German war crimes


The governments of the German Empire and Nazi Germany ordered, organized, and condoned a substantial number of war crimes, first in the Herero and Nama genocide and then in the First and Second World Wars. The most notable of these is the Holocaust, in which millions of European Jews were systematically abused, deported, and murdered, along with Romani in the Romani Holocaust and non-Jewish Poles. Millions of civilians and prisoners of war also died as a result of German abuses, mistreatment, and deliberate starvation policies in those two conflicts. Much of the evidence was deliberately destroyed by the perpetrators, such as in Sonderaktion 1005, in an attempt to conceal their crimes.

Herero Wars

Considered to have been the first genocide of the 20th century, the Herero and Nama genocide was perpetrated by the German Empire between 1904 and 1907 in German South West Africa, during the Scramble for Africa. On January 12, 1904, the Herero people, led by Samuel Maharero, rebelled against German colonialism. In August, General Lothar von Trotha of the Imperial German Army defeated the Herero in the Battle of Waterberg and drove them into the desert of Omaheke, where most of them died of thirst. In October, the Nama people also rebelled against the Germans only to suffer a similar fate.
In total, from 24,000 up to 100,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama died. The genocide was characterized by widespread death by starvation and thirst because the Herero who fled the violence were prevented from returning from the Namib Desert. Some sources also claim that the German colonial army systematically poisoned wells in the desert.

World War I

Documentation regarding German war crimes in World War I was seized and destroyed by Nazi Germany during World War II, after occupying France, along with monuments commemorating their victims.

Chemical weapons in warfare

was first introduced as a weapon by Imperial Germany, and subsequently used by all major belligerents, in violation of the 1899 Hague Declaration Concerning Asphyxiating Gases and the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, which explicitly forbade the use of "poison or poisoned weapons" in warfare.

Belgium

In August 1914, as part of the Schlieffen Plan, the German Army invaded and occupied the neutral nation of Belgium without explicit warning, which violated a treaty of 1839 that the German chancellor dismissed as a "scrap of paper" and the 1907 Hague Convention on Opening of Hostilities. Within the first two months of the war, the German occupiers terrorized the Belgians, killing thousands of civilians and looting and burning scores of towns, including Leuven, which housed the country's preeminent university, mainly in retaliation for Belgian guerrilla warfare,. This action was in violation of the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare provisions that prohibited collective punishment of civilians and looting and destruction of civilian property in occupied territories.

Bombardment of English coastal towns

The raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby, which took place on December 16, 1914, was an attack by the Imperial German Navy on the British seaport towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool, and Whitby. The attack resulted in 137 fatalities and 592 casualties. The raid was in violation of the ninth section of the 1907 Hague Convention which prohibited naval bombardments of undefended towns without warning, because only Hartlepool was protected by shore batteries. Germany was a signatory of the 1907 Hague Convention. Another attack followed on 26 April 1916 on the coastal towns of Yarmouth and Lowestoft but both were important naval bases and defended by shore batteries.

Unrestricted submarine warfare

was instituted in 1915 in response to the British naval blockade of Germany. Prize rules, which were codified under the 1907 Hague Convention—such as those that required commerce raiders to warn their targets and allow time for the crew to board lifeboats—were disregarded and commercial vessels were sunk regardless of nationality, cargo, or destination. Following the sinking of the on 7 May 1915 and subsequent public outcry in various neutral countries, including the United States, the practice was withdrawn. However, Germany resumed the practice on 1 February 1917 and declared that all merchant ships regardless of nationalities would be sunk without warning. This outraged the U.S. public, prompting the U.S. to break diplomatic relations with Germany two days later, and, along with the Zimmermann Telegram, led the U.S. entry into the war two months later on the side of the Allied Powers.

World War II

Chronologically, the first German World War II crime, and also the very first act of the war, was the bombing of Wieluń, a town where no targets of military value were present.
More significantly, the Holocaust of the European Jews, the extermination of millions of Poles, the Action T4 killing of the disabled, and the Porajmos of the Romani are the most notable war crimes committed by Nazi Germany during World War II. Not all of the crimes committed during the Holocaust and similar mass atrocities were war crimes. Telford Taylor explained in 1982:
  • German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war – at least 3.3 million Soviet POWs died in German custody, out of 5.7 million captured; this figure represents 57% POW casualty rate.
  • Le Paradis massacre, May 1940, British soldiers of the Royal Norfolk Regiment, were captured by the SS and subsequently murdered. Fritz Knoechlein was tried, found guilty and hanged.
  • Wormhoudt massacre, May 1940, British and French soldiers captured by the SS and subsequently murdered. No one was found guilty of the crime.
  • Lidice massacre after assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, when the Czech village was utterly destroyed, and inhabitants murdered.
  • Normandy Massacres, a series of killings in which up to 156 Canadian prisoners of war were murdered by soldiers of the 12th SS Panzer Division during the Battle of Normandy
  • *Ardenne Abbey massacre, one of the Normandy massacres; June 1944 Canadian soldiers captured by the SS and murdered by 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend. SS General Kurt Meyer sentenced to be shot 1946; sentence commuted; released 1954
  • Graignes massacre, 11 June 1944, United States POWs that had surrendered were executed by 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen by shooting and stabbing.
  • Malmedy massacre, December 1944, United States POWs captured by Kampfgruppe Peiper were murdered outside of Malmedy, Belgium.
  • Wereth massacre. 17 December 1944, soldiers from 3./SS-PzAA1 LSSAH captured eleven African-American soldiers from 333rd Artillery Battalion in the hamlet of Wereth, Belgium. Subsequently, the prisoners were tortured, shot, and had their fingers cut off, legs broken, eyes gouged out, jaw broken and at least one was shot while trying to bandage a comrade's wounds.
  • Wahlhausen massacre, January 1945, United States POWs from the 28th Infantry Division captured by German troops were summarily executed.
  • Gardelegen massacre of April 1945 when Nazi concentration camp prisoners were herded into a barn, which was then set alight, killing all inside
  • Oradour-sur-Glane massacre
  • Massacre of Kalavryta
  • Unrestricted submarine warfare against merchant shipping.
  • The intentional destruction of major medieval churches of Novgorod, of monasteries in the Moscow region and of the imperial palaces around St. Petersburg.
  • The campaign of extermination of Slavic population in the occupied territories. Several thousand villages were burned with their entire population. A quarter of the inhabitants of Belarus did not survive the German occupation.
  • Soap made from human corpses produced on a small-scale by German scientist Rudolf Spanner.
  • Commando Order, the secret order issued by Hitler in October 1942 stating that Allied combatants encountered during commando operations were to be executed immediately without trial, even if they were properly uniformed, unarmed, or intending to surrender.
  • Commissar Order, the order from Hitler to Wehrmacht troops before the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 to shoot Commissars immediately on capture.
  • Nacht und Nebel decree of 1941 for disappearance of prisoners.

    War criminals

  • List of Axis personnel indicted for war crimes
  • List of Nazi doctors
  • Adolf Eichmann
  • Heinrich Gross
  • Hans Heinze
  • Rudolf Hoess
  • Karl Linnas
  • Josef Mengele
  • Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer
  • Alfred Trzebinski

    Massacres and war crimes of World War II by location

Austria

; 1941
  • 27 October, Slutsk, Slutsk Affair
  • 28 September – 17 October, Pleszczenice-Bischolin-Szack -Bobr-Uzda massacre
; 1942
  • 26 March – 6 April, Operation Bamberg
  • April 29 and August 10, 1942, Dzyatlava massacre, Diatłowo ; 3,000- 5,000 people, including women and children
  • 9 – 12 May, Kliczów-Bobrujsk massacre
  • Beginning of June, Słowodka-Bobrujsk massacre
  • 15 June Borki massacre
  • 21 June Zbyszin massacre
  • 25 June Timkowiczi massacre
  • 26 June Studenka massacre
  • 18 July, Jelsk massacre
  • 15 July – 7 August, Operation Adler
  • 14 – 20 August, Operation Greif
  • 22 August – 21 September, Operation Sumpffieber
  • August, Bereźne massacre
  • 22 September – 26 September
  • 23 September – 3 October, Operation Blitz
  • 11 – 23 October, Operation Karlsbad
  • 23 – 29 November, Operation Nürnberg
  • December, Mirnaya massacre, Mirnaya, Belarus ; 147 including women and children
  • 10 – 21 December, Operation Hamburg
  • 22 – 29 December, Operation Altona
; 1943
  • 6 – 14 January, Operation Franz
  • 10 – 11 January, Operation Peter
  • 18 – 23 January, Słuck-Mińsk-Czerwień massacre
  • 28 January – 15 February, Operation Schneehase ; 54; 37
  • Until 28 January, Operation Erntefest I
  • Jaanuar, Operation Eisbär
  • Until 1 February, Operation Waldwinter
  • 8 – 26 February, Operation Hornung
  • Until 9 February, Operation Erntefest II
  • 15 February – end of March, Operation Winterzauber
  • 22 February – 8 March, Operation Kugelblitz
  • Until 19 March, Operation Nixe
  • Until 21 March, Operation Föhn
  • 21 March – 2 April, Operation Donnerkeil
  • March 22, Khatyn massacre, Khatyn; 149 people including women and children
  • 1 – 9 May, Operation Draufgänger II
  • 17 – 21 May, Operation Maigewitter
  • 20 May – 23 June, Operation Cottbus
  • 27 May – 10 June, Operation Weichsel
  • 13 – 16 June, Operation Ziethen
  • 25 June – 27 July, Operation Seydlitz
  • 30 July, Mozyrz massacre
  • Until 14 July, Operation Günther
  • 13 July – 11 August, Operation Hermann
  • 24 September – 10 October, Operation Fritz
  • 9 October – 22 October, Stary Bychów massacre
  • 1 November – 18 November, Operation Heinrich
  • December, Spasskoje massacre
  • December, Biały massacre
  • 20 December – 1 January 1944, Operation Otto
; 1944
  • 14 January, Oła massacre
  • 22 January, Baiki massacre
  • 3 – 15 February, Operation Wolfsjagd
  • 5 – 6 February, massacre
  • Until 19 February, Operation Sumpfhahn
  • Beginning of March, Berezyna-Bielnicz massacre
  • 7 – 17 April, Operation Auerhahn
  • 17 April – 12 May, Operation Frühlingsfest
  • 25 May – 17 June, Operation Kormoran;
  • 2 June – 13 June, Operation Pfingsrose
  • June, Operation Pfingstausnlug
  • June, Operation Windwirbel