On 9 June, between 9 and 10 am, SS-"Sturmbannführer" Aurel Kowatsch declared to Prefect Trouillé and the Secretary General of the prefecture, M. Roche: "Your gesture of wounded Germans will not be ignored by the German commander who will take this into account in favor of the population in the inevitable crackdown following the crime committed against our comrades of the Tulle garrison." He told them that the mass arrests had already begun, detaining all men between the ages of sixteen and sixty and authorizing only "the release of all "essential elements" after verification of their loyalties."