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ANALYSIS OF TEXT OF DOCUMENT 1650-PS
(FOLLOWED BY THE TRANSLATION ITSELF, ABOUT HALFWAY DOWN THIS PAGE)
(Read the translation first)
I have read this order many times and the more I read it the more confused I get.
For example, note that it is addressed to various police headquarters EXCEPT FOR Prague and Brunn. Why make an exception for Prague and Brunn?
The "subject" [Betrifft] of the order contradicts paragraphs 3, both pages, of the order itself;
Paragraphs 1 and 3, and then, paragraphs 3 and 4,
appear to contradict each other; and what, exactly, is supposed to be done with these men?
The conspicuous security measures are utterly self-defeating; what happens when some potato-peeling sergeant gets back to the stalag and says, "I escaped and was recaptured with 7 other guys, how come I'm the only one to make it back after being recaptured?"
What happens when some private says, "There were 10 officers in our group, where are they?"
What is the purpose of this entire order? Is it to discourage prisoners from attempting to escape?
If so, it is utterly self-defeating. What is the point of all these distinctions and exceptions?
What is the point of shooting a 5-star general who is NOT British or American, but saving him if he IS
(or vice versa),
and then saving the lives of 2 or 3 dish-washing, potato-peeling or trash-picking corporals or sergeants?
What is the point of issuing a separate order concerning 5-star generals and non-working corporals and sergeants who ARE British or American?
(contradicted by the "subject" [Betrifft], which states that the order is concerned with NON-British, NON-American officers, NCOs, and enlisted men [only?]
What is the logic behind shooting a 5-star general and sparing all the enlisted men, regardless of their military skills?
What is the logic behind shooting a corporal who doesn't work, but sparing a corporal who does? Is their work really that valuable?
What is to be done with Russian escapees? How do you say, "Hey, are you an NCO?" and "Do you work?", in Russian? etc. etc.
Precisely which ranks, from which armies and/or branches of service, are to be considered NCOs? etc. etc.
Where are all the semi-annual reports?
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NOTE:
Under international law, POWs are encouraged to escape and cannot be punished for doing so.
This is absolutely settled in international law.
On the other hand, any civilian who assists them can lawfully be shot -- for example, Edith Cavell (whose group also passed information of a military nature).
In Cavell's case, most of the 200 military personnel smuggled back to British lines were aviators -- very dangerous men, from the German point of view.
The military value to the other side of the personnel concerned should logically be the only consideration if you're willing to ignore humanity and international law
(not to mention the risk of exposing your own men to the risk of reprisals
on a man-for-man basis).
In other words, if you're going to commit a war crime by shooting even ONE escaped POW, why not just shoot them all?
Let the word get around that "nobody that ever escapes from this place is ever seen again" -- just as long as nobody knows for sure!
But this way, they'll know, because you've spared half of them to act as witnesses!
In my view, this document was written by some very stupid person who thought that if he made it really complicated, it would look really "official".
It reminds me of American income tax forms.
Quite apart from tampering with the evidence by adding the stamps.
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Note the manner in which accusations are cooked up out of absolutely NOTHING. For example, in this case, there is no mention of shooting, and no mention of a height-measuring device intended to facilitate that shooting. But by concocting a document like this, they have the chutzpah to pretend they have really proven something.
For a similar example, see the Soviet ass-tattooing document, USSR-343.
www.cwporter.com/343tat.htm
www.cwporter.com/343tatorg.htm
www.cwporter.com/343tatorg1.htm
www.cwporter.com/343tatorg2.htm
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Sources:
- standard books on international law
- 1922 Encyclopaedia Britannica
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell
("The British post-war Committee of Enquiry into Breaches of the Laws of War however regarded the verdict as legally correct.")
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/bbc/11861398/Revealed-New-evidence-that-executed-wartime-nurse-Edith-Cavells-network-was-spying.html
"New evidence reveals Edith Cavell's resistance network was sending secret intelligence to the British"
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Back to main document
Version 2, same document
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(Translation)
The Bullet Decree
(Kugel Erlass)
(slightly edited)
Official IMT Translation
not-working = non-working
(emphasis added)
March 4, 1944
Secret state police-state police office Cologne
Branch Office, Aachen
To all State Police Directorates except Prague and Brunn
Inspectors of the Security Police and of the Security Service.
Subject: Measures to be taken against captured escaped prisoners of war who are officers or non-working non-commissioned officers, except British and American prisoners of war.
The Supreme Command of the Army has ordered as follows:
1. Every captured escaped prisoner of war who is an officer or a non-working non- commissioned officer, except British and American prisoners of war, is to be turned over to the Chief of the Security Police and of the Security Service under the classification "Step III" regardless of whether the escape occurred during a transport, whether it was a mass escape or an individual one.
2. Since the transfer of the prisoners of war to the security police and security service may not become officially known to the outside under any circumstances other prisoners of war may by no means be informed of the capture. The captured prisoners are to be reported to the Army Information Bureau as "escaped and not captured". Their mail is to be handled accordingly. Inquiries of representatives of the Protective Power of the International Red Cross, and of other aid societies will be given the same answer.
3. If escaped British and American prisoners of war who are officers or non-working non- commissioned officers, respectively, are captured, they are to be detained at first outside the prisoner of war camps and out of sight of prisoners of war; if Army owned buildings are unavailable, they are to be placed in police custody. In every instance the Corps Area Command will request speedily the Supreme Command of the Army (Chief, Prisoner of War Section) for a decision as to whether they are to be turned over to the Chief of the Security Police and of the Security Service.
In reference to this, I order as follows:
1. The State Police. Directorates will accept the captured escaped officer prisoners of war from the prisoner of war camp commandants and will transport them to the Concentration Camp Mauthausen following the procedure previously used, unless the circumstances render a special transport imperative. The prisoners of war are to be put in irons on the transport - not on the station if it is subject to view by the public. The camp commandant at Mauthausen is to be notified that the transfer is occurring within the scope of the action "Kugel" [= "bullet", "ball", "bowl", "globe", "scoop", etc., or more or less anything round, as in "Kugellager" = ball-bearing, "Erdkugel" = terrestrial globe, "Eiskugel" = scoop of ice cream, "Kugelschreiber" = ball-point pen, etc. Does not apply to dances, footballs, etc. The word "Kugel" predates the invention of firearms. The words "shot" or "shooting" do not appear in the document. To prove that the prisoners were actually intended to be "shot" would require other documents, which, as usual, are simply not available. - C.P.] The State Police Directorates will submit semi-yearly reports on these transfers giving merely the figures, the first report being due on 5 July 1944 (sharp). The report is to be made under the reference "Treatment of Captured Escaped Prisoners of War who are officers within the Scope of the Action 'Kugel'." In the case of special events, reports are to be submitted immediately. The State Police Directorates will maintain exact records. [So where are the records? Where are the reports?]
2. For the sake of secrecy, the Supreme Command of the Armed Force has been requested to inform the prisoner of war camps to turn the captured prisoners over to the local State Police Office and not to send them directly to Mauthausen.
3. Captured escaped British and American officers and non-working non-commissioned officers are to be detained in police custody in a city in which a State Police office located provided the Army has no suitable quarters. In view of the existing crowding of police prisons, the State Police officer will accept captured prisoners only if the Army actually does not dispose of any suitable space. The prisoner of war camp commandants are to be contacted in reference to their quarters immediately after the receipt of this order. In the interest of the secrecy of this order, confinement outside of police jails, e.g. in Labor Education Camps, is not permissible.
4. If escaped prisoners of war who are officers and non-working non-commissioned officers except British and American prisoners of war are captured by police authorities, reasons of practicability render it unnecessary to return the prisoner to the prisoner of war camp commandant once the facts have been clarified adequately. The prisoner of war camp is to be informed of the capture and is to be requested for a transfer under the classification 'Step III". Captured escaped British and American prisoners of war who are officers and non-commissioned officers are always to be turned over to the Army.
5. The city and county police authorities are not to be informed of this order.
Chief of the Security Police and of the Security Service
(signed)
Mueller [Another example of the dishonesty of the Nuremberg document volumes.The italics indicate a signature. There is no signature on the document. It says "IV GEZ. MUELLER. SS-G. RUF" [?]. (I.V. = On behalf of)
The handwritten markings on the last page are not noted; the English-language stamps are not mentioned. But then, they must have been translating from the other version of the document!
So who added the English-language stamps? They must have been added at Nuremberg, since only that version was introduced into evidence. This proves that the evidence was still being manipulated even while the trial was going on.
Why didn't anybody notice?]
SS General.
Branch Office Aachen.
Aachen 6 March 1944
Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression,
Vol. IV. pages.158-160
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QUOTE FROM "NOT GUILTY AT NUREMBERG":
"Another crime committed by Kaltenbrunner was responsibility for the so-called 'Bullet Order'. This is supposed to have been an order to shoot prisoners of war using a measuring contraption (probably inspired by the Paul Waldmann pedal-driven brain bashing machine, Document USSR-52, VII 377[416-417]).
"The 'Bullet Order', Document 1650-PS, if it is an authentic document, which it probably is not (XVIII 35-36 [43-44]) is a mistranslation: the sense of the order is that prisoners who attempt to escape should be chained to an iron ball (Kugel), and not that they should be shot with a 'bullet' (also Kugel). The word "chained" ["gefesselt" = manacled, fettered, shackled, handcuffed, tied up, pinioned, constrained, etc. Since the "original document" was illegible, where did they get the translation? - C.P, 2005] appears in the document, but the word 'shot' does not (III 506 [565]; XXI 514 [568]); Gestapo affidavit 75; XXI 299 [332]). The document is a "teletype" thus, without a signature [?] (XXVII 424-428)."
Page numbers in [brackets] = German pagination.
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I have noted elsewhere that "Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression" is more or less worthless, since, unlike the IMT volumes themselves, it contains no indication of whether or not a document is signed, a photocopy, carbon, etc. L-3 was never even accepted into evidence at Nuremberg, but is perfectly good enough for "Nazi Conspiracy and Aggresssion". -C.P.