Rules for executing civilians in occupied territories ?

Question

In German occupied France, the Wehrmacht had rules of retribution for attacks on them by "unknown" persons.
For each Germain soldier killed, multiple civilians from the closest village or town would be executed.

I've been told that this was not an uncommon policy in the day and most armies in the world had similar rules in their tenets of war and occupation,
though the civilian multiple varied widely.

Does anyone know if this is true and where i can find more information on this subject ?

It would appear that my information is not completely flawed.
"The Fourth Geneva Convention (or GCIV) relates to the protection of civilians during times of war "in the hands" of an enemy and under any occupation by a foreign power." which only came into effect in 1950.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Geneva_Convention

Therefore it seems like that most military forces prior tot hat time had some kind of standing rules for reprisals.
Infact I believe in the Nuremburg trials, where reprisals were carried out in accordance with the Wehrmachts own rules, where sufficient notice etc. was given, these were not considered war crimes.

But I'm still having trouble finding any writings on the actual rules.

And interesrtingly enough, I found this about the Navy Seals

http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/05/rumslet0507.htm

It does seem increasingly likely that if these rules exist, they're kept secret from the public.

Article 64 of GCIV

"The penal laws of the occupied territory shall remain in force, with the exception that they may be repealed or suspended by the Occupying Power in cases where they constitute a threat to its security"

This basically seems to say that that the occupying power can do whatever they want if they feel threatened.

Answer 1

Lets be very clear about the U. S. rules of engagement and Code of Conduct for every U. S. military member. We do NOT tolerate any member of our forces who would follow a mission like that. Every military member accused of such an act is prosecuted and severely. When ever you see atrocities such as these pay attention to the original source of the allegations you will find that 9 out of 10 were identified and prosecuted by the military and not some other source. Although many other organizations will identify or capitalize on such cases their source of information was the military who publicly announced the investigation.

Answer 2

Well your information is flawed.

The Germans executed people in the many lands they occupied without the benefit of a trail.

The British, US and other Allied Forces were, as per the Geneva Convention required to detain and place on trial any enemy military personnel found to be in civil clothing and guilty of using the clothing as a disguise while carrying out acts of war. They were called spies.

Even during the advance into Germany any German Civilians who offered armed resistance (The Volksturm, identified by an Armband to comply with the Geneva Convention.) were met with force but after they surrendered, those who survived were treated as enemy combatants, there was no rounding up of civilians and executing them out of hand for the death of any Allied troops.

That is not to say no Civilians were not killed by the Allied bombing or fighting as in all wars there were and will be innocent civilian casualties.

The Germans carried out their execution of civil persons in retribution for attacks against them in Poland, Greece, Russia, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belgium, Holland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Albania.

Answer 3

I dont know if that was a actual written rule, but it is true throughout history and probably still goes on today in parts of the world. In fact Saddam practiced similar acts in Iraq when he was in power. Someone tried to shoot him once, he rounded up thousands in the town it happened in and had them put to death, even though they had no clue of who did it or what it was about.

Answer 4

In any occupied country, that country automatically comes under Military law, and not civilian Law.That is the difference.

Answer 5

Geneva Convention or not, it depends on the occupying force. We all know how much the USA respects the Geneva Convention!!

Answer 6

The rules are: LINE EM UP!

Answer 7

Kill 'em all & let God sort it out!