frequently murdered while in the act of surrendering.
These murders and ill-treatment were contrary to International
Conventions, particularly Articles 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the Hague
Regulations, 1907, and to Articles 2, 3, 4, and 6 of the Prisoners of
War Convention (Geneva 1929), the laws and customs of war, the
general principles Of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws
of all civilized nations, the internal penal laws of the countries in
which such crimes were committed, and to Article 6 (b) of the
Charter.
Particulars by way of example and without prejudice to the
production of evidence of other cases, are as follows:
1. In the Western Countries:
French officers who escaped from Oflag X C were handed over to
the Gestapo and disappeared; others were murdered by their guards;
others sent to concentration camps and exterminated. Among others,
the men of Stalag VI C were sent to Buchenwald.
Frequently prisoners captured on the Western Front were obliged
to march to the camps until they completely collapsed. Some of them
walked more than 600 kilometers with hardly any food; they marched on
for 48 hours running, without being fed; among them a certain number
died of exhaustion or of hunger; stragglers were systematically
murdered.
The same crimes have been committed in 1943, 1944, and 1945 when
the occupants of the camps were withdrawn before the Allied advance;
particularly during the withdrawal of the prisoners of Sagan on 8
February 1945.
Bodily punishments were inflicted upon non-commissioned officers
and cadets who refused to work. On 24 December 1943, three French
non-commissioned officers were murdered for that motive in Stalag IV
A. Many ill-treatments were inflicted without motive on other ranks:
stabbing with bayonets, striking with riflebutts, and whipping; in
Stalag XX B the sick themselves were beaten many times by sentries;
in Stalag III B and Stalag III C, worn-out prisoners were murdered or
grievously wounded. In military jails in Graudenz for instance, in
reprisal camps as in Rava-Ruska, the food was so insufficient that
the men lost more than 15 kilograms in a few weeks. In May 1942, one
loaf of bread only was distributed in Rava-Ruska to each group of 35
men.
Orders were given to transfer French officers in chains to the
camp of Mauthausen after they had tried to escape. At their arrival
in camp they were murdered, either by shooting or by gas, and their
bodies destroyed in the crematorium.
American prisoners, officers and men, were murdered in Normandy
during the summer of 1944 and in the Ardennes in December 1944.
American prisoners were starved, beaten, and otherwise