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General
Wilhelm Keitel, the OKW chief of staff, signed an order prescribing
repressive measures against resistance movements in the
German-occupied countries of Western Europe—France, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway. To deter all inhabitants of
occupied Western Europe from taking action, Keitel ordered the use
of extreme measures of terror. The death penalty was introduced for
resistance activity. The order prohibited the broadcasting of
information on suspects, thereby facilitating their disappearance in
nacht und nebel—“Night and Fog.”
Keitel sent
the minister of justice instructions on how to interpret and
implement the order. He stressed that Hitler considered even life
imprisonment for anti-German activity an indication of German
weakness. The Ministry of Justice expressed no objection to being
charged with implementing the punishments stipulated in the order or
to the guidelines it was given by the Wehrmacht General Staff. The
right to clemency was not applied to Jews and Communists. The
surviving “Night and Fog” prisoners were liberated in April and
May 1945. |
