WFSt/Qu. (Verw. 1)
Supreme Command Staff of the Armed Forces; Supply Section
26 June 1944
Subject: Treatment of Terror-aviators
Telephone Memorandum
Telephone call by Captain Breuer from the Adjutant's Office of the Reichsmarshall:
The Reichsmarshall agrees with the communicated wording of the definition of terror-aviators and with the proposed procedure. He asks that he be instructed today about the measures taken.
[signature illegible]
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 735-PS
TOP SECRET
Access only through officer
Fuehrer Headquarters 6.6.1944
Deputy Chief of the Armed Forces Ops Staff
No. 771793/44 Top Secret, S.O. only
Subject: Treatment of enemy terror aviators
Minutes of a meeting
1. Obergruppenfuehrer Kaltenbrunner informed the deputy Chief of WFSt in Klessheim on the afternoon of 6.6, that a conference on this question had been held shortly before between the Reich Marshall, the Reich Foreign Minister and the Reichsfuehrer SS. Contrary to the original suggestion made by the Reich Foreign Minister who wished to include every type of terror attack on the German civilian population, that is, also bombing attacks on cities, it was agreed in the above conference that merely those attacks carried out with A/C armament, aimed directly at the civilian population and their property, should be taken as the standard for the evidence of a criminal action in this sense. Lynch law would have to be the rule. On the contrary, there has been no question of court martial sentence or handing over to the police.
2. Deputy Chief of WFSt stated the following:
a. First and foremost, following the lines of the generally distributed declaration made by Reich Minister Dr. Goebbels and numerous press notices written in the same vein, it is essential to announce any definitely established incident of this kind giving the names and units of the aviators, the place the incident occurred and any other relevant facts. The purpose of this would be to make clear the serious intentions of the Germans in the face of disbelieving enemy propaganda and especially to discourage effectively any further murderous action against our civilian population. Therefore the question is whether the SD knows of such a case or whether the necessary proof is available from which to construct a case like this with the required statements. Obergruppenfuehrer Kaltenbrunner replied to both in the negative.
b. Deputy Chief of the WFSt mentioned that, apart from Lynch law, a procedure must be worked out for segregating those enemy aviators, who are suspected of criminal action of this kind, until they are received into the Reception Camp for aviators at Oberursel; if the suspicion was confirmed, they would be handed over to the SD for special treatment.