Barbarossa Decree

The Barbarossa Decree (full title "Decree on the Jurisdiction of Martial Law and on Special Measures of the Troops"', formal designation C-50) is a document signed on 13 May 1941 by the German OKW Chief Wilhelm Keitel during the preparation for Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in World War II. The document concerns the German military conduct in relation to Soviet civilians and Soviet partisans. It instructed German troops to "defend themselves against every threat from the enemy civilian population without mercy". The decree also stipulated that all attacks "by enemy civilians against the Wehrmacht, its members and retinue are to be repelled on the spot by the most extreme measures up to the destruction of the attacker".

On 27 July 1941 Keitel ordered that all copies of the decree should be destroyed, but without affecting its validity.