Top Secret
High Command of the Armed Forces.
No 55 1781/42 g. K Chefs. W F St/Qu
F. H. Qu., 19 October 1942
Top Secret
By officer only 22 copies, 21st copy
Added to the decree concerning the destruction of terror and sabotage troops (OKW/WFst No. 003830/VH top secret of 18 October 19U2) a supplementary order of the Fuehrer is enclosed.
This order is intended for commanders only and must not under any circumstances fall into enemy hands.
The further distribution is to be limited accordingly by the receiving bureaus.
The bureaus named in the distribution list are held responsible, for the return and destruction of all distributed pieces of the order and copies made thereof.
The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces
By order of
Jodi
1 enclosure .
(distribution list—over)
Distribution list:
Genera] Staff of the Army—1st copy
Chief of Ordnance and Commander of Replacement Army —2nd copy.
High Command of the Navy Sea Warfare Diary—3rd copy.
High Command of the Air Force command staff—4th copy.
Commanding Officer of the Armed Forces in Norway-— 5th copy.
Commanding Officer of the Armed Forces in The Netherlands—6th copy.
Commanding Officer of the Armed Forces in the Southeast—7th copy.
Commanding Officer of the Armed Forces in The Eastern Territory (Ostland)—8th copy.
Commanding Officer of the Armed Forces in the Ukraine —9th copy.
High Command West—10th copy.
High Command 20th Mountain army)
(GEB.) AOH 20) |
Commanding Officer of German troops in Denmark f—12th copy.
(Bfh. d. dt. Tr. in Denmark
-11th copy.
I-1
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High Command South—13th copy.
Tank Army—Africa—14th copy.
German General in Headquarters of Italian Armed Forces —15th copy.
Reich Fuehrer SS and Chief of German Police and Main Bureau for Security Police—16th and 17th copies. High Command of the Armed Forces:
Foreign Counter Intelligence—18th copy.
Armed Forces legal section (WR)—19th copy.
Armed Forces propaganda section (PR)—20th copy. Armed Forces Command Staff, Quartermaster inclusive file copy—21st copy.
War Diary (KtC)—22nd copy.
Top Secret By officer only
The Fuehrer and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces
18 K
I have been compelled to issue strict orders for the destruction of enemy sabotage troops and to declare non-compliance with these orders severely punishable. I deem it necessary to announce to the competent commanding officers and commanders the reasons for this decree.
As in no previous war, a method of destruction of communications behind the front, intimidation of the populace working for Germany, as well as the destruction of war-important industrial plants in territories occupied by us has been developed in this war.
In the east, this type of combat in the form of partisan warfare as early as last winter led to severe encroachment upon our fighting strength and cost the lives of numerous German soldiers, railroad workers, members of the labor corps [Organization Todt], the labor service, etc. It severely interfered with and sometimes delayed for days, the performance of transportation necessary for the maintenance of the fighting strength of the troops. By a successful continuation or perhaps even intensification of this form of war, a grave crisis in one or another place at the front might develop. Many measures against these horrible, as well as wily, sabotage activities have failed, simply because the German officer and his soldiers were not aware of the great danger confronting them and therefore in individual cases did not act against these enemy groups as would have been necessary in order to help the forward echelons of the front thereby the entire conduct of the war.
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It was therefore in part necessary in the East to organize special units who mastered this danger or to assign this task to special SS formations.
Only where the fight against this partisan disgrace was begun and executed with ruthless brutality were results achieved which eased the position of the fighting front.
In all eastern territories the war against the partisans is therefore a struggle of absolute annihilation of one or the other part.
As soon as the realization of this fact becomes the common knowledge of troops, they will regularly be able to cope with these occurrences in short order ; otherwise their efforts achieve no decisive results and become purposeless.
Even though under a different name, England and America have decided upon a similar kind of warfare, while the Russian attempts to put partisan troops behind our front by land and only in exceptional cases uses air transportation to land men and to drop supplies, England and America use this method of warfare primarily by landing sabotage troops from submarines or pneumatic boats or by means of parachute agents. Essentially, however, this form of warfare does not differ from the activities of the Russian partisans. For it is the task of these troops :
1. to build up a general espionage service with the assistance of willing natives,
2. to organize troops of terrorists and supply them with the necessary weapons and explosives,
3. to undertake sabotage activities which by destruction of traffic installations, not only continuously disrupt our communications, but also, when things become serious, make troop movements absolutely impossible and eliminate our communications system.
Finally, these troops are to make attacks on war-important installations, in which, according to a scientifically worked out program, they destroy key works by dynamiting, thereby forcing whole industries into idleness.
The consequences of these activities are of extraordinary weight. I do not know whether each commander and officer is cognizant of the fact that the destruction of one single electric power plant, for instance, can deprive the Luftwaffe of many thousand tons of aluminum, thereby eliminating the construction of countless aircraft that will be missed in the fight at the front and so contribute to serious damage of the Homeland as well as bloody losses of the fighting soldiers.
Yet this form of war is completely without danger for the adversary. Since he lands his sabotage troops in uniform but at the
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same time supplies them with civilian clothes, they can, according to need, appear as soldiers or civilians. While they themselves have orders to ruthlessly remove any German soldiers or even natives who get in their way, they run no danger of suffering really* serious losses in their operations, since at the worst, if they are caught, they can immediately surrender and thus believe that they will theoretically fall under the provisions of the Geneva Convention. There is no doubt, however, that this is a misuse in the worst form of the Geneva agreements, especially since part of these elements are even criminals, liberated from prisons, who can rehabilitate themselves through these activities.
England and America will therefore always be able to find volunteers for this kind of warfare, as long as they can truthfully assure them that there is no danger of loss of life for them. At worst, all they have to do is to successfully commit their attack on people, traffic installations, or other installations, and upon being encountered by the enemy, to capitulate.
If the German conduct of war is not to suffer grievous damage through these incidents, it must be made clear to the adversary , that all sabotage troops will be exterminated, without exception, to the last man.
This means that their chance of escaping with their lives is nil. Under no circumstances can it be permitted, therefore, that a dynamite, sabotage, or terrorist unit simply allows itself to be captured, expecting to be treated according to rules of the Geneva Convention. It must under all circumstances be ruthlessly exterminated.
The report on this subject appearing in the Armed Forces communique will briefly and laconically state that a sabotage, terror, or destruction unit has been encountered and exterminated to the last man.
I therefore expect the commanding officers of armies subordinated to them as well as individual commanders not only to realize the necessity of taking such measures, but to carry out this order with all energy. Officers and noncommissioned officers who fail through some weakness are to be reported without fail, or under circumstances—when there is danger in delay—to be at once made strictly accountable. The Homeland as well as the fighting soldier at the front has the right to expect that behind their back the essentials of nourishment as well as the supply of war-important weapons and ammunition remains secure.
These are the reason for the issuance of this decree.
If it should become necessary,
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to initially spare one man or two, then they are to be shot immediately after interrogation.
(signed) A. Hitler