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Archive/File: holocaust/germany/nuremberg partisan.001
Last-Modified: 1994/03/20

   "On September 16, Keitel, at Hitler's behest, followed up by issuing
   the 'Partisan Order': 

      'Since the beginning of the campaign against Russia Communist
      insurrections have broken out in all the areas occupied by
      Germany.  It can be seen that this is a mass movement centrally
      directed by Moscow.  In view of the considerable political and
      economic tensions in the occupied areas, it must moreover be
      anticipated that nationalists and other circles will take full
      opportunity to cause difficulties for the German occupation
      forces by joining the Communist uprising.  In this way, an
      increasing danger to the German conduct of the war is
      developing.  

      'The measures taken so far to meet the general Communist
      insurrection movement have proved inadequate.  The Fuhrer has
      now given orders that we must take action everywhere with the
      most drastic means in order to crush the movement.  

      'Every case of rebellion against the German occupation forces,
      re- gardless of circumstances, must be concluded to be of
      Communistic origin.  In order to suppress these machinations
      from the beginning, the strongest means have to be employed....
      As atonement for the life of one German soldier, the death
      penalty for fifty to one hundred Communists is generally
      considered as proper.' (NCA, 389 PS, Directive on Communist
      Insurgents in the Occupied Areas.)

   The difficulties with the Partisan Order, beyond its terrible
   implications of massive and indiscriminate retaliation, was that,
   like the Commissar Order, [Request holocaust/germany/nuremberg
   commissar.001. knm] it was impractical.  Communists were
   almost as difficult to identify as commissars; and, even if most of
   them should be uncovered, their numbers would be exhausted rather
   quickly at the rate of fifty or one hundred for each German.
   Substitutes would have to be found.  Since the decree stated that
   'a clever campaign of propaganda' should emphasize that these
   'strict measures free the native population from these Communistic
   criminals and are thus to their own advantage,' (Ibid.) the
   substitutes would have to be people with whom the inhabitants did
   not identify.

   On September 19, three days after the issuance of the Partisan
   Order, Kiev, with a population of 850,000, fell.  Unbeknown to the
   Germans, the Red Army had planted more than ten thousand mines in
   the city.  Every major building and strategic location was
   implanted with the wireless-controlled explosives linked to the
   electrical system.

   Five days later, on September 24, the Soviet engineers, having
   given the Germans time to settle in, began pressing the buttons.
   The two major hotels, the central post office, the radio station,
   the telegraph office -- all came crashing down upon the heads of the
   invaders.  Many of the burning buildings exploded like giant
   firecrackers, showering all those in the vicinity with flaming
   shards.  By the time the fire was controlled on September 29,
   approximately one thousand Germans (as well as countless
   inhabitants) had been killed, and three-fourths of a square mile of
   the downtown area lay devastated.  The Germans were so shaken that,
   for fear of further explosions, they did not restore power in the
   city for weeks thereafter.  (IMT, vol. 15, p. 329; Int. of
   Keitel by Maj. Gen. Alexandrov, Nov. 9, 1945.)

   There was, of course, no question that the occurrence had not been
   the result of partisan activity.  The Soviets had merely turned
   Kiev into the biggest and most sophisticated booby trap in history,
   and the Germans had fallen into it like klutzes.  But Field Marshal
   Walther von Reichenau, the ardent Nazi general commanding the area,
   was in need of scapegoats.  Applying the Partisan Order, he could
   shoot at least fifty thousand Communists.  Of course, there was no
   way of identifying fifty thousand Communists, or even a fraction of
   that number.  The only segregatable group approaching such a
   multitude and included on Hitler's list of 'enemies' were the Jews.

   On September 29, the same day the fire was controlled, placards
   went up ordering the 170,000 Jews of Kiev to report immediately for
   'resettlement.' Those that failed to do so, the notices warned,
   would be subject to severe penalties.  Approximately one-fifth of
   the Jews responded.  They were marched to the Jewish cemetery,
   abutting the Babi Yar ravine, within earshot of the center of the
   city.  For two days and nights rifle and machinegun fire crackled
   uninterruptedly.  Before it ceased, nearly 34,000 men, women, and
   children lay sprawled in the ravine -- the greatest single slaughter
   of the war.  (Reitlinger, The House Built on Sand, 111)

   According to the report of a German captain, 'The population took
   the execution calmly, many with satisfaction.  The newly vacated
   homes of the Jews were turned over for relief of the housing
   shortage.' (NCA, 053 PS, Report No. 10 of Capt. Girus Koch, Oct.
   5, 1941.)

   Obviously, the extermination at Babi Yar was no secret.  Stories
   and rumors spread through much of the Ukraine, and created such a
   sense of bewilderment in the German army that ten days later
   Reichenau issued an explanatory order designed to excise the
   troops' unease: 

      'The soldier must have full understanding for the necessity of a
      severe but just revenge on subhuman Jewry.  The army has to aim
      at another purpose, that is the annihilation of revolts in
      hinterlands, which, as experience proves, have always been
      caused by Jews.  The most essential aim of the war against the
      Jewish-Bolshevistic system is a complete destruction of their
      means of power and the elimination of Asiatic influence from
      European culture.  In this connection the troops are facing
      tasks which exceed the one-sided routine of soldiery.  The
      soldier in the Eastern Territories is not merely a fighter
      according to the rules of war, but also a bearer of ruthless
      national ideology and the avenger of bestialities which have
      been inflicted upon Germany and racially related nations.  This
      is the only way to fulfill our historic task to liberate the
      German people once and forever from the Asiatic-Jewish danger.'
      (NCA, D 411, Commander of Troops in the Eastern Territories,
      Oct.  10, 1941.)" (Conot, 224-226)

                            Work Cited 

   Conot, Robert E.  Justice at Nuremberg.  New York: Harper & Row,
   1983 

   Reitlingler, Gerald.  The House Built on Sand.  New York: Viking
   Press, 1960

                           Abbreviations

   IMT.  International Military Tribunal, Trial of the Major War
   Criminals; the published transcipts of the trial. 

   NCA.  Nazi Conspiracy and Aggession, the 10-volume compendium of
   the prosecution's agruments.

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