Criminal orders

Criminal orders is the collective name given to a series of orders, directives and decrees given during the Invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II by the Wehrmacht High Command.[1][2][3] The criminal orders went beyond established codes of conduct and led to widespread atrocities on the Eastern Front.

The orders

• Barbarossa Decree, issued 13 May 1941
• Guidelines for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia, issued 19 May 1941
• Commissar Order, issued 6 June 1941
• Orders Concerning the Deployment of the Security Police and the Security Service within Military Formations, issued 28 April 1941
• Orders relating to the treatment of prisoners of war, issued June to December 1941

See also

Commando Order

Myth of the clean Wehrmacht

References

1. Heer et al. 2008, pp. 17–19.
2. Bartov 1986, p. 106.
3. Beorn 2014, p. 52.

Bibliography

• Heer, Hannes; Manoschek, Walter; Pollak, Alexander; Wodak, Ruth (2008). The Discursive Construction of History: Remembering the Wehrmacht's War of Annihilation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230013230.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Bartov, Omer (1986). The Eastern Front, 1941–1945, German Troops and the Barbarisation of Warfare. New York: St. Martins Press. ISBN 0312224869.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Beorn, Waitman (2014). Marching into Darkness. London, UK: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-72550-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)