a number of figures. I shall pass over these and I come to the end of the first paragraph, Page 57 in the German text:
4
22 Jan. 46
"The legal basis for the requisition of these machines was the Hague Convention of 1907, Articles 52 and 53. The formulation of the Hague Convention which provides for requisitions only for the benefit and the needs of the occupying power, applied to the circumstances of the year 1907, that is, to a time when war actions were confined within narrowly restricted areas and practically the military front alone was involved in war operations. In view of such space restrictions for war, it was evident that the provisions of the Hague Convention, stipulating that requisitions be made solely for the needs of the occupying power, were sufficient for the conduct of operations. Modern war, however, which by its expansion to total war is no longer bound by space but has developed into a general struggle of peoples and economies, requires that while the regulations of the Hague Convention should be maintained, there should be a sensible interpretation of its principles adapted to the demands of modern warfare." I pass to the end of this quotation:
"Whenever, in requisitioning, reference was made to the ordinance of the military commander of 6 August 1942, this was done in order to give the Belgian population the necessary interpretation of the meaning of the principle of the requisition regulations of the Hague Convention." Such an interpretation may leave jurists wondering, who have not been trained in the school of National Socialism. It cannot in any case justify the pillage of industry and the subjugation of Belgian production. These few considerations show how subtle and varied were the methods employed by the Germans to attain their aims in the economic sphere. In the same way as the preceding statements on clearing operations and the utilization of occupation costs, they make it possible to specify the methods employed for exacting heavy levies from the Belgian economy. Whereas in certain spheres, as in agriculture and transport, it has been possible to assess the extent of economic pillage with a certain exactitude, there are, however, numerous industrial sectors where assessments cannot yet be made. It is true that a considerable part of the industrial losses correspond to the clearing operations, particularly through requisition of stocks. It will therefore be necessary to confine ourselves to the directives of the policy practiced by the Germans. We may examine briefly the way in which economic spoliation took place in three sectors: industry, agriculture, and transport.
5
22 Jan. 46
First the industrial sector: The clearing statistics, in the first place, give particulars of the total burdens imposed upon the various industrial branches. The report of the military administration in Belgium, to which I shall refer constantly, gives the following details, briefly summarized: From the very beginning of the occupation the Germans demanded an inventory of supplies on which they were to impose considerable levies, notably textiles and non-ferrous metals. I shall confine myself to some brief remarks on textiles and nonferrous metals.
The example of the textiles industry is particularly revealing: On the eve of the invasion, the Belgian textile industry, with its 165,000 workers, was the second largest industry in Belgium after the metal industry. Under the pretext of avoiding the exhaustion of the very important supplies then still available, an ordinance of 27 July 1940 prohibited the textile industry to work at more than 30 percent of its 1938 capacity. For the period from May to December 1940 alone requisitions were not less than 1,000 million Belgian francs. They particularly affected nearly half of the wool stock available in the country on May 10, 1940, and nearly one-third of the stock of raw cotton. On the other hand, the forced closing down of factories constituted for the Germans an excellent excuse for taking away, on the pretext of hiring, unused equipment, unless it was requisitioned at a cheap price. The ordinance of 7 September 1942, which is to be found in the document book under Document Number RF-174, laid down the manner in which factories were to be closed in execution of the right accorded to the occupation authorities; and it also gave the right to dissolve certain business and industrial groups and to order their liquidation.
Consolidation of enterprises was the pretext given. In the month of January 1944, 65 percent of the textile factories had been stopped. I shall not go into the details of these operations and I shall pass on to Page 58. The report of the German military administration quoted above gives particularly significant figures as to production. Of a total output of the wool industry of 72,000 tons for the entire period May 1940 to the end of June 1944, representing a value of about 397 million Reichsmark, the distribution of the deliveries between the German and Belgian markets is the following: The German market, 64,700 tons, 314 million Reichsmark; the Belgian market, 7,700 tons, 83 million Reichsmark. The whole spoliation of the textile industry is contained in these figures. Belgian consumption obviously had to suffer a great deal from the German policy of direction of the textile market. The same report of the military administration
furnishes details, stating that
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22 Jan. 46
in 1938 the needs in textile products amounted in Belgium to a monthly average of twelve kilos. The respective figures for the occupation years are the following: 1940 to 1941-2.1 kilos per head, 1941 to 1942-1.4, 1942 to 1943-1.4, 1943 to 1944-0.7. The diminution of Belgian consumption under the Germans is contained in these two figures; twelve kilos per head in 1938; 0.7 kilo at the end of the occupation. - On the other side, the Belgian Government gives the following details on the pillage of this produce. Compulsory deliveries to Germany during the occupation amounted to: Cotton yam, about 40 percent of the production; linen, 75 percent; rayon, 15 percent. Finally, out of the textile stocks remaining in Belgium a great percentage was still taken away by the Germans through purchases on the Belgian markets, purchases of finished or manufactured products. The equivalent of these forced deliveries can generally be found in the clearing statistics, unless it is placed under misrepresented occupation costs. I have finished with textiles.
As to the non-ferrous metal industry, Belgium was in 1939 the largest producer in Europe of non- ferrous metals, of copper, lead, zinc, and tin. The statistics included in the report of the military command, which are to be found in Exhibit Number RF-173 (Document Number ECH-11), will furnish the evidence for the Tribunal. On the 18th of February 1941, in connection with the Four Year Plan, the Reich Office for Metals and the Supreme Command of the Army worked out a "metal" plan which provided for Belgian consumption; the carrying out of German orders; exports to the Reich. These various measures did not satisfy the occupying authorities so they ran a certain number of salvage campaigns which were called "special actions" (Sonderaktionen) in accordance with the method they applied in all the countries of Western Europe. I shall not go into the details of these actions which are described on Page 63 and following of the report; the salvage campaigns for bells, for printing lead, for lead and copper-from information given by the Belgian Government, Document Number RF-146, Page 65 of the report. In other fields, but without admitting it, the Germans pursued a policy intended to eliminate or to restrict Belgian competition, so that in case of a German victory the economic branches concerned would have had to restrict themselves to the Belgian market, which would then have remained wide open to German business.
These attempts at immediate or future suppression of competition were clearly evident in the case of foundries, glass works, textile
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22 Jan. 46
industries, construction works, car assembling, construction of material for narrow-gauge railroads, the leather industry, and especially shoe-manufacturing, for which reconstruction of destroyed factories was systematically prohibited. But in addition, in the textile industry as well as in numerous sectors, especially in the iron-smelting industry, the weakening of the economy cannot be measured only by the scale of the compulsory deliveries but in relation to the policy practiced by the occupying power. Belgian industry, especially coal and iron, suffered considerable losses as a result of directives imposed to finance the war needs at a cheaper rate. I shall pass over the question of prices of coal. The control of the coal industry was assured by the appointment of a plenipotentiary for coal and by centralization of all sales in the hands of a single organism, the "single seller," under Belgian direction but with a German commissioner. I am referring to the Belgian coal office, one seller to a single purchaser, "Rheinisch Westhilisches Koblensyndikat," which ordered deliveries to be made to the Reich, to Alsace-Lorraine and Luxembourg.
According to the same German report, Page 67, in spite of the rise in the price of coal agreed to on 20 August 1940, 1 January 1941, and I January 1943, the coal industry showed considerable losses in the course of the occupation years. In February 1943, the coal office having agreed to an increase of the sales price, the price per ton for the Belgian coal was higher than on the German home market. The German commissioner for the mining industry forced the Belgian industry to pay the difference in rate when exporting to the Reich by means of premiums. From the figures indicated in Exhibits Numbers RF-176 (Document Number ECH-35) and 178 (Document Numbers ECH-26 and 27), the Tribunal may gather information as to the financial losses caused by exploitation. The report of the military administration gives in its eleventh section details regarding the iron-smelting industry: It suffered as greatly as had the coal industry during the occupation. In the Thomas smelting works in particular, the losses resulted from the increase in the cost price and from price fluctuations in respect to certain elements pertaining to the manufacture. In this one sector, according to the memorandum of the Belgian Government, the respective losses may be assessed at 3,000 million Belgian francs. Still, according to the same report, out of a total production of 1,400,000 tons, 1,300,000 tons of various products were exported to Germany not including the metal delivered to Belgian factories working exclusively for Germany.
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22 Jan. 46
According to information furnished by the Belgian Government, the Germans removed in bulk and transported to Germany material of very great value. The total industrial spoliation is estimated by the Belgian Government at a sum of 2,000 million Belgian francs, at the 1940 rate, of course. These removals constitute a real material loss; and from the fragmentary indications given to the Tribunal, this sum of 2,000 million Belgian francs is the figure which I ask
the Tribunal to note. In view of the information available at present it is not easy to estimate the extent of the levies made on industry; it is even more difficult to evaluate it in the agricultural sphere, which I shall briefly present.
Apart from the admissible needs of the occupation troops, the German authorities made an effort to obtain a supplement to the food levies in Belgium for the purpose of increasing the food of the Reich and other territories occupied by its troops. After having employed direct methods of levying, the Germans used the services of unscrupulous agents whose job it was to purchase at any price on the illicit markets; and the black market in this field assumed such proportions that the occupying authorities were frequently alarmed and in 1943 had to suppress it. Apart from the damage to livestock and to the woods and forests, which play an important part in Belgium, the damage resulting from abnormal cutting in the forests brought about an excess in deforestation reaching a figure of 2 million tons; the damage to capital caused by this premature cutting can be estimated at about 200 million Belgian francs. The military operations proper caused damage to an extent of 100 million Belgian francs; and according to the memorandum of the Belgian Government, the total damage caused to forestry reaches a figure of 460 million Belgian francs. Taking into account the damage caused by abnormal cutting in the forests and by the establishment of airfields, the Belgian Government estimates at approximately 1,000 million Belgian francs the losses suffered by its agriculture during the occupation. It must be noted, without going further into this subject, that these are net losses in capital, constituting a veritable exhaustion of substance and a consequent reduction and real consumption of the nation's resources. With this I have concluded my presentation concerning agriculture, and I pass on to transport.
The conduct of war led the Germans to utilize to the utmost the railroad network and the canal and river system of Belgium. The result was that the railroads and river fleet are included in those branches of Belgian economy which suffered most from the occupation and the hostilities which took place on Belgian soil. German
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Part 3:
M. Delpech's presentation continued in IMT vol. 6:
FORTIETH DAY Tuesday, 22 January 1946
Morning Session
M. HENRY DELPECH (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): Mr. President, Your Honors, I had the honor yesterday of beginning to explain before the Tribunal the methods of economic spoliation of Belgium by the Germans in the course of their occupation of the country.
Coming back to what was said in the course of the general considerations on economic pillage and on the behavior of the Germans in Norway and Denmark and in Holland, I have been able to show that in all places the determination to economic domination of National Socialism had manifested itself. The methods were the same everywhere, at least in their broad outlines. Therefore in immediate response to the wish expressed yesterday by the Tribunal and to fulfill the mission entrusted to the French Prosecution by the Belgian Government to plead its case before your high jurisdiction, I shall confine myself to the main outlines of the development, and I shall take the liberty of referring to the details of the German seizure of Belgian production, to the text of the report submitted to the Tribunal, and to the numerous documents which are quoted in our document book.
I have had the honor of calling your attention to the existence of the black market in Belgium, its organization by the occupation troops, and their final decision to suppress -this black market. One may, with respect to this, conclude, as has already been indicated in the course of the general observations, that in spite of their claims it was not in order to avoid inflation in Belgium that the German authorities led a campaign against the black market.
The day the Germans decided to suppress the black market, they loudly proclaimed their anxiety to spare the Belgian economy and the Belgian population the very serious consequences of the threatening inflation. In reality, the German authorities intervened against the black market in order to prevent its ever growing extension from reaching the point where it would absorb all the available merchandise and completely strangle the official market. In a word, the survival of the official market with its lower prices was finally much more profitable for the army of occupation.
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22 Jan. 46
I now come, gentlemen, to Page 46 of my presentation, to the third Chapter-purchases which were regular in appearance, which had only one aim, namely the subjugation of Belgian productive power.
Carrying out their program of domination of the countries of Western Europe as it had been established since before 1939, the Germans, from the moment they entered Belgium in May 1940, took all the measures which seemed to them appropriate to assure the subjugation of Belgian production. No sector of Belgian economy was to be spared. If the pillage seems more noticeable in the economic sphere, that is only because of the very marked industrial character of Belgian economy. Agriculture and transport were not to escape the German hold, and I propose to discuss first the levies in kind in industry.
Belgian industry was the first to be attacked. Thus, the military commander in Belgium, in agreement with the various offices of the Reich for raw materials and with the Office of the Four Year Plan and the Ministry of Economics, drew up a program the purpose of which was to convert almost the whole of Belgian production to the bellicose ends of the Reich. Already on the 13th of September 1940 he was able to make known to the higher authorities a series of plans for iron, coal, textiles, and copper. I submit Exhibit Number RF-162 (Document Number ECH-2) in support of this statement.
Also a report by Lieutenant Colonel, Dr. Hedler, entitled "Change in Economic Direction," states that from 14 September 1940 the Army Ordnance Branch sent to its subordinate formations the following instructions, to be found in the document book under Exhibit Number RF-163 (Document Number ECH-84). I read the last paragraph of Page 41 of the German text:
"I attach the greatest importance to the proposition that the factories in the occupied western territories, Holland, Belgium, and France, be utilized as much as possible to ease the strain on the German armament production and to increase the war potential. Enterprises located in Denmark are also to be employed to an increasing extent for subcontracts. In doing so the operational directives of the regulation of the Reich Marshal as well as the regulations concerning the economy of raw materials in the occupied territories are to be strictly observed."
All these arrangements quickly enabled the Germans to control and to direct Belgium's whole production and distribution for the German war effort.
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22 Jan. 46
The decree of 27 May 1940, VOBEL Number 2, submitted as Document Number RF-164, established commodity control offices whose task was-and I quote from the third paragraph:
"... to issue, in compliance with Army Group directives, general regulations or individual orders to enterprises which are producing, dealing with, or using controlled commodities, in order to regulate production and ensure just distribution and rational utilization while keeping to the place of work, as far as possible."
Article 4 of the same text indicated in detail the powers of these commodity control offices, and in particular they were given the right:
"To force enterprises to sell their products to specified purchasers; to forbid or require the utilization of certain raw materials; to subject to their approval every sale or purchase of commodities."
To conceal more effectively their real objective, the Germans gave these commodity control offices independence and the status of a corporation. Thus, there were set up 11 commodity control offices which embraced the whole economy except coal, the direction of which was left under the Belgian Office of Coal. Exhibit Number RF-165 (Document Number ECH-3), gives proof of this. The execution of the regulations was ensured by a series of texts promulgated by the Belgian authorities in Brussels. They issued in particular a decree dated 3 September 1940, by virtue of which Belgian organizations took over again the offices which the Germans gave up.
These offices were to experience various vicissitudes. Although originating from the Belgian Ministry of Economics, they were closely controlled by the German military command. In this way, the seizure of Belgian production was completed by the appointment of "Commissioners of Enterprises," under the ordinance of 29 April 1941, submitted as Document Number RF-166. Article 2 of this text defines the powers of the commissioners:
"The duty of the Commissioner is to set or keep in motion the enterprise under his charge, to ensure the systematic fulfillment of orders, and to take all measures which increase the output."
The decline of the commodity control offices began with an ordinance dated 6 August 1942, establishing the principle providing for the prohibition of manufacturing certain products or for ordering the use of certain raw materials. This ordinance is to be found in the document book under Document Number RF-167.
Supervision of the commodity control offices was soon organized by the
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22 Jan. 46
appointment to each of them of a German Commissioner, selected by the competent Reichsstelle.
From the last months of 1943 on, the "Rustungsobmann" Office of the Armament and War Production Ministry (Speer), acquired the habit of passing its orders direct, without having recourse to the channel of the commodity control offices.
Even before this date measures had been taken to prevent any initiative that was not in accord with the German war aims. Further and even before the above ordinance of 6 August 1942, the ordinance of 30 March 1942 should be mentioned, which made the establishment or extension of commercial enterprises subject to previous authorization by the military commissioner.
In the-report of the military administration in Belgium that has already been cited, the chief of the administrative staff, Raeder, specifies in Exhibit Number RF-169 (Document Number ECH-335) that for the period of January to March 1943 alone, out of 2,000 iron works, 400 were closed down for working irrationally or being useless to the war aims.
The closing of these factories seems to have been caused less by the concern for a rational production than by the cunning desire to obtain cheaply valuable tools and machines. In this connection, it is appropriate to point to the establishment of a Machine Pool Office. The above quoted report of the military administration in Belgium, in the 11th section, Pages 56 and following, is particularly significant in this respect. Here is an extract from the German text, the last lines of the last paragraph of Page 56, in the French translation, the last lines . . .
THE PRESIDENT (Lord Justice Sir Geoffrey Lawrence): That passage you read about the Defendant Raeder, was that from Document 169 or 170?
M. DELPECH: Mr. President, I spoke yesterday of the chief of the administration section, Raeder. He was section chief in Brussels. He has no connection with the defendant here.
THE PRESIDENT: I see, very well.
M. DELPECH: Exhibit Number RF-171 (Document Number ECH-10), second paragraph of the French text. The paragraph concerns the Machine Pool transactions:
"Proof may be seen by a brief glance at the pool operations dealt with and actually carried out. Altogether 567 demands have been dealt with, to a total value of 4.6 million Reichsmark."
Raeder then gave a number of figures. I shall pass over these and I come to the end of the first paragraph, Page 57 in the German text:
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"The legal basis for the requisition of these machines was the Hague Convention of 1907, Articles 52 and 53. The formulation of the Hague Convention which provides for requisitions only for the benefit and the needs of the occupying power, applied to the circumstances of the year 1907, that is, to a time when war actions were confined within narrowly restricted areas and practically the military front alone was involved in war operations. In view of such space restrictions for war, it was evident that the provisions of the Hague Convention, stipulating that requisitions be made solely for the needs of the occupying power, were sufficient for the conduct of operations. Modern war, however, which by its expansion to total war is no longer bound by space but has developed into a general struggle of peoples and economies, requires that while the regulations of the Hague Convention should be maintained, there should be a sensible interpretation of its principles adapted to the demands of modern warfare." I pass to the end of this quotation:
"Whenever, in requisitioning, reference was made to the ordinance of the military commander of 6 August 1942, this was done in order to give the Belgian population the necessary interpretation of the meaning of the principle of the requisition regulations of the Hague Convention." Such an interpretation may leave jurists wondering, who have not been trained in the school of National Socialism. It cannot in any case justify the pillage of industry and the subjugation of Belgian production. These few considerations show how subtle and varied were the methods employed by the Germans to attain their aims in the economic sphere. In the same way as the preceding statements on clearing operations and the utilization of occupation costs, they make it possible to specify the methods employed for exacting heavy levies from the Belgian economy. Whereas in certain spheres, as in agriculture and transport, it has been possible to assess the extent of economic pillage with a certain exactitude, there are, however, numerous industrial sectors where assessments cannot yet be made. It is true that a considerable part of the industrial losses correspond to the clearing operations, particularly through requisition of stocks. It will therefore be necessary to confine ourselves to the directives of the policy practiced by the Germans. We may examine briefly the way in which economic spoliation took place in three sectors: industry, agriculture, and transport.
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First the industrial sector: The clearing statistics, in the first place, give particulars of the total burdens imposed upon the various industrial branches. The report of the military administration in Belgium, to which I shall refer constantly, gives the following details, briefly summarized: From the very beginning of the occupation the Germans demanded an inventory of supplies on which they were to impose considerable levies, notably textiles and non-ferrous metals. I shall confine myself to some brief remarks on textiles and nonferrous metals.
The example of the textiles industry is particularly revealing: On the eve of the invasion, the Belgian textile industry, with its 165,000 workers, was the second largest industry in Belgium after the metal industry. Under the pretext of avoiding the exhaustion of the very important supplies then still available, an ordinance of 27 July 1940 prohibited the textile industry to work at more than 30 percent of its 1938 capacity. For the period from May to December 1940 alone requisitions were not less than 1,000 million Belgian francs. They particularly affected nearly half of the wool stock available in the country on May 10, 1940, and nearly one-third of the stock of raw cotton. On the other hand, the forced closing down of factories constituted for the Germans an excellent excuse for taking away, on the pretext of hiring, unused equipment, unless it was requisitioned at a cheap price. The ordinance of 7 September 1942, which is to be found in the document book under Document Number RF-174, laid down the manner in which factories were to be closed in execution of the right accorded to the occupation authorities; and it also gave the right to dissolve certain business and industrial groups and to order their liquidation.
Consolidation of enterprises was the pretext given. In the month of January 1944, 65 percent of the textile factories had been stopped. I shall not go into the details of these operations and I shall pass on to Page 58. The report of the German military administration quoted above gives particularly significant figures as to production. Of a total output of the wool industry of 72,000 tons for the entire period May 1940 to the end of June 1944, representing a value of about 397 million Reichsmark, the distribution of the deliveries between the German and Belgian markets is the following: The German market, 64,700 tons, 314 million Reichsmark; the Belgian market, 7,700 tons, 83 million Reichsmark. The whole spoliation of the textile industry is contained in these figures. Belgian consumption obviously had to suffer a great deal from the German policy of direction of the textile market. The same report of the military administration
furnishes details, stating that
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in 1938 the needs in textile products amounted in Belgium to a monthly average of twelve kilos. The respective figures for the occupation years are the following: 1940 to 1941-2.1 kilos per head, 1941 to 1942-1.4, 1942 to 1943-1.4, 1943 to 1944-0.7. The diminution of Belgian consumption under the Germans is contained in these two figures; twelve kilos per head in 1938; 0.7 kilo at the end of the occupation. - On the other side, the Belgian Government gives the following details on the pillage of this produce. Compulsory deliveries to Germany during the occupation amounted to: Cotton yam, about 40 percent of the production; linen, 75 percent; rayon, 15 percent. Finally, out of the textile stocks remaining in Belgium a great percentage was still taken away by the Germans through purchases on the Belgian markets, purchases of finished or manufactured products. The equivalent of these forced deliveries can generally be found in the clearing statistics, unless it is placed under misrepresented occupation costs. I have finished with textiles.
As to the non-ferrous metal industry, Belgium was in 1939 the largest producer in Europe of non- ferrous metals, of copper, lead, zinc, and tin. The statistics included in the report of the military command, which are to be found in Exhibit Number RF-173 (Document Number ECH-11), will furnish the evidence for the Tribunal. On the 18th of February 1941, in connection with the Four Year Plan, the Reich Office for Metals and the Supreme Command of the Army worked out a "metal" plan which provided for Belgian consumption; the carrying out of German orders; exports to the Reich. These various measures did not satisfy the occupying authorities so they ran a certain number of salvage campaigns which were called "special actions" (Sonderaktionen) in accordance with the method they applied in all the countries of Western Europe. I shall not go into the details of these actions which are described on Page 63 and following of the report; the salvage campaigns for bells, for printing lead, for lead and copper-from information given by the Belgian Government, Document Number RF-146, Page 65 of the report. In other fields, but without admitting it, the Germans pursued a policy intended to eliminate or to restrict Belgian competition, so that in case of a German victory the economic branches concerned would have had to restrict themselves to the Belgian market, which would then have remained wide open to German business.
These attempts at immediate or future suppression of competition were clearly evident in the case of foundries, glass works, textile
7
22 Jan. 46
industries, construction works, car assembling, construction of material for narrow-gauge railroads, the leather industry, and especially shoe-manufacturing, for which reconstruction of destroyed factories was systematically prohibited. But in addition, in the textile industry as well as in numerous sectors, especially in the iron-smelting industry, the weakening of the economy cannot be measured only by the scale of the compulsory deliveries but in relation to the policy practiced by the occupying power. Belgian industry, especially coal and iron, suffered considerable losses as a result of directives imposed to finance the war needs at a cheaper rate. I shall pass over the question of prices of coal. The control of the coal industry was assured by the appointment of a plenipotentiary for coal and by centralization of all sales in the hands of a single organism, the "single seller," under Belgian direction but with a German commissioner. I am referring to the Belgian coal office, one seller to a single purchaser, "Rheinisch Westhilisches Koblensyndikat," which ordered deliveries to be made to the Reich, to Alsace-Lorraine and Luxembourg.
According to the same German report, Page 67, in spite of the rise in the price of coal agreed to on 20 August 1940, 1 January 1941, and I January 1943, the coal industry showed considerable losses in the course of the occupation years. In February 1943, the coal office having agreed to an increase of the sales price, the price per ton for the Belgian coal was higher than on the German home market. The German commissioner for the mining industry forced the Belgian industry to pay the difference in rate when exporting to the Reich by means of premiums. From the figures indicated in Exhibits Numbers RF-176 (Document Number ECH-35) and 178 (Document Numbers ECH-26 and 27), the Tribunal may gather information as to the financial losses caused by exploitation. The report of the military administration gives in its eleventh section details regarding the iron-smelting industry: It suffered as greatly as had the coal industry during the occupation. In the Thomas smelting works in particular, the losses resulted from the increase in the cost price and from price fluctuations in respect to certain elements pertaining to the manufacture. In this one sector, according to the memorandum of the Belgian Government, the respective losses may be assessed at 3,000 million Belgian francs. Still, according to the same report, out of a total production of 1,400,000 tons, 1,300,000 tons of various products were exported to Germany not including the metal delivered to Belgian factories working exclusively for Germany.
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22 Jan. 46
According to information furnished by the Belgian Government, the Germans removed in bulk and transported to Germany material of very great value. The total industrial spoliation is estimated by the Belgian Government at a sum of 2,000 million Belgian francs, at the 1940 rate, of course. These removals constitute a real material loss; and from the fragmentary indications given to the Tribunal, this sum of 2,000 million Belgian francs is the figure which I ask
the Tribunal to note. In view of the information available at present it is not easy to estimate the extent of the levies made on industry; it is even more difficult to evaluate it in the agricultural sphere, which I shall briefly present.
Apart from the admissible needs of the occupation troops, the German authorities made an effort to obtain a supplement to the food levies in Belgium for the purpose of increasing the food of the Reich and other territories occupied by its troops. After having employed direct methods of levying, the Germans used the services of unscrupulous agents whose job it was to purchase at any price on the illicit markets; and the black market in this field assumed such proportions that the occupying authorities were frequently alarmed and in 1943 had to suppress it. Apart from the damage to livestock and to the woods and forests, which play an important part in Belgium, the damage resulting from abnormal cutting in the forests brought about an excess in deforestation reaching a figure of 2 million tons; the damage to capital caused by this premature cutting can be estimated at about 200 million Belgian francs. The
military operations proper caused damage to an extent of 100 million Belgian francs; and according to the memorandum of the Belgian Government, the total damage caused to forestry reaches a figure of 460 million Belgian francs. Taking into account the damage caused by abnormal cutting in the forests and by the establishment of airfields, the Belgian Government estimates at approximately 1,000 million Belgian francs the losses suffered by its agriculture during the occupation. It must be noted, without going further into this subject, that these are net losses in capital, constituting a veritable exhaustion of substance and a consequent reduction and real consumption of the nation's resources.
With this I have concluded my presentation concerning agriculture, and I pass on to transport.
The conduct of war led the Germans to utilize to the utmost the railroad network and the canal and river system of Belgium. The result was that the railroads and river fleet are included in those branches of Belgian economy which suffered most from the occupation and the hostilities which took place on Belgian soil. German
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22 Jan. 46
M. Delpech's presentation continued in IMT vol. 6:
FORTIETH DAY Tuesday, 22 January 1946
Morning Session
M. HENRY DELPECH (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): Mr. President, Your Honors, I had the honor yesterday of beginning to explain before the Tribunal the methods of economic spoliation of Belgium by the Germans in the course of their occupation of the country.
Coming back to what was said in the course of the general considerations on economic pillage and on the behavior of the Germans in Norway and Denmark and in Holland, I have been able to show that in all places the determination to economic domination of National Socialism had manifested itself. The methods were the same everywhere, at least in their broad outlines. Therefore in immediate response to the wish expressed yesterday by the Tribunal and to fulfill the mission entrusted to the French Prosecution by the Belgian Government to plead its case before your high jurisdiction, I shall confine myself to the main outlines of the development, and I shall take the liberty of referring to the details of the German seizure of Belgian production, to the text of the report submitted to the Tribunal, and to the numerous documents which are quoted in our document book.
I have had the honor of calling your attention to the existence of the black market in Belgium, its organization by the occupation troops, and their final decision to suppress -this black market. One may, with respect to this, conclude, as has already been indicated in the course of the general observations, that in spite of their claims it was not in order to avoid inflation in Belgium that the German authorities led a campaign against the black market.
The day the Germans decided to suppress the black market, they loudly proclaimed their anxiety to spare the Belgian economy and the Belgian population the very serious consequences of the threatening inflation. In reality, the German authorities intervened against the black market in order to prevent its ever growing extension from reaching the point where it would absorb all the available merchandise and completely strangle the official market. In a word, the survival of the official market with its lower prices was finally much more profitable for the army of occupation.
1
22 Jan. 46
I now come, gentlemen, to Page 46 of my presentation, to the third Chapter-purchases which were regular in appearance, which had only one aim, namely the subjugation of Belgian productive power.
Carrying out their program of domination of the countries of Western Europe as it had been established since before 1939, the Germans, from the moment they entered Belgium in May 1940, took all the measures which seemed to them appropriate to assure the subjugation of Belgian production. No sector of Belgian economy was to be spared. If the pillage seems more noticeable in the economic sphere, that is only because of the very marked industrial character of Belgian economy. Agriculture and transport were not to escape the German hold, and I propose to discuss first the levies in kind in industry.
Belgian industry was the first to be attacked. Thus, the military commander in Belgium, in agreement with the various offices of the Reich for raw materials and with the Office of the Four Year Plan and the Ministry of Economics, drew up a program the purpose of which was to convert almost the whole of Belgian production to the bellicose ends of the Reich. Already on the 13th of September 1940 he was able to make known to the higher authorities a series of plans for iron, coal, textiles, and copper. I submit Exhibit Number RF-162 (Document Number ECH-2) in support of this statement.
Also a report by Lieutenant Colonel, Dr. Hedler, entitled "Change in Economic Direction," states that from 14 September 1940 the Army Ordnance Branch sent to its subordinate formations the following instructions, to be found in the document book under Exhibit Number RF-163 (Document Number ECH-84). I read the last paragraph of Page 41 of the German text:
"I attach the greatest importance to the proposition that the factories in the occupied western territories, Holland, Belgium, and France, be utilized as much as possible to ease the strain on the German armament production and to increase the war potential. Enterprises located in Denmark are also to be employed to an increasing extent for subcontracts. In doing so the operational directives of the regulation of the Reich Marshal as well as the regulations concerning the economy of raw materials in the occupied territories are to be strictly observed."
All these arrangements quickly enabled the Germans to control and to direct Belgium's whole production and distribution for the German war effort.
2
22 Jan. 46
The decree of 27 May 1940, VOBEL Number 2, submitted as Document Number RF-164, established commodity control offices whose task was-and I quote from the third paragraph:
"... to issue, in compliance with Army Group directives, general regulations or individual orders to enterprises which are producing, dealing with, or using controlled commodities, in order to regulate production and ensure just distribution and rational utilization while keeping to the place of work, as far as possible."
Article 4 of the same text indicated in detail the powers of these commodity control offices, and in particular they were given the right:
"To force enterprises to sell their products to specified purchasers; to forbid or require the utilization of certain raw materials; to subject to their approval every sale or purchase of commodities."
To conceal more effectively their real objective, the Germans gave these commodity control offices independence and the status of a corporation. Thus, there were set up 11 commodity control offices which embraced the whole economy except coal, the direction of which was left under the Belgian Office of Coal. Exhibit Number RF-165 (Document Number ECH-3), gives proof of this. The execution of the regulations was ensured by a series of texts promulgated by the Belgian authorities in Brussels. They issued in particular a decree dated 3 September 1940, by virtue of which Belgian organizations took over again the offices which the Germans gave up.
These offices were to experience various vicissitudes. Although originating from the Belgian Ministry of Economics, they were closely controlled by the German military command. In this way, the seizure of Belgian production was completed by the appointment of "Commissioners of Enterprises," under the ordinance of 29 April 1941, submitted as Document Number RF-166. Article 2 of this text defines the powers of the commissioners:
"The duty of the Commissioner is to set or keep in motion the enterprise under his charge, to ensure the systematic fulfillment of orders, and to take all measures which increase the output."
The decline of the commodity control offices began with an ordinance dated 6 August 1942, establishing the principle providing for the prohibition of manufacturing certain products or for ordering the use of certain raw materials. This ordinance is to be found in the document book under Document Number RF-167.
Supervision of the commodity control offices was soon organized by the
3
22 Jan. 46
appointment to each of them of a German Commissioner, selected by the competent Reichsstelle.
From the last months of 1943 on, the "Rustungsobmann" Office of the Armament and War Production Ministry (Speer), acquired the habit of passing its orders direct, without having recourse to the channel of the commodity control offices.
Even before this date measures had been taken to prevent any initiative that was not in accord with the German war aims. Further and even before the above ordinance of 6 August 1942, the ordinance of 30 March 1942 should be mentioned, which made the establishment or extension of commercial enterprises subject to previous authorization by the military commissioner.
In the-report of the military administration in Belgium that has already been cited, the chief of the administrative staff, Raeder, specifies in Exhibit Number RF-169 (Document Number ECH-335) that for the period of January to March 1943 alone, out of 2,000 iron works, 400 were closed down for working irrationally or being useless to the war aims.
The closing of these factories seems to have been caused less by the concern for a rational production than by the cunning desire to obtain cheaply valuable tools and machines. In this connection, it is appropriate to point to the establishment of a Machine Pool Office. The above quoted report of the military administration in Belgium, in the 11th section, Pages 56 and following, is particularly significant in this respect. Here is an extract from the German text, the last lines of the last paragraph of Page 56, in the French translation, the last lines . . .
THE PRESIDENT (Lord Justice Sir Geoffrey Lawrence): That passage you read about the Defendant Raeder, was that from Document 169 or 170?
M. DELPECH: Mr. President, I spoke yesterday of the chief of the administration section, Raeder. He was section chief in Brussels. He has no connection with the defendant here.
THE PRESIDENT: I see, very well.
M. DELPECH: Exhibit Number RF-171 (Document Number ECH-10), second paragraph of the French text. The paragraph concerns the Machine Pool transactions:
"Proof may be seen by a brief glance at the pool operations dealt with and actually carried out. Altogether 567 demands have been dealt with, to a total value of 4.6 million Reichsmark."
Raeder then gave a number of figures. I shall pass over these and I come to the end of the first paragraph, Page 57 in the German text:
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"The legal basis for the requisition of these machines was the Hague Convention of 1907, Articles 52 and 53. The formulation of the Hague Convention which provides for requisitions only for the benefit and the needs of the occupying power, applied to the circumstances of the year 1907, that is, to a time when war actions were confined within narrowly restricted areas and practically the military front alone was involved in war operations. In view of such space restrictions for war, it was evident that the provisions of the Hague Convention, stipulating that requisitions be made solely for the needs of the occupying power, were sufficient for the conduct of operations. Modern war, however, which by its expansion to total war is no longer bound by space but has developed into a general struggle of peoples and economies, requires that while the regulations of the Hague Convention should be maintained, there should be a sensible interpretation of its principles adapted to the demands of modern warfare." I pass to the end of this quotation:
"Whenever, in requisitioning, reference was made to the ordinance of the military commander of 6 August 1942, this was done in order to give the Belgian population the necessary interpretation of the meaning of the principle of the requisition regulations of the Hague Convention." Such an interpretation may leave jurists wondering, who have not been trained in the school of National Socialism. It cannot in any case justify the pillage of industry and the subjugation of Belgian production. These few considerations show how subtle and varied were the methods employed by the Germans to attain their aims in the economic sphere. In the same way as the preceding statements on clearing operations and the utilization of occupation costs, they make it possible to specify the methods employed for exacting heavy levies from the Belgian economy. Whereas in certain spheres, as in agriculture and transport, it has been possible to assess the extent of economic pillage with a certain exactitude, there are, however, numerous industrial sectors where assessments cannot yet be made. It is true that a considerable part of the industrial losses correspond to the clearing operations, particularly through requisition of stocks. It will therefore be necessary to confine ourselves to the directives of the policy practiced by the Germans. We may examine briefly the way in which economic spoliation took place in three sectors: industry, agriculture, and transport.
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First the industrial sector: The clearing statistics, in the first place, give particulars of the total burdens imposed upon the various industrial branches. The report of the military administration in Belgium, to which I shall refer constantly, gives the following details, briefly summarized: From the very beginning of the occupation the Germans demanded an inventory of supplies on which they were to impose considerable levies, notably textiles and non-ferrous metals. I shall confine myself to some brief remarks on textiles and nonferrous metals.
The example of the textiles industry is particularly revealing: On the eve of the invasion, the Belgian textile industry, with its 165,000 workers, was the second largest industry in Belgium after the metal industry. Under the pretext of avoiding the exhaustion of the very important supplies then still available, an ordinance of 27 July 1940 prohibited the textile industry to work at more than 30 percent of its 1938 capacity. For the period from May to December 1940 alone requisitions were not less than 1,000 million Belgian francs. They particularly affected nearly half of the wool stock available in the country on May 10, 1940, and nearly one-third of the stock of raw cotton. On the other hand, the forced closing down of factories constituted for the Germans an excellent excuse for taking away, on the pretext of hiring, unused equipment, unless it was requisitioned at a cheap price. The ordinance of 7 September 1942, which is to be found in the document book under Document Number RF-174, laid down the manner in which factories were to be closed in execution of the right accorded to the occupation authorities; and it also gave the right to dissolve certain business and industrial groups and to order their liquidation.
Consolidation of enterprises was the pretext given. In the month of January 1944, 65 percent of the textile factories had been stopped. I shall not go into the details of these operations and I shall pass on to Page 58. The report of the German military administration quoted above gives particularly significant figures as to production. Of a total output of the wool industry of 72,000 tons for the entire period May 1940 to the end of June 1944, representing a value of about 397 million Reichsmark, the distribution of the deliveries between the German and Belgian markets is the following: The German market, 64,700 tons, 314 million Reichsmark; the Belgian market, 7,700 tons, 83 million Reichsmark. The whole spoliation of the textile industry is contained in these figures. Belgian consumption obviously had to suffer a great deal from the German policy of direction of the textile market. The same report of the military administration
furnishes details, stating that
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in 1938 the needs in textile products amounted in Belgium to a monthly average of twelve kilos. The respective figures for the occupation years are the following: 1940 to 1941-2.1 kilos per head, 1941 to 1942-1.4, 1942 to 1943-1.4, 1943 to 1944-0.7. The diminution of Belgian consumption under the Germans is contained in these two figures; twelve kilos per head in 1938; 0.7 kilo at the end of the occupation. - On the other side, the Belgian Government gives the following details on the pillage of this produce. Compulsory deliveries to Germany during the occupation amounted to: Cotton yam, about 40 percent of the production; linen, 75 percent; rayon, 15 percent. Finally, out of the textile stocks remaining in Belgium a great percentage was still taken away by the Germans through purchases on the Belgian markets, purchases of finished or manufactured products. The equivalent of these forced deliveries can generally be found in the clearing statistics, unless it is placed under misrepresented occupation costs. I have finished with textiles.
As to the non-ferrous metal industry, Belgium was in 1939 the largest producer in Europe of non- ferrous metals, of copper, lead, zinc, and tin. The statistics included in the report of the military command, which are to be found in Exhibit Number RF-173 (Document Number ECH-11), will furnish the evidence for the Tribunal. On the 18th of February 1941, in connection with the Four Year Plan, the Reich Office for Metals and the Supreme Command of the Army worked out a "metal" plan which provided for Belgian consumption; the carrying out of German orders; exports to the Reich. These various measures did not satisfy the occupying authorities so they ran a certain number of salvage campaigns which were called "special actions" (Sonderaktionen) in accordance with the method they applied in all the countries of Western Europe. I shall not go into the details of these actions which are described on Page 63 and following of the report; the salvage campaigns for bells, for printing lead, for lead and copper-from information given by the Belgian Government, Document Number RF-146, Page 65 of the report. In other fields, but without admitting it, the Germans pursued a policy intended to eliminate or to restrict Belgian competition, so that in case of a German victory the economic branches concerned would have had to restrict themselves to the Belgian market, which would then have remained wide open to German business.
These attempts at immediate or future suppression of competition were clearly evident in the case of foundries, glass works, textile
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industries, construction works, car assembling, construction of material for narrow-gauge railroads, the leather industry, and especially shoe-manufacturing, for which reconstruction of destroyed factories was systematically prohibited. But in addition, in the textile industry as well as in numerous sectors, especially in the iron-smelting industry, the weakening of the economy cannot be measured only by the scale of the compulsory deliveries but in relation to the policy practiced by the occupying power. Belgian industry, especially coal and iron, suffered considerable losses as a result of directives imposed to finance the war needs at a cheaper rate. I shall pass over the question of prices of coal. The control of the coal industry was assured by the appointment of a plenipotentiary for coal and by centralization of all sales in the hands of a single organism, the "single seller," under Belgian direction but with a German commissioner. I am referring to the Belgian coal office, one seller to a single purchaser, "Rheinisch Westhilisches Koblensyndikat," which ordered deliveries to be made to the Reich, to Alsace-Lorraine and Luxembourg.
According to the same German report, Page 67, in spite of the rise in the price of coal agreed to on 20 August 1940, 1 January 1941, and I January 1943, the coal industry showed considerable losses in the course of the occupation years. In February 1943, the coal office having agreed to an increase of the sales price, the price per ton for the Belgian coal was higher than on the German home market. The German commissioner for the mining industry forced the Belgian industry to pay the difference in rate when exporting to the Reich by means of premiums. From the figures indicated in Exhibits Numbers RF-176 (Document Number ECH-35) and 178 (Document Numbers ECH-26 and 27), the Tribunal may gather information as to the financial losses caused by exploitation. The report of the military administration gives in its eleventh section details regarding the iron-smelting industry: It suffered as greatly as had the coal industry during the occupation. In the Thomas smelting works in particular, the losses resulted from the increase in the cost price and from price fluctuations in respect to certain elements pertaining to the manufacture. In this one sector, according to the memorandum of the Belgian Government, the respective losses may be assessed at 3,000 million Belgian francs. Still, according to the same report, out of a total production of 1,400,000 tons, 1,300,000 tons of various products were exported to Germany not including the metal delivered to Belgian factories working exclusively for Germany.
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According to information furnished by the Belgian Government, the Germans removed in bulk and transported to Germany material of very great value. The total industrial spoliation is estimated by the Belgian Government at a sum of 2,000 million Belgian francs, at the 1940 rate, of course. These removals constitute a real material loss; and from the fragmentary indications given to the Tribunal, this sum of 2,000 million Belgian francs is the figure which I ask
the Tribunal to note. In view of the information available at present it is not easy to estimate the extent of the levies made on industry; it is even more difficult to evaluate it in the agricultural sphere, which I shall briefly present.
Apart from the admissible needs of the occupation troops, the German authorities made an effort to obtain a supplement to the food levies in Belgium for the purpose of increasing the food of the Reich and other territories occupied by its troops. After having employed direct methods of levying, the Germans used the services of unscrupulous agents whose job it was to purchase at any price on the illicit markets; and the black market in this field assumed such proportions that the occupying authorities were frequently alarmed and in 1943 had to suppress it. Apart from the damage to livestock and to the woods and forests, which play an important part in Belgium, the damage resulting from abnormal cutting in the forests brought about an excess in deforestation reaching a figure of 2 million tons; the damage to capital caused by this premature cutting can be estimated at about 200 million Belgian francs. The
military operations proper caused damage to an extent of 100 million Belgian francs; and according to the memorandum of the Belgian Government, the total damage caused to forestry reaches a figure of 460 million Belgian francs. Taking into account the damage caused by abnormal cutting in the forests and by the establishment of airfields, the Belgian Government estimates at approximately 1,000 million Belgian francs the losses suffered by its agriculture during the occupation. It must be noted, without going further into this subject, that these are net losses in capital, constituting a veritable exhaustion of substance and a consequent reduction and real consumption of the nation's resources.
With this I have concluded my presentation concerning agriculture, and I pass on to transport.
The conduct of war led the Germans to utilize to the utmost the railroad network and the canal and river system of Belgium. The result was that the railroads and river fleet are included in those branches of Belgian economy which suffered most from the occupation and the hostilities which took place on Belgian soil. German
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David Thompson
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Part 4 (final):
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traffic was simultaneously a traffic of personnel as demanded by military operations and a traffic of merchandise, coal, minerals, pit- props, foodstuffs, not to speak of the considerable quantities of construction material required for the fortification of the coast of the North Sea.
Railroads: The report of the Belgian Government shows that the damages suffered by the railroads consisted of losses in capital as well as of losses in revenue. Losses in capital resulted first and principally from requisitions and removals, to which the Germans proceeded in a wholesale fashion from the moment of their entry into Belgium. Thus in particular they immediately drained the stock of locomotives under the pretext of recovering German locomotives surrendered to Belgium after the war of 1914-1918 as a means of reparation. In addition to seizures of locomotives, the Belgian National Railroad Company was subjected to numerous requisitions of material, sometimes under the form of rental; these requisitions are estimated at 4,500 million francs at the 1940 value. Against the losses in capital, losses in revenue (Page 77) resulted principally from the free transportation service required by the Wehrmacht, also from the price policy pursued by the occupying power. These levies and these exceptional costs could be borne by the organizations concerned only by making large drains on the treasury.
Regarding automobiles, I shall say hardly anything (Page 79). The losses amount to about 3,000 million Belgian francs, out of which individuals received as compensation for requisition approximately 1,000 million (at the 1938 value).
We come now to river transport: The carrying out of the plan for the economic spoliation of Belgium presented the occupying power with serious transportation problems, to which I have already called attention. In this sphere the German military administration imposed upon Belgian river shipping very heavy burdens. According to the report of the Belgian Government, the losses suffered by the Belgian river fleet took three forms: Requisitions and removals by the Germans; partial or total damage through military operations; excessive deterioration of material. These three forms of damage amount to 500 million francs, of which only 100 million are represented in clearing. Damage to waterways (Page 81), rivers, streams, and canals, can be evaluated at between 1,500 million to 2,000 million francs, at the 1940 value, especially with respect to requisitions and removals of public or private harbor installations.
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Fishing boats were requisitioned for marking the river Scheldt and then disappeared without leaving any trace. Others suffered damage through requisitions or hire for military maneuvers.
Before closing this chapter concerned with levies in kind, the question of removal of industrial material may be briefly mentioned (Page 82). It has already been pointed out that the policy of production and reorganization as pursued by the military administration had as a result the closing of numerous enterprises, thus enabling the Germans to seize a great number of machines under the pretext that they were out of use.
There are no branches of industry which were not despoiled in this way. The metal industry seems now to be one of those that suffered most. Though we do not wish to try the patience of the Tribunal, it seems particularly pertinent to draw its attention briefly to the actual technique used in the organization of the levies, details which were decided upon even before the entry of German troops into the territories of Western Europe, organization putting into play military formations, organization emanating from the economy bureau of the General Staff of the Army and hence from the Defendant Keitel as Chief of the OKW.
The existence of these military detachments, veritable pillaging detachments, is proved by various German documents. Under the name of economic detachments, "Wirtschaftstrupps," or special commandos, these pillaging crews carried out nefarious and illegal activities in all the countries of Western Europe. The secret instructions for the "economic detachment J," stationed at Antwerp, are found in the file under Document Number RF- 183. They constitute a very important, irrefutable document on the German intention to pillage and an additional proof of the contempt of the National Socialist leaders for the rules of international law.
These instructions date from the last days of May 1940. 1 should like to read a few excerpts of these instructions to the Tribunal (Document Number RF-183, Page 1).
"The economic detachments are formed by the office for economic armament of the High Command of the Wehrmacht. They are placed at the disposal of the High Command of the Army for employment in the countries to be occupied." I shall skip to the bottom of Page 1 of the German document. "It is their task to gain information quickly and completely in their districts of the scarce and rationed goods (raw materials, semi- finished products, mineral oil, et cetera) and machines of most vital importance for the purposes of national defense and to make a correct return of these stocks.
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"In the case of machines, the requisition will be effected by means of a label, in the case of scarce and rationed goods, both by labelling and by guarding. "Furthermore, the economic detachments have the duty of preparing and, upon order of the Army Group, of carrying out the removal of scarce and rationed goods, mineral oils, and the most important machines. These tasks are the exclusive responsibility of the economic detachments.
"The economic detachments are to commence their activities in newly occupied territories as early as the battle situation permits."
Machines and raw materials having thus been found and identified, the new organizations went into action to dismantle and put to use these machines and raw materials in Germany.
The above quoted document RF-183 gives precise and very curious information on the formation and the strength of detachment "J" at Antwerp. The eight officers are all reserve officers, engineers, wholesale dealers, directors of mines, importers of raw materials, engineering consultants. Their names and their professions are mentioned in the document. These men are therefore all specialists in commerce and industry. The choice of these technicians cannot be attributed to mere chance.
According to the above instructions and more especially the instructions found under date of 10 May 1940, coming from General Hannecken (Exhibit Number RF-184), Document Number ECH-33, once the machines and the stocks have been identified, the offices set to work, the Roges on one hand, and the compensation bureaus on the other hand, to whose activities attention has already been called in connection with the pillage of Holland and of the Belgian non-ferrous metal industry.
Another document, which is likewise presented as Exhibit Number RF-184 (Document Number ECH-33), shows that the very composition of the economic detachments emanates from the High Command. Quoting from Page 6:
"The economic detachments already mentioned in Section I, which are composed of experts for the branches of industry found in the respective areas, shall gain information and secure stocks of raw materials and special machinery for the production of ammunition and war equipment which are at present important."
THE PRESIDENT: Is that quotation set out in your dossier?
M. DELPECH: The quotation is on Page 84, bis.
THE PRESIDENT: Would this be a convenient time to break off?
[A recess was taken.]
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M. DELPECH: Besides the economic detachments to which I have just drawn the attention of the Tribunal, detailed to remove and redistribute machinery either to factories working in the country on behalf of the occupying power or to factories in Germany, these operations were directed by the Machine Pool Office.
Such offices were set up in all the occupied territories of Western Europe during the last months of 1942, upon the order of the Minister for Armaments and War Production, for example, the Defendant Speer, and the Office of the Four Year Plan, for example, the Defendant Goering.
The Machine Pool Office for Belgium and Northern France was set up upon the decision of the Chief of the Military Economic Section in Brussels under date of 18 February 1943. Its activity has already been outlined to the Tribunal in connection with the spoliation of non-ferrous metal industries. Its activity did not stop there; it is found in all branches of industry. The Exhibit Number RF-185 (Document ECH-29) can give us figures on its activity. This activity continued to the very last days of the occupation. Requisitions of machinery and instruments were not limited to industry; Documents Numbers ECH-16 and ECH-15 (Exhibits Numbers RF-193 and 194) show the extent of the requisitioning of scientific instruments.
I have finished with the levies on industrial material.
I shall present briefly in the fourth chapter the question of services, first of all:
1. The billeting of troops. By an ordinance dated 17 December 1940, Page 88, the Germans imposed the costs of billeting their troops upon Belgium. Having done this, the occupation authorities justified themselves by a rather liberal interpretation of Article 52 of the Hague Convention, according to the provisions of which the occupying power may require levies in kind and in services.
The Wetter report (Document Number RF-186) wrongly contends that the Convention does not specify by whom the settlement should be made; Article 49 gives the right to make the occupied country defray the expenses.
Therefore Belgium had to meet expenses to the amount of 5,900 million francs for billeting costs, equipment, and furniture. The payments of the Belgian treasury for billeting is estimated in the report of the Belgian Military Administration at 5,423 million francs.
It is evident that under the pretext of billeting costs, other expenses were entered to the detriment of the Belgian economy, as in other occupied countries-the purchases of furniture which was to be sent to Germany.
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2. Transport and Communications.
To assure transport and communications, the Belgian treasury had to advance a total of 8,000 million francs. As already pointed out to the Tribunal, the seizure by the occupation authorities covered even the river fleet to the extent that the transport plan restricted the use of rail to the operation troops. According to Article 53 of the Hague Convention, the occupying army has the right to seize means of transport and communications provided that it returns them and pays indemnity. That army, however, does not possess the right to make the occupied country pay the costs of transport put at the army's disposal. That is, however, what Germany did in Belgium.
3. Labor.
The deportation of labor to Germany and forced labor in Belgium have already been explained to the Tribunal. It therefore seems unnecessary to stress this point (Page 91). At the most, we should recall certain consequences unfavorable to the Belgian economy. The measures concerning the deportation of labor caused an economic disorganization and weakening without precedent. Secondly, the departure of workers and particularly of skilled workers inadequately replaced by unskilled labor-women, adolescents and pensioners-brought about a decrease in production at the same time as an increase in the cost price, which contributed to complicating the problem of the financial equilibrium of industrial enterprises.
Third observation: The requisition of labor was the cause of political and social discontent owing to the dispersion of families and the inequalities which appeared in the requisition of workers.
Fourth and last observation: The workers were required for spheres of work which were not necessarily their own, which resulted in a loss of their professional skill. Personnel were divided and unclassed. The closing of artisan workshops brought about changes more or less felt in certain branches of production. The losses thus suffered cannot be measured in terms of money, but they are none the less important to be submitted to your jurisdiction.
I have finished with this subject and will turn to a last chapter, Chapter V, the acquisition of Belgian investments in foreign industrial enterprises. Since 1940 according to their general policy in all occupied countries of Western Europe, the Germans concerned themselves with acquiring shares in Belgian financial enterprises abroad. The official German point of view emerges clearly from a letter dated 29 July 1941, from the Minister of Finance to the Military Commander in Belgium. I have submitted it under Number 187, in the document book (Document Number RF-187).
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This conception of the right to acquire shares is certainly very far from the idea as laid down by the Hague Convention in respect to the right of requisition. It clearly shows the German leaders' determination for enrichment at the expense of Belgium.
Thus, the Germans, since May 1940, sought to obtain influence in Belgian holding companies. Not being able to violate directly international laws, particularly Article 46 of the Hague Convention, they strove to influence the members of the executive boards through persuasion rather than by force. In the course of a conference held on 3 May 1940 at the Reich Ministry of Economics, dealing with Belgian and Dutch capital which it would still be possible to acquire, it was decided that the Military Commander in Belgium should take all necessary measures to prevent, on the one hand, the destruction, transfer, sale, and illegal holding of all bonds and stocks of these countries and, on the other hand, to induce Belgian capitalists to hand over their foreign securities to the Germans. The minutes of this conference are found in the document book under Number RF-187 above.
To prevent the flight of any capital, an ordinance of 17 June 1940 was promulgated, subjecting to authorization the sending abroad of any securities and any acquisitions or disposal of foreign securities.
From 2 August 1940 the German leaders and the Defendant Goering himself took a definite stand on this point. In the course of the general remarks on economic plundering secret directives issued in this respect by the Defendant Goering. were read to you. It is the document submitted under Number RF-105 (Page 97). In spite of the German assurances and in spite of the wish of the occupying power to preserve the appearance of regularity, the German desire to absorb certain shares met with serious resistance. The occupation authorities several times had to resort to compulsion to conclude sales, in spite of the rights which they had reserved for themselves in the above cited decree of 27 August 1940. This was particularly the case with regard to the shares held by the Belgian Metal Trust in the electrical enterprises of Eastern Silesia and, still more clearly, the case regarding the shares of the Austrian Metal Company, which at that time were wanted by the Hermann Goering Works. The Belgian ill-will increased as the German determination to pillage became more evident. In this report of I December 1942, Exhibit Number RF-191 (Document Number ECR-132), the German Commissioner with the National Bank very clearly denounces this resistance on the part of the Belgian market. Almost all acquisitions which could be realized by the Germans were settled by means of clearing (Page 98).
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The balance of clearing capital credited to Belgium, to the amount of 1,000 million Belgian francs on 31 August 1944, represents a forced loan imposed upon Belgium without any legal or logical relation to occupation costs, unless it is the Germans' will to hegemony.
Such a practice, contrary to the principles of international law and to the rules of criminal law of civilized nations, falls under Article 6(b) of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal and constitutes an act of pillage of public or private property such as is envisaged in the above mentioned text. Closely allied to the acquisition of shares and always within the framework of legality, the levies made by the German authorities on foreign, enemy, and Jewish property, should be pointed out to the Tribunal.
As to foreign property seized by the Germans, it must be mentioned that this measure was applied to French capital in Belgium in spite of numerous protests by the French Government. As to Jewish property, for the years 1943 and 1944, the figures are presented in Document Number ECH-35 (Exhibit Number RF-192). With this I conclude the presentation of the economic spoliation of Belgium (Page 100).
The damage caused to Belgian economy in its principal branches have just been submitted to the Tribunal. The statistical data have been taken either from German reports or from official reports of the Belgian Government. The available estimates and figures are not yet sufficiently exact to fix the costs of war, the occupation and economic spoliation of Belgium; some losses and damages cannot be expressed in money. Among them, first of all, we must mention the privations resulting from the German commandeering of a large part of food supplies and from the particular situation of billeting and clothing. This purely material aspect of the question should not cause us to overlook the consequences of the occupation upon the public health (Page 103). For lack of statistical data, it is difficult to show precisely the final state of public health resulting from the particular circumstances.
One fact, however, must be remembered: The considerable increase in the number of persons who were eligible for special invalid diets. This number rose from 2,000 a month in 1941 to more than 25,000 a month in 1944. It had, therefore, increased more than tenfold, in spite of the rationing measures which became more and more severe.
This increase in nutritional aid given to sick persons deserves the attention of the Tribunal, less for itself and for its statistical interest, than because it is the indication of the increase of disease
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in Belgium. This increase is itself the result of the undernourishment of the population during the four years of occupation.
This deplorable state of affairs, however, had not escaped the attention of the occupation authorities, as appears from the letter of the Military Commander in Belgium already quoted which is found in the document book under Document Number RF-187:
"Regarding the food situation in Belgium, neither the minimum for existence for the civilian population is secured nor the minimum amount necessary for feeding heavy laborers who are employed solely in the interest of the German war economy."
I shall not dwell on this. This undernourishment of the Belgian population has been the inevitable and the most serious result of the huge levies made by the occupation authorities who willfully disregarded the elementary requirements of an occupied country in order to pursue only the war aims of the Reich. The lowering of the average standard of health and the rise in the death rate in Belgium from 1940 to 1945 may therefore be rightly considered the direct result of the spoliations committed by the Germans in Belgium in transgression of international law.
I have concluded the presentation on Belgium.
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traffic was simultaneously a traffic of personnel as demanded by military operations and a traffic of merchandise, coal, minerals, pit- props, foodstuffs, not to speak of the considerable quantities of construction material required for the fortification of the coast of the North Sea.
Railroads: The report of the Belgian Government shows that the damages suffered by the railroads consisted of losses in capital as well as of losses in revenue. Losses in capital resulted first and principally from requisitions and removals, to which the Germans proceeded in a wholesale fashion from the moment of their entry into Belgium. Thus in particular they immediately drained the stock of locomotives under the pretext of recovering German locomotives surrendered to Belgium after the war of 1914-1918 as a means of reparation. In addition to seizures of locomotives, the Belgian National Railroad Company was subjected to numerous requisitions of material, sometimes under the form of rental; these requisitions are estimated at 4,500 million francs at the 1940 value. Against the losses in capital, losses in revenue (Page 77) resulted principally from the free transportation service required by the Wehrmacht, also from the price policy pursued by the occupying power. These levies and these exceptional costs could be borne by the organizations concerned only by making large drains on the treasury.
Regarding automobiles, I shall say hardly anything (Page 79). The losses amount to about 3,000 million Belgian francs, out of which individuals received as compensation for requisition approximately 1,000 million (at the 1938 value).
We come now to river transport: The carrying out of the plan for the economic spoliation of Belgium presented the occupying power with serious transportation problems, to which I have already called attention. In this sphere the German military administration imposed upon Belgian river shipping very heavy burdens. According to the report of the Belgian Government, the losses suffered by the Belgian river fleet took three forms: Requisitions and removals by the Germans; partial or total damage through military operations; excessive deterioration of material. These three forms of damage amount to 500 million francs, of which only 100 million are represented in clearing. Damage to waterways (Page 81), rivers, streams, and canals, can be evaluated at between 1,500 million to 2,000 million francs, at the 1940 value, especially with respect to requisitions and removals of public or private harbor installations.
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Fishing boats were requisitioned for marking the river Scheldt and then disappeared without leaving any trace. Others suffered damage through requisitions or hire for military maneuvers.
Before closing this chapter concerned with levies in kind, the question of removal of industrial material may be briefly mentioned (Page 82). It has already been pointed out that the policy of production and reorganization as pursued by the military administration had as a result the closing of numerous enterprises, thus enabling the Germans to seize a great number of machines under the pretext that they were out of use.
There are no branches of industry which were not despoiled in this way. The metal industry seems now to be one of those that suffered most. Though we do not wish to try the patience of the Tribunal, it seems particularly pertinent to draw its attention briefly to the actual technique used in the organization of the levies, details which were decided upon even before the entry of German troops into the territories of Western Europe, organization putting into play military formations, organization emanating from the economy bureau of the General Staff of the Army and hence from the Defendant Keitel as Chief of the OKW.
The existence of these military detachments, veritable pillaging detachments, is proved by various German documents. Under the name of economic detachments, "Wirtschaftstrupps," or special commandos, these pillaging crews carried out nefarious and illegal activities in all the countries of Western Europe. The secret instructions for the "economic detachment J," stationed at Antwerp, are found in the file under Document Number RF- 183. They constitute a very important, irrefutable document on the German intention to pillage and an additional proof of the contempt of the National Socialist leaders for the rules of international law.
These instructions date from the last days of May 1940. 1 should like to read a few excerpts of these instructions to the Tribunal (Document Number RF-183, Page 1).
"The economic detachments are formed by the office for economic armament of the High Command of the Wehrmacht. They are placed at the disposal of the High Command of the Army for employment in the countries to be occupied." I shall skip to the bottom of Page 1 of the German document. "It is their task to gain information quickly and completely in their districts of the scarce and rationed goods (raw materials, semi- finished products, mineral oil, et cetera) and machines of most vital importance for the purposes of national defense and to make a correct return of these stocks.
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"In the case of machines, the requisition will be effected by means of a label, in the case of scarce and rationed goods, both by labelling and by guarding. "Furthermore, the economic detachments have the duty of preparing and, upon order of the Army Group, of carrying out the removal of scarce and rationed goods, mineral oils, and the most important machines. These tasks are the exclusive responsibility of the economic detachments.
"The economic detachments are to commence their activities in newly occupied territories as early as the battle situation permits."
Machines and raw materials having thus been found and identified, the new organizations went into action to dismantle and put to use these machines and raw materials in Germany.
The above quoted document RF-183 gives precise and very curious information on the formation and the strength of detachment "J" at Antwerp. The eight officers are all reserve officers, engineers, wholesale dealers, directors of mines, importers of raw materials, engineering consultants. Their names and their professions are mentioned in the document. These men are therefore all specialists in commerce and industry. The choice of these technicians cannot be attributed to mere chance.
According to the above instructions and more especially the instructions found under date of 10 May 1940, coming from General Hannecken (Exhibit Number RF-184), Document Number ECH-33, once the machines and the stocks have been identified, the offices set to work, the Roges on one hand, and the compensation bureaus on the other hand, to whose activities attention has already been called in connection with the pillage of Holland and of the Belgian non-ferrous metal industry.
Another document, which is likewise presented as Exhibit Number RF-184 (Document Number ECH-33), shows that the very composition of the economic detachments emanates from the High Command. Quoting from Page 6:
"The economic detachments already mentioned in Section I, which are composed of experts for the branches of industry found in the respective areas, shall gain information and secure stocks of raw materials and special machinery for the production of ammunition and war equipment which are at present important."
THE PRESIDENT: Is that quotation set out in your dossier?
M. DELPECH: The quotation is on Page 84, bis.
THE PRESIDENT: Would this be a convenient time to break off?
[A recess was taken.]
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M. DELPECH: Besides the economic detachments to which I have just drawn the attention of the Tribunal, detailed to remove and redistribute machinery either to factories working in the country on behalf of the occupying power or to factories in Germany, these operations were directed by the Machine Pool Office.
Such offices were set up in all the occupied territories of Western Europe during the last months of 1942, upon the order of the Minister for Armaments and War Production, for example, the Defendant Speer, and the Office of the Four Year Plan, for example, the Defendant Goering.
The Machine Pool Office for Belgium and Northern France was set up upon the decision of the Chief of the Military Economic Section in Brussels under date of 18 February 1943. Its activity has already been outlined to the Tribunal in connection with the spoliation of non-ferrous metal industries. Its activity did not stop there; it is found in all branches of industry. The Exhibit Number RF-185 (Document ECH-29) can give us figures on its activity. This activity continued to the very last days of the occupation. Requisitions of machinery and instruments were not limited to industry; Documents Numbers ECH-16 and ECH-15 (Exhibits Numbers RF-193 and 194) show the extent of the requisitioning of scientific instruments.
I have finished with the levies on industrial material.
I shall present briefly in the fourth chapter the question of services, first of all:
1. The billeting of troops. By an ordinance dated 17 December 1940, Page 88, the Germans imposed the costs of billeting their troops upon Belgium. Having done this, the occupation authorities justified themselves by a rather liberal interpretation of Article 52 of the Hague Convention, according to the provisions of which the occupying power may require levies in kind and in services.
The Wetter report (Document Number RF-186) wrongly contends that the Convention does not specify by whom the settlement should be made; Article 49 gives the right to make the occupied country defray the expenses.
Therefore Belgium had to meet expenses to the amount of 5,900 million francs for billeting costs, equipment, and furniture. The payments of the Belgian treasury for billeting is estimated in the report of the Belgian Military Administration at 5,423 million francs.
It is evident that under the pretext of billeting costs, other expenses were entered to the detriment of the Belgian economy, as in other occupied countries-the purchases of furniture which was to be sent to Germany.
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2. Transport and Communications.
To assure transport and communications, the Belgian treasury had to advance a total of 8,000 million francs. As already pointed out to the Tribunal, the seizure by the occupation authorities covered even the river fleet to the extent that the transport plan restricted the use of rail to the operation troops. According to Article 53 of the Hague Convention, the occupying army has the right to seize means of transport and communications provided that it returns them and pays indemnity. That army, however, does not possess the right to make the occupied country pay the costs of transport put at the army's disposal. That is, however, what Germany did in Belgium.
3. Labor.
The deportation of labor to Germany and forced labor in Belgium have already been explained to the Tribunal. It therefore seems unnecessary to stress this point (Page 91). At the most, we should recall certain consequences unfavorable to the Belgian economy. The measures concerning the deportation of labor caused an economic disorganization and weakening without precedent. Secondly, the departure of workers and particularly of skilled workers inadequately replaced by unskilled labor-women, adolescents and pensioners-brought about a decrease in production at the same time as an increase in the cost price, which contributed to complicating the problem of the financial equilibrium of industrial enterprises.
Third observation: The requisition of labor was the cause of political and social discontent owing to the dispersion of families and the inequalities which appeared in the requisition of workers.
Fourth and last observation: The workers were required for spheres of work which were not necessarily their own, which resulted in a loss of their professional skill. Personnel were divided and unclassed. The closing of artisan workshops brought about changes more or less felt in certain branches of production. The losses thus suffered cannot be measured in terms of money, but they are none the less important to be submitted to your jurisdiction.
I have finished with this subject and will turn to a last chapter, Chapter V, the acquisition of Belgian investments in foreign industrial enterprises. Since 1940 according to their general policy in all occupied countries of Western Europe, the Germans concerned themselves with acquiring shares in Belgian financial enterprises abroad. The official German point of view emerges clearly from a letter dated 29 July 1941, from the Minister of Finance to the Military Commander in Belgium. I have submitted it under Number 187, in the document book (Document Number RF-187).
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This conception of the right to acquire shares is certainly very far from the idea as laid down by the Hague Convention in respect to the right of requisition. It clearly shows the German leaders' determination for enrichment at the expense of Belgium.
Thus, the Germans, since May 1940, sought to obtain influence in Belgian holding companies. Not being able to violate directly international laws, particularly Article 46 of the Hague Convention, they strove to influence the members of the executive boards through persuasion rather than by force. In the course of a conference held on 3 May 1940 at the Reich Ministry of Economics, dealing with Belgian and Dutch capital which it would still be possible to acquire, it was decided that the Military Commander in Belgium should take all necessary measures to prevent, on the one hand, the destruction, transfer, sale, and illegal holding of all bonds and stocks of these countries and, on the other hand, to induce Belgian capitalists to hand over their foreign securities to the Germans. The minutes of this conference are found in the document book under Number RF-187 above.
To prevent the flight of any capital, an ordinance of 17 June 1940 was promulgated, subjecting to authorization the sending abroad of any securities and any acquisitions or disposal of foreign securities.
From 2 August 1940 the German leaders and the Defendant Goering himself took a definite stand on this point. In the course of the general remarks on economic plundering secret directives issued in this respect by the Defendant Goering. were read to you. It is the document submitted under Number RF-105 (Page 97). In spite of the German assurances and in spite of the wish of the occupying power to preserve the appearance of regularity, the German desire to absorb certain shares met with serious resistance. The occupation authorities several times had to resort to compulsion to conclude sales, in spite of the rights which they had reserved for themselves in the above cited decree of 27 August 1940. This was particularly the case with regard to the shares held by the Belgian Metal Trust in the electrical enterprises of Eastern Silesia and, still more clearly, the case regarding the shares of the Austrian Metal Company, which at that time were wanted by the Hermann Goering Works. The Belgian ill-will increased as the German determination to pillage became more evident. In this report of I December 1942, Exhibit Number RF-191 (Document Number ECR-132), the German Commissioner with the National Bank very clearly denounces this resistance on the part of the Belgian market. Almost all acquisitions which could be realized by the Germans were settled by means of clearing (Page 98).
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The balance of clearing capital credited to Belgium, to the amount of 1,000 million Belgian francs on 31 August 1944, represents a forced loan imposed upon Belgium without any legal or logical relation to occupation costs, unless it is the Germans' will to hegemony.
Such a practice, contrary to the principles of international law and to the rules of criminal law of civilized nations, falls under Article 6(b) of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal and constitutes an act of pillage of public or private property such as is envisaged in the above mentioned text. Closely allied to the acquisition of shares and always within the framework of legality, the levies made by the German authorities on foreign, enemy, and Jewish property, should be pointed out to the Tribunal.
As to foreign property seized by the Germans, it must be mentioned that this measure was applied to French capital in Belgium in spite of numerous protests by the French Government. As to Jewish property, for the years 1943 and 1944, the figures are presented in Document Number ECH-35 (Exhibit Number RF-192). With this I conclude the presentation of the economic spoliation of Belgium (Page 100).
The damage caused to Belgian economy in its principal branches have just been submitted to the Tribunal. The statistical data have been taken either from German reports or from official reports of the Belgian Government. The available estimates and figures are not yet sufficiently exact to fix the costs of war, the occupation and economic spoliation of Belgium; some losses and damages cannot be expressed in money. Among them, first of all, we must mention the privations resulting from the German commandeering of a large part of food supplies and from the particular situation of billeting and clothing. This purely material aspect of the question should not cause us to overlook the consequences of the occupation upon the public health (Page 103). For lack of statistical data, it is difficult to show precisely the final state of public health resulting from the particular circumstances.
One fact, however, must be remembered: The considerable increase in the number of persons who were eligible for special invalid diets. This number rose from 2,000 a month in 1941 to more than 25,000 a month in 1944. It had, therefore, increased more than tenfold, in spite of the rationing measures which became more and more severe.
This increase in nutritional aid given to sick persons deserves the attention of the Tribunal, less for itself and for its statistical interest, than because it is the indication of the increase of disease
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in Belgium. This increase is itself the result of the undernourishment of the population during the four years of occupation.
This deplorable state of affairs, however, had not escaped the attention of the occupation authorities, as appears from the letter of the Military Commander in Belgium already quoted which is found in the document book under Document Number RF-187:
"Regarding the food situation in Belgium, neither the minimum for existence for the civilian population is secured nor the minimum amount necessary for feeding heavy laborers who are employed solely in the interest of the German war economy."
I shall not dwell on this. This undernourishment of the Belgian population has been the inevitable and the most serious result of the huge levies made by the occupation authorities who willfully disregarded the elementary requirements of an occupied country in order to pursue only the war aims of the Reich. The lowering of the average standard of health and the rise in the death rate in Belgium from 1940 to 1945 may therefore be rightly considered the direct result of the spoliations committed by the Germans in Belgium in transgression of international law.
I have concluded the presentation on Belgium.