“Commissar Order”

Commissars were officers of the political departments that were established within the Soviet Red Army. The function of the commissar was to indoctrinate troops politically and, even more important, to ensure that the Communist Party exercised direct control over and through the military command structure. On June 6, 1941, about two weeks before the invasion of the Soviet Union commenced, the Wehrmacht high command (OKW) issued the Kommissarbefehl, or "Commissar Order." It was aimed at destroying Soviet communism by physically liquidating all who had responsibility for transmitting the actual ideology of the Communist Party and the Soviet state. In violation of international common law as well as the Geneva Conventions, the order stipulated: "If captured during combat or while offering resistance, [commissars] must on principle be shot immediately." More broadly, the order continued: "Even if they are only suspected of resistance, sabotage, or instigation thereto . . . protection granted to prisoners of war . . . will not apply to them. After having been segregated they are to be liquidated." The Commissar Order was signed by General Walter Warlimont and approved by the OKW chief of staff, General Wilhelm Keitel, who was acting under the direct order of Adolf Hitler. Early in the war, during the summer of 1941, Keitel attempted to destroy all copies of the Commissar Order, presumably to cover up evidence of what he knew to be a blatant war crime.