. NMT06-T0853
Volume VI · Page 853
| B.
Deposition and Testimony of Prosecution Witness Laurent |
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| PARTIAL
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NI-5396 PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 512 |
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| DEPOSITION OF JACQUES LAURENT, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE "SOCIÉTE LORRAINE DES ACIÉRIES DE ROMBAS", 31 DECEMBER 1946* | |
| Deposition [Procès Verbal] | |
| In the year one
thousand, nine hundred and forty-six on 21 December. We, Charles Gerthoffer, Deputy of the Public Prosecutor at the Tribunal de la Seine [Tribunal, Department Seine] detailed to the International Military Tribunal for War Crimes, assisted by Mr. Laurent Clement, age 25, on official duty with the above Tribunal, who has sworn to carry out faithfully the duties of court recorder with which we have entrusted him, being on official duty in Paris; In view of the investigations which are taking place for the purpose of discovering the actions of the directors and managers of the Flick firm; Summoned one Jacques Laurent, age 56, administrator and Director General of the "Société Lorraine des Aciéries de Rombas," residing in Paris, 23 Rue D'Aumale, to appear before the Tribunal, who, having sworn to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, deposes as follows: By the Treaty of Frankfurt, victorious Germany had cut off from France, Alsace and a part of Lorraine, but had left her the regions of Longwy, Briey, and Nancy, whose riches in iron ore were not yet known. After 1871, with the development of their heavy industry, the Germans suffered inconvenience from the insufficient reserves of iron ore in that part of the iron fields which they had allocated to themselves (Department of the Moselle). It is public knowledge that one of the war aims of Germany in 1914 was the annexation of the mining district of Briey. The defeat of 1918 put an end to these ambitious aims, and instead deprived Germany of any share at all in the ores of Lorraine. In June 1940, thinking herself victorious, once and for all, Germany immediately took up her plans again; she considered the Department of the Moselle (together with the two departments of Alsace) as simply reincorporated into the Reich. It is to be |
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* Extracts from Laurent's testimony concerning this deposition and related matters are reproduced immediately below.
