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The Nacht Und Nebel (night and fog) Decree

If They Never Know

The Nazis proceeded with their plans independent of the rest of the world. The Geneva Convention was not of the Third Reich, so except to keep tensions with other nations down, it was not really observed. The incident/edict referred to as "Night & Fog" (Nacht und Nebel) was clear evidence of unbounded and lawless cruelty.

Even before the deportation and mass murder of the innocents of Europe, the mentally impaired, the Jews, the Gypsies, 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 the far larger group was that of Soviet Prisoners of War. Up until the time of the "Night and Fog" Decree, prisoners 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 attend to what they considered unnecessary convention.

Soviet Prisoners were held in contempt and distain by the Third Reich: there were constant repetitions of the harms and evils that the Reich felt that the Soviets had wrought on Europe, and the captive soldiers were the representation of this great evil. The decision to depart with international convention in the fair and humane treatment of soldiers was made: political prisoners, most of whom were foreign soldiers, particularly Russian soldiers were to "disappear" without a trace: there were to be no notifying letters to governments or the military, no notification of next-of-kin, and no open records of destinations or fates.

Reasons & Results

The reasons for this were many:

  • First, distinct actions against the German government were made far more difficult, because the exact cause of interment 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 decry.

  • 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. The result, even early in the war, was the facilitating of utter brutality and execution of political prisoners, especially Soviet military prisoners, who early in the war 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.

    • The Night and Fog Decree was carried out sereptitiously but it set the background for orders that would follow. As the war grew bolder, so did the openness of the decrees and orders: it is probably correct to surmize, 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 and the War grew on, though, even despite the best attempts of Goebbels and the Propaganda Ministry with its formidable Domestic information control; there can be little doubt given 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 deterred loved ones, and allied news sources and the BBC were able to get through sporadically. Night and Fog set the stage for the mire of information the Reich hoped would provide a covert for their operations in the eastern theatre.

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    Nacht Und Nebel

    Night & Fog:Movie

    Nacht Und Nebel Decree

    		 Chronology:Night & Fog:Yad Vashem

    Nacht Und Nebel-summary

    Natzweiler

    		 NachtUnd Nebel:Roosenberg, eyewitness account

    Nacht Und Nebel: Book Review

    Auschwitz

    Footnotes:

    1Auschwitz: from Auschwitz Memorial Museum
    2Berenbaum,M. The World Must Know USHMM
    3The Avalon Project: WWII Documents of Aggression;Yale U., New Haven CT
    © 2002 Elizabeth Kirkley Best PhD, Shoah Education (Web) Project all rights reserved .