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Felix Römer
“In the Old Germany Such a Command Would Have Been Impossible”
Keywords: Kriegsgerichtsbarkeitserlass, Zweiter Weltkrieg, Ostheer
The Military Jurisdiction Decree handed out by the Wehrmacht High Command (OKW) on the 13th of May, 1941 was contrary to international law and formed the reference order for the German conduct of the war against the Soviet Union. This incisive “Führer decree” permitted executions of “enemy civilians” without trial as well as collective reprisals against whole communities and thereby created the pseudo-legal foundations for the occupational terror imposed by German forces in the conquered Soviet territories. In his article, Römer first describes how this felonious order was received by the commanding agencies of the Eastern Army before the beginning of the campaign, disclosing a widely diversified spectrum of reactions. The diverging reception of the decree however had little effect on the fact that most of the commanders obediently announced the order to their troops and thereby set its implementation in motion.
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag
Print ISSN: 0042-5702
Volume: 56, 01/2008
Pages: 53 - 99