Gerd Von Rundstedt - Prisoner of War

Prisoner of War

Rundstedt was initially held at the Allied facility for detaining high-ranking German officials, known as ASHCAN, in a hotel at Mondorf-les-Bains in Luxembourg. Out of consideration for his rank and state of health, Hans Gerd was allowed to accompany him. At the end of May they were moved to an American detention centre at Wiesbaden. Here Rundstedt was extensively questioned by U.S. Army interrogators about his career and actions during the war. During this period decisions were being made about which German leaders were to be put on trial for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials. Rundstedt was the most senior German officer in Allied custody. He was accused of responsibility for war crimes by Poland (the shooting of surrendered soldiers in 1939), the Soviet Union (the actions of the Einsatzgruppen in 1941), Britain (the Commando Order of 1942) and France (the Oradour massacre of 1944). Eventually, however, the International Military Tribunal decided that no German field commanders would be tried at Nuremberg. Instead "the General Staff and High Command of the German Armed Forces" was collectively indicted. The only Army officers individually indicted were the OKW chiefs Keitel and Jodl, but they had never been field commanders.

In July Rundstedt was handed over to British custody. He was held first at Wilton Park in Buckinghamshire, then at Grizedale Hall in northern Lancashire, then at Island Farm near Bridgend in South Wales. The English climate badly affected his arthritis, making him increasingly lame. His heart condition became worse and he was periodically depressed. One interviewer wrote: "A limp, exhausted body racked by constant pain due to weakened arteries is now the remnant of the relentless figure that once waved a Marshal's baton." During this period he was extensively interviewed by the military writer Basil Liddell Hart, who later used these and other interviews as the basis for his books The Other Side of the Hill and its U.S. equivalent The German Generals Talk, published in 1948. Liddell Hart and Rundstedt developed a close rapport, and the relationship was to prove very valuable to Rundstedt over the next few years. Liddell Hart wrote of him: "Rundstedt makes an increasingly favourable impression on me... He is dignified without being arrogant, and essentially aristocratic in outlook."

When Rundstedt learned that he was not to be tried personally at Nuremberg, he wrote to the Tribunal asking permission to appear as a defence witness for the Army high command. In May 1946 he was summonsed to appear. When he left Island Farm, all the 185 senior officers being held there lined up to salute him. On 19 June he appeared before a preliminary hearing of the IMT Commission. Since he was a witness, not a defendant, the questioning was not intended to prove Rundstedt's guilt: it was designed to bolster the prosecution's case that the high command had functioned as an organisation and that it was collectively responsible for the German invasions of various countries between 1939 and 1941 and also for the war crimes committed during those invasions. Rundstedt was adamant that the high command played no part in the decisions to invade Poland, Norway, France or the Soviet Union. These decisions were made by Hitler and communicated to the Army as faits accomplis. He insisted that the Army had obeyed the laws of war and was not responsible for the actions of the Einsatzgruppen. He also denied that the Army had deliberately starved three million Soviet prisoners-of-war to death in 1941-42. "As much as it would have liked to, the German Army could not supply enough food for the poor prisoners from its own stocks, as these were short as well," he said.

On 12 August Rundstedt took the stand before the IMT itself. His counsel, Dr Hans Laternser, took him over same ground which had been covered before the Commission. He insisted that military law was "always binding for us older leaders", and that officers who broke these laws were court-martialled. He stated: "As senior soldier of the German Army, I will say this: we accused leaders were trained in the old soldierly traditions of decency and chivalry. We lived and acted according to them, and we endeavoured to hand them down to the younger officers." Cross-examined by the British prosecutor Peter Calvocoressi, he stuck to his position that the high command did not function as an organisation. Senior commanders discussed only operational matters, he said: political and stategic questions were decided by Hitler and the OKW. Rundstedt made a good impression as a witness. Calvocoressi later commented: "He was not going to let on how much he and his colleagues had known or done. He did this well - or anyway successfully."

The success of Rundstedt's efforts was shown in October 1946, when the IMT handed down its verdicts. Keitel and Jodl were to hang, but the Army high command as a whole was acquitted. The verdict read: "According to the indictment, this group consists of about 130 officers who held certain positions in the military hierarchy between 1938 and 1945... The Tribunal does not find that they were an organisation... They were only an aggregation of those who happened to hold high rank in a certain period... These men have, however, been a disgrace to the profession of arms, and they have made a mockery of obedience to orders. They were a ruthless military caste, and were guilty of crimes should be brought to trial as individuals." Thus the possibility was left open that Rundstedt could still face individual prosecution for his actions.