Night and Fog redirects here. For the 1955 film, see Night and Fog . Nacht und Nebel (German for "Night and Fog") was a directive () of Adolf Hitler on December 7, 1941 signed and implemented by Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Wilhelm Keitel, resulting in kidnapping and disappearance of many political activists throughout Nazi Germany's occupied territories. Background Even before the deportation and mass murder of the innocents of Europe, the mentally impaired, the Jews, the Roma, and so forth, the Nazis had been dealing severely with political prisoners. Most of the early prisoners were of two sorts: they were either prisoners of belief/political prisoners whom the Nazis deemed in need of "re-education" to Nazi thinking, or resistance leaders in occupied western Europe. Up until the time of the "Night and Fog" decree, prisoners from Western Europe were handled by German soldiers in approxima