. NMT05-T0014
Volume V · Page 14
| The survey on the practice of states as outlined above would be incomplete if I omitted the most significant document pertaining to this question. It is the "Declaration of the Victorious Powers Concerning Germany's Defeat," 5 June 1945 (Official Gazette of the Control Council, Supplement No. 1, p. 7) and in the sixth paragraph of the preamble it is stated expressly |
"The Governments of the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the Provisional Government of the French Republic will hereafter determine the boundaries of Germany, or any part thereof, and the status of Germany or any area at present being part of Germany." |
| In this connection I should like to
emphasize that two months prior to Japan's capitulation, therefore at a time
when one of Germany's allies was still fighting, the victorious powers solemnly
and unambiguously permitted the unilateral annexation of parts of a defeated
country while the battle was still raging. I hardly imagine a more obvious
refutation of the legal conception established by the IMT. However, the defendants accused here will, over and above that, have to be given credit for the fact that particularly important reasons led to the conception that the Polish State was completely subjugated and dissolved following the events of September 1939. The war between Germany and Poland, which started on 1 September 1939, led to the complete military collapse of Poland within a few weeks, as I have already explained. The Polish Army was dispersed. Its greater part was captured by German troops. A few scattered divisions crossed the border into neutral Hungary, where they were subsequently interned. The Polish Government resigned. A new government was only gradually formed abroad. On 17 September 1939 Soviet forces marched into Poland, occupied the parts of Poland not yet in German hands, and took prisoner the remainder of the Polish Army still there. Thus the entire Polish territory was occupied and its army completely annihilated. The material prerequisites for a declaration of annexation had thus been created. And only that is the crucial point. Thus the diplomatic note of the Polish Ambassador in Washington, dated 27 October 1939, referred to in the official record of the Justice Case*, loses its significance. According to recognized practice in international law, the material prerequisites for subjugation or conquest of a state do not include the dissolution of the government and the abdication of the sovereign, after all the territorial and sovereign influence |
* Case of the United States vs. Josef Altstoetter, et al. See Vol. III.
