Finally, by the Ordinance of 29 January 1941, the Reichsmark was introduced as the only legal tender (ordinance submitted as Document Number RF-196). The Luxembourg francs and the Reichskreditkasse notes were taken out of circulation, as well as Belgian francs, up to then considered as currency of the Franco-Luxembourg monetary union. All of these became foreign currency, as from 5 February 1941.
I should like to draw the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that of all the countries occupied by Germany, Luxembourg is, like Alsace and Lorraine, one of the few countries which was totally deprived of its national currency.
Moreover, to procure for the Reich the financial means necessary for the prosecution of the war, the ordinance of 27 August 1940 (Document Number RF-197) prescribed compulsory delivery of gold and foreign currency. Moreover, the same ordinance stipulated that foreign shares and bonds had to be offered for sale to the Reichsbank at rates and under conditions fixed by the occupying power.
As has already been pointed out, the Germans seized industrial stocks. In this respect, the report dated 21 May 1940, on the economic situation in Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg, contains information on the stocks found in the country:
1,600 million tons of iron ore; 125,000 tons of manganese; 10,000 tons of crude iron; 10,000 tons of ferro-manganese; 36,000 tons of plated products and finished products, and I could continue this enumeration. The German seizure spread from stocks to the management of the industrial production.
According to the memorandum presented by the Reparations Commission of the Luxembourg Government, Document Number RF-198, the total economic damages amount to 5,800 million Luxembourg francs at the 1933 value. This figure can be analyzed as follows:
Industry and commerce, 1,900 million; Railroads, 200 million; Roads and Highways, 100 million; Agriculture, 1,600 million; Damage to property in general, 1,900 million.
From the same official source, the total loss in capital represents about 33 percent of the national wealth of Luxembourg, before the war estimated at approximately 5,000 million Luxembourg francs.
The effect on the financial and monetary situation of the country was a loss exceeding 6,000 million Luxembourg francs. In these damages the increase in circulation of money and the amount of forced investments in Germany—more than 4,800 million Luxembourg francs—as well as an additional charge imposed upon the taxpayers of the Grand Duchy following the introduction of the German fiscal system figure particularly. To these burdens must be added the skimming of profits, fines, and the allegedly voluntary gifts of every kind imposed upon Luxembourg.
Similar to what was done in other countries, the Ordinance of 21 February 1941 (Document Number RF-199, Exhibit Number RF-199 of the document book concerning Luxembourg) provided that no German managers could be appointed in large enterprises, particularly in smelting works, who—and this is the text of the ordinance—“would not be prepared to favor the interests of Germanism in every circumstance.”
The task of these commissioners was to insure for the Reich, within the scope of the Four Year Plan, the direction and control of exploitation in the exclusive interest of the German war effort. Thus, on 2 August 1940, the “Reichskommissar” for the administration of enemy property appointed to the largest metal company in Luxembourg, the United Steel Works of Burbach-Eich-Dudelange (Arbed), three German commissioners who ensured the complete control of the company. Neither did other large companies escape this domination as can be seen from the documents submitted to the Tribunal under Number 200 (Document Number RF-200).
The spoliation of Luxembourg and foreign interests in the insurance field, one of the most important branches of Luxembourg’s activities, was complete. With the exception of three Swiss companies and a German company, all transactions were prohibited to the Luxembourg companies, whose assets were transferred to German insurance companies—in an official way as regards the national companies, and secretly as regards the foreign companies.
The insurance companies of Luxembourg were deprived of the premiums from fire insurance by the introduction of compulsory fire insurance, for which the German companies were given the monopoly.
Introducing in Luxembourg their racial policy, the National Socialists seized and confiscated all Jewish property in the Grand Duchy to the profit of the “Verwaltung für die Judenvermögen” (Administration of Jewish Property).
Also in regard to the Umsiedlungspolitik (resettlement policy), 1,500 families (that is 7,000 Luxembourg persons) were deported. The Germans took possession of their property. A German trust company, set up in the German Office for Colonization and Germanization, was charged with the administration of this property, and, in fact, set about to liquidate it. Important assets were thus confiscated and transferred to the Reich.
Germans from the Tyrol were, as has already been pointed out, installed in the buildings, and industrial, commercial, and artisan enterprises of the deportees.
That is to say, Your Honors, that the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was the victim of economic pillage as systematically organized as that in Belgium.
THE PRESIDENT: M. Delpech, the Tribunal is grateful to you for the way in which you have performed the task which they asked you to perform last night, a task which is not altogether easy, of shortening the address which you had intended to make. As far as they are able to judge, no essential parts of your address have been omitted. It is of great importance that the Trial should be conducted, as the Charter indicates, in an expeditious way, and it was for this reason that the Tribunal asked you, if you could, to shorten your address.
M. DELPECH: I thank you, Your Honor, for your kindness.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, M. Gerthoffer.
M. CHARLES GERTHOFFER (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): Mr. President, Your Honors, I come to the sixth section of this presentation, which deals with the economic pillage of France.
When the Germans invaded France, they found there considerable wealth. They set about with ingenuity to seize it and also to subjugate the national production.
When they failed to attain their ends by mere requisitions, they resorted to devious methods, using simultaneously ruse and violence, striving to cloak their criminal actions with legality.
To accomplish this, they misused the conventions of the armistice. These, in fact, did not contain any economic clauses and did not include any secret provisions but consisted only of regulations, which were published. Nevertheless, the Germans utilized two clauses to promote their undertakings. I submit to the Tribunal as Document Number RF-203 a copy of the Armistice Conventions, and I cite Article 18, which reads as follows:
“The maintenance costs of German occupation troops in French territory will be charged to the French Government.”
This clause was not contrary to the regulations of the Hague Conventions, but Germany imposed payment of enormous sums, far exceeding those necessary for the requirements of an occupation army. Thus she was enabled to dispose, without furnishing any compensation, of nearly all the money which, in fact, was cleverly transformed into an instrument of pillage.
Article 17 of the Armistice Convention reads as follows:
“The French Government undertakes to prevent any transfer of economic securities or stocks from the territory to be occupied by the German troops into the non-occupied area or into a foreign country. Those securities and stocks in the occupied territory can be disposed of only in agreement with the Reich Government, it being understood that the German Government will take into account what is vitally necessary for the population of the non-occupied territories.”
Apparently the purpose of this clause was to prevent things of any kind which might be utilized against Germany from being sent to England or to any of the colonies. But the occupying power took advantage of this to get control of production and the distribution of raw materials throughout France, since the non-occupied zone could not live without the products of the occupied zone and vice versa.
This intention of the Germans