“1. No attempt of any kind must be made at rescuing members of ships sunk; and this includes picking up persons in the water and putting them in lifeboats, righting capsized lifeboats and handing over food and water. Rescue runs counter to the rudimentary demands of warfare for the destruction of enemy ships and crews.
“2. Orders for bringing in captains and chief engineers still apply.
“3. Rescue the shipwrecked only if their statements will be of importance to your boat.
“4. Be harsh, having in mind that the enemy takes no regard of women and children in his bombing attacks on German cities.”
Now, My Lord, that is, of course, a very carefully worded order. Its intentions are made very clear by the next document on that same page, which is an extract from the defendant’s war diary; and I should say there, as appears from the copy handed in to the Court, the war diary is personally signed by the Defendant Dönitz. It is the war diary entry for the 17th of September 1942:
“The attention of all commanding officers is again drawn”—and I would draw the Tribunal’s attention to the word “again”—“to the fact that all efforts to rescue members of the crews of ships which have been sunk contradict the most primitive demands for the conduct of warfare for annihilating enemy ships and their crews. Orders concerning the bringing in of the captains and chief engineers still stand.”
The last two documents on that page consist of a telegram from the commander of the U-boat Schacht to the defendant’s headquarters and the reply. Schacht had been taking part in the rescue of survivors from the Laconia. The telegram from Schacht, dated the 17th of September 1942, reads: