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Encyclopedia > Nacht und Nebel

Nacht und Nebel (German for "Night and Fog") was a directive (German: Erlass) of Adolf Hitler on December 7, 1941 signed and implemented by Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Wilhelm Keitel, resulting in kidnapping and disappearance of many political activists throughout Nazi Germany's occupied territories. Hitler redirects here. ... is the 341st day of the year (342nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see 1941 (disambiguation). ... Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (September 22, 1882–October 16, 1946) was a German field marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) and a senior military leader during World War II. // Keitel was born in Helmscherode, Brunswick, German Empire, the son of Carl Keitel, a middle-class landowner, and his wife Apollonia Vissering. ... ... Nazism in history Nazi ideology Nazism and race Outside Germany Related subjects Lists Politics Portal         Nazism or National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus), refers primarily to the ideology and practices of the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers Party, German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) under Adolf Hitler. ...

Contents

Background

Even before the deportation and mass murder of the innocents of Europe, the mentally impaired, the Jews, the Roma, and so forth, the Nazis had been dealing severely with political prisoners. Most of the early prisoners were of two sorts: they were either prisoners of belief/political prisoners whom the Nazis deemed in need of "re-education" to Nazi thinking, or resistance leaders in occupied western Europe. Up until the time of the "Night and Fog" decree, prisoners from Western Europe were handled by German soldiers in approximately the same way other countries did: according to national agreements and procedures such as the Geneva Convention. Hitler and his upper level staff, however, made a critical decision not to have to conform to what they considered unnecessary rules. The Third Reich, after all, was not a party to the Geneva Convention, and so observed it only as needed to reduce tensions with other nations. Languages Romani, languages of native region Religions Christianity, Islam Related ethnic groups South Asians (Desi) The Romani people (as a noun, singular Rom, plural Roma; sometimes Rrom, Rroma) or Romanies are an ethnic group living in many communities all over the world. ... A political prisoner is someone held in prison or otherwise detained, perhaps under house arrest, because their ideas or image are deemed by a government to either challenge or threaten the authority of the state. ... A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to fighting an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign nation through either the use of physical force, or nonviolence. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... The Geneva Conventions consist of treaties formulated in Geneva, Switzerland that set the standards for international law for humanitarian concerns. ...


On December 7th, 1942, SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler issued the following instructions to the Gestapo: "After lengthy consideration, it is the will of the Führer that the measures taken against those who are guilty of offenses against the Reich or against the occupation forces in occupied areas should be altered. The Führer is of the opinion that in such cases penal servitude or even a hard labor sentence for life will be regarded as a sign of weakness. An effective and lasting deterrent can be achieved only by the death penalty or by taking measures which will leave the family and the population uncertain as to the fate of the offender. Deportation to Germany serves this purpose." Himmler redirects here. ... The   (contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei: “secret state police”) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. ...


Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel issued a letter stating: "Efficient and enduring intimidation can only be achieved either by capital punishment or by measures by which the relatives of the criminals do not know the fate of the criminal. The prisoners are, in future, to be transported to Germany secretly, and further treatment of the offenders will take place here; these measures will have a deterrent effect because - A. The prisoners will vanish without a trace. B. No information may be given as to their whereabouts or their fate." Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (September 22, 1882–October 16, 1946) was a German field marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) and a senior military leader during World War II. // Keitel was born in Helmscherode, Brunswick, German Empire, the son of Carl Keitel, a middle-class landowner, and his wife Apollonia Vissering. ...


The Night and Fog prisoners were mostly from France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway . They were usually arrested in the middle of the night and quickly taken to prisons hundreds of miles away for questioning and torture, eventually arriving at the concentration camps of Natzweiler or Gross-Rosen, if they survived.[1] Camp entrance Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi concentration camp located close to the Alsatian village of Natzwiller (German Natzweiler) in France about 50 km from the city of Strasbourg. ... KL Gross-Rosen was a German concentration camp, located in Gross-Rosen. ...


The 1955 film Night and Fog uses the term to illustrate one aspect of the concentration camp system as it was transformed into a system of labour and death camps. Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog ) was an incident and edict in Nazi Germany. ...


Rationale

The reasons for Nacht und Nebel were many:

  • First, distinct complaints by other governments or humanitarian organizations against the German government were made far more difficult because the exact cause of internment or death, indeed whether or not the event had even occurred, was obscured. It kept the Nazis from being held accountable.
  • The decree and hidden events afforded the Nazis the ability to act cruelly and unjustly without public outcry.
  • It allowed an across-the-board, silent veto of international treaties and conventions: one cannot apply the limits and terms of humane treatment in war if one cannot locate the victim or discern his destiny.
  • Additionally, it lessened the moral qualms and confrontations of the German public as well as that of servicemen, in an agreed and/or ignorant silence.

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Results

The result, even early in the war, was the facilitating of utter brutality and execution of political prisoners, especially Soviet military prisoners, who in early 1942 outnumbered the Jews in number of deaths even at Auschwitz. As the transports grew and Hitler's troops moved across Europe, that ratio changed dramatically. Soviet redirects here. ... Auschwitz, in English, commonly refers to the Auschwitz concentration camp complex built near the town of Oświęcim, by Nazi Germany during World War II. Rarely, it may refer to the Polish town of Oświęcim (called by the Germans Auschwitz) itself. ...


The Night and Fog Decree was carried out surreptitiously, but it set the background for orders that would follow. As the war continued, so did the openness of such decrees and orders. It is probably correct to surmise, from various writings, that in the beginning the German public knew only a little of the insidious plans Hitler had for a "New European Order". As the years passed, despite the best attempts of Goebbels and the Propaganda Ministry with its formidable domestic information control, there can be little doubt from diaries and periodicals of the time that information about the harshness and cruelty became progressively known to the German public. Soldiers brought back information, families on rare occasion heard from or about loved ones, and allied news sources and the BBC were able to get through sporadically. Night and Fog set the stage for the obfuscatory information the Reich hoped would provide a cover for their operations in the eastern theatre. Goebbels is a surname common in Rhineland derived from Göbbl, a nickname for the names Godebald and Godebert. ... The Propagandaministerium () (or State Ministry for Public enlightenment and Propaganda) was the Ministry of propaganda in Nazi Germany. ... For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ...


Text of the decrees[2]

Directives for the prosecution of offences committed within the occupied territories against the German State or the occupying power, of December 7, 1941.


Within the occupied territories, communistic elements and other circles hostile to Germany have increased their efforts against the German State and the occupying powers since the Russian campaign started. The amount and the danger of these machinations oblige us to take severe measures as a determent. First of all the following directives are to be applied:

I. Within the occupied territories, the adequate punishment for offences committed against the German State or the occupying power which endanger their security or a state of readiness is on principle the death penalty.
II. The offences listed in paragraph I as a rule are to be dealt with in the occupied countries only if it is probable that sentence of death will be passed upon the offender, at least the principal offender, and if the trial and the execution can be completed in a very short time. Otherwise the offenders, at least the principal offenders, are to be taken to Germany.
III. Prisoners taken to Germany are subjected to military procedure only if particular military interests require this. In case German or foreign authorities inquire about such prisoners, they are to be told that they were arrested, but that the proceedings do not allow any further information.
IV. The Commanders in the occupied territories and the Court authorities within the framework of their jurisdiction, are personally responsible for the observance of this decree.
V. The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces determines in which occupied territories this decree is to be applied. He is authorized to explain and to issue executive orders and supplements. The Reich Minister of Justice will issue executive orders within his own jurisdiction.

Noted Night and Fog prisoners

Trygve Martin Bratteli (January 11, 1910 - November 20, 1984) was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party. ... Henriette Roosenburg (May 26, 1916 - 1972) was a Dutch journalist and political prisoner, perhaps best known for her memoir The Walls Came Tumbling Down, about her attempts to return to Holland from Germany after being released from prison at the end of World War II. Born in Holland to a... Noor Inayat Khan Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan, GC, MBE, (January 1, 1914, Moscow - September 13, 1944, Dachau concentration camp), usually known as Noor Inayat Khan, was a British Special Operations Executive agent in World War II of Indian origin and the first female radio operator to be sent into... Henriette Bie Lorentzen (1911-2001), born Anna Henriette Wegner Haagaas, was a Norwegian humanist, peace activist, feminist, editor, one of the founders of the Nansen Academy, and resistance fighter in World War II. She was the most famous female Norwegian concentration camp inmate. ...

References

Inmate account of person who survived as NN-prisoner four months in Gross-Rosen and a year in Natzweiler:

  • Willem Lodewijk Harthoorn, Verboden te sterven, Van Gruting, 2007, ISBN 9789075879377
  1. ^ The Night and Fog Decree.
  2. ^ Nacht und Nebel decree (English translation).

See also

Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog ) was an incident and edict in Nazi Germany. ... Camp entrance Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the Alsatian village of Natzwiller (German Natzweiler) in France about 50 km south west from the city of Strasbourg. ... Piles of bodies in a liberated Nazi concentration camp in Germany Prior to and during World War II, Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps (Konzentrationslager, abbreviated KZ or KL) throughout the territories it controlled. ... On November 13, 2001 U.S. President George W. Bush issued a Military Order entitled Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism. ... are marked with pink, while major concentration camps of are marked with blue. ...

External links


  Results from FactBites:
 
Nacht und Nebel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (828 words)
Nacht und Nebel ("Night and Fog") was an incident and edict in Nazi Germany.
On December 7, 1941, Adolf Hitler issued the "Nacht und Nebel Erlass" or "Night and Fog Decree" which resulted in the disappearance of many political activists.
The incident/edict referred to as "Night and Fog" (Nacht und Nebel) was clear evidence of unbounded and lawless cruelty.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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