the soviet partisan movement 1941-1944 by edgar m. howell

118 THE SOVIET PARTISAN MOVEMENT
soon as possible. Army training and school units and Luftwaffe ground
organizations were to be shifted to areas under partisan pressure, either
in the Reichskommissariate or the army group rear areas. As a further
reinforcement the prohibition against the formation and use of native
security units by the Army (which had frequently been ignored) was
lifted. However, it was specifically forbidden to commit these units in
the front lines. There were to be "no Germans left in the banditinfested
regions who [were] not engaged either actively or passively in
the anti-partisan campaign." In addition, OKW ordered that the
term "partisan"' (Partisanen), which had been found to mean "fighter
for freedom" in Russian terminology, no longer be used, and the term
"bandit" (Banditen) substituted in referring to the insurgents.6
OKH passed these provisions along to the Army almost verbatim and
without elaboration, since the more pertinent ones were already in effect
in the operations zone.' Himmler was much more specific and went
into considerable detailY8borrowing much from the experience of the
security commands. He emphasized the importance of the population's
regaining a feeling of security and receiving fair treatment from
the occupation administration. Punitive measures, acts of violence, and
the like could be justified only in cases where the subjective collaboration
of the population with the partisans was clearly established, his directive
stated. Where the people supported the bands only under pressure,
the bands alone were to be punished. Experience had shown that the
people often fled to the forests in fear of reprisals and there became
prey to the bands who forcibly recruited the men into the irregular
ranks. When collective punitive measures had to be exacted, it was
highly important that the reasons for so doing be carefully explained to
the people. This latter was considered especially pertinent. Further,
the people were to be made to realize that the partisans, following instructions
from Moscow, often deliberately attempted to place them,
even though innocent, in a position where the Germans would take
reprisals-as firing on German troops from a village and then escaping,
thus leaving the inhabitants to face the penalties which the Germans
might lawfully impose-in order to turn them away from the invaders
and into the ranks of the irregulars.
Continuing, Himmler outlined his general tactical concepts relating
to antipartisan warfare which varied little from those drawn up by the
security units of the army group rear areas. To attempt to meet the
partisan's clever, swift and often well-disguised activity with traditional
6 See: Entry for 26 Aug 42 in KTB, H. Gr. Nord. 75 128/13.
7
Gen.St.d.H.-Op Abt. (I) Nr. 10990/42 g. Kdos., OKH,23.8.42. NOKW-1635.
8
Bandenbekaemlbfung, Prs. St. RFSS, Sep 42. A photostatic copy of this pamphlet
is located in CRS, TAG, and is not further identifiable. The translation is that of the
Army Security Agency and is confidential.
forms of defense was to court disaster. Passive defense and purely