Anton Dostler

Anton Dostler

Dostler (right) with his interpreter, Albert O. Hirschman, at his trial, 1945
Birth name Anton Dostler
Born (1891-05-10)10 May 1891
Munich, Germany
Died 1 December 1945(1945-12-01) (aged 54)
Aversa, Italy
Allegiance
Service/branch Heer
Years of service 1910–45
Rank General of the Infantry (Germany)
Commands held
Battles/wars

Anton Dostler (Munich, May 10, 1891 – Aversa, December 1, 1945) was a general of the infantry in the regular German Army during World War II. In the first Allied war trial after the war, Dostler was found guilty of war crimes and executed by firing squad.

Military career

Anton Dostler joined the German Army in 1910 and served as a junior officer during World War I. From the start of World War II to 1940, he served as chief of staff of the 7th Army. Subsequently, he commanded the 57th Infantry Division (1941–1942), the 163rd Infantry Division (1942) and after some temporary stand-ins at corps, was appointed commander of 75th Army Corps (Jan-July 1944) in Italy and then as commander of the Venetian Coast (Sept to Nov 1944) when its name was changed to 73rd Army Corps, at which he finished the war.

Execution of U.S. soldiers

On March 22, 1944, 15 soldiers of the U.S. Army, including two officers, landed on the Italian coast about 15 kilometres north of La Spezia, 400 km (250 miles) behind the then established front, as part of Operation Ginny II. They were all properly dressed in the field uniform of the U.S. Army and carried no civilian clothes.[1][2] Their objective was to demolish a tunnel at Framura on the important railroad line between La Spezia and Genoa. Two days later, the group was captured by a party of Italian Fascist soldiers and members of the German Heer. They were taken to La Spezia, where they were confined near the headquarters of the 135th Fortress Brigade, which was under the command of German Colonel Almers. The immediate, superior command was that of the 75th Army Corps, commanded by Dostler.

The captured U.S. soldiers were interrogated and one officer revealed the story of the mission. The information, including that it was a commando raid, was then sent to Dostler at the 75th Army Corps. The following day (March 25), Dostler informed his superior, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, commanding general of all German forces in Italy, about the captured U.S. commandos and asked what to do with them. According to Dostler's adjutant officer, Kesselring responded by ordering the execution. Later that day, Dostler sent a telegram to the 135th Fortress Brigade ordering that the captured soldiers be executed. This order was an implementation of Hitler's secret Commando Order of 1942, which required the immediate execution without trial of commandos and saboteurs.

German officers at the 135th Fortress Brigade contacted Dostler in an attempt to achieve a delay of their execution. Dostler sent another telegram ordering Almers to carry out the execution. Two last attempts were made by the officers at the 135th to stop the execution, including some by telephone, because they knew that executing uniformed prisoners of war was a direct violation of the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War. These efforts were unsuccessful and the 15 Americans were executed on the morning of March 26, 1944, at Punta Bianca south of La Spezia, in the municipality of Ameglia. Their bodies were buried in a mass grave that was then camouflaged. Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten, a member of Dostler's staff who was unaware of the secret Commando Order and who had refused to sign the execution order, was dismissed from the Wehrmacht for insubordination.[3]

Dostler tied to a stake before the execution
Dostler's body immediately after.

Trial and execution

Dostler became a prisoner of the Americans on 8 May 1945 and was put before a military tribunal at the seat of the Supreme Allied Commander, the Royal Palace in Caserta, on 8 October 1945.[4] In the first Allied War crimes trial, he was accused of carrying out an illegal order. In his defense, he maintained that he had not issued the order, but had only passed along an order to Colonel Almers from supreme command, and that the execution of the OSS men was a lawful reprisal. Dostler's plea of superior orders failed because by ordering the execution, he had acted on his own outside the Führer's order. The military commission also rejected his plea, declaring that Dostler's execution of U.S. soldiers was in violation of Article 2 of the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, which prohibited acts of reprisals against prisoners of war.[5] The commission stated that "No soldier, and still less a Commanding General, can be heard to say that he considered the summary shooting of prisoners of war legitimate even as a reprisal."[6]

Under the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare,[7] it was legal to execute spies and saboteurs disguised in civilian clothes or enemy uniforms but excluded those captured in proper uniform.[8][9][10] Since the 15 U.S. soldiers were properly dressed in U.S. uniforms behind enemy lines and not disguised in civilian clothes or enemy uniforms, they were not to be treated as spies but prisoners of war, which Dostler violated.[2][10]

The trial found General Dostler guilty of war crimes, rejecting the superior orders defense. He was sentenced to death and executed by a 12-man firing squad at 0800 hours on December 1, 1945 in Aversa. The execution was photographed on black and white still and movie cameras.[11] Immediately after the execution Dostler's body was lifted onto a stretcher, shrouded inside a white cotton mattress cover and driven away in an army truck. His remains were buried in Grave 93/95 of Section H at Pomezia German War Cemetery.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/Law-Reports_Vol-1.pdf
  2. 1 2 International Military Tribunal (1946). The trial of German major war criminals: proceedings of the International military tribunal sitting at Nuremberg, Germany, Volume 4. H.M. Stationery. p. 8.
  3. ↑ Alexander Fürst Dohna-Schlobitten (2006). Erinnerungen eines alten Ostpreußen (in German). ISBN 3-8003-3115-2.
  4. ↑ Anthony Cave Brown (1984). The last hero: Wild Bill Donovan. Vintage Books.
  5. ↑ "CONVENTION OF JULY 27, 1929, RELATIVE TO THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR.". Avalon.law.yale.edu. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  6. ↑ Annemieke Van Verseveld (November 5, 2012). Mistake of Law: Excusing Perpetrators of International Crimes. T.M.C. Asser Press. p. 106. ISBN 90-6704-867-4.
  7. ↑ "Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its annex: Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land. The Hague, 18 October 1907.". International Committee of the Red Cross. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  8. ↑ Wilbur Redington Miller (June 29, 2012). The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia. SAGE Publications. p. 186. ISBN 0-7618-6137-8.
  9. ↑ David Churchman (May 9, 2013). Why We Fight: The Origins, Nature, and Management of Human Conflict. University Press of America. p. 186. ISBN 0-7618-6137-8.
  10. 1 2 "Rule 107. Spies". International Review of the Red Cross. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  11. ↑ Film of execution from three camera angles on YouTube

External links

Military offices
Preceded by
Generalleutnant Oskar Blümm		 Commander of 57. Infanterie-Division
26 September 1941 – 9 April 1942 		Succeeded by
Generalleutnant Oskar Blümm
Preceded by
General der Artillerie Erwin Engelbrecht		 Commander of 163. Infanterie-Division
15 June 1942 – 28 December 1942 		Succeeded by
Generalleutnant Karl Rübel
Preceded by
General der Infanterie Franz Mattenklott		 Commander of XXXXII. Armeekorps
22 June 1943 – July 1943 		Succeeded by
General der Infanterie Franz Mattenklott
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