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carried out by Germany in at least the same manner as it was
carried out by the U.S.S.R., and that this becomes quite evident from the
contents of the German-Soviet secret treaty of 23 August 1939. Nevertheless the
U.S.A. did not hesitate to recognize the territorial claims made by the
U.S.S.R. in the area of the former Polish State. This recognition tools place
de facto as well as de jure during the Yalta Conference in
February 1945 and the Potsdam Conference on 2 August 1945.
The prosecution cannot therefore
object today to this state of affairs as far as the legal issues arising from
this attack are concerned.
The Ordinance for Combating Acts of
Violence in the General Government and the introduction of the courts martial
connected with it would, by the way, have been permissible; even if though the
former Polish State had not ceased to exist as a subject in the realm of
international law. Military occupation of foreign states (occupatio
belica), too, gives the occupying power the right to take all the measures
necessary for the maintenance of order and safety. It is a generally
acknowledged legal conception that in this case the occupying power takes over
the power of the conquered state, not as its deputy, but rather by authority of
its own laws guaranteed by international law. The right is expressly
acknowledged in the third section of the Hague Convention for Land Warfare
[Section III, Annex to the Convention]. There can be no doubt that the
introduction of courts martial is one of those rights of the occupying power.
In fact it seems inconceivable that an occupying power should not be allowed to
take measures for the effective combating of a resistance movement, whose sole
and openly admitted purpose it was to undermine and destroy the authority of
the occupying power and the safety of the occupation troops. The right to do
this can be contested even less in our case, since with the outbreak of the
German-Soviet war, the territory of the former General Government became the
largest military transit area which has ever existed in the history of war. The
methods by which the Polish Resistance Movement tried to attain its goals do
not need to be examined here in detail. It is sufficient to point out that the
Resistance Movement was in a position to interfere to a considerable extent
with German-Army reinforcements against the Red Army; this interference tools
the form of blasting of bridges, transmission of important military
information, etc. The Polish women used for the sulfanilamide experiments were
members of this Resistance Movement and they supported it wherever they could.
However much we respect the courage and patriotism of these women, we cannot
refrain from emphasizing the fact that they violated laws which at that time
were binding for them. This violation gave the occupation power the right to
impose adequate punishment upon them. It seems unthinkable that the members of
a resistance, movement such as the Polish one would not have been sentenced to
death during the war for their
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