Severity Order

E826156

The Severity Order, also known as the Reichenau Order, was a directive issued by German General Walter von Reichenau in 1941 that encouraged extreme brutality and war crimes by the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front during World War II.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Severity Order canonical 2

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (46)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Nazi-era document
Wehrmacht directive
military order
appliesTo German 6th Army NERFINISHED
Wehrmacht soldiers on the Eastern Front NERFINISHED
archivedIn various World War II document collections
author Walter von Reichenau NERFINISHED
classifiedAs criminal order
war crime directive
consequences facilitation of atrocities against civilians
strengthening cooperation between Wehrmacht and SS units
contains explicitly dehumanizing language about the enemy
contributedTo escalation of violence against civilians
systematic mass murder in occupied Soviet territories
countryOfOrigin Nazi Germany
dateIssued 1941
encouraged extreme brutality
harsh reprisals
summary executions
violence against civilians
war crimes
hasAlias Reichenau Order NERFINISHED
historicalAssessment evidence of Wehrmacht involvement in Nazi crimes
historicalPeriod World War II
ideology Nazism
anti-Bolshevism
antisemitism
implementedBy Wehrmacht units on the Eastern Front NERFINISHED
units of the German 6th Army
issuedBy German 6th Army command NERFINISHED
Walter von Reichenau NERFINISHED
justifiedBy alleged fight against Bolshevism
language German
legalStatus violation of international humanitarian law
namedAfter Walter von Reichenau NERFINISHED
opposedBy some later postwar commentators and historians
placeOfIssue Eastern Front headquarters of the German 6th Army
purpose to align Wehrmacht behavior with Nazi ideological goals
to radicalize conduct of war against the Soviet Union
relatedTo Commissar Order NERFINISHED
Nazi occupation policies in the Soviet Union
targetedGroup Jewish civilians
Soviet civilians NERFINISHED
Soviet prisoners of war NERFINISHED
theaterOfWar Eastern Front NERFINISHED
usedAsEvidenceIn postwar discussions of Wehrmacht war crimes

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (2)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Reichenau Order alsoKnownAs Severity Order
Reichenau Severity Order describedAs Severity Order