International Military Tribunal - The Nuremberg Trials - Complete Tribunal Proceedings (V. 6)

Supplementing the presentation on Belgium it is fitting to present to the Tribunal some details on the conduct of the Germans in Luxembourg. The Government of the Grand Duchy has submitted a general summary of its accusations which has been lodged with the Tribunal as Document Number UK-77 and in which an extract covering the crimes against property, the economic section, is in the document book under the Number RF-194.

The Germans, shortly after their entry into the Grand Duchy, proceeded to annex it in fact. This attitude, similar enough to that adopted towards the inhabitants of the Departments of Moselle, Bas-Rhin, and Haut-Rhin, calls for some remarks.

As was their wont, one of the first measures they put into effect was the exchange of the Luxembourg money at the rate of 10 Luxembourg francs to 1 mark. This was the subject of the ordinance of 26 August 1940, to be found in the document book under Number 195 (Document Number RF-195). This rate of exchange did not correspond to the respective purchasing power of the two currencies. It constituted a considerable levy on the wealth of the inhabitants and especially assured the Germans of a complete seizure of the monies. It thus procured for them the means for seizing a considerable part of the reserves of raw materials and manufactured goods of the country. The purchases were paid for in depreciated marks on the basis of controlled prices imposed by the Germans.

Finally, by the Ordinance of 29 January 1941, the Reichsmark was introduced as the only legal tender (ordinance submitted as Document Number RF-196). The Luxembourg francs and the Reichskreditkasse notes were taken out of circulation, as well as Belgian francs, up to then considered as currency of the Franco-Luxembourg monetary union. All of these became foreign currency, as from 5 February 1941.

I should like to draw the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that of all the countries occupied by Germany, Luxembourg is, like Alsace and Lorraine, one of the few countries which was totally deprived of its national currency.

Moreover, to procure for the Reich the financial means necessary for the prosecution of the war, the ordinance of 27 August 1940 (Document Number RF-197) prescribed compulsory delivery of gold and foreign currency. Moreover, the same ordinance stipulated that foreign shares and bonds had to be offered for sale to the Reichsbank at rates and under conditions fixed by the occupying power.

As has already been pointed out, the Germans seized industrial stocks. In this respect, the report dated 21 May 1940, on the economic situation in Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg, contains information on the stocks found in the country:

1,600 million tons of iron ore; 125,000 tons of manganese; 10,000 tons of crude iron; 10,000 tons of ferro-manganese; 36,000 tons of plated products and finished products, and I could continue this enumeration. The German seizure spread from stocks to the management of the industrial production.

According to the memorandum presented by the Reparations Commission of the Luxembourg Government, Document Number RF-198, the total economic damages amount to 5,800 million Luxembourg francs at the 1933 value. This figure can be analyzed as follows:

Industry and commerce, 1,900 million; Railroads, 200 million; Roads and Highways, 100 million; Agriculture, 1,600 million; Damage to property in general, 1,900 million.

From the same official source, the total loss in capital represents about 33 percent of the national wealth of Luxembourg, before the war estimated at approximately 5,000 million Luxembourg francs.

The effect on the financial and monetary situation of the country was a loss exceeding 6,000 million Luxembourg francs. In these damages the increase in circulation of money and the amount of forced investments in Germany—more than 4,800 million Luxembourg francs—as well as an additional charge imposed upon the taxpayers of the Grand Duchy following the introduction of the German fiscal system figure particularly. To these burdens must be added the skimming of profits, fines, and the allegedly voluntary gifts of every kind imposed upon Luxembourg.

Similar to what was done in other countries, the Ordinance of 21 February 1941 (Document Number RF-199, Exhibit Number RF-199 of the document book concerning Luxembourg) provided that no German managers could be appointed in large enterprises, particularly in smelting works, who—and this is the text of the ordinance—“would not be prepared to favor the interests of Germanism in every circumstance.”

The task of these commissioners was to insure for the Reich, within the scope of the Four Year Plan, the direction and control of exploitation in the exclusive interest of the German war effort. Thus, on 2 August 1940, the “Reichskommissar” for the administration of enemy property appointed to the largest metal company in Luxembourg, the United Steel Works of Burbach-Eich-Dudelange (Arbed), three German commissioners who ensured the complete control of the company. Neither did other large companies escape this domination as can be seen from the documents submitted to the Tribunal under Number 200 (Document Number RF-200).

The spoliation of Luxembourg and foreign interests in the insurance field, one of the most important branches of Luxembourg’s activities, was complete. With the exception of three Swiss companies and a German company, all transactions were prohibited to the Luxembourg companies, whose assets were transferred to German insurance companies—in an official way as regards the national companies, and secretly as regards the foreign companies.

The insurance companies of Luxembourg were deprived of the premiums from fire insurance by the introduction of compulsory fire insurance, for which the German companies were given the monopoly.

Introducing in Luxembourg their racial policy, the National Socialists seized and confiscated all Jewish property in the Grand Duchy to the profit of the “Verwaltung für die Judenvermögen” (Administration of Jewish Property).

Also in regard to the Umsiedlungspolitik (resettlement policy), 1,500 families (that is 7,000 Luxembourg persons) were deported. The Germans took possession of their property. A German trust company, set up in the German Office for Colonization and Germanization, was charged with the administration of this property, and, in fact, set about to liquidate it. Important assets were thus confiscated and transferred to the Reich.

Germans from the Tyrol were, as has already been pointed out, installed in the buildings, and industrial, commercial, and artisan enterprises of the deportees.

That is to say, Your Honors, that the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was the victim of economic pillage as systematically organized as that in Belgium.

THE PRESIDENT: M. Delpech, the Tribunal is grateful to you for the way in which you have performed the task which they asked you to perform last night, a task which is not altogether easy, of shortening the address which you had intended to make. As far as they are able to judge, no essential parts of your address have been omitted. It is of great importance that the Trial should be conducted, as the Charter indicates, in an expeditious way, and it was for this reason that the Tribunal asked you, if you could, to shorten your address.

M. DELPECH: I thank you, Your Honor, for your kindness.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, M. Gerthoffer.

M. CHARLES GERTHOFFER (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Republic): Mr. President, Your Honors, I come to the sixth section of this presentation, which deals with the economic pillage of France.

When the Germans invaded France, they found there considerable wealth. They set about with ingenuity to seize it and also to subjugate the national production.

When they failed to attain their ends by mere requisitions, they resorted to devious methods, using simultaneously ruse and violence, striving to cloak their criminal actions with legality.