Severity Order

[5][2] All Jews were henceforth to be treated as partisans, and commanders were directed that they be either summarily shot or handed over to the Einsatzgruppen execution squads of the SS-Totenkopfverbände as the situation dictated.

Finally, the civilian population was to be disarmed and buildings which had been set on fire by Soviet destruction battalions were to be saved only when useful to the German Army.

Upon hearing of the Severity Order, Reichenau's superior Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt expressed "complete agreement" with it, and sent out a circular to all of the army generals under his command urging them to send out their own versions of the Severity Order, which would impress upon the troops the need to exterminate Jews.

[6] According to Wilhelm Adam, when Reichenau died and General Friedrich Paulus assumed command of the Sixth Army, both the Severity Order and Adolf Hitler's Commissar Order were rescinded in his command sector.

[7] During the Nuremberg trials, Rundstedt denied any knowledge of that order before his capture by the Allies, although he acknowledged that Reichenau's orders "may have reached my army group and probably got into the office".