Terror and Sabotage Decrees

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On 30 July 1944, with the terror and sabotage adopt the German occupation courts ruled in combating violence civilians.

history

On June 26, 1944, after the execution of eight resistance fighters and an evening curfew, the Copenhagen people's strike began, which completely paralyzed the city. Thereupon Lieutenant General Ernst Richter imposed a military state of emergency on the city. On July 1, Wilhelm Keitel reported the progress of the strike at the Fuehrer's headquarters and Adolf Hitler pronounced a direct ban on the judicial trial of terrorists and saboteurs for all occupied territories. The attacks of the Danish resistance movementshould only be combated with counter-terrorism measures instead of legal means. The field court in Copenhagen had to cease its activities immediately.

The verbal prohibition of July 1, 1944 was followed by a written fix in the form of the so-called Terror and Sabotage Decree of July 30, 1944 for the occupied territories:

All acts of violence by non-German civilians in the occupied territories against the German Wehrmacht, SS and police and against institutions serving their purposes are to be combated as acts of terrorism and sabotage as follows:

  1. The troops, '- SS and so on -' have to fight terrorists and saboteurs ... immediately on the spot.
  2. Anyone who is arrested later must be handed over to the nearest local security police and SD service.
  3. Followers, especially women who do not directly take part in combat operations, are to be assigned to work. Children are to be spared.

An executive order of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) of August 18 added that civilians who endangered the security or effectiveness of the occupying power without acts of violence should also be handed over to the police. An accompanying decree issued by the OKW on the same day stipulated that ongoing judicial proceedings by the courts-martial against non-German civilians were to be suspended. The perpetrators should be handed over to the security police. That meant a further tightening of the night and fog decree .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kai Cornelius: From disappearance without a trace to the obligation to notify in the event of arrests. BWV, 2006, ISBN 3-8305-1165-5 , p. 94 f.
  2. ^ Matthias Bath: Danebrog against swastika. Wachholz, 2011, ISBN 978-3-529-02817-5 , pp. 205 ff.
  3. ^ Franz Steiner: Denmark the model protectorate? In: Robert Bohn (ed.): The German rule in the "Germanic" countries 1940-1945. Franz Steiner, 1997, ISBN 3-515-07099-0 , p. 133.
  4. ^ Matthias Bath: Danebrog against swastika. P. 206.
  5. ^ Nuremberg Trial, April 6, 1946, morning session , zeno.org, accessed October 4, 2016.
  6. ↑ Lothar Gruchmann: "Night and Fog" Justice. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Volume 3, 1981, p. 393 f.