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   Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume II, Chapter XVI

                                                  [Page 532]

Keitel also took an active part in collaborating with and in
instigating the Japanese to enter the war. Nazi policy with
regard to Japan was expressed in an order signed by Keitel
on 5 March 1941. This order was distributed to the OKH, OKM,
and OKL, and also to Jodl. It stated that Japan must be
drawn actively into the war, and that the taking of
Singapore would mean a decisive success for the three
powers. ( C-75)

At about the time this order was issued, a meeting was held
with Hitler, in which Raeder urged that Japan be induced to
attack Singapore. Keitel and Jodl were both present at this
meeting. (C-152)

Keitel may have known of a report from the Military Attache
in Tokyo that preparations were continuing for a sudden
attack on Singapore and Manila. (1538-PS)

D. KEITEL'S PART IN PLANNING AND LAUNCHING WARS OF
AGGRESSION.

(See "F" 1 through 7, infra, where the joint responsibility
of Keitel and Jodl for these activities is discussed.)

                                                  [Page 533]
                                                            
E. KEITEL'S PART IN THE CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT WAR CRIMES AND
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.

(1) Murder and ill treatment of civilian populations in
occupied territory and on the high seas. Keitel committed
many crimes of this nature, by ordering such criminal
activities.

On 13 May 1941 Keitel, as Chief of OKW, signed an order from
the Fuehrer's Headquarters providing that Russian civilians
suspected of offenses against German troops should be shot
or ruthlessly punished without a military trial, and that
prosecution of German soldiers for offenses against Russian
civilians was not required (C-50). On 27 July 1941 he
ordered that all copies of this decree should be destroyed,
but without affecting its validity. (C-51)

On 23 July 1941 Keitel signed an order concerning the
administration of occupied Russia. This order provided that
legal punishments were inadequate in so great an area, and
that troops should use terrorism in crushing the
population's will to resist. (C-52)

Keitel signed one of the so-called Nacht und Nebel decrees
.on 7 December 1941. It provided that in occupied
territories of the west civilians would be tried for
offenses against the German state only if the death sentence
was likely to be carried out within a few days of arrest.
Otherwise the accused would be taken to Germany, and no
information would be given about them in reply to any
inquiries. (666-PS)

By a first ordinance of 7 December 1941 Keitel made the
provisions of the foregoing directive applicable to the
following offenses; attacks against life or bodily health,
espionage, sabotage, communistic conspiracy, offenses likely
to create disturbances, assistance to the enemy, and illicit
possession of arms. His ordinance also provided that the
offenses mentioned were to be tried in the occupied
countries only if it were likely that the death sentence
would be pronounced, and if it were possible to complete
trial and execution within a very short time, as a rule
within a week after arrest. In case of trial in Germany, it
was provided that alien witnesses could be heard only with
the consent of the High Command of the Armed Forces and that
the public would not be admitted to the proceedings. (L-90)

In a communication issued by him in his capacity as Chief of
the High Command of the Armed Forces Keitel on 12 December
1941 stated with respect to the aforementioned directive and
ordinance:

     "Efficient and enduring terrorization can be achieved
     only
     
                                                  [Page 534]
                                                            
     either by capital punishment or by measures to keep the
     relatives of the criminal and the population in the
     dark as to the fate of the criminal. This aim is
     achieved by transferring the criminal to Germany." (L-
     90)

In pursuance of Keitel's Nacht und Nebel decree, Admiral
Canaris on 2 February 1942 issued instructions to the Abwehr
to punish crimes against the Wehrmacht accordingly. At first
the order was to apply only to Norway, Holland, Belgium, and
France. (833-PS)

The Chief of the SIPO and SD reported to OKW on 24 June 1942
that a Frenchman had died while awaiting trial in Germany,
and that, in order to create anxiety in accordance with the
decree, his family had not been notified. Keitel's OKW
approved of this procedure, which had been established for
such cases by an OKW order of 16 April 1942. (668-PS)

When, on 20 April 1941 Hitler appointed Rosenberg "Deputy
for a Centralized Treatment of Problems concerning the
Eastern Territories," Keitel was asked to designate a
representative of OKW to sit with Rosenberg. Keitel
designated Jodl as his representative and Warlimont as
deputy. (865-PS)

Thus Keitel and Jodl share the responsibility for crimes
committed by Rosenberg's administration. In this connection
reference is made to section 7 of this chapter on Rosenberg.

Among the decrees issued by the Council of Ministers, of
which Keitel was a member, are two which connect him with
harsh treatment of inhabitants of the Occupied Eastern
Territories. (2746-PS,

(2) Deportation of civilian populations in occupied
territories for slave labor and other purposes. Keitel's
connection with the forced labor program began at a meeting
with Hitler on 23 May 1939, when it was announced that
Poland would be invaded, and also that non-German
populations would be available as a source of labor. (L-79)

Keitel directed the execution of Hitler's order to use
Russian prisoners of war in German war industries, and
stated that OKW (AWA) would furnish to the Secretary of
Labor information on the use of such labor, and provide the
labor force. (EC-194)

Sauckel was appointed Plenipotentiary General for Manpower
by a decree of 21 March 1942, signed by Hitler, Lammers, and
Keitel. (1666-PS)

On 8 September 1942 Keitel initialled a Hitler order
requiring citizens of France, Holland, and Belgium to work
on the "Atlantic Wall". The order was to be enforced by the
withdrawal of food

                                                  [Page 535]
                                                            
and clothing ration cards (556-2-PS). Keitel was informed of
the quotas of foreign laborers which Sauckel and his agents
were to fill. Sauckel requested the assistance of the Army,
and asked that pressure be used to obtain the quotas, if
necessary. (3012-PS)

At a conference with Hitler on 4 January 1944, at which
Keitel was present, it was determined that Sauckel should
obtain 4,000,000 new workers from occupied territories.
(1292-PS)

(3) Murder and ill treatment of prisoners of war, and of
other members of the armed forces of the countries with
which Germany was at war, and of person on the high seas. On
18 October 1942 Hitler ordered that commando troops, even if
in uniform, should be killed, not only in battle, but in
flight or while attempting to surrender (498-PS). An order
regulating the treatment of paratroopers had been issued by
Keitel about a month earlier. It provided that captured
paratroopers were to be turned over to the SD. (553-PS)

A supplementary explanation of the commando order, signed by
Hitler, was distributed to commanding officers only, with a
covering memorandum dated 19 October 1942, signed by Jodl
(503-PS). Several cases are known in which the order was
carried out (508-PS; 509-PS). Three specific instances were
mentioned by the G-3 of the C-in-C, Norway, where captured
members of sabotage units were executed after interrogations
which resulted in valuable intelligence. These occurred at
Glomfjord, Drontheim, and Stavanger. (512-PS)

On 23 June 1944 the Supreme Command West requested
instructions redefining the scope of the commando order. In
view of the extensive landings in Normandy, it had become
difficult to decide which paratroops should be considered
sabotage troops under the terms of the order, and which
should be considered as engaged in normal combat operations.
The question was answered by an order of 25 June 1944, one
copy of which was signed by Keitel, reaffirming the full
force of the original order (531-PS; 551-PS). Keitel
extended the application of the commando order to members of
Anglo-American and Russian "military missions" taken in the
fighting against the partisans in the southeast and
southwest. (537-PS)

When allied fliers were forced to land in Germany, they were
sometimes killed by the civilian population. The police had
orders not to protect the fliers, nor to punish civilians
for lynching them. A proposal was considered to order the
shooting without court-martial of enemy airmen who had been
forced down

                                                  [Page 536]
                                                            
after engaging in specified "acts of terror". Whether or not
the order was ever issued is immaterial, for it is certain
that Keitel and Jodl knew of the lynchings, did nothing to
prevent them, d in fact considered giving them official

(See also "F", 8, infra, in which the joint responsibility
of Keitel and Jodl for the lynching of Allied airmen is
discussed.)

Keitel's criminal activities against Soviet prisoners of war
are shown by the following. On 8 September 1941 Keitel's OKW
issued a regulation for the treatment of Soviet prisoners of
war. It stated that Russian soldiers would fight by any
methods for the idea of Bolshevism and that consequently
they had lost any claim to treatment in accordance with the
Geneva Convention. Stern measures were to be employed
against them, including the free use of weapons. The
politically undesirable prisoners were to be segregated from
the others and turned over to "special purpose units" of the
Security Police and the Security Service. There was to be
the closest cooperation between the military commanders and
these police units. (1519-PS)

Admiral Canaris of the Abwehr considered this order in such
direct violation of the general principles of International
Law that he addressed a memorandum of protest to Keitel on
15 September 1941. He pointed out that, while the Geneva
Convention was not binding between Germany and the USSR, the
usual rules of International Law should be observed; that
such instructions, particularly those concerning the use of
weapons, would result in arbitrary killings; and that the
disposition of politically undesirable prisoners would be
decided by the SIPO and the SD according to principles of
which the Wehrmacht was ignorant. (As to this argument,
Keitel wrote in the margin "Very efficient" and "Not at
all.") Keitel received and considered this memorandum, for
on its first page there is the following comment in his
handwriting, dated 23 September and initialled "K":

     "The objections arise from the military concept of
     chivalrous warfare. This is the destruction of an
     ideology. Therefore I approve and back the measures."
     (EC-338)

The regulations which Canaris had protested were restated on
24 March 1942, but their essential provisions were
unchanged. (695-PS)

An order of Keitel's OKW dated 29 January 1943, signed by
Reinecke, contains a broad interpretation of the guards'
right of self-defense against prisoners. For example, self-
defense includes not only the guard's person, but h-is honor
and property, and third parties, such as the State. (656-PS)


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