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Memorandum on Hitler's decision on the execution of captured Anglo-American air crews in certain situations, with annotations

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Authors

Alfred Jodl (chief of wehrmacht operations staff)

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Alfred Jodl

German general and convicted war criminal (1890-1946)

Alfred Jold
  • Born: 1890-05-10 (Würzburg)
  • Died: 1946-10-16 (Nuremberg)
  • Country of citizenship: German Reich; Kingdom of Bavaria; Weimar Republic
  • Occupation: military personnel; politician
  • Member of political party: Nazi Party
  • Participant in: International Military Tribunal (role: defendant)
  • Military rank: Generaloberst
  • Military branch: artillery

Korten (general, German air force (1944))

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Günther Korten

German Colonel General and Chief of the General Staff of the Luftwaffe in World War II

Image of Korten
  • Born: 1898-07-26 (Cologne)
  • Died: 1944-07-22 (Kętrzyn)
  • Country of citizenship: German Reich
  • Occupation: aircraft pilot; military personnel
  • Military rank: Generaloberst; colonel general; soldier
  • Military branch: Luftwaffe
  • VIAF ID: https://viaf.org/viaf/316737790
  • ISNI: https://isni.org/isni/0000000450980473

Date: 21 May 1944

Literal Title: Memorandum

Defendants: Hermann Wilhelm Goering, Alfred Jodl

Total Pages: 1

Language of Text: English

Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)

Evidence Code: PS-731

Citation: IMT (page 6239)

HLSL Item No.: 452358

Source of Text: Case Files/English (US or UK)

Notes:Korten reported Hitler's decision, and Jodl recorded it and added notes. PS 731 was entered as French exhibit 1407.

Trial Issue

Allied airmen, murder or mistreatment of (IMT, NMT 3, 11)

Document Summary

Staff Evidence Analyses

PS-731: Note of the WFST on Hitler's instructions on the killing of US-British fliers in special cases

Red Series Doc Descriptions

PS-731: Memorandum in the files of the Okw, 21 May 1944, on Hitler’s decision to have English and American airplane crews shot without trial if they have performed certain acts here specified; marginal notes by Jodl

Blue Series Subject Index

PS-731: LYNCHING OF ALLIED AIRMEN -- 583 Judgment / ATROCITIES -- Lynching of Allied airmen -- Goering oral evidence

Chief of the Command Staff of the Armed Forces ChefWFSt - .
Please direct drafting of order
W [Warlimont-?] K [Keitel] 21 May
Deputy Chief of Command Staff of the Armed Forces.
[note apparently written by Keitel]
Must * * * go to the Reichsfuehrer SS
After a report of the Reichsmarshall [Goering] General Korten makes the following statement: '
[Note: All the above remarks are handwritten.]
Memorandum
The Fuehrer has rendered the following decision in regard to measures to be taken against Anglo-American air crews, in special instances; downed enemy airmen are to be shot without court martial proceedings in the following instances:
1. In the event of the shooting of our own (German) downed air crews while they are parachuting to earth;
2. In the event of aerial attacks upon German planes, which have made emergency landings, and whose crews are in the immediate vicinity;
3. In the event of attacks upon railway trains engaged in public (civilian) transportation;
4. In the event of low-level aerial attacks upon individual civilians (farmers, workers, single vehicles, etc.) [Note-this paragraph was amended to read: In the event of low-level aerial attacks upon civilian population, single civilian vehicles, etc. The words "civilian population" are in Jodi's handwriting.]
[Note on bottom of page referring to item 2: "I consider this point dangerous. For, to attack an airplane which has made an emergency landing, can not be classified as Gangster Method but is in complete agreement with the strictest standards of civilized warfare."]
J. [Jodi]
[Note on left margin: The order should be preceded by a preamble in which the disregard of the most primitive laws—civilization—(balance unintelligible).]

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