War Criminals



 

Karl Adolf Eichmann

1906-1962
 
Austrian Nazi. As an  SS official during Hitler’s regime (1933-1945), he was responsible for atrocities against Jews and others, including the implementation of genocide.
 
He managed to escape at the fall of Germany 1945, but was discovered in Argentina 1960, abducted by Israeli agents,        tried in Israel 1961 for war crimes, and executed.
 
 


Yosuke Matsuok

1880-1946
 
Japanese politician, foreign minister 1940-41. A fervent nationalist, Matsuoka led Japan out of the League of Nations when it condemned Japan for the seizure of Manchuria.
 
As foreign minister, he allied Japan with Germany and Italy. At the end of World War II, he was arrested as a war criminal but died before his trial.
 


Walter Richard Rudolf Hess

1894-1987
 
German Nazi leader. Imprisoned with Hitler 1923-25, he became his private secretary, taking down Mein Kampf from
his dictation.
 
In 1932 he was appointed deputy Fuhrer to Hitler. On 10 May 1941 he landed by air in the UK with compromise peace
proposals and was held a prisoner of war until 1945, when he was tried at Nuremberg as a war criminal and sentenced
to life imprisonment.
 
He died in Spandau prison, Berlin. He was effectively in charge of the Nazi party organization until his flight 1941. For the last years of his life he was the only prisoner left in Spandau.
 


Hermann Wilhelm Goering

1893-1946
 
Nazi leader, German field marshal from 1938. He was part of Hitler's inner circle, and with Hitler's rise to power in 1933, he established the Gestapo and concentration camps.
 
Appointed successor to Hitler in 1939, he built a vast economic empire in occupied Europe, but later lost favour and was expelled from the party in 1945.
 
Tried at Nuremberg for war crimes, he poisoned himself before he could be executed. Goering was born in Bavaria.
He was a renowned fighter pilot in World War 1 and joined the Nazi party in 1922. He was elected to the Reichstag
in 1928 and became its president in 1932.  As commissioner for aviation he built up the Luftwaffe. In 1936 he took charge of the 4 year plan for war.


Klaus Barbie

1913-1991
 
German Nazi, a member of the SS from 1936. During World War II he was involved in the deportation of Jews from
the occupied Netherlands 1940-42 and in tracking down Jews and Resistance workers in France 1942-45.
 
He was arrested 1983 and convicted of crimes against humanity in France 1987. His work as SS commander, based
in Lyon, included the rounding-up of Jewish children from an orphanage at Izieu and the torture of the Resistance
leader Jean Moulin.
 
His Ruthlessness during this time earned him the epithet Butcher of Lyon. Having escaped capture 1945, Barbie was
employed by the US intelligence services in Germany before moving to Bolivia in 1951. He was expelled from
there in 1983 and returned to France. He was tried by a court in Lyon.  He died in prison.
 



 

Erich Raeder

1876-1960
 
German admiral. Chief of Staff in World War I, he became head of the navy 1928, but was dismissed by Hitler in 1943 because of his failure to prevent Allied Arctic convoys from reaching the USSR.
 
Sentenced to life imprisonment at the Nuremberg trials of war criminals, he was released 1955 on grounds of ill health.


Rudolf Hoess

1900 - 1947
 
German Commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp from 1940 - 1943.  Under his control more than 2.5 million
people were exterminated.
 
He was arrested by allied millitary police in 1946 and handed over to the Polish authorities.  They tried him as a war criminal and executed him in 1947.
 
 



 

Alfred Jodi

1892 - 1946
 
German General.  In World War Two he drew up the Nazi Governments plan for the attack on Yugoslavia, Greece and
the USSR.
 
In January 1945 he became Chief of Staff and headed the delegation that signed Germany's surrender in Reims on 7           May 1945.
 
He was tried as a war criminal in Nuremberg and hanged.
 


Ernst Kaltenbrunner

1901 - 1946
 
Austrian Nazi leader.  After the annexation of Austria 1938 he joined Police Chief Himmler's staff and as head of the security police from 1943 was responsible for the murder of millions of Jews and allied soldiers in World War Two.
 
After the war he was tried at Nuremberg as a war criminal and hanged.



 

Joachim Von Ribbentrop

1893 - 1946
 
German Nazi politician and diplomat who was born in Rhineland.  He joined the Nazi party in 1932 and acted as           Hitlers adviser on foreign affairs, he was German ambassador to britain 1936 - 1938 and Foreign Minister 1938 - 1945.  During this time he negotiated the non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union.
 
He was tried at Nuremberg as a war criminal in 1946 and hanged.

 


Alfred Rosenberg

 1893 - 1946
 
German politician who was born in Tallinn, Estonia.  He became the chief Nazi idealogist and was Minister for Eastern occupied territories in 1941 - 1944.
 
He was tried at Nuremberg in 1946 as a war criminal and hanged.


Hideki Tojo

1884 - 1948
 
Japanese General and Premier 1941 - 1944  during World War Two.  He was promoted to Chief of Staff of Japan's
Guangdong army in Manchuria 1937, he served as Minister for war from 1940 - 1941.
 
He was held responsible for defeats in the Pacific in 1944 and forced to resign.  After Japan's defeat he was hanged as a war criminal.


Wilheim Keitel

1882 - 1946
 
German Field Marshal in World War Two, Chief of the Supreme Command from 1938 and Hitlers Chief Military Advisor.
 
He signed Germanys unconditional surrender in Berlin on 8 May 1945.
 
He was tried at Nuremberg for war crimes and was hanged.


Ion Antonescu

1882 - 1946
 
Romanian general and politician who headed a Pro-German government during World War Two and was executed for war
crimes in 1946.