WFSt/Qu (Verw. 1)
24 June 1944
TOP SECRET
5 copies, 1st copy
SSD—Telegram.
To 1. Supreme Command West.
By mail to 2. Chief of General Staff, Army.
By mail to 3. Supreme Command of the Air Force/Air Force Staff Headquarters.
437
532—PS
By mail to 4. By mail to 5. By mail to 6. By mail to 7.
Authority: 1.
Supreme Command Navy/1 Ski.
Reichsfuehrer SS Command Staff.
Military Commander, France.
Supreme Command of Armed Forces/WR.
Order of the Fuehrer no. 003830/42 Top Secret of 18 Oct 42/OKW/WFSt.
2. Telegram Supreme Command West no. 1750/44 Top Secret of 23 June 44.
Subject: Treatment of Commandos.
1. Standard operating procedure to (1) will be fully maintained.
2. Numeral (5) refers to enemy soldiers in uniform who are captured in open combat by own troops stationed in the immediate combat zone of the beachhead or who surrender. "Own troops stationed in the immediate combat zone" applies in this sense to those of combat divisions on line as well as reserves up to and including general staffs.
3. In cases of doubt enemy personnel falling into our hands alive will be turned over to the SD, which will be responsible for the examination as to whether the order concerning commandos is applicable or not.
4. Accordingly, the paratroop saboteurs dropped by the enemy over Britanny will be treated as commando personnel, since this area is not at present an immediate combat zone. It is immaterial in this case whether the paratroopers dropped wear uniform or civilian clothes. The number of paratroopers captured in Britanny will be included in the daily report currently. In this respect an annex to the armed forces report of 7 October 1942 has already been published to the effect that such criminal elements should be massacred in combat.
(Remark: Enclosures of the order of the Fuehrer of 18 October 1942 as well as the further order regarding the treatment of Commando personnel of 25 June 1944 are attached. The latter mentions also paratroopers under number (2).)
Distribution: [signature illegible]
Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces through Chief of the WFSt Qu (Entw.).
438
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Telegram to military commanders in the west, on the treatment of captured commandos, including the transfer of some ("in cases of doubt") to the SD to determine whether to apply the commando order (i.e., execution)
Date: 24 June 1944
Literal Title: Subject: Treatment of Commandos
Defendant: Wilhelm Keitel
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-532
HLSL Item No.: 451559
Notes:The message is not signed. One copy of PS 532 (not necessarily this one) was entered as French exhibit 368.
Trial Issues
Criminal organizations (Gestapo, Leadership Corps, Cabinet, SS, SD, OKW) (… Partisan fighters (and commandos), operations against, and treatment of (I…
Document Summary
PS-532: Top Secret letter from the WFST to various military headquarters and SS re treatment of paratroopers (Fuehrer Order of 18/10/42)
PS-532: Secret teleprint message from the Wfst/qu. (verw. 1) to Commander-in-chief west, 24 June 1944, concerning the treatment of commandos