3. Alfred Jodl

Position: Chief of Operations of the Wehrmacht (German military)

Alfred Jodl, center, signing the ceasefire with the Western Allies in 1945.

Before the War

Jodl was the son of an army officer and fought in World War I as an artillery officer. He was wounded twice and became disillusioned with the German leadership in the war. Jodl considered leaving the army to become a doctor, but remained in service in the Interwar period.

In 1923, Jodl met Adolf Hitler. Through the 1920s, they worked together to gain influence for the Nazi Party. By 1935, at the rank of major general, he was named the Chief of the National Defense Section in the High Command of the Army. On 11 Mar 1938, he signed the order given by Hitler to invade Austria, then later that year commanded troops in Czechoslovakia during the annexation of that country.

Wartime Role

Between Oct 1939 and the end of the war, he was the Chief of Operations with the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW), making him a key deputy to Wilhelm Keitel. In this role, he was among Hitler's top military advisors, personally involved in the planning of the invasions of Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Greece. He was promoted to the rank of colonel general in Jan 1944.

Jodl often drafted directives for Hitler to sign. On an order dated October 7, 1941, Jodl's signature appears under the directive that Hitler would reject Russia's possible surrender of Moscow and Leningrad in the event of a negotiation; it declared that the cities should be leveled. Some of these orders promoted forced labor—particularly against the civilian populations of Denmark, Holland, France and Belgium. These people were forcefully removed from their homes, families and jobs and were made to work in German factories to create the weapons and ammunition used to fight the Allied forces. A good number of these laborers were mistreated—some to the point of death. Jodl also initialed an order which provided that enemy civilians guilty of offenses against German troops should be killed without a military trial, and that punishment could be waived in the case of German soldiers who committed offenses against enemy civilians.

At the end of the war, Colonel General Jodl signed the instruments of unconditional surrender on 7 May 1945 in Reims, France. Upon signing, he was arrested and transferred to the prisoner of war camp at Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

At the end of the war, Jodl would plea, "It is not the task of a soldier to be the judge of his Commander in Chief."

Jodl with Hitler

Hans Frank in occupied Krakow greets the leaders of German Sonderdienst (Special Forces) in April 1941 at Wawel

Alfred Jodl, in explaining the lack of loyalty from the German General Staff before the war:

"It is tragic that the Führer should have the whole nation behind him with the single exception of the Army generals. In my opinion it is only by action that they can now atone for their faults of lack of character and discipline. It is the same problem as in 1914. There is only one undisciplined element in the Army - the generals, and in the last analysis this comes from the fact that they are arragant. They have neither confidence not discipline because they cannot recognize the Führer's genius."

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