Barbaric execution of Nazi field marshal who ordered German soldiers to kill women & children

Wilhelm Keitel, the eldest son of the landowner Carl Keitel and his wife Apollonia, was born 22 September 1882 in Helmscherode, then part of the German Empire. Keitel was described as a conscientious and diligent officer, who often worked at the expense of his health. In the autumn of 1932, he suffered a heart attack and double pneumonia. In January 1933, when Hitler came into power, Keitel was in a Czechoslovak sanatorium in the High Tatras. From 1935, Keitel served as Chief of Staff to the then Minister of War Werner von Blomberg. On 4th February 1938 Keitel was appointed head of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces or the OKW, which bore responsibility over the army, navy, and air force.
This came as a surprise not only to the General Staff but also to Wilhelm Keitel himself as everyone knew that he was not suitable for the job.
However, Adolf Hitler quickly assumed supreme command of all German armed forces, thus almost immediately superseding Keitel's authority. The Supreme Command of the Armed Forces was in effect Hitler’s military staff. On the 12 March 1938, German troops entered Austria, and one day later, Austria was incorporated into Germany. Thousands turned out to greet Adolf Hitler. For his participation in the annexation, which became known as the Anschluss and which was the Nazi German regime’s first act of territorial aggression and expansion, Wilhelm Keitel was awarded the Anschluss Medal. The Second World War started on the 1st of September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland.

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