War Crimes of XXII Mtn Korp

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Andy H
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War Crimes of XXII Mtn Korp

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From NMT judgement
The defendant Lanz was appointed to command the XXII Mountain Corps on 25 August 1943 and actually assumed the position on 9 September 1943. The corps command was, generally speaking, the Epirus area of Greece. This consisted of the area between the Gulf of Corinth and Albania lying west of the Pindus Mountains. The corps headquarters was in Ioannina. The defendant is charged with the responsibility for killing hostages and reprisal prisoners in violation of international law and with the unlawful killing of Italian officers after the Italian capitulation.

A brief summarization of the evidence against the defendant is required. On 13 September 1943, General Stettner, commander of the 1st Mountain Division, a unit subordinate to the defendant and whose headquarters was at the time also in Ioannina, issued an order in part as follows (NOKW-1104, Pros. Ex. 451): "In order to oppose energetically the continued raids on convoys and members of the Wehrmacht, it is ordered that from 20 September 1943 onward for every German soldier wounded or killed by insurgents or civilians, 10 Greeks from all classes of the population are to be shot to death. This order must be carried out consistently in order to achieve a deterrent effect." On 29 September 1943, the XXII Corps reported: "Telephone sabotage in the area of Arta. Poles sawed off at two places. Thirty male civilian suspects arrested and shot." On 3 October 1943, the defendant issued an order reading in part as follows: "On account of the repeated cable sabotage in the area of Arta 30 distinguished citizens (Greeks) from Arta and 10 distinguished citizens (Greeks) from Filipias are to be arrested and kept as hostages. The population is to be notified that for every further cable sabotage 10 of these 40 hostages will be shot to death." The defendant denies that any of these hostages were shot and there is no evidence in the record to the contrary. On 4 October 1943, the 1st Mountain Division reported to the XXII Corps as follows: "Mopping up operations Eisl continue beyond Alomotros. Villages destroyed as reprisal measure. All civilians shot to death." On 18 October 1943, the 1st Mountain Division reported to the XXII Corps as follows: "Shot to death: Paramythia - reprisal measure for 6 murdered German soldiers, 58. Thereakision - reprisal measure for murder of Lieutenant Colonel Salminger, 14. Arta, Klissura - Suspicious elements near the localities where attacks had occurred (about), 30. Ioannina City - 1." On 25 October 1943, the 1st Mountain Division issued a special directive to its subordinate units which stated in part: "If a member of the German Wehrmacht is killed by either attack or murder in a territory considered pacified, 50 Greeks (male) are to be shot for one murdered German. * * * The decision regarding executions for losses in band combat is made by the competent troop commander. Here also the ratio is 1:50. The prerequisite for the order of execution is indubitable proof that the population of a village has participated in hostile action against the German armed forces. In addition, the villages are to be destroyed." This order supersedes that of 13 September 1943. Numerous killings of hostages and reprisal prisoners, in addition to those enumerated, appear in the record. There are reports to the effect that "all the inhabitants" of named villages and "all men capable of bearing arms" were shot to death. Persons designated as "civilians" were shot on numerous occasions.

The orders for the taking of reprisal measures were clearly unlawful. An order to shoot 50 Greeks for each German killed regardless of circumstances meets the legal objections hereinbefore stated in this opinion. Instead of reprisals against innocent inhabitants being taken as a last resort, they were more often taken in the first instance. Reprisal killings were often carried out against the inmates of hostage camps and not against the population having some relationship with the crime committed. Attacks by armed bands having no connection with the local population were avenged by killing innocent inhabitants who had no possible association with the guilty. Many villages were destroyed and the civilian inhabitants shot without any logical reason at all except to wreak vengeance upon the population generally. According to the reports in evidence, court martial proceedings were not held. The killings were had on the order of the competent field commander, the evidence showing that battalion commanders sometimes gave such orders. The defendant says that as a tactical commander he was too busy to give attention to the matter of reprisals. This is a very lame excuse. The unlawful killing of innocent people is a matter that demands prompt and efficient handling by the highest officer of any army. This defendant, with full knowledge of what was going on, did absolutely nothing about it. Nowhere does an order appear which has for its purpose the bringing of the hostage and reprisal practice within the rules of war. The defendant does not even contend that he did. As commander of the XXII Corps it was his duty to act and when he failed to so do and permitted these inhumane and unlawful killings to continue he is criminally responsible.

The defendant Lanz is also charged as commander of the XXII Mountain Corps with having ordered or permitted the unlawful execution of Italian officers and soldiers of the surrendered Italian army. He is also specifically charged with ordering troops under his command to execute the captured Italian General Gandin and all officers of his staff. The general situation regarding the collapse of Italy and the surrender of its armies has been set forth in the portion of the opinion dealing with the defendant Rendulic and it will not be repeated here except as necessity requires.

The record discloses that the defendant Lanz knew when he assumed command of the XXII Mountain Corps that Field Marshal Badoglio had succeeded Mussolini as head of the Italian Government and Commander in Chief of the Italian Army. On 8 September 1943, he heard of the armistice which the Italians had signed with the Allies. On the same day, due to the absence of senior officers from Athens, General Alexander Loehr, commander in chief of Army Group E, commissioned the defendant Lanz to negotiate with General Vecchiarelli, the commander in chief of the 11th Italian Army. After much negotiating, General Vecchiarelli surrendered the 11th Army to the Germans on 9 September 1943. The surrender terms were carried out during the following 14 days, without difficulty insofar as troops stationed on the Greek mainland were concerned. On the islands of Corfu and Cephalonia, however, difficulties arose. These two islands were occupied by one Italian division under the command of General Gandin. The defendant Lanz as commanding general of the XXII Corps demanded that General Gandin surrender his troops and the demand was refused even though General Vecchiarelli had directed him to do so. General Gandin vacillated, contending that his orders were not clear and that he had no right to surrender the division. The situation resulted in fighting between the German and Italian troops on the island of Cephalonia and the eventual surrender of the Italian forces, including General Gandin and his staff, on 21 September 1943.

During this stage of the proceedings, a Fuehrer order arrived directing that the 6000 or 7000 Italians of General Gandin's division were to be shot for mutiny. The defendant Lanz refused to carry out this order for the reason that it was neither feasible nor lawful to do so. The Fuehrer order was then modified providing only that the officers were to be shot for mutiny. The defendant objected to the shooting of all officers and advocated that the order apply only to the guilty. The evidence indicates that the defendant Lanz ordered the German commandant of the islands to determine the guilty officers by court martial proceedings. This was done and on 24 September 1943, General Gandin and his staff officers were shot.

A similar situation developed on the island of Corfu. Fighting ensued, the Italians surrendered, and the officers shot after a summary court martial. The record shows that a large number of Italian officers were shot in this manner. One instance shows that on 5 October 1943, 58 Italian officers were shot by troops subordinate to the XXII Corps.

The killing of these Italian officers was clearly unlawful. The evidence of the defendant shows that he believed that their killing was unlawful. While his protests to Army Group E, based on the illegality of the Fuehrer order, were successful in reducing the number of Italians to be subjected to the unlawful order, the fact remains that the killing of the reduced number was just as much a criminal act. That he gave the order to the commandant of Cephalonia to execute the guilty officers only, he readily admits. The Italian soldiers were not francs-tireurs. They were still allies of Germany, insofar as their commanding officers then knew, although they had notice that an armistice had been signed with the Allied Powers. If they were prisoners of war by virtue of the surrender of the 11th Italian Army by General Vecchiarelli, it is clear that they were entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention, 1929, regulating the treatment to be afforded prisoners of war. This was not done in any material respect. The reasoning set forth on the same subject in this opinion as it pertains to the defendant Rendulic applies here and is adopted by reference to the present situation. We are obliged to hold that the killing of the Italian officers was a war crime for which the defendant is responsible.

We find the defendant Lanz guilty on counts one and three
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