1941/10/04 – Anordnung der Erschießung von Geiseln (Serbien)

In response to the assassination of 21 German soldiers near Topola, the commanding general representative, Böhme, orders that 100 ‘Serbian prisoners’ (mainly Jews and Communists) be shot for every German killed and 50 prisoners for every German wounded. A few days later, on 10 October, he issued an order that provided the formal basis for the Wehrmacht’s subsequent massacres of Jews, Roma and Serbs.