{"id":1010,"date":"2016-01-20T05:43:30","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T10:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/humanrights\/?p=1010"},"modified":"2016-01-07T09:44:51","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T14:44:51","slug":"forced-labor-and-the-pillage-of-france-70-years-after-nuremberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/humanrights\/2016\/01\/20\/forced-labor-and-the-pillage-of-france-70-years-after-nuremberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Forced labor and the pillage of France [70 Years After Nuremberg]"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nuremberg Palace<\/p><\/div>\n

January 17th, 1946 marked the thirty-sixth day of the N\u00fcrnberg trials. The next few days would belong to the French, as Fran\u00e7ois de Methon and Edgar Faure present their country\u2019s case in front of the Court. De Methon began with an explosive opening statement, \u201cThe conscience of the peoples, who only yesterday were enslaved and tortured both in soul and body, calls upon you to judge and to condemn the most monstrous attempt at domination and barbarism of all times, both in the persons of some of those who bear the chief responsibility and in the collective groups and organizations which were the essential instruments of their crimes\u201d [http:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/imt\/01-17-46.asp<\/u><\/a> accessed 1\/05\/2016]. The French team \u00a0appealed to the sense of justice\u00a0of the nations present in the room. This was a task, not just for one country, but the world as a whole; a demonstration of\u00a0\u00a0a desire for\u00a0peace and willingness to work in unison. \u201cThe craving for justice of the tortured peoples is the basic foundation of France’s appearance before Your High Tribunal. It is not the only one, nor perhaps the most important one. More than toward the past, our eyes are turned toward the future.\u00a0\u00a0We believe that there can be no lasting peace and no certain progress for humanity, which still today is torn asunder, suffering, and anguished, except through the co-operation of an peoples and through the progressive establishment of a real international society\u201d [http:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/imt\/01-17-46.asp<\/u><\/a> accessed 1\/05\/2016]. This remarkable statement alone would be hard to follow, although Faure was most impressive as he transitioned promptly into describing the two pieces of the French case. The two cases involved forced labor and economic looting. To conclude these two litigations was Jacques Herzog who spoke regarding the forced labor in France. He began speaking on the 18th and concluded the next day. He aided himself with the use of many photostatic documents exemplifying the German\u2019s control over labor in many different countries. He further supported his argument by sharing with the room a photostatic copy of a German newspaper clipping of Nazi propaganda exploiting the French people and culture.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Exploitation of Forced Labor: Document Book II<\/p><\/div>\n

With only one more case to discuss at the time for France, Charles Gerthoffer returned\u00a0to present the case concerning economic pillage in France. He had begun the case on actions in Western Europe\u00a0on the 20thand resumed by\u00a0illustrating the pain and suffering endured by his people when they were forced to give up their possessions to the invading\u00a0German forces. He depicted the ravaging of\u00a0personal possessions.\u00a0\u201cAs I have had the honor of pointing out to you, in the Armistice Conventions the principle of the maintenance of occupation troops is succinctly worded, with no stipulation as to the amount and the method of collection. The Germans took advantage of this to distort and amplify this commitment of France, which became nothing more than a pretext for the imposition of exorbitant tribute\u201d [http:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/imt\/01-22-46.asp#gerthoffer<\/u><\/a> accessed 1\/05\/2016].<\/p>\n

A film of the French opening statements can be viewed at https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AkANDhUIf54.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–Owen Doremus and Betsy Pittman<\/p>\n

\n

[Owen Doremus, a junior at Edwin O. Smith High School, is supporting this blog series with research and writing as part of an independent study.]<\/p>\n

The majority of the letters from Tom Dodd to his wife Grace have been published and can be found in Letters from Nuremberg, My father\u2019s narrative of a quest for justice<\/em>. Senator Christopher J. Dodd with Lary Bloom. New York: Crown Publishing, 2007.<\/p>\n

Images available in Thomas J. Dodd Papers<\/span><\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 17th, 1946 marked the thirty-sixth day of the N\u00fcrnberg trials. The next few days would belong to the French, as Fran\u00e7ois de Methon and Edgar Faure present their country\u2019s case in front of the Court. De Methon began with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[33,31,20],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NL7Z-gi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1053,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions\/1053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.uconn.edu\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}