During World War II, German field marshals commanded vast armies and held enormous responsibility. But when they crossed Adolf Hitler, they risked everything. Some resisted the dictator and were executed inside German prisons in horrific ways. Others faced justice after the war at Nuremberg.
German field marshals were considered among the best military leaders in the world. Yet several ended their lives at the end of a rope or before firing squads. Their stories reveal the brutal fate that awaited those who fell out of favor with the Nazi regime.
Erwin Rommel rose to fame as a brilliant tank commander. He led German forces in Africa, earning the nickname the Desert Fox. His tactical genius earned him the rank of field marshal. In 1943, Hitler assigned him to oversee construction of the Atlantic Wall, the defensive line meant to repel the Allied invasion of France.
Rommel was confident in Germany early in the war. But after the defeat at Stalingrad, his faith in Hitler began to fade. He discovered the horrors of the concentration camps and the mass killings happening across Europe. He believed Germany would lose the war.
Rommel may have been involved in the July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler. He believed Hitler needed to be arrested and removed so Germany could better manage the war effort. He also hoped peace could be secured with the Allies.
Three days before the bomb exploded at Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair headquarters, Rommel was seriously wounded. A British aircraft strafed his car. He was hospitalized and sent to Germany to recover.
Investigations after the assassination attempt linked Rommel to the conspiracy. Hitler believed Rommel should be eliminated. But there was a problem. Rommel was a hero to the German people. The Nazi propaganda machine had spent years portraying him as a near-saintly figure.
Hitler could not tell the German public that Rommel was a traitor. So he decided to force Rommel to take his own life. The regime would then cover up the truth by claiming he died from his earlier wounds.
Rommel was recovering at his home in Herrlingen with his family. October 14, 1944, was the last day of his life. That morning, his 15-year-old son Manfred arrived home. Manfred had been serving with an anti-aircraft crew nearby and received permission to visit.
The two had breakfast together and walked in the garden. Rommel told his son that two generals would arrive at noon to discuss his future. He knew the meeting would decide his fate. It would either be a treason charge or a dangerous command on the Eastern Front.
Rommel told his son that the enemy in the east was terrifying and that everything else came second. He said he would go east if given the choice.
Shortly before noon, Rommel changed into his favorite Afrika Korps jacket. At around 12 p.m., a dark green car with Berlin license plates pulled up to the house. Two generals, Wilhelm Burgdorf and Ernst Maisel, arrived and asked to speak with Rommel privately.
The generals presented Rommel with an ultimatum. He could go to Berlin to face the People’s Court, which would certainly mean execution. Or he could take a cyanide capsule the generals had brought with them. If he chose suicide, he would receive a state funeral with full military honors, and his family would receive a full pension.
A third option was to go directly to Hitler and defend himself, which terrified Rommel. He chose the cyanide.
Rommel told his son that he had just informed his mother he would be dead within a quarter of an hour. He explained that the house was surrounded and Hitler accused him of treason. The generals had brought the poison, which would kill within three seconds. If he accepted, his family would be left alone.
Manfred asked his father if he believed the promises. Rommel said he believed it was in the regime’s interest to keep the matter quiet. He was ordered to make his son swear silence. If any word leaked out, the agreement would no longer hold.
Manfred asked if he could defend his father with a weapon. Rommel said it was pointless. One man’s death was better than everyone being killed in an armed confrontation. They had almost no ammunition anyway.
Rommel said goodbye to his son and asked him to summon Captain Hermann Aldinger. He told Aldinger that a state funeral would be held in Ulm. Within a quarter of an hour, Aldinger would receive a phone call from a hospital saying Rommel had suffered a brain seizure on the way to a conference.
Rommel walked through the hallway and saw his dog, which jumped on him. He asked his son to lock the dog in the study. Then he left the house where the generals were waiting at the gate.
A group of villagers had gathered to watch. The car was running, and an SS driver opened the door. Rommel shook hands with his son and Captain Aldinger before getting in. The generals sat beside him. The doors closed, and the car drove away.
The driver, Heinrich Doerr, drove a short distance outside the village. He and General Maisel got out, leaving Rommel and Burgdorf inside. After about five minutes, Burgdorf signaled for them to return. Rommel had collapsed in the back seat after taking the cyanide capsule.
To suggest he died of other causes, Rommel was taken to a hospital, but he could not be revived. His son later learned the car had stopped only a few hundred meters from the house, in an open area at the edge of a forest.
About 25 minutes later, the phone rang. Aldinger answered. The caller said Rommel had suffered a brain hemorrhage and died. The official Nazi story was that Rommel died from wounds sustained in the air attack. Hitler declared a day of national mourning. A state funeral was held in Ulm at Rommel’s request.
Hitler did not attend. Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt represented him. Rundstedt did not know Rommel had been killed on Hitler’s orders. The Allies later learned the truth from Rommel’s widow and son.
The truth was darker than the official story. Gestapo agents had been sent from Berlin and were waiting secretly near Rommel’s home, ready to shoot him and raid the house if there was any resistance. The SS driver later claimed Rommel was crying as he died, but this was unlikely. Within three minutes of taking the cyanide, Rommel was dead.
General Wilhelm Burgdorf survived the war but faced the same fate at the end. He died inside Hitler’s bunker. The Nazis took Rommel’s field marshal’s baton and kept it at Hitler’s headquarters. Burgdorf boasted about his role and showed the baton to people. His cap was also taken.
The Nazis forced a doctor to try to revive Rommel as a pretense. One Nazi pointed a gun at the doctor when he initially refused. The doctor knew how Rommel died but was forced to record the cause of death as a heart attack.
Today, Rommel is buried in a large grave in Herrlingen, a short distance from the family home where he was forced to choose his fate. German soldiers, including veterans of the Africa campaign, gathered at his grave on anniversaries of his death.
Wilhelm Keitel was one of the most powerful military officers in Nazi Germany. Throughout most of the war, he worked directly alongside Hitler. He headed the Armed Forces High Command, known as the OKW. After Germany’s surrender, Keitel was tried at Nuremberg and executed by hanging on October 16, 1946.
Keitel was not executed simply for serving Hitler. The International Military Tribunal concluded he played a major role in planning aggressive wars. More importantly, he issued and transmitted criminal orders that contributed to the deaths and mistreatment of prisoners of war, civilians, and resistance fighters across occupied Europe.
Keitel was born in 1882 and became a professional soldier long before Hitler came to power. He served in World War I and remained in the reduced German army allowed by the Treaty of Versailles. In 1938, Hitler reorganized the military command structure and created the OKW. Keitel became its chief.
This position brought Keitel exceptionally close to Hitler. But the OKW did not function as an independent military command capable of restraining the dictator. Hitler increasingly dominated military decisions. Keitel became known among other German generals for his willingness to agree with Hitler. Critics mocked him with the nickname “Lakeitel,” a play on words meaning a servile lackey.
Keitel repeatedly signed and transmitted orders on Hitler’s behalf. This became highly significant after the war. Prosecutors at Nuremberg wanted to prove Keitel deliberately participated in policies that violated the laws and customs of war.
One major charge concerned the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Operation Barbarossa was not planned as an ordinary military campaign. Hitler viewed the war against the Soviet Union as an ideological and racial conflict. The invasion was accompanied by brutal orders that deliberately weakened the usual protections for enemy soldiers and civilians.
The most notorious was the Commissar Order. Soviet political commissars captured with Red Army units were to be killed or executed rather than treated as ordinary prisoners of war. The order was explicitly criminal because it authorized execution without trial. Keitel was part of the command structure through which such policies were implemented.
Another major issue was the treatment of civilians and resistance movements. As German forces occupied vast areas of Europe, partisan warfare became a serious problem. Hitler demanded harsh reprisals. German troops carried out retaliations against hostages and civilian populations. Keitel was directly associated with this policy.
In September 1941, Keitel issued an order concerning resistance to German occupation. The document suggested that the killing of one German soldier could be answered by executing 50 to 100 communists or enemies. Such orders helped create an environment where massive numbers of civilians could be killed in retaliation for resistance attacks.
Keitel was also linked to the infamous Night and Fog decree. Issued in December 1941, this policy aimed to intimidate resistance movements in German-occupied Western Europe. Suspected resisters were secretly abducted and transported to Germany. Their families were deliberately denied information about what happened to them. Some prisoners were tried before special courts, while others ended up in concentration camps. Many died or were simply executed.
Keitel signed directives related to implementing the decree through the armed forces. There were other charges as well. Prosecutors presented evidence concerning the treatment of prisoners of war, captured Allied leaders, and other groups protected by international law.
Hitler’s Commando Order of October 1942 directed German forces to kill Allied commandos found in Europe and Africa, even in circumstances where they could have surrendered and become prisoners of war. Keitel passed this order through the military command system.
After the war, this became an important example of why the defense of “only following orders” was controversial. Keitel was not an ordinary soldier on a battlefield receiving instructions from a shouting officer. He was a field marshal holding one of the highest positions in the entire German military command structure.
When Germany finally surrendered in May 1945, Keitel’s military career ended. He signed the German surrender document in Berlin-Karlshorst on May 8, 1945, on behalf of the German armed forces. He was arrested and became one of the most prominent Nazi political and military figures tried at Nuremberg.
The trial began in November 1945. Keitel faced all four main charges: conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Evidence against him included orders bearing his signature and documents passed through the OKW.
Keitel did not deny the existence of many of these orders. Instead, his central defense was obedience. He presented himself as a professional soldier trapped within Hitler’s dictatorship. He argued that he had sworn an oath of loyalty and that the German military system required him to obey the head of state.
This raised one of the most important questions of the entire Nuremberg trial. Could a soldier escape responsibility for a crime simply because a superior ordered it? The court’s answer was essentially no. Orders from superiors could be considered when judging a person’s circumstances, but they did not automatically absolve personal responsibility.
This principle was especially damaging for Keitel because of his enormous seniority. He was not a junior officer with limited influence. He was a field marshal and chief of the OKW. His signature carried immense authority.
On October 1, 1946, the court issued its verdict. Keitel was convicted on all four counts. The judges concluded he participated in the aggressive war machine and was involved in issuing or transmitting numerous criminal orders. He was sentenced to death by hanging.
For Keitel, the method of execution carried particular humiliation. He considered himself a professional soldier and requested execution by firing squad, traditionally considered a military form of death. His request was denied. The Nuremberg authorities considered the convicted defendants criminals, not soldiers entitled to an honorable military execution.
In the early hours of October 16, 1946, executions began inside the gymnasium of Nuremberg Prison. Ten condemned men were hanged that morning. Hermann Göring, the Reich Marshal, was scheduled to die with them but killed himself hours before his execution.
US Army executioner John C. Woods carried out the hangings. Keitel’s last statement invoked Germany and the German soldiers who died during the war. Then the sentence was carried out. His body was photographed, and like the other executed defendants, it was secretly cremated. The ashes were scattered so the grave could not become a shrine.
Keitel’s fate remains historically significant because the trial addressed a question that extends beyond one German field marshal. How responsible is a military officer for orders issued by political leaders? At Nuremberg, Keitel portrayed himself as merely a soldier whose duty was to obey. But the court concluded that obedience has limits.
His position meant he possessed both knowledge and responsibility. He saw the nature of the regime he served and repeatedly allowed his authority and signature to be used to implement brutal policies. Keitel was not executed merely because Germany lost the war or because he served as one of Hitler’s generals. He was executed because the Nuremberg court found he personally participated in aggressive wars and helped issue and implement orders that violated the laws of war.
Erwin von Witzleben was born in Breslau on December 4, 1881. He was the son of a captain in the Prussian army and came from a long line of military officers and nobles. In his youth, he was part of the Prussian cadet corps and studied at the military academy in Silesia near Berlin.
He joined the Seventh Grenadier Regiment as a lieutenant. He received numerous promotions over the years. He was married with a son and daughter. When World War I broke out, he joined the conflict. He served as an adjutant and later became a company commander. He fought with his unit at Verdun and Flanders.
Witzleben was wounded and received the Iron Cross First and Second Class. After being injured, he was sent for training with the General Staff. He finished the war as a staff officer.
After the war, Germany faced harsh restrictions on its military. The army was limited to 100,000 soldiers. Witzleben remained in the army and advanced through the ranks. He stayed in the military after Hitler seized power and held powerful positions.
When Hitler took control of the German state, Witzleben was transferred to become commander of infantry in Hanover. He was promoted to major general in 1934, then moved to Potsdam as commander of the Third Infantry Division. He was clearly a trusted and respected member of the German army.
But Witzleben was not an enthusiastic Nazi. He opposed Hitler and, along with other generals, demanded an investigation into the deaths that followed the Night of the Long Knives. That was the night when SS units purged the SA and carried out numerous executions.
Hitler sensed Witzleben’s discomfort with the Nazi cause and forced him into early retirement. But he was later called back to military service when Hitler began planning for World War II. He was seen as a competent and skilled general.
Witzleben became part of a group of conspirators known as the Oster Conspiracy. This group included Colonel General Ludwig Beck and military intelligence chief Wilhelm Canaris. They planned to overthrow Hitler early on to prevent a second world war. They felt war was looming after the Sudetenland crisis.
But Hitler was given territory by other nations after the Munich Conference, which left the conspirators in shock. Witzleben would have been an important part of the coup because he would lead his units in Berlin.
In November 1938, Witzleben was commander of Army Group 2 in Frankfurt. He continued to conspire against Hitler and the Nazis. He even planned to consider a direct attack on Nazi headquarters to capture Hitler.
When World War II began with the invasion of Poland, Witzleben was a colonel general and commander of the First Army on the Western Front. After the German invasion of France, his forces broke through the Maginot Line. Within three days, his effective leadership forced several French divisions to surrender.
He received the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross and became a field marshal. Hitler was impressed with his actions and leadership. Witzleben became commander-in-chief of the Western Front, succeeding Gerd von Rundstedt. He left this position for health reasons. Some claim he was forced into retirement again after opposing and criticizing the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.
As the Stauffenberg conspiracy, or the July 20 plot, escalated, Witzleben became involved. He was considered a pivotal figure in the plans to seize power in Germany. The conspirators were trying to kill Hitler with a bomb. They planned to appoint prominent people involved in the conspiracy to positions of power.
Witzleben was to take command of the entire German army as the highest-ranking German officer. He would ultimately be responsible for the war effort and army operations.
When the plot was organized and the date set, things went wrong from Witzleben’s perspective. Stauffenberg was supposed to place a bomb at the Wolf’s Lair. Witzleben was supposed to arrive at the Bendlerblock in Berlin, where the conspiracy headquarters was located. But he arrived late. When he arrived at 8 p.m., it was already clear the coup had failed.
He was furious at the failure and realized how serious his involvement was. He returned to the army high command headquarters in Zossen. But he was arrested the next day at his country home.
Witzleben was expelled from the Wehrmacht and charged with high treason. He was part of the first group of conspirators brought before the court. He was held in very harsh conditions and interrogated by the Gestapo, who reportedly tortured him for information.
Inside the courtroom, he gave the Nazi salute to Roland Freisler, the judge presiding over the court. The judge berated and screamed at the defendants. It was clear what their fate would be.
On August 7, 1944, the same day the trial began, Witzleben was sentenced to death. His last words to the court were: “You can hand me over to the executioner. In three months, the angry and tormented people will call you to account and drag you alive through the dirt of the streets.”
His trial was shown in weekly television newsreels, but Goebbels decided not to show parts of it. He did not want to draw attention to the conspiracy.
Witzleben’s execution was carried out with extreme brutality. Hitler had ordered that the people who tried to kill him face the worst kind of execution. He also ordered the executions to be filmed so he could watch them while recovering from his wounds. He reportedly watched the footage repeatedly.
Witzleben was taken to the execution chamber at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin. As a military officer, he should have faced a firing squad. But he was considered a traitor, so they wanted him to suffer.
On the beam in the execution chamber were a number of meat hooks and a thin hemp rope. Witnesses described it as piano wire. This was incredibly brutal. Piano wire is sharp as a blade. If bodies were dropped from a height using it, it could sever the head because it tears through the neck. It also stopped the flow of blood very quickly.
If the person was not dropped, they were lowered slowly so the wire began to strangle them tightly. As the wire tightened, blood stopped flowing. Sometimes the wire cut through tissue down to the bones of the neck. It was extremely painful, and the ordeal could be stopped and started to ensure maximum suffering.
Many Nazi officers did not dare to watch when this was carried out. It was a horrific sight. Witzleben was hanged inside the execution chamber at Plötzensee Prison using piano wire. His ordeal was carried out in front of a camera. Then Hitler watched it again and again.
Witzleben was an influential and important German military general. He was seen as a strong and successful leader during World War II. But he was dissatisfied with the policies of the Nazi Party and expressed his opinion openly on several occasions.
He was ultimately part of the Claus von Stauffenberg conspiracy. If it had succeeded, it would have given him enormous power. But after it failed, he faced Hitler’s wrath and the justice of the Nazi Party. He was executed in a horrific and painful ordeal inside Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.