Request to military headquarters for authorization for troops to shoot civilians engaged in passive resistance (e.g., striking railway workers)

TOP SECRET KR WHFH 0426 21.9.1940
to OJW/Ops. Staff of the Wehrmacht
Owing to strike of railwaymen, all communications in Holland are at a standstill. Railway personnel does not obey the appeal to resume work. The call for providing motor vehicles and other means of transport to make the troops mobile and to maintain supplies is no longer answered by the civil population. According to the Fuehrer's decree of the 18.8.44 and the executive in. structions of the Chief of the OKW (Ops. Staff of the Armed Forces/Qu. 2) (Admin 1) No. 009169/44 top secret published as a supplement thereto, the troops may use armed force only against persons who commit acts of violence as terrorists or saboteurs, whereas persons who endanger the security or war-preparedness of the occupation power in any other way than by terrorism or acts of sabotage are to be handed over to the SD. This regulation has proved too roundabout and therefore ineffective. In the first place, the necessary police forces are lacking. The troops must again. receive authority to shoot with or even without summary trial, such persons also as are not terrorists or saboteurs in the sense of the Fuehrer's decree but who endanger the fighting forces by their passive attitude. It is requested that the Fuehrer's decree be altered accordingly, as the troops cannot otherwise assert themselves effectively against the population, which, in its turn, appears to endanger the conduct of the operations.
Commander of the Armed Forces, Netherlands,
Chief of Staff
Top Secret
No. 4489/44
Signed Fr. Christiansen,
Luftwaffe General.