The Execution of German GENERAL Anton Dostler in World War II

Nazi General Anton Dostler executed by a firing squad, Italy, 1945



Dostlertrial.jpg


Dostler's body immediately after the execution

Anton Dostler (Munich, May 10, 1891 – Aversa, December 1, 1945) was a general of the infantry in the regular German Army during World War II. In the first Allied war trial after the war, Dostler was found guilty of war crimes and executed by a firing squad.
General Dostler ordered and oversaw the unlawful execution of fifteen captured US Soldiers. The soldiers were sent behind the German lines with orders to demolish a tunnel that was being used by the German army as a supply route to the front lines. They were captured and upon learning of their mission, Dostler ordered their execution without trial. The US soldiers were wearing proper military uniforms and carried no civilian or enemy clothing and were in compliance with Hague Convention to be considered non-combatants after their surrender. Under the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, it was legal to execute “spies and saboteurs” disguised in civilian clothes or enemy uniforms but excluded those who were captured in proper uniforms. Since fifteen U.S. soldiers were properly dressed in U.S. uniforms behind enemy lines and not disguised in civilian clothes or enemy uniforms, they were not to be treated as spies but prisoners of war, which Dostler violated. They shot the Americans and buried them in a ditch by their field headquarters.
The general was convicted and sentenced to death by an American Military Tribunal. The trial found General Dostler guilty of war crimes, rejecting the defense of superior orders. He was sentenced to death and shot by a firing squad on December 1, 1945 in Aversa. The execution was photographed on black and white still and movie cameras.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OGudZ-K5Xs

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vegetarian Hitler and the German Generals at Breakfast

Image
.. Vegetarian Hitler and the German Generals at Breakfast .. Towards the end of his life  Adolf Hitler  followed a  vegetarian  diet. It is not clear when he adopted it, since some accounts of his dietary habits prior to the  Second World War  indicate that he consumed meat as late as 1937. By 1938, Hitler's public image as a vegetarian was already being fostered and from 1942 he self-identified as a vegetarian. .. Adolf Hitler's Vegetarianism: Last Surviving Food Tester, Margot Woelk, Confirms Meat-Free Lifestyle After decades of silence, 95-year-old Margot Woelk, thought to be the  last surviving member of the team tasked with testing Adolf Hitler's food for poisons , has come forward with new details about the infamous figure. In an interview with the U.K. publication The Times, Woelk described  tasting the Fuhrer's meals  between 11 a.m. and noon before the dishes were driven to Nazi headquarters, known as the Wolf's Lair...
Read more

Heinrich Himmler's personal life and wife, Margarete

Image
Slaughter: Bodies at liberated Dachau, bottom right Born in 1900, he was at secondary school when the First World War broke out. A diary entry reveals his patriotism: “Gebhard turns 17 today and joins the “Landsturm” (militia). I wish I was the right age.  Family fiend: With wife, two kids and pal Warmonger: In uniform .. JERUSALEM — When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the wife of Heinrich Himmler, chief of the Nazi Gestapo sent him a message: “There is a can of caviar in the ice box. Take it.”  nazi Heinrich Himmler Un télégramme envoyé par le nazi Heinrich Himmler, l’un des plus hauts dignitaires du Troisième Reich, adressé au Grand Mufti de Jérusalem Hadj Amin al-Husseini, a été retrouvé dans les archives de la Bibliothèque nationale d’Israël.
Read more

The Surrender of Napoléon Bonaparte to the British in 1815

  At around 7:30 in the evening of Sunday, 18 June 1815, Napoléon ordered his army to launch one final, desperate assault on the Anglo-Allied troops who stood between him and the town of Waterloo. His objective was to break through Wellington's defences before the growing pressure from the Prussian troops arriving on the battlefield on his right flank grew too much to bear. The Emperor personally rode alongside his Imperial Guard as its band played patriotic tunes until he was some 500 metres away from the British lines. He then sent them on their way and rode back south to await the results of his attack. It was an utter failure. The French troops, including the previously-unbeatable Guard, were hurled back in disarray. Their retreat spread panic among the rest of the army, and soon almost all of them (with the famous exception of the unit commanded by Marshal Cambronne) were fleeing headlong from the battle. Napoléon himself made a hasty exit, accompanied by a handful of companio...
Read more