Bullet enactment

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The ball decree of March 1944, a secret order with instructions from German POW camps escaped officers and higher-ranking officers after his arrest by the Security Service (SD) in the Mauthausen concentration camp to transfer and leave them there to shoot "in the action sphere".

An exception was made for recaptured officers of the British and American armed forces: For this purpose, a decision had to be obtained from the OKW / Chief War Officer on a case-by-case basis . This order violated the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 1929, which only provided for disciplinary punishments for prisoners of war escaping.

Source transmission

The document referred to by the prosecution as a “bullet decree” in the Nuremberg trial against the main war criminals , which is dated March 2, 1944, was not found in the original. Rather, it is a telex dated March 4, 1944, marked as a Reich Secret , with which Heinrich Müller, as head of the Gestapo, passed this order on to selected state police headquarters and inspectors of the SD.

There can be no doubt about the authenticity of the decree, as Ernst Kaltenbrunner admitted his knowledge of it and other documents refer to it.

The specific reason for the order is presumed to be the escape of 140 Dutch officers who tried to escape from Stalag 371 ( Stanislau ) during a transport . There is evidence that nine of them were murdered in Mauthausen .

content

The telex of March 4, 1944 mentions "Measures against arrested fugitive prisoners of war officers and non-working non-commissioned officers - with the exception of British and American prisoners of war" as the subject. The expression "non-working NCOs" describes a group of higher-ranking NCOs who, according to the provisions of the Geneva Convention, were to be released from work in captivity and thus treated on an equal footing with officers.

The letter begins with the words “Das OKW. [sic] has ordered the following "and under firstly states that every recaptured officer or" non-working non-commissioned officer "with the exception of British and American prisoners of war is to be handed over to the" Chief of Sipo ud SD "with the keyword" Level III ". Second, this transfer should "under no circumstances become officially known". These prisoners of war should be reported to the Wehrmacht information center as "having fled and not re-captured", and the same information should be given to inquiries from the International Committee of the Red Cross . In the third point, a different special regulation is made for British and American nationals: These are initially to be detained outside the prisoner of war camp and possibly in police custody "out of sight of prisoners of war". Immediately a decision should then be made "on a case-by-case basis" about their possible handover to the SD at the "OKW / Chief War War".

Implementing provisions are then added under the heading “I order the following”. The transferred persons were to be transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp “according to the usual procedure”. The prisoners are to be tied up during transport, but this is to be hidden from bystanders. The camp commandant in Mauthausen was to be informed that "the transfer was taking place as part of the 'Kugel' campaign." The OKW had been asked to instruct the prisoner-of-war camps, in the interests of camouflage, not to send those who were arrested directly to Mauthausen themselves, but to the responsible state police station to hand over.

Implementation of the command

Primarily members of the Red Army fell victim to this decree. An instruction from the military district command in Soest dated July 27, 1944, which was marked as "secret", relates to the transfer of prisoners of war to the Secret State Police and also lists that Soviet officers and men were taken out of captivity because of crimes, refusal to work or because of their political views to be released and handed over to the Gestapo. Polish prisoners of war convicted of sabotage should also be transferred to the task force on request. In all of these cases, a report to the OKW is not required.

In the case of prisoners of war of all other nations, including Belgian and French prisoners of war and Italian military internees, the approval of the OKW or the responsible military district command is required.

Executions in Mauthausen

The "Aktion Kugel" is seen as an increasing radicalization in dealing with captured prisoners of war. Spectacular escapes by officers and mass escapes gave Heinrich Himmler an opportunity to attack the prisoner-of-war system under the Wehrmacht and gave the Reich Security Main Office room to maneuver.

As early as 1943, prisoners of all kinds - mostly civilian forced laborers - had been admitted to Mauthausen by the security service "under the keyword" Kugel "and executed there; Presumably there was a “K-order” for forced laborers first; After June 23, 1944, no civilian K prisoners can be found in Mauthausen.

In the main Nuremberg trial there was an affidavit from witnesses who reported on the murder of the prisoners of war transported to Mauthausen:

“In Mauthausen there were several types of prisoner treatment, among them the 'Aktion K or Kugel'. Upon arrival of the transports, the prisoners, labeled 'K', were not registered, given no number, and their names remained unknown to all but the Political Department officials. The K-prisoners were taken directly to the prison, undressed and sent to the 'shower rooms'. These shower rooms in the cellars of the prison next to the crematorium were intended for executions. "

Such executions continued until around the end of May 1944. Then "K" prisoners were housed in Block 20. Instead of killing the delivered prisoners immediately, they were usually starved to death. On February 2, 1945, 419 K prisoners managed to escape; In the days and weeks that followed, almost all of them were captured and murdered during the so-called Mühlviertel hare hunt.

No documents have been preserved from which the number of prisoners of war killed as a result of the “bullet decree” can be determined without any problems. The number of 1,300 given by a witness during the course of the trial is inconclusive in itself and was questioned there. According to other sources, 4,700 K prisoners lost their lives as a result of Aktion K in Mauthausen. The most common figure sums up 5040 people, of whom 4,300 around 85% were Soviet prisoners of war.

Responsibilities

The USSR had acceded to the Hague Land Warfare Regulations of 1907, but not to the Geneva POWs of 1929. Nevertheless, the executions of Soviet prisoners of war were undoubtedly illegal. Due to the fact already described that mainly members of the Red Army fell victim to the "bullet decree", it had a supplementary effect to the commissioner's order of June 6, 1941.

Hermann Göring denied in court that he knew about the Kugel decree. Ernst Kaltenbrunner stated that he only found out about it by chance and asked:

“Again a few days later, Müller came to me on behalf of Himmler and gave me access to a decree, which, however, did not come from Hitler, but from Himmler, and in which Himmler declared that he was passing on an oral order from the Führer. I replied to Himmler that in this Führer decree I would of course have to state that the most primitive principles of the Geneva Convention had been broken, if at a time that happened long before my activity and after subsequent violations of the law were made. I asked him to go to the Fiihrer about this and have enclosed with this letter the draft of a letter from Himmler to Hitler, in which Himmler asks the Fiihrer: a) to repeal this decree, b) to relieve the subordinate departments of this mental burden in any case . [...] The success was positive. It is true that the "Kugel-Erlass" was not repealed and not a number of other, equally depressing orders, but it was positive insofar as Hitler allowed me to contact the International Red Cross for the first time in February 1945. which until then had been strictly forbidden. "

Wilhelm Keitel said in the cross-examination: "I have definitely not signed this order, not seen it, there is no doubt about it." He could not explain it, only make assumptions, as was the case with this order and the words "The OKW ordered the following" Reich Security Office [sic] had come. In his testimony, he mentioned various possibilities and agreed with Kaltenbrunner's interpretation that Adolf Hitler had given Heinrich Himmler an oral order without consulting him, the defendant Keitel, and without his knowledge .

According to Christian Kretschmer, all indications suggest that the order came from the Hitler-Himmler-Müller district; it remains unclear to what extent Hans von Graevenitz, as head of the prisoner-of-war system, was involved in the drafting. Kretschmer believes that a written order from the OKW, which explicitly spoke of the murder of the officers handed over to the Gestapo, is unlikely. However, the surrender to the Gestapo alone could suggest the idea of ​​an execution .

See also

literature

  • Christian Kretschmer: 'Successful Escape - Stage III' - Background, origins and victims of the 'Aktion Kugel' . In: Christoph Dieckmann, Babette Quinkert (ed.): Warfare and Hunger 1939–1945. On the relationship between military, economic and political interests. ( Contributions to the history of National Socialism 30) Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8353-1492-4 . Pp. 227-262.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, July 27, 1929, Art. 50
  2. ↑ Printed as Document 1650-PS IMT (Ed.): The Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal. Volume XXVII (= document volume 3). Reprint Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7735-2522-2 , pp. 424-428 / extract in Vol. III, pp. 564-565.
  3. ↑ IMT: The Nuremberg Trial ... Vol. XI, p. 303 (Thursday, April 11, 1946).
  4. ↑ z. B. Document 1514-PS: "Secret announcement of the military district command VI of July 27, 1944", IMT: The Nuremberg Trial ... Vol. XXVII, pp. 261-269.
  5. ↑ Christian Kretschmer: 'Successful Escape - Level III' - Background, origins and victims of the 'Aktion Kugel' . In: Christoph Dieckmann, Babette Quinkert (ed.): Warfare and Hunger 1939–1945. Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8353-1492-4 , p. 250.
  6. ^ Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, July 27, 1929 , Art. 21
  7. ↑ Document 1514-PS “Secret Communication of the Military District Command VI of July 27, 1944”, IMT: The Nuremberg Trial ... Vol. XXVII, pp. 261-269.
  8. ↑ Christian Kretschmer: 'Successful Escape - Level III' - Background, origins and victims of the 'Aktion Kugel' . In: Christoph Dieckmann, Babette Quinkert (ed.): Warfare and Hunger 1939–1945. Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8353-1492-4 , p. 228.
  9. ^ Alfred Streim : Soviet prisoners in Hitler's war of extermination: Reports and Documents 1941-1945 . CF Müller Juristischer Verlag, Heidelberg 1982, ISBN 3-8114-2482-3 , p. 164, note 77.
  10. ↑ Christian Kretschmer: 'Successful Escape - Level III' - Background, origins and victims of the 'Aktion Kugel' . In: Christoph Dieckmann, Babette Quinkert (ed.): Warfare and Hunger 1939–1945. Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8353-1492-4 , pp. 244 and 237.
  11. ^ IMT: The Nuremberg Trial ... Vol. IV, p. 291f; There are doubts about the description of a second witness regarding the firing device.
  12. ↑ Christian Kretschmer: 'Successful Escape - Level III' - Background, origins and victims of the 'Aktion Kugel' . In: Christoph Dieckmann, Babette Quinkert (ed.): Warfare and Hunger 1939–1945. Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8353-1492-4 , p. 259.
  13. ↑ IMT: The Nuremberg Trial ... Vol. XI, pp. 378–379.
  14. ↑ IMT: The Nuremberg Trial ... Vol. XI, p. 379f.
  15. ↑ Barbara Stelzl-Marx: Between fiction and contemporary witness. American and Soviet prisoners of war in Stalag XVII B. Tübingen 2000, ISBN 3-8233-4661-X , p. 91 / Christian Kretschmer: 'Successful escape - level III' - background, origin and victims of the 'Aktion Kugel' . In: Christoph Dieckmann, Babette Quinkert (ed.): Warfare and Hunger 1939–1945. Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8353-1492-4 , p. 260.
  16. ^ Christian Streit: No comrades. The Wehrmacht and the Soviet prisoners of war 1941–1945 . Bonn 1991, ISBN 3-8012-5016-4 , p. 230.
  17. ^ Heribert Ostendorf: "The - contradicting - effects of the Nuremberg trials on the West German judiciary", in: Gerd Hankel , Gerhard Stuby (ed.): Criminal courts against human crimes. Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-930908-10-7 .
  18. ↑ IMT: The Nuremberg Trial ... Vol XI, p. 303 f / Christian Kretschmer: 'Successful Escape - Stage III' - Background, origin and victims of the 'Aktion Kugel' . In: Christoph Dieckmann, Babette Quinkert (ed.): Warfare and Hunger 1939–1945. Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8353-1492-4 , p. 247.
  19. ↑ IMT: The Nuremberg Trial ... Vol. XVIII, p. 43.
  20. ↑ Christian Kretschmer: 'Successful Escape - Level III' - Background, origins and victims of the 'Aktion Kugel' . In: Christoph Dieckmann, Babette Quinkert (ed.): Warfare and Hunger 1939–1945. Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8353-1492-4 , p. 253.