Wilhelm Keitel

Wilhelm Keitel (1882-1946) was a Field Marshal in the German nilitary forces of World War II, who headed the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), essentially the military secretariat for Adolf Hitler rather than a true combined services headquarters. Despite his high rank, he was often described as a clerk in a marshal's uniform; he was nicknamed "Lakeitel", or "Lackey". The Americans at Nuremberg felt he "would make a fine first sergeant whose life was governed by soldierly obedience."

Prewar militarization

Chief of the Armed Forces Department in the Reichs Ministry of War (Wehrmachtsamt in Reichskriegsministerum), 1 October 1935 to 4 February 1938. 3019-PS)

At the second meeting of the Working Committee of the Councillors for Reich Defense on 22 May 1933, Colonel Keitel emphasized that the supreme-consideration guiding the work of the committee was to be secrecy. "No document" he said, "ought to be lost, since otherwise it may fall into the hands of the enemy's intelligence service. Orally transmitted matters are not provable; they can be denied by us in Geneva."

The fact that Keitel was a member of the Nazi conspiracy in good standing is apparent from his statement that he held the Golden Party Badge, and that consequently the Party considered him a member as from the autumn of 1944, when the law against military personnel being members of the Party was changed (1944 RGBl. I, 317). His political convictions were those of National Socialism, and he was a loyal follower of Hitler. (1954-PS)

Wartime

Documents suggest he knew of the plans for use of the Einsatzgruppe, if not the extermination camps. He told intelligence chief Wilhelm Canaris on 12 September, "The matter [of the executions of Polish elites] had already been decided by the Fuehrer; the commander of the Army had been informed that if the Wehrmacht refused to be involved, it had to accept the pressure of the SS and the Gestapo. Therefore, in each military district, civilian commanders would be appointed who would carry the responsibility for ethnic extermination.".

His signature is on violations of the military laws of war, such as the Commando Order.On 16 December 1942, he issued a general order stating "This war no longer has anything to do with knightly conduct or with the agreements of the Geneva Convention.

Debriefings and trial

At the four-power Nuremberg tribunal, after hearing the Auschwitz testimony of Rudolf Hoess, he told psychologist G.M. Gilbert, "But you see, I brought it very clearly that as far as the generals were concerned, if we had known what criminal acts Hitler was planning and executing as we know now, we would have refused to go along." Keitel was in no way intellectually curious, as opposed to his operations officer, Alfred Jodl, and it is just plausible he did not know the details of genocide.