KEITEL: Measures, insofar as it means that women and children were also to be removed from territories where there was partisan warfare, never atrocities or the murder of women or children. Never!
GEN. RUDENKO: To remove—a German term—means to kill?
KEITEL: No. I do not think it would ever have been necessary to tell German soldiers that they could not and must not kill women and children.
GEN. RUDENKO: You did not answer my question.
Do you consider this order a just one in regard to measures against women and children or do you consider it unjust? Answer “yes” or “no.” Is it just or unjust? Explain the matter later.
KEITEL: I considered these measures to be right and as such I admit them; but not measures to kill. That was a crime.
GEN. RUDENKO: “Any kind of measures” includes murder.
KEITEL: Yes, but not of women and children.
GEN. RUDENKO: Yes, but it says here “Any kind of measures against women and children.”
KEITEL: No, it does not say “any measures.” It says “...and not to shrink from taking measures against women and children.” That is what it says.