By Carlos Whitlock Porter
[Note: the entire document is typewritten without any stamps or signatures. It
was not shown to Keitel, who was alleged to have signed it. Instead, it was
shown to Jodl.
It is only 2 pages long, but contains so many permutations
of translations and "certified true copies" back and forth that it
makes your head spin. The original document, if it existed, was never produced.]
Translation from Serbo-Croat [sic]
IV. Mountain Regiment
K.Nr.
520/secret [typewritten; no stamp]
Pakrac, 6 October 1943
Regarding:
Treatment of prisoners
To the I.II. and XI. Ustacha Battalion
To the
13. Company of Light Infantry Ordinance
To the 15. Staff Company.
The Commanders of the IV. Mountain Division, Division Ic, issued the following order under no. 91/secret [typewritten; no stamp]:
The Supreme Command of the Armed Forces issued the following order under no. 3408/secret dated 18.8.1943, WFST Division, - Supreme Command of the Army:
For the purpose of clearing up uncertainty relating to the order relating to the procedure to be taken against prisoners captured in combat fighting with resistance bands in the East and South East, the following guidelines have been issued with the approval of the Reichsfuehrer SS and the Chief of the German Police under no. 4:
1. Every member of a partisan band who has surrendered, or is captured, wearing a hostile uniform or in civilian clothing, will be treated as a prisoner of war. The higher or local military command agencies will, according to the circumstances in each case and in their own best judgment, determine whether or not persons taken prisoner in the immediate combat zone should be treated as prisoners of war, in the event that no combat actity directed against ourselves can be proven against him, but the same person is suspected of aiding and abetting bandits.
2. The following persons are to be excepted from treatment as prisoners of
war:
A/ Members of partisan bands who, with or without weapons, and
regardless of their clothing, have surrendered to the German or an allied army.
These are to be treated as defectors.
B/ Members of partisan bands
who are captured wearing German or allied uniforms – who are not defectors –
will be shot after the necessary interrogation.
3. In cases of especially treacherous behaviour -- activities – of the bandits and their aiders and abettors, commanders having at least the rank of division commanders will be authorized to order that no prisoners shall be taken, i.e., that the prisoners and population in the combat zone will be shot. In the event that no special order has been issued, the local commander will act upon his own initiative.
The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces Keitel, e.h. [eigenhändig, "signed under my hand"; of course, there is no signature]
Colonel-General
Page 2]
The addendum of the Supreme Commander South-East to no 4 is as follows:
4. All male prisoners aged 16 to 55 captured while engaged in partisan
combat in the zone of operations, the Army zone, the zone of the Commissariat
for the East, the General Gouvernement, or the zone of the Balkans, will in
future be considered a prisoner of war.
The same also applies to males in the newly-conquered territories. These
are to be transferred to prisoner of war camps and, from there, are to be sent
to Germany to work.
The Commander for the South-East
Okde.H.Gr.F. [Supreme Command of the Army
etc. [?]
Ia Id N. 9543/secret [no stamp]
Translated out of German into Serbo-Croat: Lt.Coronel Videc
The above is delivered for information.
Commander, Coronel:
(Juljo Fritz)
Fritz, e.h. [eigenhäendig, "signed under my hand"; of course,
there is no signature]
II. Battalion of the IV.Mountain Regiment
No. 1330/secret [no stamp]
Paruvar, 12.10.1943
To the Commanders of the 5.6.7 and 8. Company:
For information
Commander, Lt.
(Tolj)
Tolj e.h. [eigenhändig, "signed under my hand"; of course, there
is no signature]
6. Company of the II. Battalion
4. Mountain Regiment of the IV Mountain Division
[illegible] no. 212/secret
Pakrac, 18.10.1943
Received for information.
For the file.
Commander, Capt.
(Streicher)
Streicher e.h. [eigenhäendig, "signed under my hand";
of course, there is no signature]
It is hereby confirmed that the present copy corresponds exactly to the
original document which was confiscated during the course of military operations
in June 1944 by the Yugoslavian National Liberation Army in Pakrac. The original
is kept in the archives of the State Commission for the Investigation of the
Crimes of the Occupiers and their Aiders and Abettors in Belgrad.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE STATE COMMISSION
Dr. Dusan Nedeljkovic,
University professor.
Belgrad,
4.I.1946
I, Dr. Albert Vajs, Delegate of the Yugoslavian government before the International Military Tribunal of Nuremberg, hereby confirm that I am fluent in the Serbo-Croatian and German languages and that this German translation corresponds to the Serbo-Croation text.
Dr. Albert Vajs, gez. ["signature"; of course, there is no signature].
[This document was also accompanied by a "certified true copy" of the original in Serbo-Croat, but without any signatures, and a complicated set of sworn statements,with signatures and stamps, repeating that the above was a "certified true copy" of the "original document" kept at the Archives somewhere in Yugoslavia.]
[It should be noted that the punctuation in this document is very similar to that in Document L-3, a forged Hitler speech: full space before colons and commas, no full space before following word, which is not correct in German.]
Return to ARTICLES PAGE
Return to CONTENTS PAGE