Archive/File: imt/nca/nca-02/nca-02-16-responsibility-15-04
Last-Modified: 1997/05/25

   Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume Two, Chapter XIV

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C. RAEDER'S PART IN THE CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT WAR CRIMES.

(1) Instigation of the Navy to Violate the Rules of Warfare.
Raeder throughout his career showed a complete disregard for
any international rule or usage of war which conflicted with
his intention of carrying through the Nazi program of
conquest. Raeder has himself summarized his attitude in a
long memorandum compiled by Raeder and the German Naval War
Staff and dated 15 October 1939, only a few weeks after the
war started UK-65). The memorandum, which concerns the
intensification f the war at sea, reads in part as follows:

     "I. Military requirements for the decisive struggle
     against Great Britain.
     
     "Our naval strategy will have to employ all the
     military means at our disposal as expeditiously as
     possible. Military success can be most confidently
     expected if we attack British sea-communications
     wherever they are accessible to us with the greatest
     ruthlessness; the final aim of such attacks is to
     
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     cut off all imports into and exports from Britain. We
     should try to consider the requirements. It is
     desirable to base all military measures, taken on
     existing International Law; however measures which are
     considered necessary from a military point of view,
     provided a decisive success can be expected from them,
     will have to be carried out, even if they are not
     covered by existing International Law. In principle
     therefore, any means of warfare which is effective in
     breaking enemy resistance should be used on some legal
     conception, even if that entails the creation of a new
     code of naval warfare.

     "The supreme War Council will have to decide what
     measures of military and legal nature are to be taken.
     Once it has been decided to conduct economic warfare in
     its most ruthless form, in fulfilment of military
     requirements, this decision is to be adhered to under
     all circumstances and under no circumstances may such a
     decision for the most ruthless form of economic
     warfare, once it has been made, be dropped or released
     under political pressure from neutral powers; that is
     what happened in the World War to our own detriment.
     Every protest by neutral powers must be turned down.
     Even threats of further countries, including the US
     coming into the war, which can be expected with
     certainty should the war last a long time, must not
     lead to a relaxation in the form of economic warfare
     once embarked upon. The more ruthlessly economic
     warfare is waged, the earlier will it show results and
     the sooner will the war come to an end. The economic
     effect of such military measures on our own war economy
     must be fully recognized and compensated through
     immediate re-orientation of German war economy and the
     re-drafting of the respective agreements with neutral
     states; for this, strong political and economic
     pressure must be employed if necessary."

Those comments of Raeder are revealing and show that as an
active member of the inner councils of the Nazi state up to
1943, Raeder must share responsibility for the many war
crimes committed by his confederates and underlings in the
course of their wars.

(2) The Navy's Crimes at Sea. Apart from this over-all
responsibility of Raeder, certain war crimes were
essentially initiated or ordered through the naval chain of
command by Raeder himself.

(a) Attacks on neutral shipping. The minutes of a meeting

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between Hitler and Raeder on 30 December 1939 read in part
as follows:

     "The Chief of Naval War Staff requests that full power
     be given to the Naval War Staff in making any
     intensification suited to the situation and to the
     means of war. The Fuehrer fundamentally agrees to the
     sinking without warning of Greek ships in the American
     prohibited area in which the fiction of mine danger can
     be upheld, e.g., the Bristol Channel." (C-27)

At this time Greek ships also were neutral. This is another
demonstration that Raeder was a man without principle. This
incitement to crime was a typical group effort, since a
directive effectuating those naval views was issued on 30
December 1939 by the OKW, and signed by Jodl (C-12). This
directive reads:

     "On 30 December 1939, according to a report of Ob.d.M.,
     the Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces
     decided that:
     
     "(1) Greek merchant ships in the area around England
     declared by USA. to be a barred zone are to be treated
     as enemy vessels.
     
     "(2) In the Bristol Channel, all shipping may be
     attacked without warning -- where the impression of a
     mining incident can be created.
     
     "Both measures are authorized to come into effect
     immediately." (C-12)

A pencilled note at the foot of this directive reads:

     "Add to (1) Attack must be carried out without being
     seen. The denial of the sinking of these steamships in
     case the expected protests are made must be possible."
     (C-12)

Another example of the callous attitude of Raeder's Navy
towards neutral shipping is found in an entry in Jodl's
diary for 16 June 1942 (1807-PS). This extract reads as
follows:

     "The operational staff of the Navy (SKL) applied on the
     29th May for permission to attack the Brazilian sea and
     air forces. The SKL considers that a sudden blow
     against the Brazilian naval and merchant ships is
     expedient at this juncture (a) because defense measures
     are still incomplete; (b) because there is the
     possibility of achieving surprise; and (c) because
     Brazil is to all intents and purposes fighting Germany
     at sea." (1807-PS).

This was a plan for a kind of Brazilian "Pearl Harbor,"
although war did not in fact break out between Germany and
Brazil until the 22 August 1942.

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Raeder also caused the Navy to participate in war crimes
ordered by other conspirators. A single example will
suffice.

(b) The order to shoot commandos. On 28 October 1942 the
head of the Operations Division of the Naval War Staff
promulgated to naval commands Hitler's order of 18 October
1942 requiring the shooting of commandos. The effect of this
order was to deny the protection of the Geneva Convention to
captured commandos. The document dated 28 October 1942
reads:

     "Enclosed please find a Fuehrer Order regarding
     annihilation of terror and sabotage units.
     
     "This order must not be distributed in writing by
     Flotilla leaders, Section Commanders or officers of
     this rank.
     
     "After verbal distribution to subordinate sections the
     above authorities must hand this order over to the next
     highest section which is responsible for its
     confiscation and destruction." (C-179).

It will be difficult to conceive of clearer evidence than
this, that Raeder appreciated the wrongfulness of Hitler's
commando order.

One example will show that this order was executed by the
German Navy during the period when Raeder was its Commander.

A certain commando operation of December 1942 had as its
objective an attack on shipping in Bordeaux harbor. The
Wehrmacht account of this incident states that six of the
ten participants in that commando raid were arrested, and
that all were shot on 23 March 1943 (UK-57). On this
particular occasion the Navy under Raeder had implemented
Hitler's order much more expeditiously. This fact appears in
extracts from the war diary of Admiral Bachmann, who was the
German Flag Officer in charge of Western France (C-176). The
entry for 10 December 1942 reads:

     "About 1015. Telephone call from personal
     representative of the Officer-in-charge of the Security
     Service in Paris, SS Obersturmfuehrer Dr. Schmidt to
     Flag Officer-in-charge s Flag Lieutenant, requesting
     postponement of the shooting, as interrogation had not
     been concluded. After consultation with the Chief of
     Operations Staff the Security Service had been directed
     to get approval direct from Headquarters. "1820.
     Security Service, Bordeaux, requested Security Service
     authorities at Fuehrer's headquarters to postpone the
     shooting for three days. Interrogations- continued for
     the time being." (C-176)

The entry for the next day, 11 December 1942, reads:

     "Shooting of the two prisoners was carried out by a
     unit
     
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     (strength 1/16) belonging to the naval officer in
     charge Bordeaux, in the presence of an officer of the
     Security Service, Bordeaux, on order of the Fuehrer."
     (C-176)

A note in green pencil in the margin opposite this entry
reads:

     "Security Service should have done this. Phone Flag
     Officer in Charge in future cases." (C-176)

This provision for "future cases" was in fact an order that
commandos should be handed over to the Security Service to
be shot.

It is therefore evident from Admiral Bachmann's war diary (C-
176) that the first two men to be shot from the Bordeaux
operation were actually put to death by a naval firing party
on 1 December 1942.

The Naval War Staff had this comment to make upon that
shooting:

     "The Naval Commander, West France, reports that during
     the course of the day explosives with magnets to stick
     on, mapping material dealing with the mouth of the
     Gironde, aerial photographs of the port installations
     at Bordeaux, camouflage material and food and water for
     several days were found. Attempts to salvage the canoe
     were unsuccessful. The Naval Commander, West France,
     has ordered that both soldiers be shot immediately for
     attempted sabotage, if their interrogation, which has
     begun, confirms what has so far been discovered. Their
     execution has, however, been -postponed in order to
     obtain more information.
     
     "According to a Wehrmacht report, both soldiers have
     meanwhile been shot. The measure would be in accordance
     with the Fuehrer's special order, but is nevertheless
     something new in international law, since the soldiers
     were in uniform." (D-658)

That last sentence shows clearly that the Naval High Command
under Raeder accepted allegiance to the Nazi conspiracy as
of greater importance than any question of moral principle
or professional honor. The shooting of commandos was not an
act of war, but simple murder.

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