War Crimes and Criminals
SIR,—A point rather overlooked in Lord Hankey's book (and by many others) is that most of the crimes committed by German officers were breaches not only of international law but also of the rules laid down in their own military manual and by the German penal code of October 10th, 1940. Article 7=:of the latter reads: -" If the penal code is violated as the result of the execution of an order in pursuance of duty the superior is himself responsible., The subordinate executing the order is, however, liable as an accomplice (i) If he exceeds his orders (ii) If he is aware that the order of his superior is an act involving a civil or military crime or offence."
Dr. Goebbels, writing in the Voelkischer Beobachter (vide The Times, May 2nd, 1944) said: "There is no law that exculpates a soldier com- mitting a shameful crime on the grounds that he is obeying superior orders." At the Leipzig trials of war criminals in 1922 the supreme German court, in the case of the submarine commander who sank the hospital ship ' Llandovery Castle,' held that the plea of superior orders was not valid and found him guilty.—Yours faithfully,
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