Διαταγή «Νύχτα και σκοτάδι» (1), διαταγή της 13 Μαίου 1941 συμφώνα με το όποιο οι Γερμανοί στρατιώτες μπορούσαν να διαπράξουν όι ήθελαν στους άμαχους της τότε ΕΣΣΔ ΧΩΡΙΣ ΝΑ ΥΠΟΚΕΙΝΤΑΙ ΣΕ ΠΟΙΝΙΚΗ ΔΙΩΞΗ (2) το διατάγμα περί κομισαρίων (3) η διαταγή περί «Κομμάντο» (4) και η «Διαταγή Αυστηρότητας» (5), «διαταγή Εκτέλεσης» ΔΗΛΑΔΗ ΔΙΑΤΑΓΗ ΕΚΤΕΛΕΣΗΣ ΑΙΧΜΑΛΩΤΩΝ ΠΟΛΕΜΟΥ (6)
(1) The Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces
[stamp] SECRET
Directives for the prosecution of offences committed within the occupied territories against the German State or the occupying power, of December 7th, 1941.
Within the occupied territories, communistic elements and other circles hostile to Germany have increased their efforts against the German State and the occupying powers since the Russian campaign started. The amount and the danger of these machinations oblige us to take severe measures as a determent. First of all the following directives are to be applied:
I. Within the occupied territories, the adequate punishment for offences committed against the German State or the occupying power which endanger their security or a state of readiness is on principle the death penalty.
II. The offences listed in paragraph I as a rule are to be dealt with in the occupied countries only if it is probable that sentence of death will be passed upon the offender, at least the principal offender, and if the trial and the execution can be completed in a very short time. Otherwise the offenders, at least the principal offenders, are to be taken to Germany.
III. Prisoners taken to Germany are subjected to military procedure only if particular military interests require this. In case German or foreign authorities inquire about such prisoners, they are to be told that they were arrested, but that the proceedings do not allow any further information.
IV. The Commanders in the occupied territories and the Court authorities within the framework of their jurisdiction, are personally responsible for the observance of this decree.
V. The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces determines in which occupied territories this decree is to be applied. He is authorized to explain and to issue executive orders and supplements. The Reich Minister of Justice will issue executive orders within his own jurisdiction.
Source:United States,Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality,Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, 8 vols. and 2 suppl. vols.VII, 873-874 (Doc. No. L-90)Washington, DC : Government Printing Office, 1946-1948
(2)Barbarossa Decree of 13 May 1941
Decree on the jurisdiction of martial law and on special measures of the troops
The exercise of martial law serves primarily to maintain military discipline.
The wide extent of operational space in the East, the form of combat that this offers, and the peculiarity of the enemy, present tasks to the courts martial…that, with their limited personnel, they can only solve, if military law restricts itself for the time being to its central task.
That is only possible if the troops themselves defend themselves against every threat from the enemy civilian population without mercy….
I
Treatment of criminal acts by enemy civilians
1. Criminal acts of enemy civilians are withdrawn until further notice from the jurisdiction of courts-martial and summary courts.
2. Guerrillas are to be dispatched without mercy by the troops either in combat or while trying to escape.
3. Furthermore, all other attacks by enemy civilians against the Wehrmacht, its members and retinue are to be repelled on the spot by the most extreme measures up to the destruction of the attacker.
4. Where measures of this kind were missed or were initially not possible, the suspicious elements are to be immediately brought before an officer. He will decide whether they are to be shot.
Collective drastic action will be taken immediately against communities from which treacherous or insidious attacks against the Wehrmacht are launched, on the orders of an officer with at least the rank of battalion commander upwards, if the circumstances do not permit a speedy apprehension of individual culprits.
5. It is expressly forbidden to detain suspected culprits, in order to hand them over to the courts when jurisdiction over native inhabitants is restored to these.
II.
Treatment of criminal acts by members of the Wehrmacht or its retinue against native civilians
1. For acts which members of the Wehrmacht or its retinue commit against enemy civilians, there is no compulsion to prosecute, even when the act represents at the same time a military crime or offense.
2. In judging such deeds it is to be considered in any proceedings that the collapse in the year 1918, the later period of suffering of the German people, and the battle against National Socialism with the movement’s countless sacrifices of blood are incontestably to be attributed to Bolshevik influence, and that no German has forgotten that.
3. The chairman of the court must therefore examine whether a disciplinary reprimand is appropriate or whether it is necessary to institute judicial proceedings. The chairman only orders court-martial proceedings for acts against native inhabitants, when the maintenance of discipline or the protection of the troops demands it. That applies, for example, in the case of serious acts that result from the loss of sexual restraint, are derived from a criminal disposition, or are a sign that the troops are threatening to run wild. Criminal acts, by which lodgings or supplies or other plunder are senselessly destroyed to the detriment of our own troops, are not on the whole to be judged more leniently.
© Translation G.Giles
(3) Oberkommando der Wehrmacht F.H.Qu., den 6.6.1941
WFST/Abt. L. (IV/Qu) [Stempel:] Chef-Sache!
Nr. 44822/41
The Commissar Order of 6 June 1941
Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars
In the battle against Bolshevism, the adherence of the enemy to the principles of humanity or international law is not to be counted on. In particular the treatment of those of us who are taken prisoner in a manner full of hatred, cruelty and inhumanity can be expected from the political commissars of every kind as the real pillars of opposition.
The troops must be aware that:
1. In this battle mercy or considerations of international law with regard to these elements is false. They are a danger to our own safety and to the rapid pacification of the conquered territories.
2. The originators of barbaric, Asiatic methods of warfare are the political commissars. So immediate and unhesitatingly severe measures must be undertaken against them.
They are therefore, when captured either in battle or offering resistance, as a matter of routine to be dispatched by firearms.
The following provisions also apply:
2. …Political commissars as agents of the enemy troops are recognizable from their special badge—a red star with a golden woven hammer and sickle on the sleeves…. They are to be separated from the prisoners of war immediately, i.e. already on the battlefield. This is necessary, in order to remove from them any possibility of influencing the captured soldiers.
These commissars are not to be recognized as soldiers; the protection due to prisoners of war under international law does not apply to them. When they have been separated, they are to be finished off.
3. Political commissars who have not made themselves guilty of any enemy action nor are suspected of such should be left unmolested for the time being. It will only be possible after further penetration of the country to decide whether remaining functionaries may be left in place or are to be handed over to the Sonderkommandos. The aim should be for the latter to carry out the assessment.
In judging the question «guilty or not guilty», the personal impression of the attitude and bearing of the commissar should as a matter of principle count for more than the facts of the case which it may not be possible to prove.
© Translation Geoffrey J.Giles
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 498-PSSource:Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Volume III. USGPO, Washington, 1946/pp.416-417#
(4)Fuehrer Order ConcerningHandling of Commandos18 October 1942
TOP SECRET
The Fuehrer No. 003830/ 42 g. Kdos.
OKW/ WFSt
Fuehrer HQ, 18 Oct. 1942
12 copies, 12th copy.
1. For some time our enemies have been using in their warfare methods which are outside the international Geneva Conventions. Especially brutal and treacherous is the behavior of the so-called commandos, who, as is established, are partially recruited even from freed criminals in enemy countries. From captured orders it is divulged, that they are directed not only to shackle prisoners, but also to kill defenseless prisoners on the spot at the moment in which they believe that the latter as prisoners represent a burden in the further pursuit of their purposes or could otherwise be a hindrance. Finally, orders have been found in which the killing of prisoners has been demanded in principle.
2. For this reason it was already announced in an addendum to the Armed Forces report of 7 October 1942, that in the future, Germany, in the face of these sabotage troops of the British and their accomplices, will resort to the same procedure, i. e., that they will be ruthlessly mowed down by the German troops in combat, wherever they may appear.
3. I therefore order:
From now on all enemies on so-called Commando missions in Europe or Africa challenged by German troops, even if they are to all appearances soldiers in uniform or demolition troops, whether armed or unarmed, in battle or in flight, are to be slaughtered to the last man. It does not make any difference whether they are landed from ships and aeroplanes for their actions, or whether they are dropped by parachute. Even if these individuals, when found, should apparently be prepared to give themselves up, no pardon is to be granted them on principle. In each individual case full information is to be sent to the O. K. W. for publication in the Report of the Military Forces.
4. If individual members of such commandos, such as agents, saboteurs, etc. fall into the hands of the military forces by some other means, through the police in occupied territories for in-tance, they are to be handed over immediately to the SD. Any imprisonment under military guard, in PW stockades for instance, etc., is strictly prohibited, even if this is only intended for a short time.
5. This order does not apply to the treatment of any enemy soldiers who, in the course of normal hostilities (large-scale offensive actions, landing operations and airborne operations), are captured in open battle or give themselves up. Nor does this order apply to enemy soldiers falling into our hands after battles at sea, or enemy soldiers trying to save their lives by parachute after battles.
6. I will hold responsible under Military Law, for failing to carry out this order, all commanders and officers who either have neglected their duty of instructing the troops about this order, or acted against this order where it was to be executed.
[signed] Adolf Hitler
Distribution: [Listing omitted]
(5)The Severity Order was the name given to an order promulgated within the German Sixth Army on the Eastern Front during World War II by Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau on 10 October 1941.[1]
Walter von Reichenau
undefined
It said, in part:
…The most important objective of this campaign against the Jewish-Bolshevik system is the complete destruction of its sources of power and the extermination of the Asiatic influence in European civilization. … In this eastern theatre, the soldier is not only a man fighting in accordance with the rules of the art of war, but also the ruthless standard bearer of a national conception. … For this reason the soldier must learn fully to appreciate the necessity for the severe but just retribution that must be meted out to the subhuman species
of Jewry.
(6)The «Kugel-Erlass» (bullet decree) also known as «Aktion Kugel» was a secret decree (Geheimbefehl), issued by Nazi Germany in March 1944. The decree stated that escaped Allied prisoners of war, especially officers and senior non-commissioned officers, should be handed over to the Sicherheitsdienst who should execute them, «im Rahmen der Aktion Kugel», in concentration camp Mauthausen.
This order was in direct contravention of the provisions of the Third Geneva Convention.
An exception was made for escaped British and American POW’s. Their fate was to be decided by the German High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) on a case by case basis.
The Bullet Decree was soon amended to include British soldiers after the «Great Escape» of 25 March 1944.
The number of escaped POW’s executed by the Kugel-erlass is not precisely known. Estimates vary between 1300 and 5040 executed POW’s. The vast majority of these POW’s came from the USSR. Five escaped Dutch officers are known, and four more are suspected, to have been executed in Mauthausen as a result of the Kugel-erlass.
References
External links
Ess.uwe.ac.uk
Icrc.org
Leo de Hartog: officieren achter prikkeldraad 1940-1945. (Dutch officers behind barbed wire 1940-1945) (Dutch)
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1650-PS
Source: Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Vol. IV. USGPO, Washington, 1946, pp.158-160
Kugel Erlass («Bullet Decree»)
SECRET STATE POLICE-STATE POLICE OFFICE COLOGNE
Branch Office, Aachen
To be transmitted in secret-To be handled as a secret government matter.
DOR. BERLIN NUE 19 507 March 4 1944 1430-WF –
To all State Police Directorates except PRAGUE and BRUNN-
Inspectors of the Security Police and of the Security Service.
Subject: Measures to be taken against captured escaped prisoners of war who are officers or not working non-commissioned officers, except British and American prisoners of war.
The Supreme Command of the Army has ordered as follows:
1. Every captured escaped prisoner of war who is an officer or a not working non-commissioned officer, except British and American prisoners of war, is to be turned over to the Chief of the Security Police and of the Security Service under the classification «Step III» regardless of whether the escape occurred during a transport, whether it was a mass escape or an individual one.
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου