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9 unusual facts about Wilhelm Keitel


Feldjägerkorps

This corps was formed into three Feldjäger Commands (I, II and III), which reported directly to Field Marshal Keitel, and was senior to all other military police organizations.

Hans-Georg von Friedeburg

He later signed on behalf of the Kriegsmarine, in Berlin on 8 May 1945, along with Colonel General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff for the Luftwaffe and Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel for the Wehrmacht, an instrument of surrender in the presence of Marshal Georgy Zhukov for the Red Army and other Allied representatives.

Hostages Trial

One common line of defense of the accused was the Plea of Superior Orders: they stated that they were only following orders from higher up, in particular from Hitler and Field Marshal Keitel.

Oskar von Niedermayer

Thus Niedermayer turned down on 25 May 1941 again personally to Wilhelm Keitel (1882–1946), the chief of OKW.

Wilhelm Keitel

He soon faced the International Military Tribunal (IMT), which indicted him on all four counts before it: conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

His eldest son, Karl-Heinz Keitel went on to serve as a divisional commander in the Waffen-SS.

Keitel's brother, General Bodewin Keitel, an infantry general in the Army High Command (OKH), was captured by Allied forces in 1945 and released in 1947.

General Ludwig Beck complained that he was incapable of giving Hitler the reality of the situations and was an extremely poor tactician whose decisions were motivated more by ensuring his own survival rather than the troops; Marshal Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist labeled him as nothing more than a "stupid follower of Hitler" and most commanders went out of his way to ignore his orders.

Wound Badge

While Field Marshal Keitel and Colonel-General Jodl for example did wear their 20 July wound badges on their tunics, other recipients preferred to wear their regular wound badges.


Bodewin Keitel

As Keitel learned over the radio from the failed attack, he returned immediately back to Gdansk, could only be confirmed by phone from his brother Wilhelm Keitel"?title=Hasso von Boehmer">Boehmer was taken before the People's Court and executed in 1945.

Carpatho-Ukraine

In the evening of March 13, Jozef Tiso (the Slovak leader) and Ďurčanský met German leader Adolf Hitler, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Generals Walther von Brauchitsch and Wilhelm Keitel in Berlin.

Hans-Georg von Seidel

On the morning of 4 June 1942 at Immola airfield near Imatra, Seidel was the first German general to arrive, followed within a few hours by Generaloberst Hans-Jürgen Stumpff, Generaloberst Eduard Dietl, and then Feldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel who accompanied Hitler.

War crimes trials

Among the accused were the Nationalist Socialist leaders Hermann Göring and Rudolf Hess, the diplomat Joachim von Ribbentrop, the munitions maker Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder and 18 other military leaders and civilian officials.

Wilhelm Burgdorf

Burgdorf had been instructed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel to offer Rommel a choice – take poison, receive a state funeral, and obtain immunity for his family and staff, or face a trial for treason.


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