Kommissarbefehl

Kommissarbefehl
Chef des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht · Public domain · source
Name	Kommissarbefehl
Issued	6 June 1941
Issuer	Heer (Wehrmacht), Oberkommando des Heeres
Jurisdiction	Nazi Germany, Eastern Front (World War II)
Status	rescinded October 1941

Kommissarbefehl The Kommissarbefehl was a secret directive issued on 6 June 1941 by the Oberkommando des Heeres of Nazi Germany that instructed German forces on the handling of captured political officers of the Red Army during Operation Barbarossa, and it played a significant role in the conduct of Wehrmacht operations, interactions with the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany, and crimes against Soviet personnel during World War II. The order intersected with wider policies from Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Walther von Brauchitsch, and institutions including the Waffen-SS, OKW, and Reichssicherheitshauptamt, shaping actions in places such as Belarus, Ukraine, Leningrad, and the Moscow approaches.

Background and Context

The Kommissarbefehl emerged amid preparations for Operation Barbarossa, when planners from OKW, OKH, and staff around Adolf Hitler debated objectives against the Soviet Union. Strategic planning by figures like Friedrich Paulus, Erich von Manstein, Gerd von Rundstedt, and Franz Halder intersected with ideological directives from Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, and the Nazi Party, while diplomatic ruptures dating to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the Winter War influenced perceptions of the Red Army and Soviet commissars. Military culture within the Heer (Wehrmacht) and the role of political warfare as exemplified by Kommissar suppression debates connected to precedents such as the Night and Fog Decree and the behavior of Einsatzgruppen during earlier campaigns in Poland and the Baltic states.

Issuance and Content of the Order

Drafted by Franz Halder's staff and approved in the name of Adolf Hitler and Walther von Brauchitsch, the Kommissarbefehl directed that captured political commissars of the Red Army be identified, separated, and executed as ideological opponents rather than treated under established norms such as those referenced in the Hague Conventions and expectations of the Geneva Conventions. The text reflected input from Heinrich Himmler, the RSHA, and liaison with commanders on the Eastern Front (World War II), implicitly endorsing associations with Bolshevism, Judeo-Bolshevism, and partisan threats which had been publicized by Joseph Goebbels and Alfred Rosenberg. The secrecy surrounding the order involved officers across the OKH, OKW, and numerous Army Groups including Heeresgruppe Mitte, Heeresgruppe Nord, and Heeresgruppe Süd.

Implementation and Operational Impact

In practice the Kommissarbefehl affected operations conducted by formations under commanders like Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, General Heinz Guderian, and partisan suppression units attached to the Waffen-SS and Einsatzgruppen. The directive altered treatment of captured personnel in zones including Smolensk, Kiev, Brest-Litovsk, and around Sevastopol, creating interaction points with Order Police (Ordnungspolizei), Wehrmacht logistics, and military justice organs such as the Feldgendarmerie. Reports from front-line units and memoranda involving staff officers documented executions, court-martials used as cover, and coordination with SS units that were also executing anti-partisan and genocidal policies across the occupied Soviet Union.

Legal and Ethical Implications

The Kommissarbefehl contravened accepted wartime norms referenced in instruments tied to the Hague Conventions and the evolving practice leading to the Geneva Conventions, raising issues later considered in postwar tribunals such as the Nuremberg Trials and cases prosecuted by Allied authorities including the Soviet Union and United States. Legal discussions at Nuremberg Military Tribunal and among jurists such as Robert H. Jackson and prosecutors from the International Military Tribunal treated the order as evidence of criminal intent, linking it to charges against senior figures including Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, and others for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ethical critiques from contemporaries and later historians compared the order to other illegal directives like the Commando Order and the practices of Einsatzgruppen.

Responses and Consequences

Responses ranged from strict enforcement by some commanders to limited resistance or attempts at mitigation by others within the Wehrmacht officer corps, with instances of compliance documented among units under generals such as Ernst Busch as well as reluctance from officers seeking to preserve traditional military norms expressed by figures like Erich von Manstein. Allied and Soviet reactions to evidence of execution policies influenced postwar prosecutions, political narratives during the Cold War, and Soviet memorialization campaigns in places such as Volgograd and Minsk. The order’s consequences included documented increases in political-execution incidents, impacts on partisanship dynamics involving groups like the Soviet Partisans and reprisals affecting civilian populations across the Occupied Soviet territories.

Historical Assessment and Legacy

Historians from schools represented by scholars such as Ian Kershaw, Richard J. Evans, Omer Bartov, Timothy Snyder, Christopher Browning, and Gary Saul Morson have situated the Kommissarbefehl within broader debates over the criminality of the Wehrmacht, the relationship between ideology and military practice, and the origins of mass violence during World War II. Archival work in collections of the Bundesarchiv, The National Archives (UK), and United States National Archives and Records Administration has clarified chains of command and responsibility, while museum exhibits at institutions like the Imperial War Museum and the Holocaust Memorial Museum continue to present evidence. The order remains a focal point in scholarship on operational orders, civil-military relations in Nazi Germany, and the legal reckoning at Nuremberg that shaped postwar international criminal law.

Category:Orders, decorations, and medals of Nazi Germany