740.00119 Control (Germany)/3–1045
Memorandum by the Secretary of
State to President Roosevelt
43
[Washington, March 8, 1945.]
Your memorandum of February 28 directed me to assume the responsibility
for carrying forward the conclusions you reached at the
[Page 434]
Crimea Conference. In pursuance thereof, I
am attaching for your approval a suggested directive on the treatment of
Germany which I believe conforms to the Yalta discussions and decisions.
I believe that such a directive is urgently necessary to implement the
Yalta decisions and continue the formulation and development of United
States policy to be concerted with our Allies. If you approve of the
attached directive, I suggest the establishment of an informal policy
committee on Germany under the chairmanship of the Department of State
and including representatives of War, Navy, Treasury and the Foreign
Economic Administration. This committee would serve as the central
source of policy guidance for American officials both civilian and
military on questions relating to the treatment of Germany and its
proceedings would be based on the attached directive.
[Annex]
Draft Directive for the Treatment of
Germany
i. military government
- 1.
- The inter-allied military government envisaged in the
international agreement on control machinery for Germany shall
take the place, and assume the functions, of a central
government of Germany.
- 2.
- The authority of the Control Council shall be paramount
throughout Germany. The zones of occupation shall be areas for
the enforcement of the Council’s decisions rather than regions
in which the zone commanders possess a wide latitude of
autonomous power.
- 3.
- German administrative machinery must be purged as set forth
below. It shall be used in so far as it can serve the purposes
of this directive and does not permit Nazi abuses.
ii. immediate security measures
- 1.
- The German armed forces, including para-military
organizations, shall be promptly demobilized and
disbanded.
- 2.
- All military and para-military agencies, including the General
Staff, partly military and quasi-military organizations, the
Reserve Corps, and military academies, together with all
associations serving to keep alive the military tradition in
Germany shall be immediately dissolved and thereafter
prohibited.
- 3.
- All German arms, ammunition and implements of war shall be
removed or destroyed.
- 4.
- Military archives and military research facilities shall be
confiscated.
- 5.
- The manufacture and the importation of arms, ammunition and
implements of war shall be prohibited.
- 6.
- The German aircraft industry shall be dismantled and the
further manufacture of aircraft and component parts shall be
henceforth prohibited.
iii. immediate political measures
- 1.
- The Nazi Party and its affiliated and supervised organizations
shall be dissolved and their revival in any form shall be
prohibited. Such non-political social services of these
organizations as are deemed desirable may be transferred to
other agencies.2. Nazi laws which provided the legal basis of
the Hitler regime and which established discriminations on
grounds of race, creed, and political opinion shall be
abolished.
- 3.
- All Nazi public institutions (such as the People’s Courts and
Labor Front) which were set up as instruments of Party
domination shall be abolished.
- 4.
- Active Nazis and supporters of Nazism and other individuals
hostile to Allied purposes, shall be eliminated from public and
quasi-public office and from positions of importance in private
enterprise. Active Nazis shall be defined as those approximately
two million members of the Party who have been leaders at all
levels, from local to national, in the Party and its subordinate
organizations.
- 5.
- Nazi political malefactors and all war criminals shall be
arrested and punished.
- 6.
- Germans taken abroad for labor reparation shall be drawn
primarily from the ranks of the active Nazis and of Nazi
organizations, notably from the SS and the Gestapo.
- This procedure will serve the double purpose of eliminating
many of the worst carriers of Nazi influence from Germany and of
compelling the guilty to expiate their crimes and to repair some
of the damage they have done.
- 7.
- Under the direction and supervision of the Control Council
there shall be established throughout Germany a unified system
of control over all means of disseminating public
information.
- 8.
- There shall be established a uniform system of control over
German education designed completely to eliminate Nazi doctrines
and to make possible the development of democratic ideas.
iv. economic control
- 1.
- Pending definite decision on revision of boundaries and
partitioning, Germany as it existed on January 1, 1938, with the
exception of
[Page 436]
East
Prussia and Upper Silesia, shall be administered and controlled
as an economic unit.
- 2.
- The economy of Germany shall be directed, controlled and
administered in such a way as to
- (a)
- Provide facilities for, and contribute to the
maintenance of the occupying forces and occupying
authorities.
- (b)
- Stop the production, acquisition and development of
implements of war and their specialized parts and
components.
- (c)
- Provide a minimum standard of living for the German
people including such food, shelter, clothing and
medical supplies as are required to prevent disorder and
disease on a scale that would make the task of
occupation and the collection of reparation
substantially more difficult.
- (d)
- Provide such goods and services to Allied countries
for relief, restitution and reparation as will be in
excess of the requirements of the occupation forces and
the minimum standard of living.
- (e)
- Conform to such measures for the reduction and control
of Germany’s economic war potential as the Allied
governments may prescribe. (See paragraphs 13 to 18,
inclusive.)
- 3.
- It is recognized that a substantial degree of centralized
financial and economic control is essential to the discharge of
the tasks mentioned in paragraph 2. The Control Council shall
have general responsibility for insuring that all measures
necessary to this end are taken.
- 4.
- In particular, the Control Council shall be empowered to
formulate, within the framework of existing and future
directives, basic policies governing (a)
public finance; money and credit, (b)
prices and wages, (c) rationing, (d) inland transportation and maritime
shipping, (e) communications, (f) internal commerce, (g) foreign commerce and international payments, (h) resititution and reparation, (i) treatment and movement of displaced
persons, and (j) allocation of plant and
equipment, materials, manpower and transportation.
- 5.
- It is recognized that the prevention of uncontrolled inflation
is in the interest of the United Nations. The Control Council
shall strive to insure that appropriate controls, both financial
and direct, are maintained or revived.
- 6.
- The Control Council shall utilize centralized
instrumentalities for the execution and implementation of its
policies and directives to the maximum possible extent, subject
to supervision and scrutiny of the occupying forces. Whenever
central German agencies or administrative services which are
needed for the adequate performance of such tasks have ceased to
function they shall be revived or replaced as rapidly as
possible.
- 7.
-
- (a) Before utilizing German
agencies military government authorities must carry
through denazification in accordance with the principles
set forth above.
- (b) German nationals deprived
of their positions because of previous affiliations with
or support of the Nazi party or because of disloyalty to
the military government authorities shall be replaced as
far as possible by other German nationals. In recruiting
replacements military government officers shall rely as
much as practicable on the leaders and personnel of
freely organized labor unions and professional
associations and of such anti-Nazi political groupings
and parties as may arise in Germany.
- 8.
- Military government shall eliminate active Nazis and
supporters of the Nazi regime and other individuals hostile to
Allied purposes, from dominant positions in industry, trade and
finance.
- 9.
- Military government shall permit free and spontaneous
organization of labor and professional employees. It shall
facilitate collective bargaining between employers and employees
regarding wages and working conditions subject to overall wage
controls and considerations of military necessity.
- 10.
- Germany shall be required to restore all identifiable property
which has been taken from invaded countries. It shall also be
compelled to replace objects of unique cultural and artistic
value whenever looted property falling within these categories
cannot be found and restored.
- 11.
- Germany must make substantial reparation for damage to, or
losses, of, non-military property caused by or incident to
hostilities. Such reparation shall take the form of (a) confiscation of all German property,
claims and interests abroad, (b)
deliveries from existing German assets, particularly capital
equipment, (c) deliveries from future
German output, and (d) German labor
services in devastated countries.
- 12.
- The reparation burden and schedules for delivery should be
determined in such a manner that Germany can discharge its
obligation within a period of ten years from the cessation of
organized hostilities.
- 13.
- The volume and character of German reparation deliveries of
capital equipment shall be largely determined in such a way as
to reduce Germany’s relative predominance in capital goods
industries of key importance and to rehabilitate, strengthen and
develop such industries in other European countries, as part of
a broad program of reconstruction.
- 14.
- Germany shall be prohibited from engaging in the production
and development of all implements of war. All specialized
facilities for the production of armaments shall be destroyed,
and all laboratories, plants and testing stations specializing
in research, development and testing of implements of war shall
be closed and their equipment removed or destroyed.
- 15.
- Germany shall also be forbidden to produce or maintain
facilities for the production of aircraft, synthetic oil,
synthetic rubber and light metals. Production facilities in
these industries shall be removed to other countries or
destroyed.
- 16.
- In order to foster and develop metal, machinery and chemical
industries in other countries, exports of competing German
products shall be subjected to restraint for a considerable
period. At the same time, German production and export of coal
and light consumer goods shall be facilitated.
- 17.
- German firms shall be prohibited from participating in
international cartels or other restrictive contracts or
arrangements. Existing German participations in such cartels or
arrangements shall be promptly terminated.
- 18.
- The scope and execution of the economic disarmament program
should be made compatible with the payment of reparation and
both the reparation and economic disarmament programs should
take into consideration the necessity of maintaining a minimum
German standard of living as defined in paragraph 2.
- 19.
- In fulfillment of this principle, Germany shall be made to
begin paying her own way as soon as possible. There shall be no
simultaneous payment of reparation by Germany and extension of
credit to Germany. Payment for such imports as are authorized by
the Control Council shall be made a first charge on the proceeds
of German exports. If Germany is unable to export sufficient
goods in excess of reparation deliveries to pay for authorized
imports, reparation recipients shall be required to shoulder
this deficit in proportion to their respective receipts from
reparation.
