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Volume IV · Page 953
this is not a problem which is limited to this very space, but it is a task which goes far beyond that, for the whole east and the whole southeast of Europe is partly filled with untenable islands of German ethnic groups, and they are exactly the cause for continuous international tensions. In an age of the principle of nationalities and the thought of race, it is Utopian to believe that these members of a racially valuable people could be assimilated without further ado. It is, therefore, one of the tasks of afar-sighted order of European life to carry out resettlements here in this case in order to eliminate at least part of the causes for European tensions in such a way. Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have agreed to mutually help each other in this problem." |
| The also well-known fact that the peace
treaty, signed with the cooperation of the Allies, sanctioned such
resettlements already after the last World War and had even been stipulated,
proves clearly that resettlement as such does not constitute a violation of
international law: because these peace treaties should, after all, serve the
establishment of conditions based on international law. The Potsdam Agreement
of the heads of the Allied Governments of August 1945 has also taken into
consideration the resettlement in Germany of German parts of the population
from territories where the Germans had been settled for centuries. I do not
wish to examine in this respect the question of whether or not Germany is
entitled, after its unconditional surrender, to be treated in accordance with
the Hague convention and, if this question is answered in the negative, whether
or not the same conclusion will be reached on the basis of the general
international common law. I only refer to the decision of the IMT according to
which the principles of the Hague convention, even though they have not been
accepted by some states, have just the same become established principles of
international law, and I cannot believe, that the Allies wanted to disregard
acknowledged principles of international law or humanity with regard to the
treatment of Germany after the capitulation.* The Potsdam Agreement of August 1945 states explicitly that the resettlement should take place according to plan and in a humane manner. This should be an important clue, how the signatory powers of the Potsdam Agreement stood in reference to the problem of resettlement and international law. They |
* The verdict of the Military Tribunal III, in Case 3, U. S. A. vs. Josef Altstoetter, et al, which will not apply the Hague rules of land warfare to the occupation of Germany, emphasizes however that in view of the complete collapse of Germany, the "Allies had been faced with a far greater categoric human duty" than is the case in a normal occupation during a war. [The foregoing footnote in original closing statement.] For Case 3, see vol. III, this series.
