Among the most brutal OKW directives concerning the
treatment of prisoners of war one must consider the order entitled
"Kugel (bullet)". The reasons for resorting to capital
punishment for prisoners of war were offenses, which according to
international conventions, generally should not carry any punishment
(for example, escape from the camp).
Another order, "Nacht und Nebel", states:
"Penalty for such offenses,
consisting of loss of freedom and even a life sentence is a sign of
weakness. Only death sentence or measures which entail ignorance of
the fate of the guilty by local population will achieve real
effectiveness." (L-90, USA-224; Transcript, Afternoon Session,
25 January 1946)
In the course of the present Trial a great deal of
evidence of application of the "Kugel" order has been
submitted. One of the examples of this kind of crime is the murder of
50 officer-pilots. The fact that this crime was inspired by the High
Command cannot be doubted.
OKW also distributed an order for the destruction of the
"commando" units. The original order was submitted to the
Court (PS-498, USA-501). According to this order officers and
soldiers of the "commando" units had to be shot, except in
cases when they were to be questioned, after which they were shot in
any case.
These orders were unswervingly carried out by the commanding
officers of Army units. In June 1944 Rundstedt, the Commander-in
Chief of the German troops in the West, reported that Hitler's order
in regard to "the treatment of the 'commando' groups of the
enemy is still being carried out" (PS-531, USA-550).
3. The High Command, along with the SS and the Police, is
guilty of the most brutal police actions in the occupied regions.
The instructions relating to special regions, issued by OKW on 13
March 1941, contemplated the necessity of synchronizing the
activities in occupied territories between the army command and the
Reichsführer of the SS. As is seen from the testimony of the
chief of the 3d Department of RSHA and who was concurrently chief of
the Einsatzgruppe "D", Otto Ohlendorf, and of the chief of
the VI Department of RSHA, Walter Schellenberg, in accordance with
OKW instructions there was an agreement made between the General
Staff and the RSHA about the organization of special
"operational groups" of the Security Police and SD -
"Einsatzgruppen", assigned to the appropriate army
detachments.
Crimes committed by the Einsatzgruppen on the territory of the
temporarily occupied regions are countless. The Einsatzgruppen were
acting in close contact with the commanding officers of the
appropriate army groups.