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Nacht und Nebel
Nacht und Nebel (German: [ˈnaxt ʔʊnt ˈneːbl̩]), meaning Night and Fog, also known as the Night and Fog Decree, was a directive issued by Adolf Hitler on 7 December 1941 targeting political activists and resistance "helpers" in the territories occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, who were to be imprisoned, executed, or made to disappear, while the family and the population remained uncertain as to the fate or whereabouts of the alleged offender against the Nazi occupation power. Victims who disappeared in these clandestine actions were often never heard from again.
The alliterative hendiadys Nacht und Nebel (German for "Night and Fog") is documented in German since the beginning of the 17th century. It was used by Wagner in Das Rheingold (1869) and has since been adopted into everyday German (e.g., it appears in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain). It is not clear whether the term Nacht-und-Nebel-Erlass ("Night and Fog directive") had been in wide circulation or used publicly before 1945. The designation "NN" was sometimes used, however, to refer to prisoners and deportees ("NN-Gefangener", "NN-Häftling", "NN-Sache") at the time.
Even before the Holocaust gained momentum c. 1941, the Nazis had begun rounding up political prisoners - both within Germany and in occupied Europe. Most of the early prisoners were of two sorts: they were either political prisoners of personal conviction or of the belief, whom the Nazis deemed in need of "re-education" to Nazi ideals, or resistance leaders in occupied western Europe.
Until the issuing of the Nacht und Nebel decree in December 1941, prisoners from Western Europe were handled by German soldiers in approximately the same way as by other countries: according to international agreements and procedures such as the Geneva Conventions. However, the AB-Aktion (German: Außerordentliche Befriedungsaktion, lit. 'Extraordinary Operation of Pacification') in German-occupied Poland (carried out from 1940 onwards) presaged and paralleled the activities of Nacht und Nebel, operating with similar methods.
Hitler and his upper-level staff made a critical decision not to conform to what they considered unnecessary rules, and in the process, abandoned "all chivalry towards the opponent" and removed "every traditional restraint on warfare". During the Nuremberg trial of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) in 1945-1946, the head of the legal department in the OKW, Ministerial Director and General Dr. Rudolf Lehmann, testified that Hitler had literally demanded that opponents of the regime, who could not be immediately given a short trial should be brought across the border to Germany in the "Night and Fog" and remain isolated there.
On 7 December 1941, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler issued the following instructions to the Gestapo:
After lengthy consideration, it is the will of the Führer that the measures taken against those who are guilty of offenses against the Reich or against the occupation forces in occupied areas should be altered. The Führer is of the opinion that, in such cases, penal servitude or even a hard labor sentence for life will be regarded as a sign of weakness. An effective and lasting deterrent can be achieved only by the death penalty or by taking measures which will leave the family and the population uncertain as to the fate of the offender. Deportation to Germany serves this purpose.
At the Armed Forces High Command, Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel had also received a so-called "Führer's decree" from Hitler on 7 December 1941, and while this order was not documented in writing, Keitel immediately passed it on to the appropriate authorities in the form of "guidelines" and likewise issued a secret decree containing more detailed instructions for its implementation. Essentially, the decree was about how to more effectively combat the increasing resistance actions in the territories occupied by Germany in Western Europe after the June 1941 beginning of the Axis war against the Soviet Union. The "Night and Fog" decree originally concerned only nationals of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Norway. However, eventually some of those imprisoned under the Nacht und Nebel Erlass came from Poland, Hungary, Greece, Yugoslavia, Slovakia, and Italy.
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Nacht und Nebel AI simulator
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Nacht und Nebel
Nacht und Nebel (German: [ˈnaxt ʔʊnt ˈneːbl̩]), meaning Night and Fog, also known as the Night and Fog Decree, was a directive issued by Adolf Hitler on 7 December 1941 targeting political activists and resistance "helpers" in the territories occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, who were to be imprisoned, executed, or made to disappear, while the family and the population remained uncertain as to the fate or whereabouts of the alleged offender against the Nazi occupation power. Victims who disappeared in these clandestine actions were often never heard from again.
The alliterative hendiadys Nacht und Nebel (German for "Night and Fog") is documented in German since the beginning of the 17th century. It was used by Wagner in Das Rheingold (1869) and has since been adopted into everyday German (e.g., it appears in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain). It is not clear whether the term Nacht-und-Nebel-Erlass ("Night and Fog directive") had been in wide circulation or used publicly before 1945. The designation "NN" was sometimes used, however, to refer to prisoners and deportees ("NN-Gefangener", "NN-Häftling", "NN-Sache") at the time.
Even before the Holocaust gained momentum c. 1941, the Nazis had begun rounding up political prisoners - both within Germany and in occupied Europe. Most of the early prisoners were of two sorts: they were either political prisoners of personal conviction or of the belief, whom the Nazis deemed in need of "re-education" to Nazi ideals, or resistance leaders in occupied western Europe.
Until the issuing of the Nacht und Nebel decree in December 1941, prisoners from Western Europe were handled by German soldiers in approximately the same way as by other countries: according to international agreements and procedures such as the Geneva Conventions. However, the AB-Aktion (German: Außerordentliche Befriedungsaktion, lit. 'Extraordinary Operation of Pacification') in German-occupied Poland (carried out from 1940 onwards) presaged and paralleled the activities of Nacht und Nebel, operating with similar methods.
Hitler and his upper-level staff made a critical decision not to conform to what they considered unnecessary rules, and in the process, abandoned "all chivalry towards the opponent" and removed "every traditional restraint on warfare". During the Nuremberg trial of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) in 1945-1946, the head of the legal department in the OKW, Ministerial Director and General Dr. Rudolf Lehmann, testified that Hitler had literally demanded that opponents of the regime, who could not be immediately given a short trial should be brought across the border to Germany in the "Night and Fog" and remain isolated there.
On 7 December 1941, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler issued the following instructions to the Gestapo:
After lengthy consideration, it is the will of the Führer that the measures taken against those who are guilty of offenses against the Reich or against the occupation forces in occupied areas should be altered. The Führer is of the opinion that, in such cases, penal servitude or even a hard labor sentence for life will be regarded as a sign of weakness. An effective and lasting deterrent can be achieved only by the death penalty or by taking measures which will leave the family and the population uncertain as to the fate of the offender. Deportation to Germany serves this purpose.
At the Armed Forces High Command, Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel had also received a so-called "Führer's decree" from Hitler on 7 December 1941, and while this order was not documented in writing, Keitel immediately passed it on to the appropriate authorities in the form of "guidelines" and likewise issued a secret decree containing more detailed instructions for its implementation. Essentially, the decree was about how to more effectively combat the increasing resistance actions in the territories occupied by Germany in Western Europe after the June 1941 beginning of the Axis war against the Soviet Union. The "Night and Fog" decree originally concerned only nationals of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Norway. However, eventually some of those imprisoned under the Nacht und Nebel Erlass came from Poland, Hungary, Greece, Yugoslavia, Slovakia, and Italy.