Lahousen, chief of a division in the office of foreign intelligence in the Wehrmacht, states:
“* * * From the start of the campaign against the U.S.S.R. the higher German political and military leadership followed the policy of eliminating Russian commissars and various other types of Russian prisoners of war captured by the Wehrmacht. In June and July 1941 I participated in a conference which concerned itself with the treatment of Russian commissars. * * * Obergruppenfuehrer Mueller was present as representative of the RSHA, and he participated in this matter because, as Chief of Section IV, he was responsible for the carrying out of these measures. Jointly with the SD and the GESTAPO he had the task of instituting the necessary measures for the execution of commissars. * * * In the discussion that followed, Mueller promised in a peculiarly cynical manner that these executions would take place in the future outside the camp, so that the troops would not be obliged to watch them. He promised further a certain limitation in the concept of ‘Bolshevistically infected.’ This concept and its interpretation had been hitherto left to the discretion of the SD Sonderkommandos. * * * An agreement was concluded between the OKW, the GESTAPO and the SD. Pursuant to this agreement Russian prisoners of war under the control of the OKW were delivered to the GESTAPO and SD for execution. The term ‘Sonderbehandlung’ in the official documents and way of speaking of the SD was equivalent to ‘condemned to death’.” (2846-PS)
On 17 July 1941 instructions were issued by the GESTAPO to Commandos of the SIPO and SD stationed in Stalags, providing in part as follows:
“The activation of commandos will take place in accordance with the agreement of the Chief of the Security Police and Security Service and the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces as of 16 July 1941 (see enclosure 1). The commandos will work independently according to special authorization and in consequence of the general regulations given to them, in the limit of the camp organizations. Naturally, the commandos will keep close contact with the camp-commander and the defense-officers assigned to him.
“The mission of the commandos is the political investigating of all camp-inmates, the elimination and further ‘treatment’
“a.
of all political, criminal or in some other way unbearable elements among them.
“b.
of those persons who could be used for the reconstruction of the occupied territories.
“The commandos must use for their work as far as possible, at present and even later, the experiences of the camp-commanders which the latter have collected meanwhile from observation of the prisoners and examinations of camp inmates.