Foreign Relations of the United States, Conference at Quebec, 1944

Lot 55 D 375

Memorandum by the Working Security Committee¹

top secret
WS–254b

[Washington,] August 30, 1944.

Military and Political Policies To Be Followed in Administration of Germany

(The following statement of policies is based on the assumption of prior agreement between the United States, the United Kingdom and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on (a) surrender terms, (b) zones of occupation, and (c) control machinery:)

1. The administration of Germany will be firm but just. The occupation authorities will in particular punish fully and promptly any organization or individual who fails to render satisfactory cooperation with the military government or who fails to comply fully with any proclamations, orders, ordinances or instructions that will be issued.

2. All German armed forces and all German governmental officials, authorities and agents who are outside Germany at the time of surrender shall be returned as soon as practicable to such German territories as may be specified, subject to such arrangements as may be made with the authorities in the areas in which they are located and to such agreements as may be reached between the United States, the United Kingdom and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

3. As soon as practicable the Supreme Allied Authority shall dissolve the German armed forces and staff organizations, Nazi military, para-military and police organizations, reserve corps, military academies, the administrative agencies performing military functions, and all clubs and associations which serve to keep alive the military spirit. All such organizations shall be prohibited. The members of all such organizations shall be demobilized and disbanded as soon as practicable except that the respective commanding generals may retain any members of such organizations under their control for such purposes as may be authorized by the Supreme Allied Authority. All military training shall be forbidden and no secret organizations or societies shall be permitted. German civil police forces adequate to maintain order may be permitted.

4. All property acquired or coming under Allied control as a result of German defeat or surrender, including German resources in the respective zones of occupation, shall be disposed of only in accordance with principles established by the Supreme Allied Authority.

5. Prompt measures should be taken to seize and place under protective custody all important records whether governmental, party or private in character. All enemy information and records thus secured by virtue of the defeat and surrender of Germany will constitute a common pool and will be made available to the United States, United Kingdom and the U.S.S.R. and upon agreement by them to other United Nations without regard to the physical location or custody of such records.

6. All German arms, ammunition and implements of war shall be destroyed or scrapped except as otherwise agreed by the three Powers. All permanent and temporary land and coast fortifications, fortresses, and other fortified areas shall be destroyed.

7. The further manufacture in Germany of arms, ammunition and implements of war shall be prohibited.

8. The National Socialist Party and all organizations associated with it shall be dissolved. Provision may be made for the continuance by public agencies or voluntary associations of any desirable social services now performed by certain of these organizations. The activities of persons who have been active Nazis shall be restricted with a view to destroying their influence in Germany.

9. The key laws and decrees establishing the political structure of National Socialism and implementing its ideology and objectives shall be systematically abrogated.

10. To the extent possible, German administrative machinery and German personnel shall be used for the execution of Allied policies and for the routine administration of Germany. Active Nazis and persons suspected of being war criminals or otherwise unreliable shall not be employed in German administrative agencies.

11. Political activity shall be prohibited except as authorized by the Supreme Allied Authority. When considerations of military security permit, parties opposing Nazi and kindred ideologies shall be allowed to organize and appeal for popular support.

12. Subject to considerations of military security the Supreme Allied Authority shall authorize the formation of voluntary labor organizations possessing the rights of association and of collective bargaining.

13. The Supreme Allied Authority shall suspend all German laws discriminating against persons on grounds of race, color, creed or political opinion and shall take action necessary to annul such laws. In the absence of security objection persons detained under any such laws shall be released.

14. To the extent consistent with military security and the destruction of National Socialism freedom of speech and press and freedom of religious activity shall be permitted.

15. All information services (press, radio, cinema, etc.) and all channels of communication shall be administered under policies formulated by the Supreme Allied Authority and shall be subject to such censorship as will:

• insure against further dissemination of Nazi propaganda,
• facilitate the revival of free expression so far as consistent with security needs and the destruction of National Socialism, and
• implement other policies of the Supreme Allied Authority.

16. The following shall be arrested and held for investigation and subsequent disposition:

(a) Adolf Hitler and his chief Nazi associates,

(b) the officials who have held ministerial and other important governmental positions under the Nazi regime,

(c) comparable officials of other governments which have been at war with any of the United Nations,

(d) persons suspected of having committed war crimes,

(e) nationals of any of the United Nations or associated states alleged to have committed offenses against their national laws, and

(f) any other persons designated by the United States, the United Kingdom or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

17. Schools shall be re-opened as speedily as military considerations permit and as material and personnel requirements can be met. The entire educational system shall operate under the supervision of the Supreme Allied Authority with the fullest possible utilization of reliable German administrators and teachers. Active Nazis shall be removed from the staffs and all Nazi and kindred influences eliminated from the curricula. Positive educational reconstruction shall be left to competent and politically trustworthy German leadership.

18. The administration of justice by civilian courts shall be reestablished as speedily as will be compatible with the elimination of active Nazi personnel and replacement by qualified non-Nazis. Special party-created tribunals shall be abolished.

19. All possible aid consistent with the means at hand will be rendered to Allied prisoners of war, including those persons who have been deprived of this status involuntarily, to the end that their safety and well being is not jeopardized by the collapse of Germany, and such prisoners of war will be repatriated as soon as practicable upon the cessation of hostilities. The repatriation of prisoners of war will have priority over the repatriation of other displaced persons. No priority with respect to repatriation should be established in advance by which the prisoners of any nation or nations will be favored. The time and order in which prisoners will be repatriated must be determined in the light of the situation existing after the collapse of Germany.

20. Movement of all persons across German frontiers shall be regulated under policies laid down by the Supreme Allied Authority.

21. Relations between Germany and any states still at war with any of the United Nations and associated states shall be broken off. Relations between Germany and any other states shall be carried on to the extent and in the manner determined by the Supreme Allied Authority.

1. Hull forwarded this paper to the United States Representative on the European Advisory Commission (Winant) on September 16, 1944, with the following explanation of its status: “This document is now awaiting action by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In the meantime it is being forwarded … in as much as it has been cleared by the Department and represents its views with respect to the principal military and political policies to be followed in the administration of Germany.” For the full text of the covering instruction, see Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. i, p. 335.