'' by
Francisco Goya, depicts the summary execution of Spaniards by French forces after the
Dos de Mayo Uprising in
Madrid.
Prisoners of war Major treaties such as the
Geneva Conventions and
Hague Conventions, and
customary international law protect the rights of captured
regular or
irregular enemy soldiers and
civilians.
Prisoners-of-war (POWs) must be treated in carefully defined ways which definitively ban summary execution, as the
Second Additional Protocol of the Geneva Conventions (1977) states:
Exceptions to prisoners-of-war status However, some classes of
combatants may not be accorded POW status, but that definition has broadened to cover more classes of combatants over time. In the past, summary execution of
pirates,
spies, and
francs-tireurs have been performed and considered legal under existing international law. Francs-tireurs (a term originating in the
Franco-Prussian War) are enemy civilians or
militia who continue to fight in territory occupied by a warring party and do not wear military uniforms, and may otherwise be known as
guerrillas,
partisans,
insurgents, etc. Though they could be legally jailed or executed by most armies a century ago, the experience of World War II influenced nations occupied by foreign forces to change the law to protect this group. Many of the post-war victors, such as France, Poland, and the USSR, had the experience of resistance fighters being summarily executed by the
Axis if they were captured. The war also influenced them to make sure that
commandos and other special forces who were caught deep behind enemy lines would be protected as POWs, rather than summarily executed as Hitler decreed through his 1942
Commando Order. , October 1939 , near
Kraków, during
German occupation of Poland, December 18, 1939, in a reprisal for an attack on a German police office two days earlier by the underground organization "White Eagle" The Commando Order was issued by
Adolf Hitler on October 18, 1942, stating that all
Allied commandos encountered by German forces in Europe and Africa should be killed immediately without trial, even in proper uniforms or if they attempted to surrender. Any commando or small group of commandos or a similar unit, agents and
saboteurs not in proper uniforms who fell into the hands of the German military forces by some means other than direct combat (through the police in occupied territories, for instance) were to be handed over immediately to the
Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service). The order, which was issued in secret, made it clear that failure to carry out such orders by any commander or officer would be considered to be an act of negligence punishable under German military law. This was in fact the second "Commando Order", the first being issued by Generalfeldmarschall
Gerd von Rundstedt on July 21, 1942, stipulating that parachutists should be handed over to the
Gestapo. Shortly after World War II, at the
Nuremberg Trials, the Commando Order was found to be a direct breach of the
laws of war, and German officers who carried out illegal executions under the Commando Order were found guilty of
war crimes. Soldiers who are wearing uniforms of the opposing army
after the start of combat may be considered illegal combatants and subject to summary execution. Many armies have performed that kind of
false flag ruse, including both German and US
special forces during World War II. However, if soldiers remove their disguises and put on proper insignia
before the start of combat in such an operation, they are legal combatants and must be treated as
prisoners of war (POWs) if captured. That distinction was settled by a military tribunal in the postwar trial of
Otto Skorzeny, who led
Operation Greif, an infiltration mission in which German commandos wore US uniforms to infiltrate US lines during the
Battle of the Bulge. == See also ==