March 4, 1944
Secret state police-state police office Cologne
Branch Office, Aachen
To all State Police Directorates except PRAGUE and BRUNN
Inspectors of the Security Police and of the Security Service.
Subject: Measures to be taken against captured escaped prisoners of war who are officers or not working non-commissioned officers, except British and American prisoners of war.
The Supreme Command of the Army has ordered as follows:
1. Every captured escaped prisoner of war who is an officer or a not working non- commissioned officer, except British and American prisoners of war, is to be turned over to the Chief of the Security Police and of the Security Service under the classification "Step III" regardless of whether the escape occurred during a transport, whether it was a mass escape or an individual one.
2. Since the transfer of the prisoners of war to the security police and security service may not become officially known to the outside under any circumstances other prisoners of war may by no means be informed of the capture. The captured prisoners are to be reported to the Army Information Bureau as "escaped and not captured". Their mail is to be handled accordingly. Inquiries of representatives of the Protective Power of the International Red Cross, and of other aid societies will be given the same answer.
3. If escaped British and American prisoners of war who are officers or not working non- commissioned officers, respectively, are captured they are to be detained at first outside the prisoner of war camps and out of sight of prisoners of war; if Army owned buildings are unavailable they are to be placed in police custody. In every instance the Corps Area Command will request speedily the Supreme Command of the Army (Chief, Prisoner of War Section) for a decision as to whether they are to be turned over to the Chief of the Security Police and of the Security Service.
In reference to this, I order as follows:
1. The State Police. Directorates will accept the captured escaped officer prisoners of war from the prisoner of war camp commandants and will transport them to the Concentration Camp Mauthausen following the procedure previously used, unless the circumstances render a special transport imperative. The prisoners of war are to be put in irons on the transport - not on the station if it is subject to view by the public. The camp commandant at Mauthausen is to be notified that the transfer occurs within the scope of the action "Kugel" [= "bullet", "ball", "bowl", "globe", "scoop", etc., or more or less anything round, as in "Kugellager" = ball-bearing, "Erdkugel" = terrestrial globe, "Eiskugel" = scoop of ice cream, "Kugelschreiber" = ball-point pen, etc. Does not apply to dances, footballs, etc. The word "Kugel" predates the invention of firearms. The words "shot" or "shooting" do not appear in the document. To prove that the prisoners were actually intended to be "shot" would require other documents, which, as usual, are simply not available. - C.P.] The State Police Directorates will submit semi-yearly reports on these transfers giving merely the figures, the first report being due on 5 July 1944 (sharp). The report is to be made under the reference "Treatment of Captured Escaped Prisoners of War who are officers within the Scope of the Action 'Kugel'." In the case of special events, reports are to be submitted immediately. The State Police Directorates will maintain exact records.
2. For the sake of secrecy, the Supreme Command of the Armed Force has been requested to inform the prisoner of war camps to turn the captured prisoners over to the local State Police Office and not to send them directly to Mauthausen.
3. Captured escaped British and American officers and not working non-commissioned officers are to be detained in police custody in a city in which a State Police office located provided the Army has no suitable quarters. In view of the existing crowding of police prisons, the State Police officer will accept captured prisoners only if the Army actually does not dispose of any suitable space. The prisoner of war camp commandants are to be contacted in reference to their quarters immediately after the receipt of this order. In the interest of the secrecy of this order, confinement outside of police jails, e.g. in Labor Education Camps is not permissible.
4. If escaped prisoners of war who are officers and not working non-commissioned officers except British and American prisoners of war are captured by police authorities, reasons of practicability render it unnecessary to return the prisoner to the prisoner of war camp commandant once the facts have been clarified adequately. The prisoner of war camp is to be informed of the capture and is to be requested for a transfer under the classification 'Step III". Captured escaped British and American prisoners of war who are officers and non-commissioned officers are always to be turned over to the Army.
5. The city and county police authorities are not to be informed of this order
Chief of the Security Police and of the Security Service
(signed)
Mueller [Why don't they provide a full translation with all the handwritten markings, first name, and "CONFIDENTIAL" stamps? Or must one assume that their honesty is somewhat limited?]
SS General.
Branch Office Aachen.
Aachen 6 March 1944
Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression,
Vol. IV. pages.158-160
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QUOTE FROM "NOT GUILTY AT NUREMBERG":
"Another crime committed by Kaltenbrunner was responsibility for the so-called 'Bullet Order'. This is supposed to have been an order to shoot prisoners of war using a measuring contraption (probably inspired by the Paul Waldmann pedal-driven brain bashing machine, Document USSR-52, VII 377[416-417]).
"The 'Bullet Order', Document 1650-PS, if it is an authentic document, which it probably is not (XVIII 35-36 [43-44]) is a mistranslation: the sense of the order is that prisoners who attempt to escape should be chained to an iron ball (Kugel), and not that they should be shot with a 'bullet' (also Kugel). The word "chained" [NOTE: in the translation above, "put in irons" is presumably "gekettet", from "Kette", "chain", but since the "original document" is illegible, there is no way to tell. - C.P, 2005] appears in the document, but the word 'shot' does not (III 506 [565]; XXI 514 [568]); Gestapo affidavit 75; XXI 299 [332]). The document is a "teletype" thus, without a signature [?] (XXVII 424-428)."
Page numbers in [brackets] = German pagination.
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I have noted elsewhere that "Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression" is more or less worthless, since, unlike the IMT volumes themselves, they contain no indication of whether or not a document is signed, a photocopy, carbon, etc. L-3 was never even accepted into evidence at Nuremberg, but is perfectly good enough for "Nazi Conspiracy and Aggresssion". -C.P.