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VII. WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST
HUMANITY SELECTIONS FROM
THE EVIDENCE – Continued
C. Measures Against Prisoners of War and
Enemy Belligerents
I. INTRODUCTION |
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The principal charges of criminal conduct against enemy belligerents
and prisoners of war are contained in paragraph 45-58 of the indictment (count
two). These charges can briefly be summarized as murder and ill treatment,
denial of rights and status, and employment under inhumane conditions and
prohibited circumstances.
In connection with the evidence reproduced below on the treatment of
prisoners of war and “dispersed” soldiers (sections 2 and 3),
reference is made to evidence reproduced in the earlier sections on the
Commissar Order and the Barbarossa Jurisdiction Order (section VII A and B 1,
Vol. X). The prosecution contended that the uniformed commissars were members
of the Soviet Army and, as such, entitled to treatment as prisoners of war
after capture. The “dispersed” soldiers were uniformed soldiers of
the Soviet Army who, after having been separated from their units, continued
fighting in the rear of the front line, either as individuals or in small
groups, and in defiance of the German order to surrender before a set date. The
prosecution claimed that such soldiers, upon capture, were entitled to prisoner
of war status and privileges, whereas the defense contended that they were to
be regarded as francs-tireurs and persons who have lost prisoner of war
status.
The documentary
evidence on the Commando Order (some of which is reproduced in section 4) was
particularly voluminous. Space limitations have prevented the reproduction here
of the correspondence between the OKW and the German Foreign Office concerning
an answer to the British Government’s protest concerning the treatment of
captured commandos, the correspondence about the treatment of commandos who had
been captured in Norway before the issuance of the Commando Order, and other
matters. The evidence included herein deals quite thoroughly with the conduct
of the defendants Warlimont and Lehmann during the period when the text of the
order was under consideration. The materials included also involve the
defendant Warlimont’s connection with the practical interpretation and
execution of the order itself.
The High Command of the Army (OKH)
distributed the Commando Order to all the army groups and armies in Russia, as
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