"Other" war crimes - Commando Order

[David Thompson]

Hitler's "commando decree" of 18 Oct 1942 directed German military commanders to turn certain types of POWs over to the Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst - SD) for interrogation and execution. After the end of WWII, allied military tribunals convicted a number of German military officers and officials of the SD of war crimes for complying with this order.

Should compliance with this order have been considered a war crime?

Here is the text of the "commando decree" of 18 Oct 1942 (from "Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression vol. 3, pp. 416-17 and 426-30):

[David Thompson]

Here is a supplementary order to the "commando decree," also issued 18 Oct 1942:

[David Thompson]

Supplement part 2:

[David Thompson]

Scott -- In regard to this matter, you wrote: "Executing captured commandos out of uniform is completely justified. You don't waltz into a foreign country with patriotic bullshit on your tongue and mayhem in your mind and expect that there not to be any consequences, even in wartime. When some German spies landed in the USA by U-Boat during the war they were executed, some only teenagers. It is a bit hypocritical to say that the same should not happen to Allied spies and saboteurs."

I was thinking of something different from executing armed marauders who weren't wearing a uniform when they were captured. I don't think those people qualify as prisoners of war. There's certainly a long history of that kind of person being executed by enemy forces.

Instead, I was thinking of the cases in which uniformed troops, like US rangers, British commandos, or uniformed paratroopers are captured behind enemy lines, and then executed.

Here's an example (from Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. 5, pp. 330-332; the case is reported more fully at http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/dostler.htm):

[David Thompson]

Here are some additional primary source documents on this subject, from "Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression" vol. 3, pp 430-443:

[David Thompson]

Part 2:

[David Thompson]

Part 3:

[David Thompson]

Part 4:

[David Thompson]

Part 5:

[David Thompson]

More documents on this subject, from "Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression" vol. 3, pp. 855-62:

[David Thompson]

Part 2:

[David Thompson]

Part 3:

[David Thompson]

Here are more documents from "Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression" vol. 6, pp. 1011-16:

[David Thompson]

Part 2:

[David Thompson]

Here are some more "Commando order" documents from "Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression" vol. 7, pp. 145-48; p. 164, and pp. 798-99: