On the morning of October 1, 1946, in Nuremberg, Germany, the International Military Tribunal delivered its verdicts. After more than ten months of proceedings, 21 of the most prominent political, military, and economic leaders of Nazi Germany stood to hear their sentences. They were held accountable for the unspeakable atrocities committed during the Second World War. Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death by hanging. Among them was German General Alfred Jodl.
Alfred Jodl was born on May 10, 1890, in Würzburg, then part of the German Empire. He was born out of wedlock. His father, a Bavarian military officer, did not marry Jodl’s mother until 1899, after his retirement, because she was considered beneath his station as a farmer’s daughter. Alfred grew up with his younger brother Ferdinand, who also became an army general. His uncle Friedrich Jodl was a philosopher.
In July 1910, Jodl joined the 4th Field Artillery Regiment of the Bavarian Army. He attended military school in Munich and was promoted to lieutenant in October 1912. In September 1913, he married Countess Irma von Bullion. The marriage was childless.
When the First World War broke out in July 1914, Jodl saw action in August at the Battle of Saarburg. He was wounded in the thigh and did not return to the troops until March 1915. He was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class for gallantry. In late 1916, he was transferred to the Eastern Front, where he became a battery commander in 1917. In early 1918, he returned to the Western Front as a General Staff officer and received the Iron Cross 1st Class.
The war ended on November 11, 1918, with the armistice signed in the Compiègne Forest. The conflict had claimed ten million soldiers’ lives and caused catastrophic damage. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles held Germany responsible for starting the war and imposed harsh penalties, including territorial losses, reparations, and limits on the army to 100,000 men.
In the Weimar Republic, Jodl continued his military career. He transferred to the Ministry of the Reichswehr in Berlin in 1924. Between 1928 and 1932, he taught tactics and war history. In February 1932, he was appointed a major. Later that year, he became a group leader in the Operations Department of the Truppenamt, an agency that concealed the existence of the banned German Army General Staff. Jodl was significantly involved in secretly planning and reorganizing the German army in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.
After Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in January 1933, German rearmament continued, initially through front organizations like glider clubs and sporting groups. Later, the policy was openly expanded. The Nazi regime aimed to redraw the map of post-World War I Europe, unite all Germans in a Nazi empire, and acquire Lebensraum, or living space, in eastern Europe.
The annexation of Austria, known as the Anschluss, took place between March 11 and 13, 1938. It was supported by many Austrians, and thousands turned out to greet Hitler. Western leaders did not intervene. At the end of 1938, Jodl was transferred to Linz in annexed Austria to command the 44th artillery regiment.
On August 23, 1939, one week before the invasion of Poland, Hitler appointed Jodl Chief of the Operations Staff of the German Armed Forces High Command. The High Command was led by Wilhelm Keitel, and Jodl became Hitler’s primary military advisor, responsible in large measure for strategy and the conduct of operations.
World War II began on September 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland. Jodl acted as chief of staff during the invasion of Denmark and Norway, codenamed Operation Weserübung, which began on April 9, 1940. Denmark surrendered in less than six hours. Norway held out for two months before surrendering on June 10, 1940.
Following the fall of France, Jodl was promoted directly to General, skipping the rank of Lieutenant General. In the following months, he drew up plans for the invasion of the Soviet Union, known as Operation Barbarossa. Jodl also signed the Commissar Order on June 6, 1941, which instructed the Wehrmacht to shoot Soviet political commissars on principle. The order was cancelled in May 1942 after it led to stronger resistance from Soviet soldiers.
Jodl also signed the Commando Order, which authorized the killing of enemy special operations troops without trial, even if captured in uniform or attempting to surrender.
During the planning of Case Blue in southern Russia in the summer of 1942, Jodl disagreed with Hitler. He considered the forces planned for the invasion too weak and criticized Hitler’s intervention in operational planning. The confrontation cooled their relationship, and Hitler planned to replace Jodl with General Friedrich Paulus, but that never happened. Jodl remained loyal to Hitler and continued to carry out his orders.
In February 1944, Jodl was promoted to Colonel General. His wife Irma died on April 18, 1944. He remarried on April 7, 1945, to Luise von Benda, a close friend of his first wife. That marriage was also childless.
On July 20, 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators attempted to assassinate Hitler. Jodl was present at the Wolf’s Lair field headquarters and was slightly injured when the bomb exploded. In the aftermath, more than 7,000 people were arrested, and 4,980 were executed.
On October 28, 1944, Jodl ordered the evacuation of the Norwegian population and the destruction of houses east of the Lyngenfjord as part of Operation Northern Lights. More than 40,000 people were forcibly evacuated, and thousands of houses were destroyed.
Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945. Karl Dönitz briefly succeeded him as head of state and sent Jodl to sign a surrender limited to forces fighting the Western Allies. American General Dwight Eisenhower demanded complete surrender of all German forces, including those fighting in the East. Dönitz ordered Jodl to sign, which he did on May 7, 1945, in Reims, France.
The Soviet High Command rejected that act of surrender. They insisted that Wilhelm Keitel, as supreme commander of all German forces, sign the document personally. On the night of May 8, 1945, Keitel signed the definitive German Instrument of Surrender, ending World War II in Europe.
Jodl was arrested by British troops on May 23, 1945. He was tried at the Nuremberg Trials and convicted of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, planning and waging wars of aggression, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Additional charges included unlawful deportation and abetting execution.
His wife Luise joined his defence team. Jodl claimed he knew nothing of the death camps where nearly six million European Jews were murdered. He pleaded not guilty before God, before history, and before his people. His claims did not spare him.
On October 1, 1946, the tribunal found Jodl guilty on all four counts and sentenced him to death by hanging. His request for execution by firing squad, along with those of Wilhelm Keitel and Hermann Göring, was denied because the nature of his acts was criminal rather than military.
Jodl was executed by American Army sergeant John C. Woods. The drop from the gallows was insufficient to snap the necks of the condemned, causing death by strangulation. Jodl’s last words were, “I salute you, my eternal Germany.” His convulsing lasted 18 minutes before he died. He was 56 years old.
His corpse was cremated and scattered in the river Isar.