Execution of Wilhelm Keitel
- Nazi Field Marshal & War Criminal - Nuremberg Trials - World War 2

14 June 2022

Category: High Ranking Nazi Representatives

Wilhelm Keitel was born on the 22nd of September 1882 and the Prussian army as an artillery officer in 1901. During the First World War, Keitel served on the western front as a battery commander and then staff officer. Following World War I, the terms of the Treaty of Versailles reduced the Reichswehr – the German Army - to 100,000 men. He played a crucial role in the German rearmament as in this capacity, Keitel was responsible for secretly planning, reorganizing, and eventually enlarging the German army in direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles.

After the Nazis came into power in January 1933, Wilhelm Keitel was appointed the head of the Armed Forces Office at the Reich Ministry of War overseeing the army, navy, and air force in 1935. After the Ministry of War was abolished in 1938, it was replaced by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces with Adolf Hitler becoming Commander-in-Chief and Keitel its Chief of Staff. World War 2 started on the 1st of September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Wilhelm Keitel was involved in planning of the invasion and was fully aware of its criminal nature as mass arrests, population transfers and mass murders had been planned long before.

Battle of France

The German invasion of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands started on the 10th of May 1940 and became known as the Battle of France. These countries, along with France were conquered within 6 weeks. In order to humiliate France, Hitler ordered the document of armistice to be signed in the same railcar in which the representatives of then defeated Germany signed the armistice at the end of the First World War. The document was signed on the 22nd of June 1940 by General Keitel for Germany and General Huntziger for France. Shortly after, Wilhelm Keitel was promoted to the rank of field marshal.

From April 1941, Keitel issued a series of criminal orders allowing the execution of Jews, civilians and non-combatants for any reason. He also drafted the "Night and Fog" decree that authorized the nighttime arrests and secret killings of suspected members of the resistance and signed orders authorizing reprisals against the families of Allied volunteers. In the summer of 1944, Wilhelm Keitel took part in the persecution of the conspirators who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler on the 20th of July, 1944 - 20 July plot. It was Wilhelm Keitel who on the 8th of May 1945 in Berlin signed the German Instrument of Surrender which was the legal document that effected the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany on all fronts and ended World War II in Europe

Nuremberg Trials

In the end, justice finally caught up with Keitel when he was arrested by the allies and tried at the Nuremberg Trials which were held against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity. On the 1st of October 1946 the International Military tribunal found Wilhelm Keitel guilty on all four counts and sentenced him to death by hanging. He was executed by American Army sergeant John C. Woods. He was 64 years old. There were no tears shed for Wilhelm Keitel.

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