Table Of ContentTHE
WEHRMACHT
; ■
WAR CRIMES
BUREAU,
1939 - 1945
Allred M. de Zairas
THE
WEHRMACHT
WAR CRIMES
BUREAU.
1 939 1 945
-
With the collaboration Foreword
of by
Walter Rabus Howard Levie
by
Alfred M. de Zayas
PICTON PRESS
Originally published as Die Wehrmacht-Untersuchungsstelle by
Ullstein Verlag, Berlin, © Alfred M. de Zayas.
Translated from the original German by Alfred M. de Zayas.
Excerpts of this book have been reproduced in a textbook of the
International Committee of the Red Cross, How does Law Protect in
War, edited by Marco Sassoli, published Geneva, 1999.
All rights reserved
English edition copyright © 1989 Alfred M. de Zayas
International Standard Book Number 0-89725-421 -X (paperback)
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 00-109681
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever,
including electronic, mechanical, magnetic recording, the Internet,
or photocopying, without the prior written approval of the Copyright
holder, excepting brief quotations for inclusion in book reviews.
Fourth paperback printing in English: December 2000
This book is available from:
Picton Press
PO Box 250
Rockport, ME 04856-0250
Visa/MasterCard orders:
1-207-236-6565
FAX orders: 1-207-236-6713
e-mail: [email protected]
Internet secure credit card orders: www.pictonpress.com
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on 60# acid-free paper
<§§)
CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
Map 2
PART I / HISTORY, METHODS, AND USES OF
THE WAR CRIMES BUREAU
1 Predecessors and Parallel Organizations 3
2 Genesis, Duties, and Personnel 13
3 Related German Agencies 26
4 Methods of Obtaining Evidence 38
5 The Testimony of Witnesses 48
6 Expert Medical Opinion 64
7 The Use of Bureau Investigations: White Books 76
8 The Use of Bureau Investigations: Diplomatic Protection 82
9 The Bureau and War Crimes Trials 90
10 Reprisals 105
11 Investigations of German War Crimes 109
12 Wehrmacht Conceptions of Postwar International Law 121
PART II / SPECIFIC CASES
13 Poland 129
14 The Western Theater of War 142
15 Crete 154
16 Captured Germans in the Soviet Union 162
17 Feodosia 180
18 Grischino 187
vi / Contents
19 Soviet Crimes against Non-Germans
20 Lvov 214
21 Katyn 228
22 Vinnitsa 240
23 Shipwrecked Survivors 245
24 Hospital Ships 261
Epilogue 269
Notes 275
Note on the Sources 325
Bibliography 329
Index 353
FOREWORD
Individuals of every nation commit violations of the laws and customs of war;
and well-disciplined armed forces try their own members for such acts.
Although these individuals are usually tried by a court-martial for a violation
of the law of their own country and the matter receives little publicity (unless
it is a My Lai!), they are actually being tried for war crimes. Perhaps because
of this lack of publicity, as well as a general lack of understanding on the part
of the public, there is a tendency to believe that only members of the enemy
armed forces commit war crimes. The writer’s personal library contains ap¬
proximately one hundred items on various aspects of the World War II war
crimes problem and only a very small handful of those items discusses the
problem from the German or Japanese point of view. For this reason alone,
The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1945, originally written in German
and published in Germany and now translated into English by the author for
publication in the United States, is a welcome addition to the literature on
the subject, particularly for those of us who are not familiar with the German
language.
The research for this book, which extended over a number of years,
included the review of several hundred volumes of official records of the
investigations of war crimes by the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, the exis¬
tence of which was hitherto unknown to researchers, the review of other
original documents (including many in Russian, one of the author’s several
languages) and hundreds of interviews and correspondence with Germans
who were involved in various capacities in the Bureau and in various aspects
of these investigations by or on behalf of the Bureau during the course of
World War II, as well as with witnesses to the events described.
The first half of the text is concerned with the work of the Bureau’s
viii / Foreword
World War I predecessor, and the background and World War II activities
of the Bureau as well as of other organizations, mostly military, which were
engaged in parallel activities. This portion includes an analysis of the Bureau’s
personnel and method of operation, the uses to which its product was put,
examples of investigations of reported violations of the laws and customs of
war by members of the German armed forces, etc. It is important to bear in
mind that the Bureau was purely an investigatory body, with no power to
indict and no prosecutorial functions; however, the Bureau’s files had been
used as evidence in war crimes trials of Allied (Russian, Polish, and French)
prisoners of war which the Germans had conducted during the course of
World War II. Of particular interest is the chapter setting forth the manner
in which during 1940 a group of German lawyers, including those of the
Wehrmacht, met to plan a new codification of international law, one which
would more closely meet the requirements of German interests, one which
Nazi Germany would be able to impose upon other nations when the then
anticipated Pax Germanica came into being.
The second half of the text goes into detail with respect to a number
of specific cases investigated by the Bureau, investigations of violations of
the laws and customs of war allegedly committed by members of the forces
in conflict with Germany, primarily, but not exclusively, those of the Soviet
Union. Parallel offenses committed by members of the Nazi SS and SD in
occupied countries are occasionally referred to during these discussions. The
records of the Bureau, as well as information in the public domain, leave
little doubt that atrocities were committed by the Russians against Germans,
Poles, Ukrainians, etc. It will be the task of some other researcher to present
us with a study in depth of the atrocities that were, with equal lack of doubt,
committed by those two Nazi organizations, as well as by the Einsatzgruppen.
(The case of United States vs. Otto Ohlendorf et al is only a beginning for such
a study.)
One of the author’s stated ^self-imposed tasks was “to draw the Jine be¬
tween historical events and mere propaganda.” The main impression that
this book left with the writer was the professional, non-propagandistic, and
uncharacteristic-of-the-Nazis, manner in which the Wehrmacht War Crimes
Bureau performed its mission. The author ascribes this in part to the fact
that most of the members of the Bureau, and many of the Army judges
who performed much of the field work, were jurists of the “old school”,
neither fanatics nor members of the Nazi Party (for this reason some had
