Minutes of Meeting Concerning
Handling of "Terror Aviators" 6 June 1944

TOP SECRET

Access only through officer
Fuehrer Headquarters 6.6.1944

Deputy Chief of the Armed Forces Ops Staff
No. 771793/ 44 Top Secret, S. 0. only

Subject: Treatment of enemy terror aviators

Minutes of a meeting

1. Obergruppenfuehrer Kaltenbrunner informed the deputy Chief of WFSt in Klessheim on the afternoon of 6.6, that a conference on this question had been held shortly before between the Reich Marshall, the Reich Foreign Minister and the Reichsfuehrer SS. Contrary to the original suggestion made by the Reich Foreign Minister who wished to include every type of terror attack on the German civilian population, that is, also bombing attacks on cities, it was agreed in the above conference that merely those attacks carried out with A/ C armament, aimed directly at the civilian population and their property, should be taken as the standard for the evidence of a criminal action in this sense. Lynch law would have to be the rule. On the contrary, there has been no question of court martial sentence or handing over to the police.

2. Deputy Chief of WFSt stated the following:

a. First and foremost, following the lines of the generally distributed declaration made by Reich Minister Dr. Goebbels and numerous press notices written in the same vein, it is essential to announce any definitely established incident of this kind giving the names and units of the aviators, the place the incident occurred and any other relevant facts. The purpose of this would be to make clear the serious intentions of the Germans in the face of disbelieving enemy propaganda and especially to discourage effectively any further murderous action against our civilian population. Therefore the question is whether the SD knows of such a case or whether the necessary proof is available from which to construct a case like this with the required statements. Obergruppenfuehrer Kaltenbrunner replied to both in the negative.

b. Deputy Chief of the WFSt mentioned that, apart from Lynch law, a procedure must be worked out for segregating those enemy aviators, who are suspected of criminal action of this kind, until they are received into the Reception Camp for aviators at Oberursel; if the suspicion was confirmed, they would be handed over to the SD for special treatment. For this purpose the WFSt would cooperate with the Supreme Command of the Air Force to set out the necessary regulations for the use of the head of the camp at Oberursel. Obergruppenfuehrer Kaltenbrunner expressed his complete agreement with this view and that the SD take charge of those aviators segregated.

c. On the question of making announcements, it is settled that, for the present, agreement should be reached in every case between OKW/ WFSt, OKL, and the Reichsfuehrer SS to decide the form that the announcement should take. The participation of the Foreign office is to be assured by the WFSt.

3. At a conference with Colonel von Brauchitsch (C-in-C Air Force) on 6.6, it was settled that the following actions were to be regarded as terror-action, justifying Lynch law.

a. Low level attacks with aircraft armament on the civilian population, single persons as well as crowds.

b. Shooting on our own (German) air crews in the air who have bailed out.

c. Attacks with aircraft armament on passenger trains in the public service.

d. Attacks with aircraft armament on military hospitals, hos-pitals and hospital-trains which are clearly marked with the Red Cross.

The head of the Reception camp for aviators at Oberursel will be informed of these facts given in Section 3 above. If the facts of any case of this kind are established on examination, the prisoners are to be handed over to the SD. Colonel von Brauchitsch declared, at the end, that another report to the Reich Marshall on this subject would be superfluous.

sgd. Warlimont

Distribution: Chief OKW via Chief WFSt-1st copy
Deputy Chief WFSt/ Ktb.-2nd copy
Qu (rough copy) -3rd copy

Remarks by the Chief of OKW on the agenda dated 6.6.44 No. 771793/ 44

Top Secret S. 0. only.

"If one allows the people to carry out Lynch law, it is difficult to enforce rules ! -K

Min. Dir. Berndt got out and then shot the enemy aviators on the road.

I am against legal procedure! It doesn't work out !

[sgd.] K. [Keitel]

Remarks by Chief of WFSt:

"T'o 3. This conference is insufficient. The following points must be decided quite definitely in conjunction with the Foreign Office:

1. What do we consider as murder?
    Is RR in agreement with point 3b?
2.  How should the procedure be carried out?
     a. by the people?
     b. by the authorities?

3.  How can we guarantee that the procedure be not also carried out against other enemy aviators?

4.  Should some legal procedure be arranged or not?

[ sgd.] J. [Jodl]