German War Criminals

Rank the Most Wicked German War Criminals

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 1 
Josef Mengele
(German Physician Known for His Atrocities at the Auschwitz II Concentration Camp)
Josef Mengele
106
Birthdate: March 16, 1911
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Bavaria, Germany
Died: February 7, 1979

Known as Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele was the chief doctor of Auschwitz concentration camp and was responsible for killing thousands of Jews as well as torturing the prisoners mercilessly and conducting inhuman experiments on them. These included injecting them with chemicals and stitching twin children together. Despite his horrible crimes, the infamous Nazi doctor could never be captured.

 2 
Adolf Eichmann
(German Military Official and One of the Major Organisers of the Holocaust)
Adolf Eichmann
88
Birthdate: March 19, 1906
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Solingen, Germany
Died: June 1, 1962
Adolf Eichmann was a Nazi lieutenant colonel and one of the chief organizers of the Holocaust, that involved mass deportation and murder of Jews. In 1962, Eichmann was captured by the Mossad in Argentina and was then taken to Israel. He was eventually tried and hanged for crimes against humanity.
 3 
Irma Grese
(Nazi Concentration Camp Guard at Ravensbrück & Auschwitz Who Served as Warden of Bergen-Belsen)
Irma Grese
32
Birthdate: October 7, 1923
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Feldberger Seenlandschaft, Germany
Died: December 13, 1945

Irma Grese, or the Hyena of Auschwitz, served as an SS guard at the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Ravensbrück. She was also the warden of the ladies’ section of the Bergen-Belsen camp and ended up being convicted of torture and murder of prisoners. She was executed at 22.

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 4 
Klaus Barbie
(Nazi Leader)
Klaus Barbie
20
Birthdate: October 25, 1913
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Bad Godesberg
Died: 1991 AD

Klaus Barbie was a Gestapo and SS official during the Nazi era. Dubbed the Butcher of Lyon, Barbie was known for having tortured prisoners of the Gestapo while stationed in Lyon, France. It is also believed that he played a major role in the execution of Che Guevara. Barbie's life and work inspired the 2007 documentary film My Enemy's Enemy.

 5 
Ilse Koch
(German War Criminal Who Became One of the First Prominent Nazis Tried by the U.S. Military)
Ilse Koch
21
Birthdate: September 22, 1906
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Dresden, Germany
Died: September 1, 1967
Ilse Koch was the wife of Karl-Otto Koch, the Nazi commandant of the Buchenwald and Majdanek concentration camps. Also known as Beast of Buchenwald, The Bitch of Buchenwald, and Butcher Widow, she was tried by the U.S. military for her sadistic abuse of war prisoners. She died of suicide.
 6 
Oskar Dirlewanger
(War Criminal)
Oskar Dirlewanger
12
Birthdate: September 26, 1895
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Würzburg, Germany
Died: June 7, 1945
German military officer Oskar Dirlewanger established and led the Nazi SS penal unit Dirlewanger during World War II. He had also participated in World War I and the Spanish Civil War, winning the Iron Cross 2nd Class and 1st Class. He died in Allied custody at the Altshausen prison camp.
 7 
Willi Herold
(Military personnel)
Willi Herold
22
Birthdate: September 11, 1925
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Chemnitz, Germany
Died: November 14, 1946
 8 
Alfred Jodl
(Chief of the Operations Staff of the German Armed Forces High Command (1939 - 1945))
Alfred Jodl
14
Birthdate: May 10, 1890
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Würzburg, Germany
Died: October 16, 1946

Alfred Jodl was a German colonel-general who played an important role throughout World War II by serving as Chief of the Operations Staff of a German Armed Forces High Command called the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. After the war, Jodl was tried at the Nuremberg trials and was found guilty on charges, such as crimes against humanity and war crimes.

 9 
Dorothea Binz
(Officer)
Dorothea Binz
7
Birthdate: March 16, 1920
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Templin, Germany
Died: May 2, 1947
 10 
Greta Bösel
(Nurse)
Greta Bösel
1
Birthdate: May 9, 1908
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Wuppertal, Germany
Died: May 3, 1947
 11 
Hildegard Lächert
(Nurse)
Hildegard Lächert
5
Birthdate: January 20, 1920
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Died: 1995 AD
 12 
Oskar Groening
(War Criminal)
Oskar Groening
14
Birthdate: June 10, 1921
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Nienburg, Lower Saxony, Germany
Died: March 9, 2018

Oskar Groening was a German SS Unterscharführer at the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was in charge of counting and sorting the money retrieved from the prisoners arriving at the camp. At the end of the war, he surrendered to the British and was transferred to Britain as a prisoner of war. Years later, he was named a war criminal.

 13 
Paul Blobel
(Military leader, Criminal)
Paul Blobel
1
Birthdate: August 13, 1894
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Potsdam, Germany
Died: June 7, 1951
 14 
Heinz Lammerding
(German SS Officer Convicted of War Crimes During World War II)
Heinz Lammerding
2
Birthdate: August 27, 1905
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Dortmund, Germany
Died: January 13, 1971
 15 
Reinhard Heydrich
(Nazi Official)
Reinhard Heydrich
45
Birthdate: March 7, 1904
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Halle
Died: June 4, 1942

Reinhard Heydrich was a Nazi police officer and a high-ranking SS. Heydrich is widely regarded as one of the main architects of the Holocaust, a World War II genocide that killed some six million Jews. Described by Adolf Hitler as the man with the iron heart, Heydrich is regarded as the darkest figure of the Nazi era by many historians.

 16 
Franz von Papen
(Former Vice-Chancellor of Germany)
Franz von Papen
13
Birthdate: October 29, 1879
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Werl, Westphalia, Prussia, Germany
Died: May 2, 1969

Franz von Papen was a German politician, Prussian nobleman, diplomat, and General Staff officer. From 1933 to 1934, he served under Adolf Hitler as the Vice-Chancellor of Germany. After World War II, Franz von Papen was indicted alongside other war criminals in the Nuremberg trials. However, he was later acquitted of all charges.

 17 
Gudrun Ensslin
(Far-left terrorist and founder of the West German far-left militant group Red Army Faction)
Gudrun Ensslin
3
Birthdate: August 15, 1940
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Bartholomä, Germany
Died: October 18, 1977
 18 
Ludolf von Alvensleben
(SS functionary and Police Leader)
Ludolf von Alvensleben
3
Birthdate: March 17, 1901
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Halle, Germany
Died: April 1, 1970
 19 
Fritz Klein
(Military physician, War criminal)
Fritz Klein
2
Birthdate: November 24, 1888
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Codlea, Romania
Died: December 13, 1945
 20 
Martin Gottfried Weiss
(Military personnel)
Martin Gottfried Weiss
2
Birthdate: June 3, 1905
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Weiden, Germany
Died: May 29, 1946
 21 
Wanda Klaff
(Camp guards)
Wanda Klaff
4
Birthdate: March 6, 1922
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Danzig, Free City of Danzig
Died: July 4, 1946
 22 
Helmut Oberlander
(War criminals)
Helmut Oberlander
3
Birthdate: February 15, 1924
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Molotschna, Ukraine
 23 
Hans von Salmuth
(Military General)
Hans von Salmuth
3
Birthdate: November 11, 1888
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Metz, France
Died: January 1, 1962
 24 
Friedrich Flick
(Industrialist)
Friedrich Flick
1
Birthdate: July 10, 1883
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Germany
Died: July 20, 1972
 25 
Hermann Pister
(German officer)
Hermann Pister
3
Birthdate: February 21, 1885
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Lübeck, Germany
Died: September 28, 1948
 26 
Herta Bothe
(Concentration camp guard during World War II)
Herta Bothe
10
Birthdate: January 3, 1921
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Teterow, Germany
Died: March 16, 2000
 27 
Erich Naumann
(War crimal, Police officer)
Erich Naumann
3
Birthdate: April 29, 1905
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Meissen, Germany
Died: June 7, 1951
 28 
Martin Bormann
(Private Secretary of Adolf Hitler)
Martin Bormann
35
Birthdate: June 17, 1900
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Wegeleben, Germany
Died: May 2, 1945

Martin Bormann was a Nazi Party official. Bormann headed the Nazi Party Chancellery, and gained immense power after he was accepted into Adolf Hitler's inner circle. In 1935, he became Hitler's personal secretary and served as the minister of the Nazi Party after Hitler's suicide in 1945.

 29 
Rudolf Höss
(German Nazi Commandant and Longest-Serving Commandant of Auschwitz Concentration and Extermination Camp)
Rudolf Höss
22
Birthdate: November 25, 1901
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Baden-Baden, Germany
Died: April 16, 1947

Rudolf Höss was a German SS officer who was convicted of war crimes after the defeat of Nazi Germany. The longest-serving commandant of the Auschwitz extermination camp, Höss implemented means to accelerate the Final Solution, a Nazi plan for the genocide of Jews. Upon his order, pesticide Zyklon B was used in gas chambers, killing millions of people.

 30 
Wilhelm Keitel
(Chief of the German Armed Forces High Command (1938 - 1945))
Wilhelm Keitel
11
Birthdate: September 22, 1882
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Helmscherode, Bad Gandersheim, Germany
Died: October 16, 1946

Wilhelm Keitel was a German field marshal. As the chief of the Armed Forces High Command, Keitel was Nazi Germany Armed Forces' highest-ranking officer during World War II. Wilhelm Keitel was responsible for the loss of many lives as he signed several criminal orders. After the war, he was indicted as one of the war criminals and sentenced to death.

 31 
Ernst Röhm
(Nazi War Criminal)
Ernst Röhm
24
Birthdate: November 28, 1887
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Munich, Germany
Died: July 1, 1934

Regarded by Hitler as a potential rival, Röhm was murdered at the Führer’s order. Ernst Röhm was a prominent German military officer and an early member of the Nazi Party. He was wounded thrice in World War I and was briefly imprisoned for his part in the Beer Hall Putsch. 

 32 
Herta Ehlert
(Camp guard)
Herta Ehlert
8
Birthdate: March 26, 1905
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Died: April 4, 1997
 33 
Heinz Jost
(German SS Official)
Heinz Jost
1
Birthdate: July 9, 1904
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Homberg (Efze)
Died: November 12, 1964
 34 
Wilhelm Ruppert
(Guard)
Wilhelm Ruppert
4
Birthdate: February 2, 1905
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Frankenthal, Germany
Died: May 29, 1946
 35 
Rudolf Brandt
(Lawyer)
Rudolf Brandt
1
Birthdate: June 2, 1909
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany
Died: June 2, 1948
 36 
Albert Kesselring
(War Criminal)
Albert Kesselring
13
Birthdate: November 30, 1885
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Marktsteft, Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany
Died: July 16, 1960
One of Hitler’s most reliable strategists during World War II, Albert Kesselring was a loyal Luftwaffe general. His exploits include operations in Poland, France, and Britain. Following the Nuremberg trials, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was later commuted. He was released after being diagnosed with throat cancer. 
 37 
Anton Thernes
(Military leader)
Anton Thernes
1
Birthdate: February 8, 1892
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Germany
Died: December 3, 1944
 38 
Friedrich Entress
(Surgeon, Criminal)
Friedrich Entress
2
Birthdate: December 8, 1914
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Poznań, Poland
Died: May 28, 1947
 39 
Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach
(Industrialist)
Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach
3
Birthdate: August 13, 1907
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Essen, Germany
Died: July 30, 1967
 40 
Herbert Kappler
(Key German SS Functionary Responsible for the Ardeatine Massacre)
Herbert Kappler
3
Birthdate: September 23, 1907
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Stuttgart, Germany
Died: February 9, 1978

Herbert Kappler was a German SS official who served in the Nazi regime. As the head of German police in Rome, Kappler was responsible for the Fosse Ardeatine massacre, which killed 335 civilians and political prisoners. The massacre inspired a film titled Massacre in Rome, where Kappler was played by Richard Burton. Kappler was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

 41 
Otto Ohlendorf
(German SS Functionary and Holocaust Perpetrator During the Nazi Era)
Otto Ohlendorf
5
Birthdate: February 4, 1907
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Hoheneggelsen, Söhlde, Germany
Died: June 7, 1951

Otto Ohlendorf was a German SS official who played an important role in carrying out the Holocaust in the Nazi regime. As the commander of Einsatzgruppen, Nazi Germany's paramilitary death squads, Otto Ohlendorf was responsible for mass murder in south Ukraine, Moldova, the Crimea, and the North Caucasus. He was tried for crimes against humanity and executed in 1951.

 42 
Fritz Sauckel
(Politician)
Fritz Sauckel
4
Birthdate: October 27, 1894
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Haßfurt, Germany
Died: October 16, 1946
 43 
Viktor Brack
(Member of the Schutzstaffel and a Convicted Nazi War Criminal)
Viktor Brack
5
Birthdate: November 9, 1904
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Haaren, Aachen, Germany
Died: June 2, 1948

One of the leaders of the Action T4 euthanasia plan that exterminated the physically and mentally disabled, Nazi Party member Viktor Brack also specialized in child euthanasia. He was also chosen to plan a sterilization drive for physically fit Jews. He was eventually hanged for his war crimes.

 44 
Emma Zimmer
(Overseer)
Emma Zimmer
3
Birthdate: August 14, 1888
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Schlüchtern, Germany
Died: September 20, 1948
 45 
Karl Gebhardt
(German Medical Doctor and War Criminal During World War II)
Karl Gebhardt
8
Birthdate: November 23, 1897
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Haag in Oberbayern, Germany
Died: June 2, 1948

Initially a professor of sports medicine, Karl Gebhardt later joined the Nazi camp. He had headed the German Red Cross and also developed sports for the physically disabled. After being accused of failing to treat Reinhard Heydrich, he conducted deadly experiments on concentration camp inmates to prove his innocence.

 46 
Stefan Baretzki
(Known for SS guard at Auschwitz)
Stefan Baretzki
3
Birthdate: March 24, 1919
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Chernivtsi, Ukraine
Died: June 21, 1988
 47 
Dieter Wisliceny
(Military leader)
Dieter Wisliceny
5
Birthdate: January 13, 1911
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Możdżany, Poland
Died: May 4, 1948
 48 
Karl Eberhard Schöngarth
(Military personnel)
Karl Eberhard Schöngarth
4
Birthdate: April 22, 1903
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Leipzig, Germany
Died: May 16, 1946
 49 
Ludwig Fischer
(Politician, War Criminal)
Ludwig Fischer
15
Birthdate: April 16, 1905
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Kaiserslautern, Germany
Died: March 8, 1947
 50 
Hilde Liesewitz
(Schutzstaffel Guard)
Hilde Liesewitz
10
Birthdate: January 31, 1922
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Grünwald, Germany