Hagen Line HAGANAH See Palestine HAGEN LINE A Wehrmacht defensive position protecting the key railway junction and supply depots at Briansk during the summer of 1943 General Walter Model pulled back to hold the Hagen Line during the Red Army’s counteroffensive in July–August, Operation KUTUZOV, which broke through the German position north of Kursk – HA-GO (1944) Code name for a Japanese diversionary operation in Burma See Admin Box, Battle of; Arakan campaign; Imphal operation HAGUE CONVENTIONS Three sets of conventions dealing with the law of war were agreed in 1899, 1907, and 1954 The third set was the least important but incorporated experiences and lessons of World War II All three Hague Conventions deplored the recurrence of war but recognized that when a clash of arms occurred it was in the interest of civilization to limit the extent and character of permissible violence They therefore followed three basic principles First, no claim is exhaustive: the proper limits of war and interests of humanity are said to extend to implied rules not explicit in treaty form Second, the right of a belligerent state to infl ict harm was upheld, but curtailed Finally, it was forbidden to use arms to cause “unnecessary suffering” to enemy soldiers or to any civilians Parties to the Hague Conventions were required to make a prior and reasoned declaration of war, or issue an ultimatum with a conditional declaration of war and communicate its terms to all neutral states Who did and did not have belligerent rights was defined, and prisoner of war rights were agreed Among battlefield acts forbidden by the Hague Conventions were: use of poison gas, killing or wounding enemies who surrendered or tried to surrender, deceptive use of a flag of surrender, refusing quarter, use of an enemy’s flag or uniforms in any ruse de guerre, deceptive use of the symbol of the Red Cross (or Red Crescent) to gain a combat advantage, bombarding undefended towns, pillage (looting), punishing civilians in reprisal for enemy military acts, and refusing to care for enemy wounded The 1954 convention added protection of cultural property from wanton destruction, recalling how the Nazis deliberately wrecked Russian icons and Jewish and other cultural sites, systematically destroyed Warsaw, and proposed to flatten Paris, Leningrad, Moscow, and other cities See also Geneva Conventions; war crimes HAILE SELASSIE (1892–1975) “The Lion of Judah.” Né Ras Tafari Makonnen Emperor of Abyssinia, 1930–1974 He was regent for Empress Zauditu from 1916, and was crowned in 1930 As a young ruler he sincerely tried, though largely failed, to modernize Abyssinia In 1935 he became an international symbol of resistance to aggression when Abyssinia was invaded by Italy During the Abyssinian War he was forced into exile in England from 1936 He stood before the Assembly 492