Partial Translation of Document NOKW-2961, Prosecution Exhibit 1306.
[Handwritten] Anti-band warfare
[Stamp] Top Secret
Headquarters
29 December 1942.
Army Group Command B
Ia No. 4778/42 Top Secret
17 copies--6th copy, Ia [Illegible initials],
[Stamp] Received: 1 January 1943
Section Ia No. 3/43/Top Secret, [Illegible initials].
Attached you will find an order for your information and further action.
Below corps headquarters level this order is to be destroyed after perusal.
Army commands and corps headquarters are responsible for ensuring that this order does not fall into enemy hands.
For the Army Group Command
The Chief of General Staff
By Order
[Illegible signature].
1 enclosure.
[Handwritten] Commander of Army Rear Area--Especially for instruction of the units mentioned. [Initial] S [Salmuth], 31 December 1942.
Distribution list:
Army [Armee-Abteilung] Fretter Pico: 1st copy
German General with Italian 8th Army: 2d copy
German General with Hungarian 2d Army: 3d copy
(simultaneously for 168th Infantry Division): 4th copy
Headquarters XXIV Panzer Corps: 5th copy
2d Army: 6th copy
[Handwritten] Copies to Corps Commander, Commander of Rear Area Oberquartiermeister, Ic Commander of Army Group Area B: 7th copy
(at the same time for 382d Field Training Division): 8th copy
Garrison Headquarters Kharkov: 9th copy
General of Transportation B: 10th copy
Senior Commander of Supply Troop 1: 11th copy.
CinC of Army Group B: Ia (War Diary): 12th copy
Ic: 13th copy
Signals Officer: 14th copy
IIa: 15th copy; III: 16th copy
Oberquartiermeister: 17th copy.
[Stamp] Top Secret.
Enclosure to Army Group Command B, Ia No. 4778/42
Top Secret of 29 December 1942,
Copy of copy
17 copies of original copy--6th copy.
Headquarters, 16 December 1942, 31 copies--2d copy.
Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces
No. 004870/42 Top Secret
Armed Forces Operations Staff/Op (Army).
Subject: Anti-bands warfare.
Reports have reached the Fuehrer that some member of the armed forces engaged in anti-band warfare were later on called to account for their conduct in combat.
In this connection, the Fuehrer has issued the following order:
1. In the guerrilla warfare the enemy employs fanatical fighters trained in the communist ideology who will not shrink from any act of violence. This is now, more than ever, a matter of life and death. This struggle has nothing to do any more with soldierly chivalry or the regulations of the Geneva Convention.
If this war against the bands in the East and in the Balkans is not waged with the most brutal methods, the available forces will in the near future no longer be sufficient to overcome this plague.
For this reason the troops are justified and obliged in this combat to resort to all measures--even against women and children--without leniency, as long as they are successful.
Considerations of any kind are a crime against the German people and the soldier at the front, who has to bear the consequences of the attacks and who can have no understanding for any kind of leniency, towards the bands or their helpers. These principles must also be the rule when applying the "Directive for Anti-Band Warfare in the East".
2. No disciplinary action can be taken against a German engaged in anti-band warfare, nor can he be called to account before a court martial for his conduct in fighting the bands and their helpers.
The commanders of the troops assigned to anti-band warfare are responsible for ensuring that all officers in command of their subordinate units are immediately and thoroughly instructed concerning this order, that their legal advisers are at once informed of this order and that no sentences are confirmed which contradict this order.
Signed: Keitel;
Certified true copy:
[Illegible signature]
Captain.