Editing Nacht und Nebel (section)

==Rationale==
The reasons for ''Nacht und Nebel'' were many. The policy, enforced in Nazi-occupied countries, meant that whenever someone was arrested, the family would learn nothing about the person's fate. The people arrested, sometimes only suspected resisters, were secretly sent to Germany and perhaps to a concentration camp. Whether they lived or died, the Germans would give out no information to the families involved.<ref>Stackelberg (2007). ''The Routledge Companion to Nazi Germany'', p. 286.</ref> This was done to keep the population in occupied countries quiet by promoting an atmosphere of mystery, fear and terror.<ref>Crankshaw, Edward (1990) [1956]. ''Gestapo: Instrument of Tyranny'', London: Greenhill Books. p. 204.</ref><ref>Kaden & Nestler (1993). "Erlass Hitlers über die Verfolgung von Strafteten gegen das Reich, 7 December 1941." ''Dokumente des Verbrechens: Aus den Akten des Dritten Reiches'', vol i, pp. 162–163.</ref>

The program made it far more difficult for other governments or humanitarian organisations to accuse the German government of specific misconduct because it obscured whether or not internment or death had even occurred, let alone the cause of the person's disappearance.  It thereby kept the Nazis from being held accountable. It allowed across-the-board, silent defiance of international treaties and conventions – one cannot apply the requirements for humane treatment in war if one cannot locate a victim or discern that victim's fate. Additionally, the policy lessened German subjects' moral qualms about the Nazi regime, as well as their desire to speak out against it, by keeping the general public ignorant of the regime's malfeasance and by creating extreme pressure for service members to remain silent.<ref>Kammer & Bartsch (1999). "Nacht und Nebel Erlaß," in ''Lexikon Nationalsozialismus: Begriffe, Organisationen und Institutionen'', p. 160.</ref>