The Laconia Order (German: Laconia-Befehl) was issued by Großadmiral Karl Dönitz during World War II as a result of the Laconia incident, forbidding the rescue of any survivors.
In September 1942, off the coast of West Africa in the Atlantic Ocean, the German vessels—among them U-156, U-506 and U-507—attempting to rescue survivors of the ocean liner RMS Laconia were indiscriminately attacked by American aircraft, despite having informed the Allies of the rescued Allied soldiers on board—along with many women and children—beforehand.
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.
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.
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.