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{{Short description|1942 German naval order forbidding the rescue of Allied survivors}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Laconia'' Order}}
{{use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
{{refimprove|date=April 2019}}
The '''''Laconia'' Order''' ({{langx|de|Laconia-Befehl}}) was issued by {{lang|de|[[Grand Admiral|Großadmiral]]}} [[Karl Dönitz]] during [[World War II]] as a result of the [[Laconia incident|''Laconia'' incident]], forbidding the rescue of any survivors.

Prior to this incident, vessels of the {{lang|de|[[Kriegsmarine]]}} customarily picked up survivors of sunk [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] vessels. In September 1942, off the coast of [[West Africa]] in the [[Atlantic Ocean]], the German vessels—among them {{GS|U-156|1941|2}}, {{GS|U-506||2}} and {{GS|U-507||2}}—attempting to rescue survivors of the ocean liner {{RMS|Laconia|1921|6}} were indiscriminately attacked by patrolling American aircraft, despite flying a [[International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|Red Cross]] flag and prior having informed via open radio the Allies of the rescued soldiers as well as civillian women and children.

The order was as follows:
# All efforts to save survivors of sunken ships, such as the fishing out of swimming men and putting them on board lifeboats, the righting of overturned lifeboats, or the handing over of food and water, must stop.  Rescue contradicts the most basic demands of the war: the destruction of hostile ships and their crews.
# The orders concerning the bringing-in of captains and chief engineers stay in effect. 
# Survivors are to be saved only if their statements are important for the boat.
# Be harsh. Remember that the enemy has no regard for women and children when bombing German cities!

This order, along with [[War Order No. 154]] of 1939, were introduced by the prosecution at the postwar [[Nuremberg trial]] of Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz at which Dönitz was indicted for [[war crimes]], including the issuance of the ''Laconia'' Order:{{quote|
The prosecution has introduced much evidence surrounding two orders of Dönitz, War Order No. 154, issued in 1939, and the so-called ''Laconia'' Order of 1942. The defense argues that these orders and the evidence supporting them do not show such a policy and introduced much evidence to the contrary. The Tribunal is of the opinion that the evidence does not establish with the certainty required that Dönitz deliberately ordered the killing of shipwrecked survivors. The orders were undoubtedly ambiguous and deserve the strongest censure.

The evidence further shows that the rescue provisions were not carried out and that the defendant ordered that they should not be carried out. The argument of the defence is that the security of the submarine is, as the first rule of the sea, paramount to rescue and that the development of aircraft made rescue impossible. This may be so, but the Protocol is explicit. If the commander cannot rescue, then under its terms he cannot sink a merchant vessel and should allow it to pass harmless before his periscope. {{em|The orders, then, prove Dönitz is guilty of a violation of the [[Second London Naval Treaty|Protocol]].}}

In view of all the facts proved and in particular of an order of the [[British Admiralty]] announced on 8 May 1940, according to which all vessels should be sunk at sight in the [[Skagerrak]], and the answers to interrogatories by Admiral [[Chester Nimitz]] stating [[unrestricted submarine warfare]] was carried on in the Pacific Ocean by the United States from the first day of the [[Pacific War]], the sentence of Dönitz is not assessed on the ground of his breaches of the international law of submarine warfare.<ref name="NT">[https://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/juddoeni.asp Judgement: Doenitz] the [[Avalon Project]] at the [[Yale Law School]]</ref>|sign=|source=}}

== Footnotes ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1942 in Germany]]
[[Category:1942 in military history]]
[[Category:1942 documents]]
[[Category:Battle of the Atlantic]]
[[Category:Military history of Germany during World War II]]
[[Category:RMS Laconia (1921)]]
[[Category:Karl Dönitz]]