Trial For War Crimes
After the Continuation War Oesch’s career took a turn for worse. After serving again as the Chief of the General Staff for almost a year, Oesch retired on his own will in September 1945. He was aware that the Soviets demanded his arrest as a war criminal. For a moment Oesch thought of escaping to Sweden, but in the end decided to stay and face the charges. He was arrested in the same month and later tried. Four years earlier, in September 1941, Oesch had given an order that permitted the guards to use their arms if POWs refused to follow orders. The details of the affair are not clear, but apparently some trigger-happy men took liberties with the orders, and a number of Soviet POWs were killed. Oesch stood accused for ordering the execution of 17 POWs.
According to Finnish sources, proof for Oesch’s personal responsibility for these deaths was rather dubious. But in the postwar political climate it was imperative to fulfill the Soviet demands in order not to give them any excuses to intervene even more in Finnish affairs. Oesch was condemned to 12 years of penal servitude by a Finnish military court on 19 July 1946, although the sentence was commuted to three years by the Highest Court on 2 February 1948. Nevertheless, Oesch’s military career was finished. Oesch was the only senior Finn to be condemned of war crimes.
Read more about this topic: Karl Lennart Oesch
Famous quotes containing the words trial for, trial, war and/or crimes:
“In government offices which are sensitive to the vehemence and passion of mass sentiment public men have no sure tenure. They are in effect perpetual office seekers, always on trial for their political lives, always required to court their restless constituents.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime in Progress is not a happy prospect.”
—Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)
“[John] Brough’s majority is “glorious to behold.” It is worth a big victory in the field. It is decisive as to the disposition of the people to prosecute the war to the end. My regiment and brigade were both unanimous for Brough [the Union party candidate for governor of Ohio].”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)