 This spelled out the Allied position that, following the gross criminal abuses of Nazism, and in the circumstances of complete defeat, Germany now had no government or central administration, and that the vacated civil authority in Germany had consequently been assumed as a condominium of the four Allied Representative Powers on behalf of the Allied Governments overall; an authority subsequently constituted into the Allied Control Council.The principle that hostilities against Germany should continue until its armed forces laid down their arms on the basis of unconditional surrender had been adopted by the Allies in the Moscow Declarations of October 1943.In the same declarations it was also stated that, following a German surrender, any individuals participating in atrocities within territories under German occupation would be returned to those territories to be judged and punished; while the entire leadership of Nazi Germany - classed as 'criminals' - would be seized and 'punished by the joint decision of the government of the Allies' (a formula then understood as indicating summary execution without trial, which remained British policy until April 1945).