How German Generals Were Executed JJ

Inside of the Soviet Union during World War II and after, there was a huge desire to punish the military leaders of the German army and armed forces. Those men who had commanded troops that invaded the Soviet Union and caused great suffering. Many German generals found themselves brought in front of war crimes tribunals, well actually show trials that saw them being condemned to death without any defense.

 Some were even executed in public in front of thousands of people who wanted their blood. In this video, we look at a number of examples of German generals and look at how they were executed at the end of World War II. As the executioners looked down the barrel of their rifles, which were pointed at their targets, stood opposite them was a man of greater rank than them, who was blindfolded and ready for his life to come to an end.

 General Anton Dosler had fought in both world wars, but during the Second World War, he insisted on an illegal order being carried out that led to the executions of 15 American prisoners of war in March 1944. When the end of the second world war came around, his crimes were very well known about and he was tried and condemned for this.

 But there were many other reasons why specifically Dosler was executed by firing squad and was not for example hanged on a gallows. So why was this? General Anton Dosler was a veteran soldier of the first world war and during the second world war he commanded different forces. He served as the chief of staff of the seventh army and then the commander of the 57th infantry division and then the 163rd infantry division.

 He was later appointed the commander of the Venetian coast in 1944 and he was in theory a rather senior German figure during the occupation of these lands. But Dossler served well and he was a military traditionalist and he was someone who was very well-versed in following orders which had been passed from a superior. On the 22nd of March 1944, 15 soldiers of the American army landed on the Italian coast close to Laspetszia.

They were behind the established front lines and behind enemy lines and are all dressed in field uniform of the United States Army. This point is very important as later they would be shot as spies and saboturs, but they were clearly dressed as American soldiers. If they were dressed in disguise, such as even wearing enemy uniforms or wearing civilian clothes if captured, then they would rightfully and could have legally been shot and viewed as spies following a court marshal.

 But this was not the case. A few days after they landed, they were captured by a group of German soldiers and Italian fascists. Their mission had been to blow up an important railway tunnel, which would then disrupt traffic from Laspetszia to Genanoa. Following their capture, the Americans were transferred to the headquarters of the 135th Fortress Brigade, and the man who was tasked with overseeing these men was a German colonel named Almas.

He knew the situation involving the Americans and he knew they could not be legally executed and that they should have been processed as prisoners of war. However, during their interrogations, one officer told them everything and this information was then sent to General Dosler, including that it was a commando raid.

 Dossler spoke to his superior, Field Marshal Albert Kessleing, and he said that the men should all be executed. Dustler then insisted that Colonel Almas have his troops execute the Americans in accordance with the commando order of 1942 which stated that any captured enemy commandos or saboturs should be shot after being taken prisoner by the vermach in the field with very few questions asked.

 Colonel Armas did not feel comfortable with performing this and he knew it would be a war crime. But General Dosler insisted that this must be done. Alma’s appeals did not work and because of this, the 15 Americans were all executed and their bodies were then dumped and buried in a mass grave. One of Dsler’s own staff had even refused to sign the execution order and because of this he was actually fired.

Dustler was later brought to trial for his crimes at the end of the Second World War and a military tribunal found him guilty of war crimes. He tried to defend himself saying he was only passing the order which Field Marshall Kessleing had given to him. But nevertheless, a judge sentenced him to death.

 The whole case rested on the fact that the Americans had not been wearing a disguise but had been dressed actually in proper American uniform. On the 1st of December 1945, shortly before 8:00 a.m., General Anton Dustler was led out to a firing range and he was tied and secured to the wooden stake at the bottom of this.

 He was tied tightly and could not move and also a black hood was placed over his head. He was dressed in army uniform. But then after the priest and military officials all stepped away, the firing squad shot and fired their bullets into a motionless General Dosler and he was immediately killed. There was no need for a coupar gunshot to his head.

 His body was then placed onto a stretcher and was then buried in a nearby cemetery. He was one of only two Nazi war criminals executed by the Americans who were shot. So why specifically was he given a firing squad execution rather than say hanging? A firing squad was a traditional method of execution for military officials and also soldiers.

 It was seen as rather respectable as a method of death for an officer as opposed to hanging. It was also seen as a formal military punishment rather than a method used to condemn a common criminal. Because DSLA was a general convicted by a military tribunal, execution by firing squad was considered the most appropriate punishment and military sentence.

This was different to the Nuremberg trials in which the remaining top ranking Nazis were not condemned by a military court, but were instead tried by what was an international tribunal and they all declared criminals. firing squad would have been the method of execution that Anton Dosler would have actually requested should he have also had the choice.

 He was a man who had a long-standing history and tradition with the German military having served since World War I. This was a sentence associated with military justice and being executed by a firing squad reflected his status as a general and a uniformed officer rather than an ordinary civilian criminal. It was also rather common practice at the time for the Allies to execute condemned military officials and soldiers by firing squad throughout World War II.

 A number of American soldiers were shot by their own forces for committing military offenses. So this method was one which was used. It required very little preparation. No specialist equipment needed to be constructed. Only a suitable place needed to be found, and a piece of wood sunk into the ground to tie him to and act as a stake.

But why didn’t the Americans choose hanging as a way of punishing him further and also further disgracing him? After all, it was American soldiers that Dustler was responsible for having executed. Sometimes hanging was seen as more dishonorable, but it was ultimately the military nature of the court proceedings and the trial that led to Dosler’s sentence.

 The aim was not to make him a symbol of humiliation, but to bring about a fair and just sentence upon a man who had condemned fellow American soldiers. Changing the rules and nature of the time with executions could have shown the Americans in a bad light, and could have made them seem more ruthless rather than just. So, General Anton Dosler was executed by a firing squad because he was a military and army general and he was condemned by what was ultimately a military court.

 In the immediate period after the end of the Second World War, firing squad was seen as a normal military execution method for officers. Hans graph vonpanek was born in February 1888 within Dusseldorf and like many young boys of the late 19th century he dreamed of a career inside the armed forces.

 He was given a military education and in 1908 was commissioned into the German army as an officer. A couple of years later he married and had children but when the first world war broke out he served as a general staff officer. He served on the western front but was wounded three times. But at the end of the conflict, he was promoted to the rank of captain and was decorated with both orders of the iron cross with oak leaves.

 Now after the war, the army and military of Germany was limited by the treaty of Asai imposed upon them by their enemies and with this 100,000 soldiers were allowed to remain in the army. Bonbon stayed in the army and continued to rise through the ranks being promoted to colonel. In the 1930s, with the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, remained within the armed forces, and Hitler relied on experienced First World War soldiers to train and command the younger generation of soldiers who would fight in the next global conflict, which he of course would cause.

Commanded infantry regiment 48 and then transferred to the Luwafa to train and aid in preparations for paratroop soldiers. These fashion jaggers would later become some of the most feared and dangerous forces the Germans deployed during World War II. He was a competent military leader but was not liked by Herman Guring, the head of the Luwaffer and future number two to Hitler.

 Guring chastised von a number of times but nonetheless he became the commander of the 22nd Infantry Division with the 42nd Army Corps and trained airborne infantry. During the early years of the war, he remained training soldiers, but then Hans Grafon Spanek was thrust into the conflict. He was in February 1940 promoted to the rank of general, and months later, the German airborne assault began with Spanic leading German soldiers into the failed battle for the Hague.

 He almost fell into the hands of his enemies and was wounded, but was then awarded the prestigious Knights Cross of the Iron Cross by Hitler himself. As the military hierarchy were planning to put into place operation Barbarasa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, Shbonik was given charge of the 22nd Infantry and was part of Army Group South.

 They were to attack towards Crimea and 2 days before the invasion began, his staff gave orders that any Jewish Red Army prisoner should be separated from regular Soviet prisoners, indicating that they were probably to be shot and executed on the spot. Months later, he had his forces working close with the security police and the SD, rounding up and identifying Jewish civilians in lands which had been taken.

These people were then taken to the edge of settlements where they were forced to dig their own graves and they were then shot by the forces of the Einat. Around 2,000 Jewish men, women, and children in the city of Melapal were executed with Hans Grafon’s forces aiding in this. He would later admit that he had an active part in the massacre of persecuted people during the invasion of the Soviet Union.

 However, he was a man who suffered with his health and General Vonpanek had sciatica and stomach issues which actually forced him to leave his division on the 14th of October 1941. When he came back in December, he was given command of another force who continued to murder and slaughter Jewish people.

 On the 10th of December 1941, Bonbanek ordered that all Jewish people found inside of his area of command were to be treated as partisans or resistance forces and they were to be made slaves. He said also that those Red Army soldiers who were captured were to be executed immediately. One historian claimed about him that he had the moral courage to refuse an order from Hitler to stand his ground when his troops were threatened with destruction and he was caught marshaled and later killed by the Nazis for it.

 At the same time he did not refuse to carry out the criminal commisar order which gave cover for what became a genocidal war against bolevism in the Soviet Union. While vonbanek was not a Nazi in the technical sense and was himself critical of some aspects of the regime, his orders and the actions of his troops leave no doubt that he had internalized anti-semitic racism.

Shows that it was not necessary to be an ideologicaldriven Nazi to carry out the Nazi regime’s policy of mass murder. On the 26th of December 1941, the Red Army advanced towards his forces and the German 11th Army became encircled. The 46th division was the only division able to block the advances.

 But Vonbanek chose to withdraw his division to avoid being caught and he disobeyed orders direct from the furer Hitler to hold his ground. He did two things wrong. He disobeyed commands and he retreated. Now because of this he was arrested and seized and on the 23rd of January 1942 inside of Germany he was tried in front of Herman Guring.

 Guring was furious with him and vonspawn tried to maintain that he acted against orders to preserve his division being smashed to pieces by the Soviets. He was found guilty of military disobedience and in defying a superior order and was sentenced to death, but Hitler later intervened and commuted the death sentence to 7 years in prison.

 At this time, probably was relieved as he knew he would probably sit out the rest of the war in prison and then be a free man. He remained inside of Germasheim Military Prison, a facility established to hold and incarcerate those members of the Vermacht and armed forces who were being locked up for military offenses. But whilst he was in prison, a deeprooted conspiracy was being planned and plotted within the armed forces.

 The Stafenberg plot was the bombing of Hitler’s wolf’s lair and the conference room whilst Hitler was giving a military briefing on the 20th of July 1944. The bomb planted by Klausvon Stafenberg was planned to kill Hitler and then a coup came operation vulry was put into place to bring down the government and establish a military command and rule over Germany.

 Now this ultimately failed and thousands of people were rounded up and were executed because of this and the reprisals for the plot were farreaching and ruthless. General von whilst in prison was informed that he was to be executed. Hinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, ordered directly the former general’s execution, even though he had no role with or contact with the conspiracy at all.

 On the 23rd of July, 1944, within the confines of the military prison, Hans Graon was led out to a firing range where he was to be executed. There had been many who had been executed on the firing range for military offenses before. He was led out to a stake against an embankment and was then secured to it. Opposite him filed out a firing squad made up of a number of members of the army.

 The man in charge gave the command for the soldiers to raise their rifles and they did. And then the order to fire was given and instantly bullets were shot through General Vonpek and he then slumped over. After his execution, his body was placed inside of a coffin and he was embared within the soldier’s cemetery in the Palatinate forest.

 Now, the execution of Hans Grafon is a very controversial one. In the past decade, there have actually been calls to name monuments and even an air force base after him. But let’s remember that during the Second World War, Schwabbon carried out and was involved in a number of war crimes which led to the execution of many thousands of innocent people slaughtered in the name of the Nazi race laws.

 He was a general shot for disobeying orders, but was someone who was more than happy to carry out the policies of the Nazis with regards to exterminating innocents. Alfred Yoseph Ferdinand Yodel was born on the 10th of May 1890 in Bavaria. As a child, it’s assumed he had a rather normal family life and he attended a school in which was linked to the military.

 And it was clear that Yoda would have a career from this in the army. He was from a rather affluent family with his uncle being a psychologist at the prestigious University of Vienna and his younger brother would also go on to become a general in the army. As the first world war broke out, he was pressed into service on the western front serving in a battery unit.

 He was there at the very start of the conflict and despite being wounded in action, he was rewarded with the Iron Cross second class. Yodel then returned to the front lines but was transferred in 1917 across to the Eastern Front and served here but then returned west. He won the iron cross first class and following the end of the first world war he remained within the military.

 After the treaty of Assai was signed, Germany was allowed an army of no more than 100,000 soldiers, greatly minimizing the strength and numbers of the army. Alfred Yodel was one of the lucky ones remaining as a soldier in the then labeled rights fair and within this he was a greatly respected and welloughtoff soldier. Alfred Yodel first saw Adolf Hitler in 1923 when his power was virtually nothing.

 Three years earlier, Adolf Hitler become the Nazi party’s leading public speaker and propagandist. And as time went on, he then increased his strangle hold over the Nazi party, becoming the leader. It was in 1923 when Hitler attempted to take control of Munich and subsequently be declared the president of Germany in the Munich beer hall punch.

 Yodel met Hitler before and he became attracted to the Nazi ideologies and became a staunch supporter. As the 1920s continued and Hitler was released from prison, Yodel continued to help the group gain support, but he also continued his own rise through the ranks of the military. By 1935, he had risen to the rank of major general.

 He met with Hitler before the Second World War broke out, and he must have impressed Hitler with his experience in the battlefield. Because of this he was initially assigned as a commander of the 344th division after the arculus of Austria in which Austria was absorbed into the German Empire. After this Yoda was then picked by Hitler to serve as the chief of operations staff for the obcomando de Vermach the OKW.

The OKW was a high command of the armed forces and oversaw the army, navy and air force. As the conflict continued, it had responsibility for the Second World War on all theaters except the fight against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front. Alfred Yodel found himself as a deputy to the chief of the OKW, Wilhelm Kit, a man regarded by many as a yes man for Hitler and also found himself as a chief of operations staff.

 He gained this job shortly before the invasion of Poland took place and he was integral to the planning of the war and different invasions and operations with Hitler seeing him as competent and effective. The OKW ran military operations on the Western Front in Italy and in North Africa but there was a degree of fragmentation between other groups such as the Luwaffa who established their own command.

 The OKW would be led by Kitle who reported to Hitler himself throughout the whole of World War II. Alfred Yodo acted as a leader and a chief of staff during the invasions of Norway and Denmark, making key strategic decisions in regards to these specific operations. Throughout the war, Yoda was confident about the German army and was convinced that the Germans would defeat Britain during the battle for Britain and believed an invasion would then take place.

 One of the biggest elements facing Yodel at the Nuremberg trials after the war was the fact he signed two military orders which were against the rules of war were unjust and were criminal. Firstly, Yodel signed the commisar order on the 6th of June 1941 just before the outbreak of operation barbarasa. This order stated that any Soviet political commisar identified amongst captured enemy soldiers would be executed instantly.

This order stated that all prisoners boleevised or influenced by bulcheism should also be killed. Hitler who gave the order wished to rid Europe of communism and bulcheism the key enemies of Nazism. He knew when he issued this that it was illegal but said that any soldier who carried out an execution or killing would be absolved by Hitler’s Nazi party and would not be held accountable.

 It stated that immediate and severe measures must be taken. They are therefore when captured in battle as a matter of routine to be dispatched by firearms indicating that they should be shot. The commisar order also stated that anyone with a red star with a golden hammer or sickle on the sleeves should be killed showing the German army how to identify these specific people.

Because of the commisar order, thousands of Soviet soldiers who should have been listed as prisoners of war and treated with certain allowances were shot dead when they should have been placed under custody. The other order Yodel signed was the commando order signed on the 28th of October 1942. This stated that German armed forces should execute and kill all allied commandos found in Europe and Africa without trial if they are in uniform or not and even if they attempt to surrender. This was allegedly issued by

the OKW to combat the fact the Allies were allegedly violating the Geneva Convention and that commandos had been ordered to kill German prisoners. The secret order was carried out and said that any commander or officer who refused to carry it out would be punishable under German military law. It resulted in dozens of illegal executions and war crimes.

 Yodel signing these orders virtually signed his own death sentence after the war was over with both the illegal documents resulting in lots of war crimes. As the conflict continued, he spent time at Wolf’s Slayer, Hitler’s Rasenborg headquarters in East Prussia and continued to be promoted. During the 20th of July plot to assassinate Hitler, when Claus von Stafenberg bombed the Wolf Slayer, Yoda was present in the room when the briefcase bomb went off and was injured, suffering a concussion.

 As the war turned against the Germans following the Normandy invasion and the battle of Stalingrad, the enemies of the Nazis pushed the Germans back and defeat was inevitable for Germany. Hitler, whilst Berlin was crumbling around him, shot himself, but instructions were then carried out, appointing Grand Admiral Carl Dernitz as his successor as a president of Germany.

It’s clear Ditz must have respected Yodel as when he formed his government in Fenceburg, Yodel was there and was awarded the Knights Cross by Dernitz. Yodel probably thought that he had a role in restoring Germany after World War II and he signed the German surrender on the 7th of May 1945 as a representative of Dernitz.

 And then a week later when Wilhelm Kitle, his superior, was arrested, Yoda became the chief of the OKW, which was basically pointless with the curtains closing on World War II. Yoda was arrested with the rest of the Fensburg government by the British and was taken to a prisoner of war camp before he was brought to Nuremberg to face war crimes trials.

Alfred Yoda was accused of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, planning, initiating, and waging wars of aggression, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. All four of the charges. He was seen as a high-ranking member of the military, and the charges brought before him specifically related to the two illegal orders, the commisar and the commando orders that Yodel signed, saying that those who would be regarded as prisoners of war should be just shot when captured.

 He was also accused of being complicit in other atrocities and was presented with evidence about mass shootings of Soviet prisoners of war. He said that the only prisoners shot were those who did not want to walk. More evidence emerged with him being accused of being involved in the unlawful deportation of Jews and others and also in ordering executions and being complicit in these.

 His signature was found on an order that sent Danish citizens and Jews to concentration camps and this was also used against him. Yodel pleaded not guilty. However, was found guilty of all four of the charges put forward against him. Because of this, he was sentenced to death and was to be executed in the gymnasium of Nuremberg prison by a botching executioner, John C. Woods.

 On the 16th of October 1946, these executions were carried out. The Nuremberg executions were noted for not going as straightforwardly as they could have done as the executioner performed his role poorly. Firstly, the trap door was too small and many who fell through smashed their heads on the side causing bleeding.

 Also, John Cwoods did not use the same methods as other executioners and many executions took a number of minutes for the condemned to be killed, slowly strangling to death. In some cases, it took between 14 and 28 minutes for the condemned to die, and John C. Woods was noted for even pulling down on one body as a neck had not been broken, strangling a Nazi to death.

Alfred Yoda was the 10th of 11 defendants to be executed, however, was executed actually ninth as Herman Guring had taken his life the evening before. He was led into the gymnasium and was flanked by US soldiers. Inside the gym was a gallows that had been made to perform the deaths, and Yoda was brought in following Fritz Sal’s death.

 He was brought into the room shortly before 10 to 3:00 a.m. in the morning, and he was led up the stairs of the gallows. He was then handed over to John C. Woods, who then asked him for any last words, and Yodel stated, “My greetings to you, my Germany.” The hood was then placed over his head and he was shuffled over the trapoor before the door was released and Yodel plunged straight through it.

 Judging by the fact that Arthur says Quart was executed 9 minutes after Yodel, we can consider that Yodel’s execution was one of the more straightforward ones performed that day with no bleeding being visible on his body or wounds from the trapoor. Alfred Yoda was incredibly powerful during World War II and was known for being a prominent member of the Nazi high command.

 He was a respected military general and leader and along with Kitle wish to carry out Hitler’s demands to invade different lands and build up a huge empire. It was Yodel himself who signed his own death warrant being complicit in the signing of the commando and commisar orders and this evidence could not be denied. When he was brought to Nuremberg, the evidence against him was incredibly damning, and later trials would prove that the commisar order was carried out with brutality.

A further trial carried out the year later sentenced a number of Vermach officers to prison time for shooting Red Army soldiers and PS. Alfred Yoda was a key instrument in the Nazi war effort and in Hitler’s plans to take different lands and inflict such misery and suffering onto people living there. Adolf Haman was born on the 3rd of September 1885 and when he was 16 he joined the German army.

 He enlisted in the 89th Grenadier Regiment and remained part of the army for decades. He saw service during the first world war and in 1914 he was considered a very distinguished soldier and was awarded the iron cross twice in just the early days of the conflict. He continued to serve after the German surrender inside of the Reichair the permitted army that Germany were allowed to have and following the changes made to the military a man then joined the vermach.

It was clear that Hitler had plans to invade different countries and to try and conquer wherever he could to build up his empire. He relied on strong military leaders such as Haman to command German forces, many of whom were not the most experienced. But following the invasion of Poland, the whole Second World War broke out.

Adolf Haman was then given command of a frontier defense zone on the Polish border and he was to repel any enemy soldiers that would approach. At this time, this was not the most significant role in the conflict as a vermach rampaged into Poland and they pushed the Polish army back heavily. Her man’s group were just there to watch the border, but he was a trusted commander.

Then from August 1941 to January 1942, he was transferred to serve as a commander of the 239th Infantry Division. This division served on the border between Poland and Slovakia, but they did not do any fighting. They then became part of the reserves of Army Group South, but they then stood during the Battle of France.

 But the 239th Infantry Division was dissolved in December 1941. Whilst part of the sick army on the Eastern front as they suffered incredibly heavy losses and casualties following the dissolution of his division, Adolf man was transferred to the Fura reserve which had been established during the war as a collection of high-ranking military officers who were awaiting redeployment to new tasks and regiments to command.

As the war went on, the Furer reserve became filled with a number of officers who were difficult, dissident to Hitler and the military’s hierarchy and those who were also classed as incompetent. But then he was assigned as a commander of a regiment in the 270th division who were based in France and stationed in rims.

 But then on the 1st of June 1942, Hamman was promoted to become a major general and he was then sent to the Eastern Front. He became the military commander of Oral which was a German occupied area inside the Soviet Union. He fought on inside the Soviet Union. But then during the battle of Kursk which is touted as the largest tank battle in history, Adolf Alamman was still commanding Orol and he was then appointed the chief of group Haman which was a special support group made up of different forces.

 This was only a short-lived detachment but then Haman became the commodant of Brians. During the battle of Bansk, the Soviet Red Army lost over 80,000 soldiers who died in and around the city and over 4,000 were injured or put in hospital. But the Germans had also took 50,000 prisoners before moving on.

 Her man then became the commodant of Brians and during the encirclement, the Germans destroyed all of the Red Army forces, defending the southern approach to Moscow. They were brutal in their actions and executed many people inside the city and killed a number of civilians and under Ham’s control. There were a number of war crimes committed.

 But then when Brians was retaken by the Soviet Red Army, he was transferred to become a military commander of a city in Bellarusia which had been occupied. But then Herman became the commander of the 383rd Infantry Division. And his division had been involved in the battle of Kursk. However, when the Soviets launched Operation Bagration on the 23rd of June 1944 and pushed the German forces back heavily, the division was surrounded was completely destroyed and massacred and it was then dissolved.

 The forces had been completely overwhelmed and inside of Babruisk where Herman was also a commander. His city had been encircled and he along with the garrison were taken prisoner. His capture was seen as a major coup by the Soviets and because of their successes in the military, they then rounded up all their prisoners of war, they had been captured during operation.

Then the Red Army and Soviet officials force marched Adolf Haman and 50,000 other German soldiers who had been captured through the streets of Moscow in front of the Soviet civilians who were dering and celebrating the capture of these men. But then Adolf Haman was brought into trial and on the 30th of December 1945, a Soviet military tribunal presented charges to him in which he was accused of many war crimes against the civilian populations of Brians.

As a commander, he was considered responsible for the executions of civilians inside of the city and for this he was quickly sentenced to death. But inside of Brians, the place where Adolf Ham a man was responsible for during much of the conflict. Ham man was then following his death sentence taken to a gallows.

He was led up the steps of the gallows and then a Soviet executioner quickly placed a noose around his neck before the stall was removed and he was left hanging. He was executed on the same day as his death sentence had been given and the Soviet executioners did not wait around to execute him.

 Adolf Alamman was a high-ranking German general who had been given a number of significant jobs during the Second World War. He was a commander of a number of cities and was responsible for keeping the civilian population down inside of these. But then under his control, a number of war crimes took place.

 But for the Soviets, he was seen as a significant capture as he was a general after all and he was a man who had significant involvement in the German military for many different decades. Thanks for watching. To support our channel, please make sure to subscribe. And once again, thank you so much for watching.