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62-452: On 2 March 1944, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel issued a decree ( Aktion Kugel —"Operation Bullet") stating that escaped Soviet officers were to be taken to Mauthausen concentration camp and shot. Pursuant to this order 5,700 Soviet officers were apprehended and deported to Mauthausen. Some were shot immediately, and others imprisoned in Block 20, which was separated from the rest of the camp by

124-475: A fence 2.5 meters high, on top of which was barbed wire. Along the perimeter there were three towers with machine guns. Prisoners of this block were not registered in the camp records and received a quarter of the food of other prisoners. The block was never heated, and lacked windows and bunks. In the winter, before the prisoners were driven inside, the SS hosed the floor with water and forced prisoners to lie down and allow

186-605: A glowing recommendation for the invasion based upon fabricated economic benefits. In January 1943, just before the final surrender at Stalingrad , Hitler agreed to the creation of a three-man committee with representatives of the State, the Armed Forces High Command, and the Party in an attempt to centralize control of the war economy and over the home front. The committee members were Keitel, (Chief of OKW) Hans Lammers (Chief of

248-403: A last-minute stay of execution. Striegel was hanged on June 20, 1947. The defendants of the first Mauthausen camp trial ( US v. Hans Altfuldisch, et al. ), and their sentences, are as follows: The second Mauthausen camp trial started on August 6, 1947. Altogether 8 former members of the camp's administration were accused of the same set of crimes as in the former trial. On August 21 the verdict

310-700: A major search, asking help from the local population. In addition to pursuit by the SS, the escapees were hunted down by SA detachments, the Gendarmerie , the Wehrmacht , the Volkssturm and the Hitler Youth . Local citizens were also incited to take part. The SS camp commandant ordered the Gendarmerie "not to bring anyone back alive". No one was forced to participate in the manhunt as they did so willingly. The majority of

372-578: A military career in 1901, becoming an officer cadet of the Prussian Army . As a commoner, he did not join the cavalry, but a field artillery regiment in Wolfenbüttel , serving as adjutant from 1908. On 18 April 1909, Keitel married Lisa Fontaine, a wealthy landowner's daughter at Wülfel near Hanover . Keitel was 1.85 metres (6 feet 1 inch) tall, later described as a solidly built and square-jawed Prussian. During World War I, Keitel served on

434-425: A pun derived from Lakai (" lackey ") and his surname. Hermann Göring's description of Keitel as having "a sergeant's mind inside a field marshal's body" was a feeling often expressed by his peers. He had been promoted because of his willingness to function as Hitler's mouthpiece. He was known by his peers as a "blindingly loyal toady" of Hitler, nicknamed "Nickgeselle", after a popular metal toy nodding donkey,

496-519: A threat to their power, worked together to undermine it. The result was that nothing changed, and the Committee declined into irrelevance. Keitel played an important role after the failed 20 July plot in 1944. He sat on the army " court of honour " that handed over many officers who were involved, including Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben , to Roland Freisler 's notorious People's Court . Around 7,000 people were arrested, many of whom were tortured by

558-475: A total of 69 former camp personnel were tried. Among them were some of the former guards at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp system and August Eigruber , a former Gauleiter of Upper Austria . In 1942, overwhelming reports of German atrocities and large scale massacres against concentration camp inhabitants came to surface from exiled governments and Jewish organizations. With increased tension from

620-562: A vital role in the German rearmament , he traveled at least once to the Soviet Union to inspect secret Reichswehr training camps. In the autumn of 1932, he suffered a heart attack and double pneumonia. Shortly after his recovery, in October 1933, Keitel was appointed as deputy commander of the 3rd Infantry Division; in 1934, he was given command of the 22nd Infantry Division at Bremen. In 1935, at

682-682: The Wehrmacht in 1938, Adolf Hitler replaced the ministry with the OKW and Keitel became its chief. He was reviled among his military colleagues as Hitler's habitual " yes-man ". After the war, Keitel was indicted by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg as one of the "major war criminals". He was found guilty on all counts of the indictment: crimes against humanity , crimes against peace , criminal conspiracy , and war crimes . He

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744-736: The Mauthausen Committee . The monument's face is engraved with 489 hash marks representing those murdered during the course of the escape attempt; the exact number of victims is unknown. In conjunction with the commemoration of the anniversary of the camp's liberation, the Socialist Youth of Austria and Socialist Youth of Germany held a program at the new monument for the Mühlviertler Hasenjagd. Attending were three surviving former Soviet prisoners from Mauthausen, Prof. Tigran Drambyan, Roman Bulkatch and Nikolai Markevitch. The events of

806-610: The Western Front and took part in the fighting in Flanders , where he was severely wounded. After being promoted to captain, Keitel was posted to the staff of an infantry division in 1915. After the war, Keitel was retained in the newly created Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic and played a part in organizing the paramilitary Freikorps units on the Polish border. In 1924, Keitel

868-589: The physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer , the director of the Manhattan Project 's Los Alamos Laboratory , where the first atomic bombs were developed. Keitel was frequently depicted in World War II films , such as by Dieter Mann in Downfall (2004). Notably, East German actor Gerd Michael Henneberg repeatedly reprised his role as Keitel in several Soviet-East German co-productions directed by Yuri Ozerov in

930-889: The "Nickesel". During the war he was subject to verbal abuse from Hitler, who said to other officers (according to Gerd von Rundstedt ) that "you know he has the brains of a movie usher ... (but he was made the highest ranking officer in the Army) ... because the man's as loyal as a dog" (said by Hitler with a sly smile). Keitel was predisposed to manipulation because of his limited intellect and nervous disposition; Hitler valued his diligence and obedience. On one occasion, Generalleutnant Burkhart Müller-Hillebrand  [ de ] asked who Keitel was: upon finding out he became horrified at his own failure to salute his superior. Franz Halder , however, told him: "Don't worry, it's only Keitel". German officers consistently bypassed him and went directly to Hitler. On 30 August 1939, immediately prior to

992-411: The 1970s and 1980s, such as Soldiers of Freedom (1977), Battle of Moscow (1985) and Stalingrad (1990). Mauthausen-Gusen camp trials The Mauthausen-Gusen camp trials were a set of trials of SS concentration camp personnel following World War II , heard by an American military government court at Dachau . Between March 29 and May 13, 1946, and then from August 6 to August 21, 1947,

1054-520: The 300 who did survive the escape that first night, 57 were returned to the camp. The Linz criminal investigations department later reported to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt , "Of the 419 fugitives [who managed to leave the camp] [...], in and around Mauthausen , Gallneukirchen , Wartberg , Pregarten , Schwertberg and Perg , over 300 were taken again, including 57 alive." According to a witness, Gauleiter August Eigruber , whose orders

1116-516: The Allies, and those who committed crimes within a specific location who would be tried in courts within their jurisdiction. The United States involvement within the trials had difficulties ranging from a lack of international policy knowledge and being understaffed, which led to pure chaos. Those sent to investigate the war crimes lacked proper training which yielded reports with sub-par information. The U.S. encountered countless obstacles. Ultimately in 1945,

1178-626: The Army, replacing von Fritsch. Keitel was promoted to Generaloberst (Colonel General) in November 1938, and in April 1939 he was awarded the Golden Party Badge by Hitler. Field Marshal Ewald von Kleist labelled Keitel nothing more than a "stupid follower of Hitler" because of his servile "yes man" attitude toward Hitler. His sycophancy was well known in the army, and he acquired the nickname 'Lakeitel',

1240-656: The Gestapo, and around 5,000 were executed. In April and May 1945, during the Battle of Berlin , Keitel called for counterattacks to drive back the Soviet forces and relieve Berlin. However, there were insufficient German forces to carry out such counterattacks. After Hitler's suicide on 30 April, Keitel stayed on as a member of the short-lived Flensburg Government under Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz . Upon arriving in Flensburg, Albert Speer ,

1302-743: The May 1941 order on the " Guidelines for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia ", Keitel issued a new order, writing: "[The] struggle against Bolshevism demands ruthless and energetic action especially also against the Jews, the main carriers of Bolshevism". Also in September, Keitel issued an order to all commanders, not just those in the occupied Soviet Union, instructing them to use "unusual severity" to stamp out resistance. In this context,

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1364-615: The Minister of Armaments and War Production, said that Keitel grovelled to Dönitz in the same way as he had done to Hitler. On 7 May 1945, Alfred Jodl, on behalf of Dönitz, signed Germany's unconditional surrender on all fronts. Joseph Stalin considered this an affront, so a second signing was arranged at the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst on 8 May. There, Keitel signed the German Instrument of Surrender on 8 May 1945. Five days later on 13 May, he

1426-541: The Mühlviertel massacre gained prominence with the 1994 film The Quality of Mercy by director Andreas Gruber , and was a box office success in Austria. The film received a lukewarm review from Variety . While he was making the film, Gruber invited Bernard Bamberger to make a behind-the-scenes documentary about the film and compare the movie with the actual events. Aktion K juxtaposes interviews with local residents about

1488-654: The Reich Chancellery), and Martin Bormann (Chief of the Party Chancellery). The committee, soon known as the Dreierausschuß (Committee of Three), met eleven times between January and August 1943. However, it had little autonomy, with Hitler reserving most of the final decisions to himself. In addition, it ran up against resistance from cabinet ministers, who headed deeply entrenched spheres of influence and, seeing it as

1550-446: The SS men to walk on them to avoid getting their boots dirty. Soviet POWs imprisoned in the barracks were forced to spend all day doing "exercise" – non-stop running around the block or crawling. Prisoners referred to it as the "death barracks" ( German : Todesblock ). The maximum population at any one time was around 1,800, but 10 to 20 people died each day. By the end of January, about 570 prisoners remained alive. In

1612-421: The SS, SA, and Volkssturm were following, told commandant Franz Ziereis that "All these pigs will have to be finished," in reference to the recaptured prisoners. Just 11 officers are known to have survived the manhunt till the end of World War II . In spite of the extremely high risk, a few farm families and civilian forced laborers hid escapees or brought food to those hiding in the woods. After three months,

1674-507: The Tribunal, Keitel said: "As these atrocities developed, one from the other, step by step, and without any foreknowledge of the consequences, destiny took its tragic course, with its fateful consequences." To underscore the criminal rather than military nature of Keitel's acts, the Allies denied his request to be shot by firing squad . Instead, he was executed at Nuremberg Prison by hanging . On

1736-588: The United States committed to two distinct war crimes trial programs, one under American military jurisdiction and one in collaboration with the Allied powers. The first trial of personnel from Mauthausen-Gusen took place in the Dachau concentration camp between March 29 and May 13, 1946. Among the accused were 60 former members of the camp's administration and August Eigruber , a former Gauleiter of Upper Austria . Among

1798-658: The ashes were scattered in the river Isar . Before his execution, Keitel published his memoirs, which were titled in English as In the Service of the Reich . It was later re-edited by Walter Görlitz as The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Keitel ( ISBN   978-0-8154-1072-0 ). Another work by Keitel later published in English was Questionnaire on the Ardennes Offensive . Keitel was the uncle of Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer , wife of

1860-523: The breakout, was convicted for his role in the crime and sentenced to 20 years in jail by an Austrian court. A memorial to the Mühlviertler Hasenjagd was unveiled in Ried an der Riedmark on May 5, 2001, 56 years after the liberation of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. The monument was erected at the initiative of the Ried Socialist Youth. The three-metre-tall (9.8 ft) granite boulder was donated by

1922-456: The camp grounds but many escapees were already too weakened from starvation to reach the woods and collapsed in the snow outside the camp, where they were shot that night by SS machine guns. All who failed to reach the woods, and another 75 prisoners in the barracks who had remained behind because they were too sick to follow, were executed that night. Over 300 prisoners reached the woods on the first night. The SS camp commandant immediately called

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1984-508: The case against him was based on his signature being present on dozens of orders that called for soldiers and political prisoners to be killed or ' disappeared '. In court, Keitel admitted that he knew many of Hitler's orders were illegal. His defence relied almost entirely on the argument he was merely following orders in conformity to "the leader principle" ( Führerprinzip ) and his personal oath of loyalty to Hitler . The IMT rejected this defence and convicted him on all charges. Although

2046-456: The country. In October 1942, Keitel signed the Commando Order that authorized the killing of enemy special operations troops even when captured in uniform. In the spring and summer of 1942, as the deportations of the Jews to extermination camps progressed, the military initially protested when it came to the Jews that laboured for the benefit of the Wehrmacht . The army lost control over

2108-558: The day of the execution, Keitel told prison chaplain Henry F. Gerecke "You have helped me more than you know. May Christ, my saviour, stand by me all the way. I shall need him so much." He then received Communion and was executed later that day. Keitel was executed by US Army Master Sergeant John C. Woods . His last words were: "I call on God Almighty to have mercy on the German people. More than two million German soldiers went to their death for

2170-512: The decree made it possible for foreign nationals to be transferred to Germany for trial by special courts, or simply handed to the Gestapo for deportation to concentration camps. The OKW further imposed a blackout on any information concerning the fate of the accused. At the same time, Keitel increased pressure on Otto von Stülpnagel , the military commander in France, for a more ruthless reprisal policy in

2232-515: The defendants were also Viktor Zoller (former commander of the SS-Totenkopfverbande guard battalion), and doctors Friedrich Entress (an SS member and a medic who practiced medical experiments on hundreds of inmates; killing most of them with injections of phenol ), Eduard Krebsbach and Erich Wasicky handed the Zyklon B to the person who was responsible for running camp's gas chambers who

2294-481: The escapees were apprehended and most were shot or beaten to death on the spot. Some 40 murdered prisoners' bodies were taken to Ried in der Riedmark , where the search was based, and stacked in a pile of corpses, "just like the bag at an autumn hunt", as one former gendarme, Otto Gabriel, put it. Members of the Volkssturm who brought prisoners back to Mauthausen were berated for not having beaten them to death instead. Of

2356-506: The fatherland before me. I follow now my sons – all for Germany." The trap door was small, causing head injuries to Keitel and several other condemned men as they dropped. Many of the executed Nazis fell from the gallows with insufficient force to snap their necks, resulting in convulsions that in Keitel's case lasted 24 minutes. The corpses of Keitel and the other nine executed men were, like Hermann Göring's, cremated at Ostfriedhof (Munich) and

2418-488: The film and the actual history with archival footage and the eyewitness testimony of Mikhail Ribchinsky , a survivor of the Mühlviertler Hasenjagd. Bamberger was awarded the "Austrian People's Education TV" award for "Best Documentary" in 1995. Wilhelm Keitel Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel ( German pronunciation: [ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈkaɪtl̩] ; 22 September 1882 – 16 October 1946)

2480-488: The guideline stated that execution of 50 to 100 "Communists" was an appropriate response to a loss of a German soldier. Such orders and directives further radicalised the army's occupational policies and enmeshed it in the genocide of the Jews . In December 1941, Hitler instructed the OKW to subject, with the exception of Denmark, Western Europe (which was under military occupation) to the Night and Fog Decree . Signed by Keitel,

2542-399: The inmates. After six weeks all 61 defendants were found guilty. 58 were sentenced to death by hanging (9 were had their sentences were changed to life imprisonment and were later paroled), while three others were sentenced to life imprisonment. All but one of the death sentences were carried out on May 27 and May 28 of 1947 at Landsberg Prison . The sole exception was Otto Striegel , who won

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2604-420: The invasion. The participants did not object to the invasion. Hitler asked for war studies to be completed and Georg Thomas was given the task of completing two studies on economic matters. The first study by Thomas detailed serious problems with fuel and rubber supplies. Keitel bluntly dismissed the problems, telling Thomas that Hitler would not want to see it. This influenced Thomas' second study which offered

2666-457: The man who runs my office". Hitler snapped his fingers and exclaimed "That's exactly the man I'm looking for". So on 4 February 1938 when Hitler became Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht , Keitel (to the astonishment of the General Staff, including himself) became chief of staff. Soon after his promotion, Keitel convinced Hitler to appoint Walther von Brauchitsch as Commander-in-Chief of

2728-703: The matter when the SS assumed command of all Jewish forced labour in July 1942. Keitel formally endorsed the state of affairs in September, reiterating for the armed forces that "evacuation of the Jews must be carried out thoroughly and its consequences endured, despite any trouble it may cause over the next three or four months". After the war, Keitel faced the International Military Tribunal (IMT), which indicted him on all four counts before it: conspiracy to commit crimes against peace , planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression , war crimes , and crimes against humanity . Most of

2790-444: The military and broadly allowed the execution of Jews, civilians, and non-combatants for any reason. Those carrying out the murders were exempted from court-martial or later being tried for war crimes. The orders were signed by Keitel; however, other members of the OKW and the OKH , including Halder, wrote or changed the wording of his orders. Commanders in the field interpreted and carried out

2852-424: The night hours of February 2, 1945, some 500 prisoners from Block 20 made a mass escape. Using fire extinguishers from the barracks and blankets and boards as projectiles, one group attacked and occupied a watch tower while a second group used wet blankets and bits of clothing to cause a short circuit in the electrified fence. The prisoners then climbed over the fence. Of those 500, 419 prisoners did manage to leave

2914-570: The orders. In the summer and autumn of 1941, German military lawyers unsuccessfully argued that Soviet prisoners of war should be treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions . Keitel rebuffed them, writing: "These doubts correspond to military ideas about wars of chivalry. Our job is to suppress a way of life." In September 1941, concerned that some field commanders on the Eastern Front did not exhibit sufficient harshness in implementing

2976-560: The outbreak of the Second World War, Keitel was appointed by Hitler to the six-person Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich which was set up to operate as a "war cabinet". After Germany defeated France in the Battle of France in six weeks, Keitel described Hitler as "the greatest warlord of all time". Keitel conducted the negotiations of the French armistice , and on 19 July 1940

3038-656: The public and overwhelming evidence, the Allied powers being the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union had no choice but to intervene. The Allied powers issued a statement condemning the actions of those involved and promising to bring each and every SS personnel to justice with no chance of dismissal. The Allied nations' foreign ministers met in Russia a year later and were better known as ‘The Big Three’. Those who committed war crimes were broken up into two war crimes categories. These groups were divided by those with no particular geographic location who would be punished by

3100-503: The recommendation of General Werner von Fritsch , Keitel was promoted to the rank of major general and appointed chief of the Reich Ministry of War's Armed Forces Office ( Wehrmachtsamt ), which oversaw the army, navy, and air force. After assuming office, Keitel was promoted to lieutenant general on 1 January 1936. On 21 January 1938, Keitel received evidence revealing that the wife of his superior, War Minister Werner von Blomberg ,

3162-547: The regime's assault upon basic human rights or counter the role of the Einsatzgruppen in the murders. The criminal nature of the invasion was now obvious; local commanders continued to express shock and protest over the events they were witnessing. Keitel continued to ignore the protests among the officer corps while they became morally numbed to the atrocities. Keitel issued a series of criminal orders from April 1941. The orders went beyond established codes of conduct for

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3224-405: The responsibilities of Germany's war minister. Although not officially appointed a Reichsminister , Keitel was granted cabinet-level rank . When von Blomberg was asked by Hitler (out of respect for him, after his dismissal in 1938) who he would recommend to replace him, he had said that Hitler himself should take over the job. He told Hitler that Keitel (who was his son-in-law's father) "is just

3286-572: The tribunal's charter allowed "superior orders" to be considered a mitigating factor, it found Keitel's crimes were so egregious that "there is nothing in mitigation". In its judgment against him, the IMT wrote, "Superior orders, even to a soldier, cannot be considered in mitigation where crimes as shocking and extensive have been committed consciously, ruthlessly and without military excuse or justification." It also noted several instances where he issued illegal orders on his own authority. In his statement before

3348-405: The war ended and the fugitives were safe. August Eigruber, who, along with some of his codefendants, was implicated in the crime and numerous other atrocities, and tried by an American military court at the Mauthausen-Gusen camp trials . Eigruber was sentenced to death by hanging, and executed at Landsberg Prison on May 28, 1947. Hugo Tacha, a Wehrmacht soldier at home on leave at the time of

3410-473: Was Dr. Eduard Krebsbach based on the deathbed confession of Commander Ziereis. The Mauthausen-Gusen commander, Franz Ziereis , was shot several weeks after the liberation of the Mauthausen-Gusen camps and died in former Camp Gusen I on May 24, 1945. The defendants were charged with "violations of the laws and usages of war," a charge which encompassed among other things murder, torture, beating and starving

3472-615: Was a German field marshal who held office as chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), the high command of Nazi Germany's armed forces , during World War II . He signed a number of criminal orders and directives that led to numerous war crimes . Keitel's rise to the Wehrmacht high command began with his appointment as the head of the Armed Forces Office at the Reich Ministry of War in 1935. Having taken command of

3534-540: Was a former prostitute. Upon reviewing this information, Keitel suggested that the dossier be forwarded to Hitler's deputy, Hermann Göring , who used it to bring about Blomberg's resignation. Hitler took command of the Wehrmacht in 1938 and replaced the war ministry with the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces ( Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ), with Keitel as its chief. As a result of his appointment, Keitel assumed

3596-571: Was arrested at the request of the United States and interned at Camp Ashcan in Mondorf-les-Bains . Jodl succeeded him as Chief of OKW until the final dissolution of the Flensburg Government on 23 May. Keitel had full knowledge of the criminal nature of the planning and the subsequent invasion of Poland , agreeing to its aims in principle. The Nazi plans included mass arrests, population transfers, and mass murder. Keitel did not contest

3658-435: Was promoted to Generalfeldmarschall (field marshal). The planning for Operation Barbarossa , the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, was begun tentatively by Halder with the redeployment of the 18th Army into an offensive position against the Soviet Union. On 31 July 1940, Hitler held a major conference that included Keitel, Halder, Alfred Jodl , Erich Raeder , Brauchitsch, and Hans Jeschonnek which further discussed

3720-505: Was reached. Four Nazis were sentenced to death by hanging, one for life imprisonment, two for short-term sentences and one was acquitted of all the charges. Three of the death sentences were carried out on November 19, 1948. The death sentence against Michael Heller was reduced to life in prison in 1949. The defendants of the second Mauthausen camp trial ( US v. Franz Kofler, et al. ), and their sentences, are as follows: An additional 56 trials took place between March and November 1947 within

3782-481: Was sentenced to death and executed by hanging in 1946. Wilhelm Keitel was born in the village of Helmscherode near Gandersheim in the Duchy of Brunswick , Germany. He was the eldest son of Carl Keitel (1854–1934), a middle-class landowner, and his wife Apollonia Vissering (1855–1888). At the beginning he wanted to take over his family's estates after completing his education at a gymnasium . This plan failed as his father did not want to retire. Instead, he embarked on

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3844-432: Was transferred to the Ministry of the Reichswehr in Berlin, serving with the Truppenamt ('Troop Office'), the post-Versailles disguised German General Staff . Three years later, he returned to field command. Now a lieutenant-colonel, Keitel was again assigned to the war ministry in 1929 and was soon promoted to Head of the Organizational Department ("T-2"), a post he held until Adolf Hitler took power in 1933. Playing

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