Authored by Petrit Latifi

According to the book “Ein Krieg wie kein anderer Der deutsche Vernichtungskrieg gegen die Sowjetunion. Eine Revision | Das neue Standardwerk zum Zweiten Weltkrieg auf sowjetischem Boden” by Jochen Hellbeck, published in 2025, Serbian communists committed a war crime against surrender German soldiers.

“On October 2, 1941, Serbian partisans ambushed a truck convoy carrying German soldiers near the town of Topola. Twenty-two Germans who had surrendered were shot at close range with machine guns A search party recovered the slain soldiers and reported that their bodies had been gruesomely mutilated. However, when the Wehrmacht called in forensic pathologists and photographers to document the crimes and capitalize on the incident, no mutilations were found. Nevertheless, Böhme announced that communist bandits had brutally murdered the German soldiers.”

This crime was a violation against the Geneva Conventions

1. The Geneva Conventions

At the time of World War II, the Third Geneva Convention (1929) was the central source of law governing the treatment of prisoners of war:

Articles 1–2: Prisoners of war shall be treated humanely.

Article 4: A soldier who has surrendered or been captured shall be considered a prisoner of war.

Articles 2 & 3: Prisoners of war shall not be killed or subjected to violence, and shall be protected against acts of violence, insults and public indignation.

Deliberately executing prisoners of war is a serious violation of these provisions.

2. The Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)

These conventions form the basis of the laws of war and were fully applicable during World War II.

Hague Convention IV (1907) – Rules of Land Warfare:

Article 23(c): Prohibits killing or wounding an enemy who, “having laid down his arms, has surrendered”.

This includes soldiers who have surrendered, i.e. are no longer taking part in combat.

Reference

“Ein Krieg wie kein anderer Der deutsche Vernichtungskrieg gegen die Sowjetunion. Eine Revision | Das neue Standardwerk zum Zweiten Weltkrieg auf sowjetischem Boden”. Jochen Hellbeck. 2025.