NMT Case 7

Summary

Case 7: The “Hostage Case,” US v. List et al. 6 boxes of trial documents; transcript 10,544 pages. Green Set vol. 11. Covers war crimes committed in the Balkans and Norway, including hostage-taking, execution of civilians and POWs, destruction of villages, and scorched-earth tactics. July 1947 – Feb 1948. Exhibits: 678 prosecution; 1025 defense.

Chronology Overview

Persons Involved

Tribunal (Military Tribunal V)

1. Charles F. Wennerstrum, presiding judge; Iowa Supreme Court
2. Edward F. Carter, member; Nebraska Supreme Court
3. George J. Burke, member; adviser to US district courts on criminal procedure

Defendants:

1. Franz Boehme, general and commander, mountain corps, 1941-45 (committed suicide
2. before trial)
3. Ernst Dehner, lt. general, infantry, commander, reserve corps, 1943-44
4. Hellmuth Felmy, lt. general, air force; commander, Greece, 68th Army Corps, 1943-44
5. Hermann Foertsch, lt. general, chief of staff, Southeast, 1941-44
6. Kurt von Geitner, brig. general, chief of staff, Serbia, 1942-44
7. Walter Kuntze, lt. general, acting commander, 12th Army, 1941-42
8. Hubert Lanz, lt. general and commander, mountain troops, 1940-44
9. Ernst von Leyser, lt. general and commander, infantry and mountain corps, 1943-45
10. Wilhelm List, general and commander in southeast, 1941
11. Lothar Rendulic, general and commander, Croatia and Norway, 1943-45
12. Wilhelm Speidel, lt. general, air force, commander, Greece, 1942-44
13. Maximilian von Weichs, general and commander, 1941-45 (case severed from trial due to illness)

Prosecution:

1. Telford Taylor, chief of counsel, NMT
2. James M. McHaney, deputy chief counsel
3. Clark Denney, chief prosecutor
4. Theodore F. Fenstermacher, chief prosecutor for Case 7
5. George Fulkerson, associate counsel
6. Walter Rapp, associate counsel

Defense counsel:

1. Friedrich Bergold, for Boehme
2. Stefan Fritsch, for Rendulic
3. Hans Gawlick, for Dehner
4. Hans Laternser, for List and von Weichs
5. Georg Menzel, for Kuntze
6. Heinz Mueller-Torgow, for Felmy
7. Gerhard Rauschenbach, for Foertsch
8. Fritz Sauter, for von Geitner and Lanz
9. Edmund Tipp, for von Leyser
10. Joseph Weisgerber, for Speidel

Indictments (four counts, 10 May 1947)

Introductory paragraph: War crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, ill treatment, and use as slave labor of POWs and civilian populations; plunder of public and private property; destruction of cities, towns, and villages; and other crimes against civilian populations.

Count One: Hostages. 1. 1939-1945, murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians of Greece, Yugoslavia, and Albania, as reprisal for attacks on Germans. 2. Torture and murder of partisans as punishment for attacks on Germans. 3. Collective punishment (points 1 and 2) used to terrorize, intimidate, weaken, and decimate occupied populations. 4. Ratio of punishment of hostages: up to 100 killed for each German soldier killed; down to 5 for lesser acts. 5. Twenty-three examples from April 1941 to August 1944, in Serbia, Croatia, and Greece. 6. Relevant laws cited.

Count Two: Plunder. 7. 1939-1945, plundering and looting of public and private property; destruction of cities, towns, and villages and murder of inhabitants, in Norway, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Albania. 8. Tactics used to pacify-by-terrorism and to degrade the economic potential of the occupied lands. 9. Sixteen examples from 1941 to 1944, in Norway, Serbia, Croatia, Greece. 10. Relevant laws cited.

Count Three: POWs. 11. 1939-1945, enemy troops from Greece, Yugoslavia, and Italy refused quarter, denied status as POWs, and summarily executed. 12. Twelve examples from 1941 to 1943, in Yugoslavia, Italy, and Croatia. 13. Relevant laws cited.

Count Four: Civilians. 14. 1939-1945, murder, torture, imprisonment in concentration camps, forced labor, deportation for slave labor of civilians (including communists, democrats, nationalists, Jews, and gypsies) of Greece, Yugoslavia, and Albania. 15. Seven examples from 1941 to 1943, in Serbia, Greece, and Croatia. 16. Relevant laws cited.

Judgment and sentences

1. Dehner: guilty, count 1; 7 year sentence
2. Felmy: guilty, counts 1, 2; 15 year sentence
3. Foertsch: acquitted
4. Geitner: acquitted
5. Kuntze: guilty, counts 1, 3, 4; life sentence
6. Lanz: guilty, counts 1, 3; 12 year sentence
7. Leyser: guilty, counts 3, 4; 10 year sentence
8. List: guilty, counts 1, 3; life sentence
9. Rendulic: guilty, counts 1, 3, 4; 20 year sentence
10. Speidel: guilty, count 1; 20 year sentence
11. Weichs: case severed due to his illness
12. Most of those sentenced to prison were released in 1951-52.

Key persons and places

Southeast region:

1. Wehrmacht commander, southeast: Wilhelm List, 6 Apr–15 Oct 1941;
2. Felmy deputy for List, 23 July 23–August 1941;
3. Kuntze acting commander, 17 Oct 1941–8 Aug 1942;
4. Alexander Loehr commander, 8 Aug 1942–Aug 1943;
5. von Weichs, commander in chief southeast (and of Army F), 26 Aug 1943–March 1945;
6. Foertsch, chief of staff to March 1944

Serbia:

1. first commanders, 1941: Helmuth Foerster (Apr-May); Ludwig von Schroeder
2. (June-July); Heinrich Danckelmann (July-Aug)
3. Commanding general and plenipotentiary, Serbia: Lt. General Franz Boehme,
4. Sep-Dec 1941;
5. Lt. General Paul Bader, 6 Dec 1941- 25 Aug 1943 (previously commander of 65th Corps,
6. 1941);
7. military commander southeast (based in Serbia): General Hans Felber, 26 Aug 1943–26
8. Sep 1994, then Army Group Serbia, Oct 1944
9. von Geitner, chief of staff (for Bader and Felber), July 1942-1944
10. Administrator (govt.): Dr. Harald Turner (1941-)

Croatia:

1. Commanding general in Croatia, Major general Rudolf Lueters, to Aug 1943;
2. General Lothar Rendulic, commander (2nd Panzer Army), Aug 1943- June 1944
3. plenipotentiary in Croatia: Major General von Glaise-Horstenau
4. von Leyser, commander, 15th Mountain Corps, Nov 1943- July 1944 (then Albania, 21st
5. Mtn. Corps, 1944-45)
6. Lt. General Dehner, commander, 69th special reserve group, 1943-44
7. General Fehn, 21st Mountain Corps, Oct 1943- June 1944 (replacing Bader), then
8. commander of 15th Mtn. Corps

Greece:

1. Felmy, commander, southern Greece, 1941-42(?), commander of 68th Army Corps,
2. 6 June 1943-Oct 1944;
3. Lanz, commander of 22nd Mountain Corps, 9 Sep 1943-Oct 1944;
4. Wilhelm Speidel, commander, southern Greece, Oct 1942-Sep 1943; commander of
5. Greece, Sep 1943-July 1944, followed by Gen. Scheurlen;
6. General Loehr, commander, Army Group E (based at Saloniki), Aug 1943-44;
7. Bruno Braeuer, commander in Crete, Nov 1942–June 1944, followed by
8. Friedrich-Wilhelm Mueller, July 1944-

Norway:

1. Rendulic, 20th Mountain Army, June 1944–1945

Other

1. Nationalist/Chetnik leader: Draza Mihailovic (DM)
2. Nationalist Greek partisan: Gen. Zervas

Detailed Chronology