In March 1944 General der SS Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the head of the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt, enacted the Kugel Erlass ("Bullet Decree"), or Aktion K known as Aktion Kugel. It declared that prisoners who had tried to escape and were recaptured, prisoners who could not work, and prisoners who refused to work would be executed. It also stated that all officer POWs (except the Americans and British) were to be eliminated.