On the 2nd of September 1944, German Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel, head of Oberkommando der Heeres (OKH), ordered that "Malingerers and cowardly shirkers, including officers" should be executed immediately.

On the 2nd of September 1944, German Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel, head of Oberkommando der Heeres (OKH), ordered that "Malingerers and cowardly shirkers, including officers" should be executed immediately.




Keitel was Hitler's yes man in the Army High Command. According to his contemporaries Keitel would not disagree with Hitler on any point.

When, on 8 September 1941, OKW issued its ruthless regulations for the treatment of Soviet POW'S, Canaris wrote to Keitel that under international law the SD should have nothing to do with this matter.

0n this memorandum in Keitel's handwriting, dated 23 September and initialed by him, is the statement: "The objections arise from the military concept of chivalrous warfare.

This is the destruction of an ideology. Therefore I approve and back the measures." Keitel testified at Nuremberg that he really agreed with Canaris and argued with Hitler, but lost.

A quote from the Reprisal Order issued by Field Marshal Keitel instructing that fifty Soviet citizens would be shot for every German soldier killed by Soviet partisans:

One must bear in mind that in the countries affected, human life has absolutely no value...[t]he troops are, therefore, authorised and ordered to take any measures without restriction, even against women and children.

Keitel's defense can be best summed up in his own words:

"I have stated here that I was a loyal and obedient soldier of my Fuehrer. And I do not think that there are generals in Russia who do not give Marshal Stalin implicit obedience.

In the face of the documentary evidence at Nuremberg, Keitel did not deny his connection with these acts.

Rather, his defense relied on the fact that he is a soldier, and on the doctrine of "superior orders," prohibited by Article 8 of the Charter as a defense.

There was nothing in mitigation at Nuremberg. Superior orders, even to a soldier, cannot be considered in mitigation where crimes as shocking and extensive had been committed consciously, ruthlessly, and without military excuse or justification.

The Tribunal found Keitel guilty on all four counts.


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