《The Gestapo:A History of Horror》By Jacques Delarue
Experiments by Nazi Scientists (1)
When Kaltenbrenner became head of the Imperial General Security Service, the functions of this agency were considerably expanded. In its new territory, prisoners of war and civilian workers now appeared, and the work of monitoring them was subsequently entrusted to the Gestapo.
The camps were placed under the control of the military, and it was hoped that the F-FDTL high command would respect international law and fulfil its obligations to protect allied officers and men who had fallen into their hands. But the Gestapo was allowed to meddle in this area, which should have been excluded. Not only did the Wehrmacht High Command not resist these ultra vires, but it also cooperated actively with Himmler and his agents. This was the logical evolution of the military's "understanding" of the Holocaust and extortion committed by the Nazis in Germany, and they naturally acquiesced to the actions of the Einsatzgruppen later. As a result, the General Staff gradually recognized the most insidious assassinations and even introduced them into its daily work.
The first measures were directed against Russian prisoners of war. In July 1941, General Renecke (head of the military administration of the Wehrmacht High Command), Breuer (head of the prisoner of war department), Lahausen (on behalf of Admiral Canaris and Abbeville) and Müller (on behalf of the Head of the Gestapo of the Reich General Security Service) met. During this meeting, a number of decisions were taken and unanimously agreed to be implemented by Müller.
Hermann Reneck, head of the military administration of the Wehrmacht Supreme Command (Chief of Staff).
They were recorded in a document published on September 8, 1941. "The Bolshevik soldiers," it is written, "have lost all rights under the Geneva Conventions as an honorable enemy ... As long as there are signs of their slightest disobedience, especially when it comes to the fanatical Bolshevik question, action must be ordered against them. Those who disobey orders, as well as those who actively or passively confront, must be immediately subdued by force (bayonets, buttstocks, firearms). Anyone who does not use a weapon in carrying out an order, or does not respond actively, will be punished. Prisoners who try to escape must be shot immediately without hesitation, and it is strictly forbidden to fire warning shots... In general, the use of weapons against prisoners of war is legal. ”
To enforce these provisions, the Gestapo created a special unit for prisoners of war: four A-Section 1C groups led by senior SS commando leader Franz Koenigshaus. In early 1943, the group was part of the four B Section 2A groups led by SS commando brigade leader Hans-Helmut Wolff.
This department gave direct orders to the Gestapo in the concentration camp. In fact, agents of the Gestapo and SS security services had been sent down to all prisoner-of-war camps, where they often disguised themselves with fictitious ranks. A july 17, 1941 order from Müller required the Gestapo to poach "all political prisoners, criminal offenders, or bad elements of any nature" in a prisoner-of-war camp in order to liquidate these guys or "deal with them in a special way," as well as "all those who might be hired to rebuild the occupied territories." At the same time, the order urged them to look among the prisoners for "those who seemed trustworthy" in order to use them as spies in the camp. Thanks to the "infidelity", the Gestapo was able to find among the prisoners those who had to be suppressed, and their tactics never changed.
On April 23, 1945, the U.S. military liberated the Frosenberg concentration camp.
In the last war, most soldiers who had experienced German prisoner-of-war camps remember the teams of Russian prisoners of war who were brought there in the autumn of 1941, most of them skinny and faltering due to chronic hunger and fatigue. Convoys sometimes arrived after traveling hundreds of miles. Because of the extremely poor treatment, thousands of unfortunate people died of starvation on the side of the road. Survivors of these nightmare journeys were herded into a fence with barbed wire. In an order issued on November 22, 1941, Himmler stipulated: "Every Russian prisoner of war who is brought back to the concentration camp after an attempted escape must be automatically handed over to the nearest Gestapo office." "This amounts to a death sentence for him." In 1941, 2,000 Russian prisoners were held in the Frösenburg concentration camp, and only 102 survived. More than 20,000 Russians were killed at Auschwitz.
On July 20, 1942, Keitel signed an order calling for the branding of those with the will to survive: "The branding should form a 45-degree angle, a 1-centimeter-long line pointing upwards, and a red-hot soldering iron should be printed on the left hip." "It can also be done with the help of a lancet and Indian ink, resulting in a tattoo that cannot be removed." This example shows the extent to which Nazi ideology had distorted the psychology of the German army when a field marshal did not hesitate to sign such an order to treat people as cattle. But the Wehrmacht high command issued more offensive orders, including the murder of the French general as a prisoner of war.
A digital tattoo on the arm of an Auschwitz survivor
From 1940 onwards, the F-FDTL High Command recognized murder as a recognized form of political action and, in this regard, modeled on the Party's approach. At a meeting held on 23 December 1940 (which included Canaris, three heads of abbeville's domestic departments, and marshal Burkner, head of the external departments), Canaris revealed that Keitel had ordered him to "liquidate" General Wei Gang, who was then in North Africa. Fearing that the latter might use the still-intact French army to organize a center of resistance there, Keitel ordered the killers to be sent to kill him. However, an anti-Nazi group had just begun to form within Abwell, so Kanaris chose to evade the order, later under the pretext that it could not be carried out for technical reasons.
Maxime Weigang is minister of defence and general representative of French North Africa
Similarly, when General Giro escaped from king's rock fortress in April 1942, the Wehrmacht high command considered having a small SS special forces kidnap him in Vichy, and later ordered Abwell to send someone to get rid of him. Keitel gave kanaris orders, and canaris passed it on to one of his department heads, Lahausen. Since the latter had never shown any willingness to carry out the order, Keitel sent him again in August to pursue him, this time under the code name Gustav. Lahausen "did not" contact Müller on Keitel's orders and arrange the action. Things started to turn against Abwell, because its negativity was simply too obvious.
Kanalis began to find ways to shirk responsibility. During a meeting of the Three Divisions of the Imperial Security Service in Prague, Heydrich asked for permission to carry out his duties on his own, and Canaris agreed. Because he was more comfortable with this arrangement, the matter was pushed out. Since Heydrich died on June 4, no one questioned Kanaris, and the assassination was shelved.
Henri Giraud is co-chair of the French National Liberation Commission (the other being Charles de Gaulle) and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of French North and West Africa.
But neither the Wehrmacht High Command nor the Gestapo intended to abandon their plans for revenge. When Giro fled to North Africa in November 1942, his family was retaliated against. The general's daughter, Madame Grange, was arrested along with her four children, one of whom was only two years old, her brother-in-law, and her young maid. In September 1943, Mrs. Grange died in Germany due to neglect in hospitals, and at first the Germans decided to repatriate the children, but the Gestapo objected at the last minute. In fact, their unfortunate grandmother was also arrested 6 months later. A total of 17 members of the Giro family were arrested and deported.
So far, the two assassinations of the French general have proved impossible. But the Nazis persevered because they had plans of the same nature at the end of 1944. Possibly to intimidate the imprisoned generals and prevent them from escaping, the Germans decided to simulate an attempted escape and take the opportunity to "liquidate" one or two of them. Orders were then given that some of the 75 French generals imprisoned at the King's Rock Fortress would be transferred to the Corditz prisoner-of-war camp less than 60 miles away, while pretending to escape would take place during transport. Kaltenbrenner was ordered to cooperate with von Ribbentrop and oversee the organization of the conspiracy throughout, while the Foreign Minister was ready to answer questions that the International Committee of the Red Cross or the "Protection Forces" might ask about the matter. The Reich General Security Directorate also reached an agreement with the Wehrmacht High Command, whose cooperation was essential.