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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.
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