Editing Commissar Order (section)

==History==
Planning for Operation Barbarossa began in June 1940. In December 1940, [[Adolf Hitler]] began vague allusions to the operation<ref>{{Cite web|title=Führer Directives and Führer Orders|url=https://ww2db.com/doc.php?q=300|access-date=2021-07-19|website=WW2DB}}</ref> to senior generals on how the war was to be conducted, giving him the opportunity to gauge their reaction to such matters as collaboration with the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] in the "rendering harmless" of Bolsheviks, which eventually culminated in [[wikisource:Führer_Directive_21|''Führer'' Directive 21]] on 18 December 1940. The ''Wehrmacht'' was already politicised to some extent, having participated in the [[Night of the Long Knives|extra-legal killings]] of [[Ernst Röhm]] and his associates in 1934, communists in the [[Sudetenland]] in 1938, and Czech and German political exiles in France in 1940.<ref>Burleigh 1997, p. 65</ref> On 3 March 1941, Hitler explained to his closest military advisers how the [[war of annihilation]] was to be waged. On that same day, instructions incorporating Hitler's demands went to Section L of the ''Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'' (OKW) (under Deputy Chief [[Walter Warlimont]]); these provided the basis for the "Guidelines in Special Areas to Instructions No. 21 (Case Barbarossa)" discussing, among other matters, the interaction of the army and SS in the theatre of operations, deriving from the "need to neutralise at once leading bolsheviks and commissars."<ref>[[Manfred Messerschmidt]], Forward Defence (as included in ''War of Extermination: The German Military in World War II 1941–1945'', edited by [[Hannes Heer]] and [[Klaus Naumann (historian)|Klaus Naumann]] (2000); page 388</ref>

Discussions proceeded on 17 March during a situation conference, where Chief of the [[Oberkommando des Heeres|OKH]] General Staff [[Franz Halder]], Quartermaster-General [[Eduard Wagner]], and Chief of Operational Department of the OKH [[Adolf Heusinger]] were present. Hitler declared: "The intelligentsia established by [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] must be exterminated. The most brutal violence is to be used in the Great Russian Empire" (quoted from Halder's War Diary entry of 17 March ).<ref>Messerschmidt; page 389</ref>

On 30 March, Hitler addressed over 200 senior officers in the [[Reich Chancellery]]. Among those present was Halder, who recorded the key points of the speech. He argued that the war against the Soviet Union "cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion" because it was a war of "ideologies and racial differences." He further declared that the Commissars had to be "liquidated" without mercy because they were the "bearers of ideologies directly opposed to [[Nazism|National Socialism]]."<ref name="RiseFall" /> Hitler stipulated the "annihilation of the Bolshevik commissars and the Communist intelligentsia" (thus laying the foundation for the Commissar Order), dismissed the idea of courts-martial for felonies committed by German troops, and emphasised the different nature of the war in the East from the war in the West.{{sfn|Kay|2011|p=72}}

Hitler was well aware that this order was illegal, but personally absolved in advance any soldiers who violated international law in enforcing this order. He said that the [[Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907]] did not apply since the Soviets had not signed them.<ref name="RiseFall">Shirer, ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'' (Touchstone Edition) (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990)</ref> The Soviet Union, as a distinct entity from the [[Russian Empire]], did not, in fact, sign the [[Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War|Geneva Convention of 1929]]. However, Germany did, and was bound by [[Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War (1929)#Execution of the convention|Article 82]], stating "In case, in time of war, one of the belligerents is not a party to the Convention, its provisions shall nevertheless remain in force as between the belligerents who are parties thereto."

The Commissar Order read as follows:
{{quotation|'''Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars'''

In the battle against Bolshevism, the adherence of the enemy to the principles of humanity or international law is not to be counted upon. In particular it can be expected that those of us who are taken prisoner will be treated with hatred, cruelty and inhumanity by political commissars of every kind.

The troops must be aware that:

1. In this battle mercy or considerations of international law is false. They are a danger to our own safety and to the rapid pacification of the conquered territories.

2. The originators of barbaric, Asiatic methods of warfare are the political commissars. So immediate and unhesitatingly severe measures must be undertaken against them. They are therefore, when captured in battle, as a matter of routine to be dispatched by firearms.

The following provisions also apply:

3. ... Political commissars as agents of the enemy troops are recognizable from their special badge—a red star with a golden woven hammer and sickle on the sleeves.... They are to be separated from the prisoners of war immediately, i.e. already on the battlefield. This is necessary, in order to remove from them any possibility of influencing the captured soldiers. These commissars are not to be recognized as soldiers; the protection due to prisoners of war under international law does not apply to them. When they have been separated, they are to be finished off.

4. Political commissars who have not made themselves guilty of any enemy action nor are suspected of such should be left unmolested for the time being. It will only be possible after further penetration of the country to decide whether remaining functionaries may be left in place or are to be handed over to the ''Sonderkommando''. The aim should be for the latter to carry out the assessment.

In judging the question "guilty or not guilty", the personal impression of the attitude and bearing of the commissar should as a matter of principle count for more than the facts of the case which it may not be possible to prove.}}