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Letter to the military high command on the treatment of captured commandos, depending on whether they are in uniforms or in civilian clothing

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Authors

Ernst Kaltenbrunner (chief of security police and security service (SD), RSHA)

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Ernst Kaltenbrunner

Austrian SS official, a major perpetrator of the Holocaust and convicted war criminal (1903-1946)

Image of Ernst Kaltenbrunner
  • Born: 1903-10-04 (Ried im Innkreis) (country: Austria-Hungary)
  • Died: 1946-10-16 (Nuremberg Court Prison)
  • Country of citizenship: Austria; German Reich
  • Occupation: lawyer; military officer; politician
  • Member of political party: Nazi Party
  • Military rank: Obergruppenführer
  • Military branch: Schutzstaffel (period: 1940-01-01 through 1945-01-01)
  • Position held: Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (period: 1943-01-30 through 1945-05-08); President of Interpol (period: 1943-01-30 through 1945-05-12; replaces: Arthur Nebe); member of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany

Date: 23 January 1945

Literal Title: Subject: Commando Operations.

Defendant: Ernst Kaltenbrunner

Total Pages: 1

Language of Text: English

Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)

Evidence Code: PS-535

HLSL Item No.: 451758

Trial Issue

Partisan fighters (and commandos), operations against, and treatment of (I…

Document Summary

Staff Evidence Analyses

PS-535: Top Secret Letter from Kaltenbrunner to OKW re Treatment of Paratroopers

Red Series Doc Descriptions

PS-535: Secret letters of 23 January 1945 from the chief of the security police and security service to Okw/wfst (colonel Pollek) concerning differences of opinion on the treatment of commandos

TOP SECRET
Berlin SW 11, 23 January 1945 Prinz Albrecht Str. 8 Chief of the Security Police and of the SD IV A 2 a -T- Ltr. No. 502/42gRs 58960 45
To: The High Command of the Armed Forces Armed Forces Planning Staff Attention of Col. i.G. Polleck, o.V.i.A.,
' Berlin W 35
' Tirpitzufer 72/76
Subject: Commando Operations.
Reference: Your letter of 28 September 1944—WFSt./Qu.2 (Verw. 1) No. 0011754.44 g.K.
I cannot agree with the view supported in the cited letter as well as in the letter, transmitted as an enclosure by the Com-
346
535-PS
mander in Chief of Southeast dated 13 September 1944, that members of commando operations now fall under the Fuehrer order of 18 Aug 1944 and/or 30 July 1944 (OKW/WFSt/Qu. 2/Verw. 1 No. 009169/WR 1/1 No. 79/44g Kdos.) This Fuehrer order speaks expressly only of non-German civilians while the members of commando operations in question generally appear in enemy uniform and consequently must be treated according to the Fuehrer order of 18 October 1942—003830/42g Kdos/OKW WFSt. Only members of commando operations in civilian clothing can be treated, from the very beginning, as agents according to exclusive Security Police viewpoints, since according to the Geneva Convention they cannot claim any favors for PWs.
I request that you inform the other recipients of your letter of 28 Sept. 1944 in the above sense and to notify me of the action taken.
E. Kaltenbrunner

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