. NMT04-T0934
Volume IV · Page 934
| and Lorraine were to be resettled in the
Ukraine. Was this done? (Document handed to witness.) A. No. Q. Did you have anything to do with the fact that people from Alsace and Lorraine were conscripted for military service? A. No. Q. What agencies dealt with these questions? A. Decrees of that sort could only be issued by the chiefs of the civil administration in their respective areas. They must have done this in agreement with the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. Q. Did you have anything to do with the drafting of these decrees? A. No. Q. How do you explain the fact to yourself that these people were conscripted for military service? A. I heard that in the Armistice of 1940, France had ceded Alsace and Lorraine to Germany in a secret amendment to a treaty. The cession was to be laid down in the peace treaty. Whether this is correct, I don't know. I only heard that by way of a rumor. That is how I explained it to myself that measures had already been taken in Alsace and Lorraine, which in general would not otherwise be taken in an area under civil administration. Q. Do you know whether the incorporation of Alsace and Lorraine had already been accomplished? A. As far as I know, it was not yet accomplished. Q. Were these deportees prohibited from returning to Alsace and Lorraine? A. Yes. Q. Who gave this order? A. The chiefs of the civil administration ordered this; they assumed the authority to expel people from the areas under their control, and to refuse residence in these areas to certain persons. Q. Could this situation be remedied by giving instructions to the chiefs of the civil administration, especially since the chiefs of the civil administration were Plenipotentiaries of the Reich Commissioner? A. No. An attempt of this kind would have been doomed to failure. Q. Why? A. Because the chiefs of the civil administration based their authority on plenary powers which they had received from the Fuehrer, and no Reich agency could take any measure in these areas which was not approved by the chief of the civil administra- […tion] |
