2 Jan. 46
"Unless both these conditions are
fulfilled, the Führer and Supreme Commander does not anticipate
that criminal proceedings within the occupied territories will have
the necessary deterrent effect.
"In all other cases the prisoners are, in the future, to be
transported to Germany secretly, and further dealings with the
offenses will take place here; these measures will have a deterrent
effect because (a) the prisoners will vanish without leaving a trace,
(b) no information may be given as to their whereabouts or their fate."
Now, skipping the next paragraph, to the second paragraph below:
"In case the competent military court
and the military commander, respectively, are of the opinion that an
immediate decision on the spot is impossible, and the prisoners are
therefore to be transported to Germany, the counter-intelligence
offices have to report this fact directly to the RSHA in Berlin (SW
11), Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 7, in care of Dr. Fischer, Director of
Criminal Police, stating the exact number of prisoners and of the
groups which belong together as the case may be. Isolated cases, where
the superior commander has an urgent interest in the case being dealt
with by a military court, are to be reported to the RSHA. A copy of
the entire report to the Reich Security Main Office is to be sent to
Amt Ausland Abwehr, Section Abwehr III.
"The RSHA on the basis of available accommodation will determine
which office of the state police has to accept the prisoners. The
latter office will communicate with the competent Abwehr office and
determine with it the particulars of the removal, particularly whether
this will be carried out by the Secret Field Police, the Field
Gendarmerie, or the Gestapo itself, as well as the place and manner of
the handing over of the material."
After the civilians arrived in Germany no word of the disposition of
their cases was permitted to reach the country from which they came or
their relatives.
I now offer Document 668-PS, Exhibit Number USA-504. This is a letter
of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD, dated the 24th of June
1942; and I quote from the first page of the English translation:
"It is the intent of the directive of
the Führer and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht concerning
prosecution of criminal acts against the Reich or the occupation
forces in Occupied Territories, dated 7 December 1941," —
that is the