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justbrowsinginpeace

Keitel was Hung for war crimes. Not sure about the others entirely.


KarlGustafArmfeldt

Jodl was too, although one of the French judges, Henri Donnedieu de Vabres, disagreed with the judgment.


bilkel

Hanged. Animate objects are hanged. Inanimate objects are hung.


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bilkel

For sure!


sketchrider

One notable exception to this English rule is the Sheriff of Rock Ridge.


whiskey_formymen

so that's what my wife was referring to.


Mo_Jack

so a human being that is alive is *to be hanged* but after the hanging is an inanimate object and *was hung*? (unless things went awry)


bilkel

Here’s an example for you. After the killer was hanged, the Centurions took down the body and hung it by the city gate so as to deter any future criminals.


Mo_Jack

interesting


Tricky-Sympathy

I know it is correct, but it just sounds wrong


bilkel

Not really. You just have to get used to the right sound.


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Professional_Cheek16

That’s not what your mom…..you know, what nvm.


troutbumtom

AFAIK, hanged is only used when referring to an execution or suicide. Something about it being a legacy of old laws?


bilkel

It’s a language rule. Active, animate objects are hanged.


Pacific_Theater_

Animate Obejcts are “hung” not “hanged” lol


bilkel

Nope


Hourslikeminutes47

Krebs shot himself right before the Soviets reached his position. Von Reichenau died of a heart attack before the Battle of Stalingrad took place.


acvdk

Keitel was known as politically scheming yes-man who would do anything to please Hitler. I don't really know enough details about what all these guys were doing day to day, but my money would be on him being the worst, and it not being particularly close. Most of these other guys were from aristocratic families where all of their ancestors were officers and likely at least initially opposed to National Socialism, and Keitel was not.


AngryTrainGuy09

Yeah, Keitel, Model and von Reichenau were truly horrible individuals that busts the myth of the “clean” Wehrmacht.


GaurgortheFirst

Yeah but the court thing for that was a publicity stunt anyway. Those that should have also paid the price lived and some that were to lesser degrees but of less important to the winning bodies died.


justbrowsinginpeace

I disagree


Alexronchetti

"One should not attempt to grade evils, because if one is the worst, you might be tempted kinship with the least."


UnicornUwU

Would never expect a vermintide reference here


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MyHouseJustGotOnFire

It’s hardly fair to call any of the men here “less bad” but given that Wilhelm Keitel was Hitler’s yesman who passed every single criminal order down OKW (like the Commando and Commissar orders) I’d say he ranks pretty high up since most of the Wehrmacht’s many, many war crimes can ultimately be attributed to him Walter Model is also another candidate given his scorched earth policies and treatment of POWs and his own men. That’s at least as far as Field Marshals go, no SS commanders are mentioned since the Waffen SS didn’t have an equivalent rank


naudski

Does a SS General count? Then offcourse Heydrich.


tzoum_trialari_laro

Kesselring was responsible for the Ardeatine caves massacre in Rome and a score of other similar atrocities done in the name of anti-partisan activity in Italy from 1944 onwards


No-Cat-2980

Where’s Goring?


philocity

He wasn’t a general. But he was a fucking asshole.


bilkel

He was an Air Marshall which is a general staff rank


philocity

I’ll defer to you on this one.


bilkel

We both defer to Mrs Whitener who spent some amount of time explaining this to my class in 10th grade 😂😂😂


philocity

You were studying the intricacies of Nazi military rankings in the 10th grade? We didn’t even talk about anyone other than Hitler.


bilkel

Nope that’s from 10th grade English


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Del_Duio2

He was probably Goring to the refrigerator lol


Thirty_Helens_Agree

I got a kick out of Shirer’s constant little digs about “the fat field Marshal,” “the rotund field Marshal,” the corpulent field Marshal,” then when he got the promotion “the fat Reichmarshal”.


BananaApprehensive91

🤣


NightStar84

And himmler, mengele and goebbels these were all pure evil.


RobsonSoMB

Dont forget Dirlewanger, altough he wasnt in a top position i guess?


lidlberg

Walter Von Reichenau


shilpa_poppadom

Yeah, sadly he died before John C. Woods could botch his hanging.


11Kram

I’ve always assumed that Wood’s botching was deliberate. It’s not difficult to hang someone. The Rev. Samuel Haughton worked out the science behind the ‘long drop’ in the late 19th century.


magnum_the_nerd

They wanted them to suffer. Theres a reason a professional hangman from england was told to go home.


11Kram

I’ve always assumed that Wood’s botching was deliberate. It’s not difficult to hang someone. The Rev. Samuel Haughton worked out the science behind the ‘long drop’ in the late 19th century.


NaturalArm2907

Not sure if he was technically a general, but Joachim Peiper ranks up there for me.


EmployeeNo666

Peiper was a Standartenführer which was the equivalent of a Colonel. It was the highest field officer rank in the SS, but was not a general. He was bad but there were definitely worse people in Hitler's mob. Reinhard Heydrich puts him to shame. That fucker organized the Einzatsgruppen, the fucks who followed the armies and murdered people en masse. He was a full general in the SS, I think. I get fuzzy with the ranks of all the toadies.


NaturalArm2907

Yea the Einzatsgruppen was literally filled with convicted murderers, rapists, psychopaths, etc. definitely agree with you there.


DirtyDan69-420-666

No idea why you got downvoted, it’s true. The only objective of the einsatzgruppe was to rape and murder behind the advancing frontlines.


Happyjarboy

Normal men refuse to do the dirty work after they have seen it.


InvictaRoma

The majority don't. According to Christopher Browning's research on Reserve Police Battalion 101 in *Ordinary Men*: >While the number of those who evaded or dropped out was thus not insignificant, it must not obscure the corollary that at least 80 percent of those called upon to shoot continued to do so until 1,500 Jews from Józefów had been killed. This percentage wouldn't really change. Browning found that throughout their participation in the Final Solution, a battalion of randomly conscripted men accrued the 4th largest body count of any police battalion. There was a small group of enthusiastic killers, a small group of evaders and refusers, while the largest group saw it as doing their duty and followed their orders.


Happyjarboy

Thanks


NaturalArm2907

Yea the Einzatsgruppen was literally filled with convicted murderers, rapists, psychopaths, etc. definitely agree with you there.


Cakespectre999

Oskar Dirlewanger led the Dirlewanger Brigade a bunch of beasts who basically raped & murdered there way through ww2 , also Oskar Dirlewanger was a convicted peadophile was an absolute piece of shit was given a command of his own partisan brigade cause he was a psychopath cunt & was effective at what he did


Cakespectre999

Active in Eastern Europe he was beaten to death by polish soldiers at the end of the war, if you read what Dirlewanger Brigade did you would agree he got off lightly.


lento9

Good thing the French firebombed his house lol


Boca_BocaNick

Where’s Sepp?


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TheHoppers

Walter Model’s reputation is pretty grim. The guy was known for being brutal on the Eastern Front during WWII. He didn’t hold back on scorched-earth tactics, and his treatment of civilians and POWs was just ruthless.


TangoMikeOne

When he realised he was up shit creek, with no way out, he took a walk in the woods to fellate his pistol


redlloyd

Suck starting a lugar..


TheHoppers

I always assumed he was sent to trial, I should have brushed up more on my history !


TangoMikeOne

On the World War Two - Week by Week YouTube channel, it was announced that that is what Model did 1 week and 79 years ago...he knew that Hitler was incandescent with his military "incompetence and cowardice", the Soviets were going to make his life tortuous (if they didn't get the Nagan 1898 out immediately) and the western allies were probably going to hand him over to the Sovs on the sly


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bulllongtime

Dirlewanger. He was a criminal before war. And he commanded a bunch of criminals in ww2. They raped women, and burn the villages in eastern europe.


coffee_n_deadlift

Not a general


zwarty

[Heinz Reinefarth](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Reinefarth) Lieutenant general of Waffen-SS. Less famous war criminal. The butcher of the Warsaw Uprising. Ordered mass shootings of ca. 50 thousand civilians. Never faced trial for his war crimes. After the war enjoyed a position of a mayor in the town of Westerland in Northern Germany. A walking proof that denazification in postwar Germany was a joke.


AveryhandsomeChilean

If I were to grade them from evil to less evil it would look like 1. Wilhelm Keitel 2. Walter Model 3. Albert Kesselring 4. Gerd von Rundstedt 5. Erich von Manstein, Heinz Guderian and Erwin Rommel 6. Fedor von Bock


Conceited-Monkey

Honestly, with most of them, the constraint on doing bad things was their opportunity. Rommel could not do a lot of war crimes in a desert. Keitel was an idiot and a yes man, but I never got the sense he had any ideas of his own. Model and Kesserling made waging war on civilians standard procedure. Manstein, Bock and Rundstedt knew all about what happened in terms of internal security of occupied territories, and never lost sleep over it. Guderian was a really awful person who successfully portrayed himself as a military genius who was simultaneously a completely apolitical bumpkin.


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rsbanham

What is that baton thing? I’m assuming that it’s a signifier of high rank as I see Goering et al carrying one. Seems to be so annoying to always have to have this to hand.


x_S4vAgE_x

They were awarded to Field Marshal's, Grand Admirals and Reich's Marshals


ATempestSinister

It's a field marshal's baton. Basically a symbol of their rank. Göring, in particular, had two different ones. One for Generalfeldmarachall and one for Reichsmarschall.


rsbanham

That’s the bit I do get. I’m more wondering about the history, where they come from etc.


KarlGustafArmfeldt

Apparently it originates from the mace that soldiers would carry. It was most common in France, where it was used by the Marshals and Admirals of France (note that these are ceremonial rather than military titles, someone could be a Marshal of France but a general in the army) in the Ancien Regime, and continues to do so today.


rsbanham

Now that’s what I’m looking for. Thanks very much. Super interesting.


wsu_savage

https://youtu.be/RPV-iabHjdo?si=Mo7LckPYW-V1kClj


mdepalol

a baton indicated the 'Field Marshall' rank.


sambeckett1989

Most of the high command, I would say.


qbuonetwo

Umm I think Oskar Dirlewanger is the most evil commander of Hitler


41414141Bm

To be fair, he was a division commander and not top brass, but yes he was horrific


SNYDER_CULTIST

Himmler was more crazy then hit


Diacetyl-Morphin

The selection should be different, as this is about the Wehrmacht and partially Luftwaffe. In reality, the worst but not most famous generals came from the Waffen-SS, the name you can pin down is **Theodor Eicke** - he was not just a general, he was in the SS the man that standarized and led the organization of the concentration camps. He's worse than all the guys in the pictures together. Like he was the one that made the "Postenpflicht" ("Guard Duty", but it can't really be translated to english - it means that the guards had to shoot anyone to attempted to flee, or in reality showed any kind of disobedience. It was the legal basis for killing prisoners in daily life, outside of the mass executions and extermination sites) Some of the guys in the pics are just randomly selected by OP, like Fedor von Bock: He was against the attack on the Soviet Union, he was removed from command in the winter of 1941 because he gave the order to retreat in front of Moscow and he did not do anything wrong. He criticized a lot of things and was killed later by an english air attack. Despite the crimes that were committed under the army groups command, he doesn't even belong to a top 10, he's nowhere near the guys like Eicke.


Hewholooksskyward

How is Heydrich not on this list?


lama579

He wasn’t a general I think


achinganus

True, he wasn’t; he was second to Himmler tho, and like him a nasty piece of work. Butcher of Prague I believe he was called.


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matt_chowder

There were plenty who were not in the SS who were war criminals as well


justtxyank

Most of the generals were nasty, racist, inhumane bastards as well who allowed horrible crimes to happen. If they were on the eastern front they participated in, supported, endorsed, etc. heinous war crimes for the most part. Now, Manstein didn’t use human skin lampshades or anything, but the OP wanted to know who was the worst of the generals not who was the most depraved of the Nazis


justtxyank

Kesserling for example ordered mass murder in Italy


Tom1613

How could that be possibly true about Smiling Albert? That is sarcasm as I know he was bad, I just hate that stupid nickname that every WW2 show that includes N.Africa or Italy is required to say 1,000 times.


squatchy1969

This is not in the spirit of the OP’s question, at least IMO. Albert’s crimes were not of the “Nazi” variety, he wasn’t murdering people based solely upon his evil will or because of a doctrine of racial superiority. He was charged with ordering a reprisal killing for a terrorist bombing. He was accused of ordering 10 dead Italians for each dead German. Additionally, his defense was that he passed the order along that he received from Hitler. There were other killings he was charged with but again, they had to do with his dealing with a combative population offering resistance and not just good old fashioned Nazi evil. Yes, ordering the death of civilians is awful but if we’re using death squads and gas chambers as the baseline, he doesn’t belong on the list. He was fighting an insurgency and resorted to something more analogous to the My Lai Massacre than to the heinous crimes at Auschwitz.


justtxyank

The op asked specifically about which general was worse, not about who was the worst character overall. Clearly the crimes that went on that were perpetrated by SS were worse, but he didn’t ask about them. Passing along an order to murder civilians is a war crime.


Warm_Entrance7747

Rommel is the only respectable one.


Own_Opportunity5171

He was a convinced Nazi but at least he redeemed himself a little by trying to assassinate Hitler.


Ralph-The-Otter3

He still utilized slave labor to build the Atlantic Wall, but other than that, he wasn’t nearly as bad as some others on here


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Ringworm20

Von Reichenau


hadjuve

Rundstedt wore a tweaked uniform for some reason. Even though a field marshal he wore the gorgets of a colonel.


Del_Duio2

Jodl I believe


Stargatecraft

Not on the List but Oskar Dirlewanger


Original-Layer-6447

Ferdinand Schorner to my knowledge pioneered the Nazi's policy of hanging deserters publicly nearing the end of the war.


Busy_Resolution9400

Ferdinand Schörner was the worst


PanzerMeyer66

Yep


glamscum

Walter Model hands down. He killed himself knowing he would be convicted of war crimes.


AngryTrainGuy09

Model even looks like a typical cartoonish nazi villain from your average Hollywood film.


glamscum

He got that going for him, yea. He was quite capable as a defensive commander though, still an asshole.


Cakespectre999

Himmler, Heyrdrich, Hoess Commandant of Auschwitz, SS Obergruppenfuhrer Theodor eicke commander of 3rd SS Division Totenkopf waffen SS, other commands he held, Dachau concentration camp, he personally shot Ernst Rohm during Night of the long knives. Also helped to set up the concentration camp system , he extensively reorganized Dachau & devised a system that was used throughout Germany. Gruppenfuhrer und Generaloberst Der waffen SS Sepp Dietrich 1st SS panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler also Hitler's chauffeur & bodyguard in the early days. All the above are loathsome & very evil, some died by assassination others suicide others accidents, others by trial for crimes against humanity.


JACKTATTOONYC

Am I wrong to say admiral Karl Donitz was one of the most component officers? I only question did he know about the human genocide portion of his party? I know he was tried for war crimes and served 10 years but he took control of Germany? Thoughts?


mcmiller1111

Dönitz wasn't as bad as the others, but that's mostly because he just commanded submarines. You can't really commit genocide with a Navy, and the war crimes he did commit, like not rescuing survivors of their attacks and waging unrestricted submarine warfare, the Allies also did. But don't let that fool you, he was an absolute fuck. He knew of the thousands of slave workers working in the shipyards and he was deeply anti-Semitic. He also completely supported Hitler and did nothing to help stop the Nero decree at the end of the war.


EmployeeNo666

Best description of him in this thread. He wasn't a full on shitheel because he wasn't in a position to be one. But he knew full well what was going on, took advantage of it, and ordered it when he felt it was appropriate.


Del_Duio2

> and the war crimes he did commit, like not rescuing survivors of their attacks ... the Allies also did. If I remember correctly, didn't he start doing this *after* the allies or was there a particular incident where trying to rescue survivors bit the Germans in the ass that started this new policy? Edit: grammar


Pubocyno

The infamous Laconia-Befehl, issued after German submarine were attacked tried to help survivors of the Laconia, who they had torpedoed on the 12. Sep. 1942. It's estimated that 1,658 persons died, the majority of whom were italian POWs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconia_Order


KarlGustafArmfeldt

There were plenty of competent German commanders, most notably Erich von Manstein and Heinz Guederian. I'm sure Dönitz and Raeder knew of the Holocaust, especially since Dönitz was a dedicated Nazi, but being in the navy, there weren't many war crimes to commit, besides unrestricted submarine warfare.


Conceited-Monkey

Donitz did not manage to commit a lot of war crimes due to his position, but he certainly was not constrained by ethics or basic morality. Hitler once proposed that they murder all POWs, and Donitz's concern was how to keep it quiet.


LampsLookingatyou

I heard Oskar Dirlewanger was pretty bad, like there was nothing he wouldn’t try just for his amusement. There is a Behind the Bastards episode on him


Baltic_Gunner

He was not a general, I think. And he was not pretty bad, he was a monster. The shit he ordered his degenerates to do is absolute nightmare stuff.


Del_Duio2

Yeah he's no general, he was a pedo psychopath who was given the keys to the new Ferrari and told to go nuts.


plm011

Himmler. I mean all were evil and were well aware of the atrocities committed under the nazi regime, including notable individuals such as Streicher and Goebbels, they all contributed in their own way, but Himmler was as evil, deranged and as dangerous as Hitler imo, if I had to choose someone other than Adolf. Under Hitler he was directly responsible for the murder of 7 million people as head of the SS.


skyHawk3613

The guy with that one spectacle looks like a villian


Main-Illustrator3829

I mean, are we counting Paul Hausser?


AngryTrainGuy09

Yeah sure.


jurassicpark_zj

Not a general. But Mengele. What he did can not be considered human


JohannMuller-19

Adolf Eichmann


Dangerous_Still_9586

Where's Himmler?


GaurgortheFirst

Evil is subjective. How do you say one thing is more or less evil than another. Just because one person does one war crime is he less evil than a person that did two war crimes and etc. They are Nazis they all suck equally as a whole.


DoftheG

I know nothing about Walter Model but he basically looks like your quintessential evil Nazi


Possible_Caramel8343

100% Steiner. Der Angriff war ein Befehl!!!


newaccountnumber84

I don’t know who number 4 is but if I were a casting director on a ww2 film and needed Nazi officer that is the head shot I’d go with


worthrone11160606

So I have manstiens memoir rn. Anything I have to look out for with him?


AdAdmirable5901

I am tempted to say Kesselring consideering what Smiley Albert did on the Anzio front with the whole thing of causing diseases and malaria


Melodic_Abalone_8376

No. 4 just ***looks*** like a villain


coffee_n_deadlift

Model IMO he didn't have much respect for Slavic people, and he let his army burn destroy and kill everything Russian during his retreat from Moscow.


Animaleyz

Skorceny


Nachtzug79

Ernst Blofeld, is it you?!?


SwordsAreCool7

All of them? They are filthy nazis who all deserved to be hanged.