Alfred Jodl

Alfred Jodl
Alfred Jodl
Allegiance	German Empire (to 1918) Weimar Republic (to 1933) Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Wehrmacht
Years of service	1910–1945
Rank	Generaloberst
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Relations	Ferdinand Jodl (brother)

Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl (10 May 1890 – 16 October 1946) was a German military commander, attaining the position of Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW) during World War II, acting as deputy to Wilhelm Keitel. At Nuremberg he was tried, sentenced to death and hanged as a war criminal.

Early life

Jodl was born Alfred Josef Ferdinand Baumgärtler in Würzburg, Germany, the son of Officer Alfred Jodl and Therese Baumgärtler, becoming "Alfred Jodl" upon his parents' marriage in 1899. He was educated at Cadet School in Munich, from which he graduated in 1910.

After schooling, Jodl joined the army as an artillery officer. During World War I he served as a battery officer on the Western Front from 1914–1916, twice being wounded. In 1917 Jodl served briefly on the Eastern Front before returning to the west as a staff officer. After the war Jodl remained in the armed forces and joined the Versailles-limited Reichswehr.

Jodl had married Irma Gräfin von Bullion, a woman five years his senior from an aristocratic Swabian family, in September 1913. She died in Königsberg in the spring of 1944 of pneumonia contracted after major spinal surgery. The following November, Jodl married Luise von Benda, a close family friend.

World War II

OWEN IS A WELSH FATTY

Trial and execution

Colonel General Jodl signs the instruments of unconditional surrender in Reims on 7 May 1945

The body of Alfred Jodl after being hanged, 16 October 1946

Jodl was arrested and transferred to Flensburg POW camp and later put before the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg Trials. Jodl 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 prisoners were to be summarily executed. 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 and other civilians, to concentration camps. Although he denied his role in the crime, the court sustained his complicity based on the given evidence.

His wife Luise attached herself to her husband's defense team. 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 defense. 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. Allegedly, he was in one instance aided by a GI clerk who chose to give Luise a document showing that the execution of a group of British commandos in Norway had been legitimate. The GI warned Luise that if she did not copy it immediately she would never see it again; "... it was being 'filed'." Jodl pleaded not guilty "before God, before history and my people". Found guilty on all four charges, he was hanged (with Keitel, on 16 October 1946) although he had asked the court to be executed by firing squad.

Jodl's last words were reportedly "My greetings to you, my Germany." He was declared dead 18 minutes later.

His remains were cremated at Munich, and his ashes raked out and scattered into the Isar River (effectively an attempt to prevent the establishment of a permanent burial site to those nationalist groups who might seek to congregate there—an example of this being Benito Mussolini's grave in Predappio, Italy). A cenotaph in the family plot in the Fraueninsel Cemetery, in Chiemsee, Germany is dedicated to him.

German court decision

On 28 February 1953, the München Hauptspruchkammer (Main denazification court) declared Jodl not guilty of the main charges brought against him at Nuremberg, citing the French co-President of the Tribunal, Henri Donnedieu de Vabres, who had in 1945 called the verdict against Jodl a mistake. His property, which had been confiscated in 1946, was returned to his widow. The declaration was revoked on 3 September 1953 by the Minister of Political Liberation for Bavaria supported by many western allied generals. In any case, this declaration did not affect the verdict of the International Military Tribunal, whose decisions were not subject to review by German courts.

Decorations

• Iron Cross (1914)
  • 2nd Class (20 November 1914)
  • 1st Class (3 May 1918)
• Wound Badge
  • in Black
• Cross of Honor in 1934
• Anschluss Medal
• Sudetenland Medal
• Iron Cross
  • 2nd Class (30 September 1939)
  • 1st Class (23 December 1939)
• Wound Badge of 20 July 1944
  • in Black
• Golden Party Badge (30 January 1943)
• Order of Michael the Brave
  • 3rd Class (23 December 1943)
  • 2nd Class (23 December 1943)
• Order of the Cross of Liberty 1st Class with Swords (25 March 1942)
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
  • Knight's Cross on 6 May 1945 as Generaloberst and Chef des Wehrmachtfuhrungsstabes im OKW
  • 865th Oak Leaves on 10 May 1945 as Generaloberst and Chef des Wehrmachtfuhrungsstabes im OKW und stellv. Chef OKW

Portrayal in the media

Alfred Jodl has been portrayed by the following actors in film and television productions.

• Erik Hell in the 1943 Swedish film Det brinner en eld (There Burned a Flame).
• Vladimir Pokrovsky in the 1949 Soviet epic The Fall of Berlin.
• Boris Svoboda in the 1949 Soviet film The Battle of Stalingrad.
• Jack Baston in the 1951 United States film The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel.
• Otto Schmöle in the 1955 West German film Der Letzte Akt (Hitler: The Last Ten Days).
• Walter Kohler in the 1962 United States film Hitler.
• Wolfgang Lukschy in the 1962 United States film The Longest Day.
• Hannes Messemer in the 1966 French/U.S. film Paris brûle-t-il? (Is Paris Burning?).
• Werner Dissel in the 1969 Russian epic Osvobozhdenie (Liberation).
• Richard Münch in the 1970 United States film Patton.
• August Kowalczyk in the 1971 Polish film Epilog norymberski (Epilogue at Nurnberg).
• Tony Steedman in the 1973 British television production The Death of Adolf Hitler.
• Philip Stone in the 1973 British film Hitler: The Last Ten Days.
• Wolfgang Preiss in the 1979 United States T.V. mini-series Ike.
• Tony Steedman in the 1981 United States television production The Bunker.
• Joachim Hansen in the 1983 United States T.V. series The Winds of War and its 1988 sequel War and Remembrance.
• Bill Corday in the 2000 Canadian/U.S. T.V. production Nuremberg
• Christian Redl in the 2004 German film Downfall (Der Untergang).
• Krasimir Kutzoparov in the 2006 British/U.S. television production Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial.

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000). Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945. Friedburg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 3-7909-0284-5.
• Schaulen, Fritjof (2004). Eichenlaubträger 1940 – 1945 Zeitgeschichte in Farbe II Ihlefeld – Primozic (in German). Selent, Germany: Pour le Mérite. ISBN 3-932381-21-1.
• Scherzer, Veit (2007). Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Miltaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
• HITLER and HIS GENERALS. Military Conferences 1942–1945, Edited by Helmut Heiber and David M. Glantz. (Enigma Books: New York, 2004. ISBN 1-929631-28-6)

External links

• World War 2 Awards.com
• Alfred Jodl at Find-A-Grave
• The trial of Alfred Jodl – TRIAL WATCH
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – Alfred Jodl
• A Short Historical Consideration of German War Guilt By Alfred Jodl, 6 September 1946