Execution of Wilhelm Keitel - Nazi Field Marshal & War Criminal - Nuremberg Trials - World War 2
Execution of Wilhelm Keitel - Nazi Field Marshal & War Criminal - Nuremberg Trials - World War 2
Wilhelm Keitel was born on the 22nd of September 1882 in the village of Helmscherode, then part of the German Empire and in 1901 he joined the Prussian army as an artillery officer. The First World War began on the 28th of July 1914. Keitel, who served on the western front as a battery commander and then staff officer, was seriously wounded by a shrapnel grenade in Flanders in 1914. After his recovery, thanks to his organizational skills, he served in the Army General Staff from the spring of 1915. The First World War ended on the 11th of November 1918. In the new Weimar Republic, which was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, Keitel was retained in the newly created Reichswehr and played a part in organizing the paramilitary Freikorps units. In 1924, Wilhelm Keitel was transferred to the Ministry of the Reichswehr in Berlin. Keitel, then a colonel, served in the Truppenamt – an agency which concealed the existence of the proscribed German Army General Staff. Wilhelm Keitel played a crucial role in the German rearmament. Wilhelm Keitel became Hitler’s loyal “ yes-man “ willing to do everything the Führer demanded of him. In 1935 Wilhelm Keitel was appointed the head of the Armed Forces Office at the Reich Ministry of High Command was led by Wilhelm Keitel as Chief with the rank of a Reich Minister, which essentially made him the second most powerful person in the Armed Forces’ hierarchy only after Hitler himself. Wilhelm Keitel also agreed with Adolf Hitler’s plans to redraw the postwar international borders which the Nazis considered unfair and illegitimate. On the 12th of March 1938, German troops entered Austria, and one day later, Austria was incorporated into Germany. Thousands turned out to greet Adolf Hitler. For his participation in the annexation, which became known as the Anschluss and was the Nazi German regime’s first act of territorial aggression and expansion, Wilhelm Keitel was awarded the Anschluss Medal.
World War 2 started on the 1st of September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Wilhelm Keitel was involved in planning of the invasion and was fully aware of its criminal nature as mass arrests, population transfers and mass murders had been planned long before. The German invasion of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands started on the 10th of May 1940 and became known as the Battle of France. These countries, along with France were conquered within 6 weeks. After Germany defeated France, Keitel described Hitler as “the greatest warlord of all time”. Shortly after, Wilhelm Keitel was promoted to the rank of field marshal. From April 1941, Keitel issued and signed a series of criminal orders allowing the execution of Jews, civilians and non-combatants for any reason. During the upcoming months, Wilhelm Keitel was busy drawing up plans for the invasion of the Soviet Union which became known as Operation Barbarossa. Operation Barbarossa began on Sunday the 22nd of June 1941. In September the same year, Keitel issued an order to all commanders stating that the soldiers on the Eastern Front had to use “unusual severity” to stamp out resistance and a response to a loss of one German soldier was the execution of 50 to 100 “Communists”. He also drafted the “Night and Fog” decree that allowed German authorities to abduct suspected members of the resistance by night, so that they effectively vanished without a trace. In addition, Keitel also signed orders authorizing reprisals against the families of Allied volunteers. On the 20th of July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators attempted to assassinate Hitler. After the bomb had exploded, Keitel personally led the wounded Hitler out of the room. Adolf Hitler committed suicide on the 30th of April 1945. On the night of the 8th of May 1945, Wilhelm Keitel signed the definitive German Instrument of Surrender which was the legal document that effected the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany on all fronts and ended World War II in Europe In the end, justice finally caught up with Keitel when he was arrested by the allies and tried at the Nuremberg Trials which were held against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany. On the 1st of October 1946 the International Military tribunal found Wilhelm Keitel guilty on all four counts and sentenced him to death by hanging. He was 64 years old when he was executed on the 16th of October 1946.
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Content
0.54 -> The 1st of October 1946, Nuremberg, Germany. After
more than 10 months on a trial, 21 defendants
9 -> who are among the most important political,
military, and economic leaders of Nazi Germany,
14.04 -> hear their sentences read. These high-ranking
representatives of the criminal Nazi regime
19.68 -> have to finally take responsibility for their
crimes and answer before an International Military
24.42 -> tribunal who would punish them for unspeakable
atrocities committed during the Second World War.
29.7 -> It is only the first of many war crimes trials
held after the Second World War and would become a
35.16 -> warning to war criminals and dictators everywhere.
Once the true extent of the German atrocities,
40.68 -> especially against Jews, are revealed, 12
defendants out of the 21 are sentenced to
46.08 -> death by hanging. One of them is a
German field marshal Wilhelm Keitel.
52.68 -> Wilhelm Keitel was born on the 22nd of
September 1882 in the village of Helmscherode,
58.5 -> then part of the German Empire. He was only 6
years old when his mother died of childbed fever
64.38 -> in 1889 after the birth of his younger brother
Bodewin, who later became an infantry general.
71.1 -> Wilhelm’s father was a landowner and he
wanted to take over his estates. However,
76.14 -> because his father did not want to retire and
wanted to continue to farm the estate himself,
80.58 -> Wilhelm joined the Prussian army
as an artillery officer in 1901.
85.62 -> In April 1909, Keitel married Lisa
Fontaine, a wealthy landowner's daughter.
91.56 -> Her father also owned Wülfel brewery which
was temporarily the largest cooperative
96.36 -> brewery in Europe. The marriage produced
six children, one of whom died young.
101.76 -> The First World War began
on the 28th of July 1914.
106.74 -> Keitel, who served on the western front as
a battery commander and then staff officer,
111.3 -> was seriously wounded by a shrapnel grenade
in Flanders in 1914. After his recovery,
117.3 -> thanks to his organizational skills, he served in
the Army General Staff from the spring of 1915.
123.6 -> The First World War ended on the 11th of
November 1918 when the German leaders signed
129 -> the armistice in the Compiègne Forest in France.
The introduction of new weapons like the machine
133.68 -> gun and gas warfare led to the enormous losses
and the war claimed the lives of ten million
139.08 -> soldiers. Property and industry losses were
catastrophic. As a result, the victorious powers
145.26 -> imposed a series of treaties upon the defeated
powers. Among the treaties, the 1919 Treaty of
151.68 -> Versailles held Germany responsible for starting
the war and liable for massive material damages.
157.32 -> The treaty imposed harsh penalties on
the Germans including the loss of 13%
161.7 -> of its prewar territories, extensive reparation
payments and demilitarization of the Rhineland.
168.18 -> The Reichswehr – the German Army
– was restricted to 100,000 men.
172.44 -> In the new Weimar Republic, which was the
government of Germany from 1918 to 1933,
178.56 -> Keitel was retained in the newly created
Reichswehr and played a part in organizing
182.76 -> the paramilitary Freikorps units. In the aftermath
of World War I and during the German Revolution of
188.76 -> 1918–19, Freikorps consisting largely of World War
I veterans, were raised as paramilitary militias.
196.26 -> They were ostensibly mustered to fight
on behalf of the government against the
199.86 -> Communists attempting to overthrow the Weimar
Republic. However, many Freikorps also largely
205.98 -> despised the new Weimar Republic and were
involved in assassinations of its supporters.
211.14 -> In 1924, Wilhelm Keitel was transferred to
the Ministry of the Reichswehr in Berlin.
216.72 -> Keitel, then a colonel, served
in the Truppenamt – an agency
220.68 -> which concealed the existence of the
proscribed German Army General Staff.
224.88 -> After the death of his father, Keitel’s decision
227.52 -> to stay in the military was influenced
not only by a prospect of promotion,
231.06 -> but also because of his wife's desire to
be an officer's wife rather than a farmer.
236.58 -> Wilhelm Keitel played a crucial role in
the German rearmament as in this capacity,
241.56 -> he was responsible for secretly planning,
reorganizing, and eventually enlarging the
246.6 -> German army in direct violation of the Treaty
of Versailles. Even after Adolf Hitler and
251.76 -> the Nazi party came into power in January
1933, German rearmament despite its scale,
257.58 -> remained a largely covert operation, carried out
using front organizations such as glider clubs
263.16 -> for training pilots, sporting clubs, and Nazi SA
militia groups for teaching infantry and combat
268.74 -> techniques. Later, however, this rearmament
policy was openly and massively expanded.
275.34 -> In Nazi Germany, all power was centralized
in Adolf Hitler's person and his word became
280.62 -> the highest law. Wilhelm Keitel became
Hitler’s loyal “ yes-man “ willing to
285.72 -> do everything the Führer demanded of him.
Keitel became known as "blindingly loyal
290.88 -> toady" of Hitler as his peers
would call him behind his back.
294.78 -> In 1935 Wilhelm Keitel was appointed the head
of the Armed Forces Office at the Reich Ministry
300.54 -> of War overseeing the army, navy, and air force.
After the Ministry of War was abolished in 1938,
307.14 -> it was replaced by the German
Armed Forces High Command which
310.5 -> allowed Adolf Hitler to consolidate power as
commander-in-chief of the German military.
315.42 -> High Command was led by Wilhelm Keitel as
Chief with the rank of a Reich Minister,
319.92 -> which essentially made him the second
most powerful person in the Armed Forces'
323.52 -> hierarchy only after Hitler himself. This came as
a surprise not only to the General Staff but also
330.54 -> to Wilhelm Keitel himself as everybody knew that
he was not suitable for the job. Keitel’s peers
336.24 -> did not respect him. They only considered
him a sycophant and “a stupid follower of
340.98 -> Hitler “, as they often called him, and frequently
bypassed him going directly to their Führer.
346.86 -> Adolf Hitler did not value Keitel for
his capabilities but because he was
351.06 -> “as loyal as a dog “ as the Führer once
said. Hitler knew of Keitel’s limited
355.62 -> intellect and nervous disposition but
appreciated his diligence and obedience.
360.78 -> Wilhelm Keitel also agreed with Adolf Hitler’s
plans to redraw the postwar international
365.28 -> borders which the Nazis considered unfair and
illegitimate. In early 1938, under increasing
372.42 -> pressure from pro-unification activists, Austrian
chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg announced that there
377.88 -> would be a referendum on a possible union with
Germany versus maintaining Austria's sovereignty
382.62 -> to be held on the 13th of March. Hitler
threatened an invasion and ordered Keitel
388.14 -> to conduct military maneuvers near the Austrian
border to make it appear an invasion was imminent.
393.18 -> Chancellor Schuschnigg resigned his office on
the 11th of March. On the 12th of March 1938,
398.7 -> German troops entered Austria, and one day
later, Austria was incorporated into Germany.
404.94 -> Thousands turned out to greet Adolf Hitler.
For his participation in the annexation,
409.32 -> which became known as the Anschluss
and was the Nazi German regime’s first
413.34 -> act of territorial aggression and expansion,
Wilhelm Keitel was awarded the Anschluss Medal.
419.16 -> World War 2 started on the 1st of September 1939
when Germany invaded Poland. Wilhelm Keitel was
426.48 -> involved in planning of the invasion and was fully
aware of its criminal nature as mass arrests,
431.22 -> population transfers and mass murders had
been planned long before. Ethnic cleansing
436.38 -> was to be conducted systematically against the
Polish people. On the 7th of September 1939,
442.38 -> Reinhard Heydrich stated that all Polish
nobles, clergy, and Jews were to be murdered.
448.86 -> On the 12th of September, Wilhelm Keitel added
Poland's intelligentsia to the list. As a result,
454.5 -> in the first three months of war, from the fall
of 1939 until the spring of 1940, some 60,000
461.1 -> former government officials, military officers
in reserve, landowners, clergy, and members of
466.74 -> the Polish intelligentsia such as scientists,
teachers, lawyers and doctors were executed
472.14 -> region by region in the so-called Intelligentsia
action, including over 1,000 prisoners of war.
478.14 -> When the officer corps started to complaint about
the atrocities committed in Poland and other
482.76 -> countries conquered by Nazi Germany, Keitel
ignored them until the local commanders and
487.2 -> their soldiers became morally numbed to the
horrible events which they were witnessing.
492.12 -> After the invasion of Poland, Wilhelm
Keitel received a “bonus” of 100,000
497.04 -> Reichsmarks for his loyalty.
498.9 -> The German invasion of France, Belgium,
Luxembourg, and the Netherlands started
503.58 -> on the 10th of May 1940 and became known
as the Battle of France. These countries,
508.62 -> along with France were conquered within 6 weeks.
After Germany defeated France, Keitel described
515.1 -> Hitler as “the greatest warlord of all time”.
In order to further humiliate France,
520.62 -> Hitler ordered the document of armistice to
be signed in the same railcar in which the
525.12 -> representatives of then defeated Germany signed
the armistice at the end of the First World War.
530.4 -> Hitler had this railcar removed from the
museum where it had been stored, and brought
535.02 -> to Compiègne Forest, the same place where the
1918 Armistice with Germany had been signed.
540.3 -> In this manner, the location of Germany's
1918 humiliation became the symbolic site
545.22 -> of the Third Reich's victory over France.
The document was signed on the 22nd of June
550.08 -> 1940 by General Keitel for Germany
and General Huntziger for France.
555.3 -> Shortly after, Wilhelm Keitel was promoted
to the rank of field marshal. However,
559.74 -> this did not change the way the high-ranking
Nazis would look down on him and despise him.
564.48 -> Hermann Göring - the head of German
air forces – the Luftwaffe - even
568.5 -> said that Keitel had "a sergeant's
mind inside a field marshal's body".
572.88 -> From April 1941, Keitel issued and signed
a series of criminal orders allowing the
578.34 -> execution of Jews, civilians and
non-combatants for any reason.
582.84 -> Those carrying out the murders were exempted from
court-martial or later being tried for war crimes.
588.9 -> During the upcoming months, Wilhelm
Keitel was busy drawing up plans for
592.8 -> the invasion of the Soviet Union which
became known as Operation Barbarossa.
597.12 -> Before the invasion, Hitler asked for war studies
to be completed, including the study on economic
603 -> matters. The study of Georg Thomas, Hitler’s Chief
economic strategist for the Wehrmacht – German
608.64 -> Armed Forces, detailed a few serious problems
such as logistical delays due to the fact that
614.1 -> Russian railways were of a different gauge
than German ones, insufficiency of German
618.48 -> transport vehicle tires for the task ahead of
them, and most significantly, the Germans only
623.16 -> had two months worth of fuel oil and petrol
to support the advancing assault. Wilhelm
628.8 -> Keitel bluntly dismissed the problems, telling
Thomas that Hitler would not want to see it.
634.44 -> Operation Barbarossa began on Sunday the 22nd
of June 1941. In September the same year,
640.92 -> Keitel issued an order to all commanders
stating that the soldiers on the Eastern
645.6 -> Front had to use "unusual severity" to
stamp out resistance and a response to
650.28 -> a loss of one German soldier was the
execution of 50 to 100 "Communists"
655.44 -> Keitel was also increasing pressure for
a more ruthless reprisal policy in German
660.309 -> occupied territories and in October 1942 he
also signed the “Commando Order” which ordered
666.36 -> and authorized the killing of enemy special
operations troops. The allied commandos were
671.52 -> to be killed without trial, even when captured
in uniform or if they attempted to surrender.
676.62 -> He also drafted the "Night and Fog" decree that
allowed German authorities to abduct suspected
682.14 -> members of the resistance by night, so that
they effectively vanished without a trace.
686.76 -> German authorities applied the decree principally
in German-occupied western Europe: Belgium,
691.8 -> France, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, and the
Netherlands. German occupation authorities and
698.88 -> their collaborators arrested approximately 7,000
individuals under the provisions of this decree.
705.06 -> After capture, they were interrogated and
frequently tortured. Those who survived
710.04 -> were taken to concentration camps such as
Gross-Rosen and Natzweiler-Struthof. The
715.08 -> decree was meant to intimidate the
local populations into submission,
718.26 -> by denying friends and families of seized persons
any knowledge of their whereabouts or their fate.
724.86 -> In addition, Keitel also signed
orders authorizing reprisals
728.52 -> against the families of Allied volunteers.
731.16 -> However, Keitel was also affected by the war
as his youngest son Hans-Georg was killed in
737.16 -> July 1941 during the German attack on the Soviet
Union. An attack that Keitel had helped execute.
744.36 -> At the end of the war, his eldest son, Karl
Heinz, was made a prisoner-of-war by the Russians.
751.32 -> On the 20th of July 1944, Claus
von Stauffenberg and other
756.18 -> conspirators attempted to assassinate Hitler.
759 -> After the bomb had exploded, Keitel personally
led the wounded Hitler out of the room.
763.62 -> In the days that followed, Hitler ordered a
massive hunt for conspirators which continued
768.3 -> for months. Many of them appeared before the
notorious People’s Courts for show trials, but
773.34 -> this practice was ended as it gave conspirators
a platform to condemn the regime. In the end more
779.4 -> than 7,000 people were arrested, and 4,980
were executed, often on the barest evidence.
787.5 -> Wilhelm Keitel not only sat on the
Army "court of honour" that handed
791.64 -> over many officers who were involved, but
on Hitler's orders, he sent two generals
795.6 -> to Erwin Rommel, a famous German field
marshal known as the Desert Fox whose
800.1 -> participation in the assassination attempt
remains ambiguous until today, offering him
804.78 -> the choice of a suicide or court-martial. To
protect his family, Rommel chose the former
811.2 -> and committed suicide using a cyanide pill.
He was then given a state funeral, and it was
816.66 -> announced that he had succumbed to his injuries
from the strafing of his staff car in Normandy.
821.88 -> Adolf Hitler committed suicide on the 30th of
April 1945. On the 7th of May 1945 in Reims,
829.74 -> France, Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Operations
Staff of German Armed Forces High Command,
834.78 -> on behalf of Karl Dönitz, who briefly
succeeded Hitler as head of state,
838.92 -> signed Germany's unconditional
surrender on all fronts.
842.76 -> A few hours later, a response was received
from the Soviet High Command stating that
847.56 -> the Act of Surrender in Reims was unacceptable.
They insisted that not Jodl, deputized by Dönitz,
853.32 -> a civilian head of state, but the supreme
commander of all German forces, Wilhelm Keitel,
858.24 -> should personally sign the document. One of the
reasons was a fear of new stab-in-the-back myth
863.88 -> which maintained that the Imperial German Army
did not lose World War I on the battlefield,
868.56 -> but was instead betrayed by certain
citizens on the home front—especially
872.58 -> Jews and Communists – who they claimed had
surrendered German honor to a shameful peace.
877.74 -> As a result, a second signing
was arranged in Berlin.
881.4 -> On the night of the 8th of May 1945,
Wilhelm Keitel signed the definitive
886.38 -> German Instrument of Surrender which
was the legal document that effected
889.86 -> the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany
on all fronts and ended World War II in Europe
895.68 -> In the end, justice finally caught up with Keitel
when he was arrested by the allies and tried at
901.38 -> the Nuremberg Trials which were held against
representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany.
906.66 -> He was convicted of conspiracy to
commit crimes against peace, planning,
910.68 -> initiating and waging wars of aggression,
war crimes and crimes against humanity.
916.56 -> Keitel admitted that he knew that many
of Hitler's orders were illegal but kept
920.88 -> insisting that he had only followed them when
ordered and it was all Hitler’s responsibility.
925.98 -> Regarding the atrocities he said that
they had developed, one from the other,
930 -> step by step and without any foreknowledge of
the consequences, destiny took its tragic course,
935.58 -> with its fateful consequences.
He even said he would suffer more
939.78 -> agony of conscience and self-reproach in
his cell than anybody would ever know.
943.92 -> Prison pyschiatrist G. M. Gilbert said that
Keitel "had no more backbone than a jellyfish."
950.64 -> On the 1st of October 1946 the
International Military tribunal
955.26 -> found Wilhelm Keitel guilty on all four
counts and sentenced him to death by hanging.
961.32 -> His request for a military execution by firing
squad was denied due to the criminal rather than
966.84 -> military nature of his acts. On the 16th of
October 1946, the day of Keitel’s execution,
973.2 -> Keitel told the prison chaplain: “You have
helped me more than you know. May Christ,
978.06 -> my savior, stand by me all the
way. I shall need him so much”.
983.04 -> He then received Communion and was executed
later that day by American Army sergeant
987.9 -> John C. Woods who had no documented pre-war
experience as a hangman. It is believed that
994.02 -> he was deliberately bad at his job to make the 10
Nazi war criminals that he executed on that day,
998.76 -> suffer as they all died in long agonizing death.
The Nazis executed by sergeant Woods fell from the
1005.9 -> gallows with a drop insufficient to snap
their necks, resulting in their death by
1009.68 -> strangulation that in some cases lasted several
minutes. With Wilhelm Keitel, it was even worse.
1016.04 -> After he had said his last words “ I call
on God Almighty to have mercy on the German
1021.26 -> people. More than two million German soldiers went
to their death for the fatherland before me. I
1027.74 -> follow now my sons – all for Germany” , Keitel was
hanged but because the trap door was too small,
1034.88 -> it caused him painful head injuries and as he
fell from the gallows with insufficient force to
1039.86 -> snap his neck, his horrible convulsing lasted 28
long minutes before he died. He was 64 years old.
1048.5 -> After that, his corpse was cremated
and scattered in the river Isar.
1053.24 -> There were no tears shed for Wilhelm Keitel.
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