The Nuremberg gallows claimed two of Adolf Hitler’s most senior military figures on the morning of October 16, 1946. Wilhelm Keitel, the chief of the German Armed Forces High Command, and Alfred Jodl, his chief of operations, were hanged within minutes of each other, convicted alongside the Nazi leadership for crimes that had turned the German military into an instrument of conquest and mass murder. Keitel had requested execution by firing squad, the traditional death for soldiers, but the Allied tribunal denied the request. His last words were a signal of lifelong loyalty to the movement he had served.
Jodl, whose final utterance was a salute to his eternal Germany, followed him. The executions closed a chapter in which Germany’s most decorated commanders had been judged not as heroes but as war criminals. Keitel’s path to the gallows was built on obedience. During the Weimar Republic he rose through staff and administrative roles, reaching the rank of major general in 1933 and commanding an infantry division the following year.
It was in this period that he developed a deep admiration for Hitler. Between 1935 and 1938, Hitler purged generals he considered disloyal and restructured the German High Command, and Keitel’s role in designing a consolidated command structure caught his attention. In 1938 Hitler appointed him to lead the new High Command, a position he held until the end of the war. Keitel was instrumental in bringing Austria and Czechoslovakia under Nazi control, participated in planning the 1939 attack on Poland that began World War II, and in 1940 outlined the surrender terms presented to the French government after the fall of France.
That same year Hitler promoted him to field marshal. Keitel quickly turned to planning the invasion of the Soviet Union. He survived the July 1944 bomb plot against Hitler, being present at the Führer’s field headquarters when the explosion went off but escaping unharmed. He then led the operations to regain control from the conspirators and served on the court of honor that expelled them from the military, ensuring their conviction and death sentences by a civilian court.
Captured by the British in May 1945, Keitel was indicted for war crimes that August. At Nuremberg, his war-planning activities were presented as evidence of crimes against peace, and the orders he issued during the Russian campaign were characterized as war crimes against civilians. Unlike most defendants, Keitel accepted responsibility for his actions, acknowledging that he was responsible for all outcomes resulting from the orders he had signed. The tribunal found him guilty and sentenced him to death.
He was hanged on October 16, 1946. Jodl served as chief of the operations staff within the High Command for the entire war, making him one of the most prominent figures in German military planning. British soldiers apprehended him on May 23, 1945, alongside the rest of Admiral Karl Dönitz’s provisional government at Flensburg. He was held at Camp Ashcan before being presented to the International Military Tribunal.
He stood accused of scheming to commit crimes against peace, initiating and conducting wars of aggression, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The primary accusations tied to his name were his endorsement of the Commando Order and the Commissar Order, both of which mandated the immediate execution of specific categories of prisoners of war upon capture. Jodl attempted to justify the 1941 mass shootings of Soviet prisoners of war by asserting that only those prisoners who chose not to walk were executed, not those physically unable to do so. He also faced accusations of illegal deportation and facilitating executions, buttressed by his documented order to relocate Danish citizens, including Jewish individuals, to Nazi-operated concentration camps.
He successfully refuted several accusations, such as his alleged aid to Hitler in seizing control of Germany in 1933, but pleaded not guilty to the charges overall. He was found guilty on all four counts and hanged. Karl Dönitz commanded the U-boat fleet with devastating effect. From 1939 to 1943 his submarines dominated the Atlantic, posing a formidable threat to Allied naval forces, before the tide shifted against him in May 1943.
He rose to the rank of grand admiral, succeeding Erich Raeder. After Hitler’s death, Dönitz succeeded him as head of state, presiding over the Flensburg government. In that capacity he directed the signing of Germany’s surrender, effectively marking the end of the war in Europe. He then continued as president of Germany and supreme commander of the armed forces until the Allies dissolved the cabinet.
His affiliation with the Nazi party and unwavering support for Hitler cast a dark shadow over his legacy. Tried at Nuremberg as a primary war criminal, he faced charges of conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Acquitted of crimes against humanity, he was found guilty of the other charges and served ten years in Berlin’s Spandau prison. After his release in 1956 he moved to a small town near Hamburg, and two years later published his autobiography, Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days, in which he claimed he had no knowledge of Hitler’s crimes.
He died in 1980 after a prolonged illness. Gerd von Rundstedt’s career followed a different course. He served as a staff officer during World War I, reached the rank of colonel general, and retired in 1938. Called back to duty for the invasion of Poland, he led Army Group South.
He briefly lost his command in December 1941 for allowing a retreat at Rostov but was reinstated as commander-in-chief in the West in 1942. When the Allies landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944, von Rundstedt and Erwin Rommel were assigned to contain the invasion. Von Rundstedt soon realized the futility of the effort and began advocating for peace. After a failed counterattack near Caen on July 1, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel asked him for a solution.
Von Rundstedt’s famous retort was blunt: make peace, you fools, what else can you do. He was removed from command the following day. Recalled again as commander-in-chief in the West in September, he held the position until Hitler dismissed him in March 1945. On May 1, the day after Hitler’s suicide, troops from the 36th Infantry Division took him prisoner.
During interrogation he suffered a heart attack. The British charged him with war crimes relating to the invasion of the Soviet Union, primarily for assisting von Reichenau’s Severity Order, which led to mass murders in occupied Soviet territory. Because of his advanced age and deteriorating health, he was never tried and was released in 1948. He retired to Schloss Oppenhausen in Lower Saxony, where he remained troubled by heart conditions until his death on February 24, 1953.
Albert Kesselring, known as Smiling Albert for his pleasant demeanor, held one of the most diverse careers of the war. He started in World War I, continued through the Weimar Republic, and shifted to the Luftwaffe in 1935. A year later he became a lieutenant general and chief of the general staff of the Luftwaffe. He led air forces in Poland and France and played a crucial part in the Battle of Britain.
After the attack on the Soviet Union he became commander-in-chief South. Following the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943, Kesselring devised a defensive strategy that delayed Allied victory for over a year. He became commander-in-chief West in March 1945 but could not stop the Allied push into Germany, ultimately surrendering the southern German forces on May 7, 1945. He remained loyal to Hitler throughout his career.
In October 1945 the Allies called him as a witness in their war crimes trial, but two years later a British military court in Venice convicted him. He was found guilty of ordering the execution of 335 Italian civilian hostages at the Ardeatine caves in March 1944, in retaliation for an Italian partisan attack on German soldiers. Initially sentenced to death on May 6, 1947, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was pardoned and released in 1952 because of declining health, after which he became involved in numerous veterans associations.
He died in 1960. Erich von Manstein is widely regarded as one of the most skilled commanders of the war. He began World War II as chief of staff to von Rundstedt during the invasion of Poland in 1939. Manstein devised the bold plan to invade France through the Ardennes Forest, a strategy initially ignored by the German High Command but later embraced enthusiastically by Hitler.
After commanding an infantry corps in the French assault and becoming a general in June 1940, Manstein led the 56th Panzer Corps in the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, nearly capturing Leningrad. He then took command of the 11th Army on the southern front, capturing 430,000 Soviet prisoners and resisting the ensuing Soviet counter-offensive. His capture of Sevastopol in July 1942 resulted in his promotion to field marshal. Despite efforts to relieve the encircled Sixth Army at Stalingrad between 1942 and 1943 and recapturing Kharkov in February 1943, he was forced to retreat and dismissed by Hitler in March 1944.
Captured by the British in 1945, he stood trial for war crimes, was acquitted of the most serious charges, and remained imprisoned until released for health reasons in 1953. He later advised the West German government on army organization and published his memoirs, Lost Victories, before his death in 1973. The fates of these commanders were as varied as their careers. Keitel and Jodl were executed.
Dönitz served his sentence and returned to private life. Von Rundstedt and Manstein escaped punishment due to age and health. Kesselring was pardoned.
But together their trials established a lasting principle: the highest military ranks were no protection from accountability for the orders they gave and the wars they fought.