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Alfred Jodl

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Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl (Template:IPA; born Alfred Josef Baumgärtler;Template:Sfn 10 May 1890 – 16 October 1946) was a German Army Generaloberst (the rank was equal to a four-star full general) and war criminal, who served as the Chief of the Operations Staff of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht – the German Armed Forces High Command – throughout World War II.

After the war, Jodl was indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression, war crimes, and crimes against humanity at the Allied-organized Nuremberg trials. The principal charges against him related to his signing of the criminal Commando and Commissar Orders. Found guilty on all charges, he was sentenced to death and executed in Nuremberg in 1946.

Early life and career

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File:Bundesarchiv Bild 136-B3513, Süddeutschland, Manöver der 5. und 7. Division.jpg
Alfred Jodl (second from right) as a captain of the Reichswehr with his brother Ferdinand (second from left), 1926

Alfred Jodl was educated at a military cadet school in Munich, from which he graduated in 1910. Ferdinand Jodl, who also became an army general, was his younger brother. He was the nephew of philosopher and psychologist Friedrich Jodl at the University of Vienna.Template:Sfn Jodl was raised Roman Catholic but rejected the faith later in life.<ref>Railton, Nicholas M. "Henry Gerecke and the Saints of Nuremberg." Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, vol. 13, no. 1, 2000, pp. 112–137. Template:JSTOR. Accessed 8 Feb. 2021.</ref>

From 1914 to 1916, he served with a field artillery regiment on the Western Front, being awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class for gallantry in November 1914, and for being wounded in action. In 1917, he served briefly on the Eastern Front before returning to the West as a staff officer. In 1918, he was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class for gallantry in action. After the defeat of the German Empire in 1918, he continued his career as a professional soldier with the much-reduced German Army (Reichswehr).Template:Sfn Jodl married twice: in 1913 and (after becoming a widower) in 1944.Template:Sfn

World War II

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File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R99057, "Wolfsschanze", Adolf Hitler mit Stab.jpg
(front row, from l. to r.) Reichspressechef Otto Dietrich, Wilhelm Keitel, Hitler, Jodl, and Martin Bormann, at the Führer Headquarters of Felsennest, June 1940

Jodl's appointment as a major in the operations branch of the Truppenamt ('Troop Office') in the Army High Command in the last years of the Weimar Republic put him under the command of General Ludwig Beck.Template:Citation needed In September 1939, Jodl first met Adolf Hitler. During the build-up to the Second World War, Jodl was nominally assigned as commander of the 44th Division from October 1938 to August 1939 after the Anschluss.

He was chosen by Hitler to be Chief of the Operations Staff of the newly formed Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) on 23 August 1939, just prior to the German invasion of Poland.Template:Sfn Jodl acted as chief of staff during the invasion of Denmark and Norway. Following the Fall of France, Jodl was optimistic of Germany's success over Britain, writing on 30 June 1940 that "The final German victory over England is now only a question of time."Template:Sfn

Jodl signed the Commissar Order of 6 June 1941 (in which Soviet political commissars were to be shot) and the Commando Order of 28 October 1942 (in which Allied commandos, including properly uniformed soldiers as well as combatants wearing civilian clothes, such as Maquis and partisans, were to be executed immediately without trial if captured behind German lines).

File:Jodl surrender front view.JPG
Jodl, seated between Wilhelm Oxenius and Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, signing the German Instrument of Surrender in Reims, 7 May 1945

Jodl spent most of the war at the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's forward command post in East Prussia. On 1 February 1944, he was promoted to the rank of Generaloberst ('colonel general', a four-star rank). He was among those slightly injured during the 20 July plot of 1944 against Hitler, during which he suffered a concussion.Template:SfnTemplate:Better source

On 6 May 1945, Jodl was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross by Grand admiral Karl Dönitz, who had succeeded Hitler on 30 April 1945 as head of Germany and its armed forces.Template:Sfn

Following regional surrenders of German forces in Europe, Jodl was sent by Dönitz to respond to the demand for "immediate, simultaneous and unconditional surrender on all fronts."<ref>Kershaw, Ian (2012). The End; Germany 1944–45. Penguin. p. 370</ref> Jodl signed the German Instrument of Surrender on 7 May 1945 in Reims on behalf of the OKW.Template:Sfn The surrender to all the Allies was concluded on 8 May in Berlin. On 13 May, on the arrest of Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel, Jodl succeeded him as Chief of OKW.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Trial and conviction

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File:Germany Under Allied Occupation BU6701.jpg
Jodl being arrested by British troops on 23 May 1945, at the Sportschool of the Mürwik Naval School near Flensburg

Jodl was arrested, along with the rest of the Flensburg Government of Dönitz, by British troops on 23 May 1945 and transferred to Camp Ashcan and later put before the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg trials. He was accused of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The principal charges against him related to his signature of the Commando Order and the Commissar Order, both of which ordered that certain classes of prisoners of war were to be summarily executed upon capture. When confronted with the 1941 mass shootings of Soviet POWs, Jodl claimed the only prisoners shot were "not those that could not, but those that did not want to walk".Template:Sfn

Additional charges at his trial included unlawful deportation and abetting execution. Presented as evidence was his signature on an order that transferred Danish citizens, including Jews, to Nazi concentration camps. Although he denied his role in this activity of the regime, the court sustained his complicity based on the evidence it had examined, with the French judge, Henri Donnedieu de Vabres, dissenting.

File:Dead alfredjodl.jpg
Jodl's body after his execution, 16 October 1946

His wife Luise attached herself to her husband's defence team.Template:SfnTemplate:Better source Subsequently, interviewed by Gitta Sereny, researching her biography of Albert Speer, Luise alleged that in many instances the Allied prosecution made charges against Jodl based on documents that they refused to share with the defence. Jodl nevertheless proved that some of the charges made against him were untrue, such as the charge that he had helped Hitler gain control of Germany in 1933.Template:Sfn

Jodl pleaded not guilty "before God, before history and my people". Found guilty on all four charges, he was hanged at Nuremberg Prison on 16 October 1946.Template:SfnTemplate:Better source Jodl's last words were reportedly "I salute you, my eternal Germany" (Template:Lang).Template:Sfn

His remains, like those of the other nine executed men and Hermann Göring (who had killed himself prior to his scheduled execution), were cremated at Ostfriedhof and the ashes were scattered in the Wenzbach, a small tributary of the River IsarTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn to prevent the establishment of a permanent burial site which might be enshrined by Neo-Nazis. A cross commemorating him was later added to the family grave on the Frauenchiemsee in Bavaria. In 2018, the local council ordered the cross to be removed;Template:Sfn however, in March 2019, a Munich Court upheld Jodl's relatives' right to maintain the family grave, while noting the family's willingness to remove his name.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

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On 28 February 1953, after his widow Luise sued to reclaim her pension and his estate, a West German denazification court posthumously declared Jodl not guilty of breaking international law, based on Henri Donnedieu de Vabres's 1949 disapproval of Jodl's conviction.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This not guilty declaration was revoked by the Minister of Political Liberation for Bavaria on 3 September 1953, following objections from the United States; the consequences of the acquittal on Jodl's estate were, however, maintained.Template:Sfn

Promotions

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  • 10 July 1910 Fähnrich (Officer Cadet)
  • 28 October 1912 Leutnant (2nd Lieutenant)
    • 26 September 1919 received new Patent from 28 October 1910
  • 14 January 1916 Oberleutnant (1st Lieutenant) with Patent from
  • 28 September 1921 Rittmeister (Captain) with effect from 1 July 1921
    • 1 February 1922 received Rank Seniority (RDA) from 18 October 1918
    • 30 August 1922 renamed to Hauptmann with effect from 1 October 1922
      • He was initially promoted to cavalry captain (Rittmeister) as he was serving in Fahr-Abteilung 7 in 1920. He rank designation changed to Hauptmann on being accepted as a general staff officer and on return to the artillery branch.
  • 1 February 1931 Major with Rank Seniority (RDA) from 1 May 1929
  • 1 October 1933 Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel)
  • 1 August 1935 Oberst (Colonel)
  • 31 March 1939 Generalmajor (Major General) with effect from 1 April 1939
  • 19 July 1940 Generalleutnant (Lieutenant General) with Rank Seniority (RDA) from 1 July 1940
    • He was simultaneously promoted to Generalleutnant and General der Artillerie on the same day in effect skipping the former rank.
  • 19 July 1940 General der Artillerie with Rank Seniority (RDA) from 1 July 1940
  • 30 January 1944 Generaloberst with Rank Seniority (RDA) from 1 February 1944

Awards and decorations

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References

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Sources

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