Whenever a meeting was held at general headquarters or at the Chancellery, Keitel was present. He was present when Hitler made decisions of major importance. He was at his side on marches into the countries to be annexed. When orders by Hitler had to be transmitted, he in his turn would give orders, elaborating his chief’s ideas and adding his personal contribution. In countersigning Hitler’s decrees, Keitel did not alter the validity of these texts as regards the law of the Third Reich, but he gave Hitler a guarantee of their usefulness for the Wehrmacht and their execution to the last detail. It was in that way in particular that he acknowledged responsibility.
Like Keitel, Jodl was one of those men who staked their success on the success of the new regime and its creator. His attitude, his orders, and his activities show that he was a general inspired by political considerations, attached to Hitler, who showered favors on him. In assuming the direction of the general Operations Staff of the High Command of the Armed Forces, he also took an active and important part in the elaboration of his chief’s orders.
Hitler represented the exclusive right to make decisions (Page 9 of my brief) but the two defendants who shared his every-day life during the period of hostilities brought his decisions into being, elaborated them, and ensured their execution.
Jodl fulfilled this role of counsellor, although in theory his authority was by no means equal to Keitel’s. This did not prevent him from intervening in matters outside the field of pure operations, but in which he likewise engaged his personal responsibility.
This responsibility of the two defendants has a bearing on the preparation and execution of plans of aggression. We shall not come back to this point. In this matter our British colleague, Mr. Roberts, has brought out perfectly the role played by these two defendants, and we shall consider more particularly their responsibility in the conduct of the war.
First of all, their responsibility for the murder and ill-treatment of civilians, collective sanctions, and the murder of hostages (Page 13 of my brief).
From the beginning of the war and keeping pace with the occupation of new territories by the German armies, there appeared measures against the civilian population, in violation of the laws of war and of the law of nations. These violations range from the apparently harmless to the most severe sanctions, the most cruel treatment, the most senseless and inhuman executions.
If we turn to the occupied territories in the East, towards Norway, towards the western countries, we find everywhere the same reactions, the same scrupulous execution of the same directives. On 16 September 1941, Keitel signed an order regarding the repression of communist insurrectionary movements in the occupied territories. This is Exhibit Number RF-1432, Document Number 389-PS. If the Tribunal will permit me, I should like to read briefly from this document. Keitel’s directives are the following:
“Every case of insurrection against the German occupying power is to be attributed to communist initiative irrespective of the particular circumstances.
“The most severe measures are to be taken to nip the rising in the bud at the first signs, so as to uphold the authority of the forces of occupation and to prevent such movements from spreading. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that in the countries in question human life often means nothing and that intimidation can be achieved only by unusual severity. In this case, the death penalty must as a general rule be considered a fitting reprisal for the death of a German soldier.”
THE PRESIDENT: We have had this read already.
M. QUATRE: I am sorry, Mr. President. On 5 May 1942, addressing himself to Belgium and France in particular, Keitel ordered hostages to be taken and executed in these two countries. They were to be chosen from the nationalists, the democrats, and the communists. This is Exhibit Number RF-1433 (Document Number 1590-PS), the original of which is now in the hands of the Prosecution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which will not fail to submit it in the course of its presentation. This order merely confirms previous directives, since orders given in August and September 1941 by General Von Stülpnagel, Commander-in-Chief in France, already concerned the execution of hostages. This is Exhibit Number RF-1434 (Document Number 1588-PS) submitted 29 January 1946 by the French Prosecution under Exhibit Number RF-274.
To impose order in the occupied territories and to protect the members of the German Army from attempted violence, Keitel did not hesitate to violate the stipulations of Articles 46 and 50 of the Hague Convention, which forbid the use by the occupying power of all means of coercion or collective reprisals and which, on the contrary, impose respect for the lives of individuals.
These were not isolated cases of violation; the same things are repeated in all the occupied countries. These preventive arrests were built up into a system. They are well suited to the goal that the High Command had set itself: That of assuring in this manner a certain attitude on the part of the population which should be advantageous from a military point of view. The terms of Exhibit Number RF-1433, which I have just quoted, are perfectly definite:
“. . . the military commanders should always have on hand a certain number of hostages of various political leanings. . . .
“It is important that these should include personalities in the public eye. . . .
“In cases of attempted violence, hostages belonging to the same group as the guilty person are to be shot.”
The reign of terror thus instituted was to reach its climax in the regulations for applying the Nacht und Nebel decree, issued by Keitel on 12 December 1941. This is Exhibit Number RF-1436, which I submit today as Document Number 669-PS. If the Tribunal will allow me, I shall read a few characteristic lines indicating Keitel’s intentions.
THE PRESIDENT: I think we had it more than once already.
M. QUATRE: I apologize, Mr. President, and I shall go on. This is the starting point of the deportations to which France, among other countries, has contributed in such a great degree. It is unnecessary to labor the point. You know the treatment inflicted upon these women and men, torn from their homes in contempt of every law; and the atrocities committed on them are present to all our minds.
Let us likewise call attention to Exhibit Number RF-1437 (Document Number UK-20) submitted 9 January 1946 as Exhibit Number GB-163. That is an order of 26 May 1943, signed on his behalf, in which Keitel prescribed in Paragraph 3 that detailed investigations are to be made in given cases regarding the relatives of Frenchmen fighting for the Russians, if these relatives reside in the occupied zone of France. If the investigation reveals that these relatives have helped to facilitate their flight from France, severe measures are to be taken.
On 22 September 1943 the High Command of the Armed Forces, this time over Jodl’s signature, sent the Commander-in-Chief in Denmark a telegram interesting from two points of view. It is Exhibit Number RF-1438 (Document Number UK-56) already submitted on 31 January 1946, under Exhibit Number RF-335. The first paragraph authorizes the enrollment of Danish nationals in the military formations of the occupying army, in SS formations. Apart from being injurious to the honor of the individuals, it contravenes the terms of the preamble of the Hague Convention, which stipulates that, in cases not included in the regular provisions, the population and the belligerents must remain under the safeguard of the laws of humanity and the exigencies of the public conscience. This attempt at Germanization ignored completely the exigencies of the public conscience.
As for the second paragraph of this telegram ordering the Jews to be deported from Denmark to Germany, that is the application of the general principle of the deportation of Jewish populations which was to lead to their utter extermination. The Tribunal is sufficiently informed on this point, so it is unnecessary to labor it.
I now come to the unwarranted devastation and destruction of cities, towns, and villages (Page 20 of my brief). The policy of terrorism carried on by the German armies in France against the resistance movement, against the Free French Forces,