Nero Decree Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
By
March,
1945, allied forces had penetrated deep within
Germany and were poised to launch their final assault on the
Third Reich.
Adolf Hitler was determined that the allies should not make use of captured German infrastructure, and on
19 March 1945 he issued a decree entitled "Demolitions on Reich territory". It has subsequently become known as the
Nero Decree, after the Roman Emperor
Nero, who was supposed to have engineered the
Great Fire of Rome in AD
64. Its most pertinent section reads as follows:
- It is a mistake to think that transport and communication facilities, industrial establishments and supply depots, which have not been destroyed, or have only been temporarily put out of action, can be used again for our own ends when the lost territory has been recovered. The enemy will leave us nothing but scorched earth when he withdraws, without paying the slightest regard to the population. I therefore order:
- 1. All military transport and communication facilities, industrial establishments and supply depots, as well as anything else of value within Reich territory, which could in any way be used by the enemy immediately or within the foreseeable future for the prosecution of the war, will be destroyed.
The decree was in vain. The man most responsible for carrying it out was
Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and War Production. Appalled at the order, Speer deliberately failed to carry it out, shrewdly persuading Hitler that his planned - albeit imaginary - recovery of the 'lost territory' could be done without the destruction of its assets. Hitler committed suicide on
April 20 1945, 32 days after issuing the order. Speer handed himself to the allied authorities on
7 May 1945, on which date Admiral
Karl Dönitz, Hitler's successor, signed an unconditional surrender.
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