The Severity Order or Reichenau Order was the name given to an order promulgated within the German Sixth Army on the Eastern Front during World War II by Generalfeldmarschall Walter von Reichenau on 10 October 1941.
Text of the order
The order said, in part:
[Craig, William. Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. (1973)]
Implications of the order
The order paved the way for mass murder of Jews.
All Jews were henceforth to be treated as partisans, and commanders were directed that they be either summarily shot or handed over to the
Einsatzgruppen execution squads of the
SS-Totenkopfverbände as the situation dictated.
Other dispositions complain about feeding civilians and POWs, which is described as an "equally misunderstood humanitarian act"; indeed, the taking of partisans and women as POWs is criticised. Finally, the civilian population was to be disarmed and buildings which had been set on fire by Soviet destruction battalions were to be saved only when useful to the German Army.
History of the order
Upon enactment
Upon hearing of the Severity Order, Reichenau's superior Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt expressed "complete agreement" with it, and sent out a circular to all of the army generals under his command urging them to send out their own versions of the Severity Order, which would impress upon the troops the need to exterminate Jews.
[Mayer, Arno J. Why Did The Heavens Not Darken?, New York: Pantheon, 1988, 1990 page 250.] According to
Wilhelm Adam, when Reichenau died and General
Friedrich Paulus assumed command of the Sixth Army, both the Severity Order and
Adolf Hitler's
Commissar Order were rescinded in his command sector.
After the war
During the
Nuremberg trials, Rundstedt denied any knowledge of that order before his capture by the Allies, although he acknowledged that Reichenau's orders "may have reached my army group and probably got into the office".
[ The Trial of German Major War Criminals, Nüremberg, 9 August to 21 August 1946, p. 102]
See also
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