War Criminals
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When Peter von Hagenbach was executed in the 15th century, he became the first person to have been convicted at an “international" war crimes trial. Major Connaught, a Royalist who was hanged for his part in the massacre of villagers in a church in the mid 17th century is another example of a war criminal. Even though war crimes have been happening from the past several centuries, such crimes were perpetuated at an unprecedented level during the World War II. One of the most feared Nazi leaders, Adolf Eichmann was a war criminal held responsible for the deaths of thousands of Jews during the war. Josef Mengele, also known as Auschwitz’s “Angel of Death”, was notorious for the brutal human experiments he conducted on prisoners-of-war. While a majority of war criminals are males, women like Ilse Koch, Dorothea Binz, and Irma Grese have proven that some females also display unspeakable brutality during war time. More recently, former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević was brought to trial for alleged war crimes but died before the trial could be concluded. Former Liberian President Charles G. Taylor and Omar al-Bashir, current head of state of Sudan are also regarded as war criminals. This section provides you information about the life and crimes of notorious war criminals from all over the globe.
Rank the Most Wicked War Criminals
1
Josef Mengele(German Physician Known for His Atrocities at the Auschwitz II Concentration Camp)
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)
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.
Birthdate: December 30, 1884
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Kōjimachi, Tokyo, Japan
Died: December 23, 1948
Hideki Tojo headed the Imperial Japanese Army and was the Japanese minister of war, apart from being Japan’s prime minister from 1941 to 1944. His tenure witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor. After Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers, Tojo was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death.
4
Irma Grese(Nazi Concentration Camp Guard at Ravensbrück & Auschwitz Who Served as Warden of Bergen-Belsen)
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.
Birthdate: January 1, 1944
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Hosh Bannaga, Sudan
Omar al-Bashir is a Sudanese politician who served as the seventh president of Sudan. A former military officer, he is the founder of the National Congress Party that remained the dominant political party in the country until 2019. He was deposed in a coup d'état the same year and subsequently arrested and convicted on multiple corruption charges.
Birthdate: January 18, 1918
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Japan
Died: April 1, 2003
Mutsuhiro Watanabe was an Imperial Japanese Army soldier in World War II. Following Japan’s defeat, he was classified a war criminal for his mistreatment of prisoners of war (POWs) by the US Occupation authorities. However, the US authorities could not capture him. In his later years, he became an insurance salesman and grew wealthy.
7
Ilse Koch(German War Criminal Who Became One of the First Prominent Nazis Tried by the U.S. Military)
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.
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.
9
Willi Herold
(Military personnel)
Birthdate: September 11, 1925
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Chemnitz, Germany
Died: November 14, 1946
Birthdate: January 11, 1849
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Tallapoosa County, Alabama, United States
Died: July 25, 1929
11
Alfred Jodl(Chief of the Operations Staff of the German Armed Forces High Command (1939 - 1945))
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.
Birthdate: March 16, 1920
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Templin, Germany
Died: May 2, 1947
13
Félicien Kabuga
(Commited genocide in Rwanda)
Birthdate: March 1, 1933
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Byumba, Rwanda
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.
Birthdate: January 20, 1920
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Died: 1995 AD
16
Roman von Ungern-Sternberg
(Anticommunist general in the Russian Civil War and then an independent warlord who intervened in Mongolia against China)
Birthdate: January 10, 1886
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Graz, Austria
Died: September 15, 1921
Russian baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg gained fame as an anticommunist general during the Russian Civil War. Also known as the Mad Baron for his cruelty toward his enemies, he had converted to Buddhism but retained strains of Christianity in his faith. He was eventually executed by a firing squad.
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.
Birthdate: June 8, 1943
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Miami, Florida, United States
19
Robert Kajuga
(Commited genocide in Rwanda)
Birthdate: 1960 AD
Birthplace: Kibungo, Rwanda
Died: February 29, 2007
20
Fritz Klein
(Military physician, War criminal)
Birthdate: November 24, 1888
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Codlea, Romania
Died: December 13, 1945
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.
Birthdate: 1840 AD
Birthplace: Tanzania
Died: 1884 AD
23
Paul Blobel
(Military leader, Criminal)
Birthdate: August 13, 1894
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Potsdam, Germany
Died: June 7, 1951
Birthdate: May 9, 1908
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Wuppertal, Germany
Died: May 3, 1947
25
Bi Sidi Souleymane
(Warlord)
Birthdate: July 20, 1962
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Bocaranga, Central African Republic
Died: March 25, 2021
26
Ludolf von Alvensleben
(SS functionary and Police Leader)
Birthdate: March 17, 1901
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Halle, Germany
Died: April 1, 1970
27
Martin Gottfried Weiss
(Military personnel)
Birthdate: June 3, 1905
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Weiden, Germany
Died: May 29, 1946
28
Maria Mandl
(Austrian SS-Helferin)
Birthdate: January 10, 1912
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Münzkirchen, Austria
Died: January 24, 1948
29
Iwane Matsui
(Former general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the commander of the expeditionary force sent to China in 1937)
Birthdate: July 27, 1878
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
Died: December 23, 1948
30
Akira Mutō
(Military personnel)
Birthdate: December 15, 1892
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Minamiaso, Kumamoto, Japan
Died: December 23, 1948
31
Hermine Braunsteiner
(German SS 'Helferin' and Camp Guard )
Birthdate: July 16, 1919
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
Died: April 19, 1999
Birthdate: March 6, 1922
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Danzig, Free City of Danzig
Died: July 4, 1946
33
Veselin Sljivancanin
(Military officer)
Birthdate: June 13, 1953
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Žabljak, Montenegro
34
Ludwig Fischer
(Politician, War Criminal)
Birthdate: April 16, 1905
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Kaiserslautern, Germany
Died: March 8, 1947
35
Zhang Zuolin
(Chinese Bandit, Soldier and Warlord of Manchuria (1922 - 1928))
Birthdate: March 19, 1875
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Haicheng, Anshan, China
Died: June 4, 1928
Chinese bandit and warlord Zhang Zuolin initially ruled over Manchuria and then became the military dictator of the Republic of China. Later, the Nationalist Party’s march into China forced him to move his troops out of Beijing. He died when his train became the target of a bomb blast.
36
Helmut Oberlander
(War criminals)
Birthdate: February 15, 1924
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Molotschna, Ukraine
37
Alieu Kosiah
(Military commander, Criminal)
Birthdate: March 3, 1975
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Ganta, Nimba County, Liberia
38
Herta Bothe
(Concentration camp guard during World War II)
Birthdate: January 3, 1921
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Teterow, Germany
Died: March 16, 2000
39
Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury
(Politician)
Birthdate: March 13, 1949
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Chittagong, Bangladesh
Died: November 22, 2015
Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury was a Bangladeshi politician who served under Prime Minister Khaleda Zia as the adviser of parliamentary affairs from 2001 to 2006. In 2013, he was convicted of war crime charges and sentenced to death for his actions during the Bangladesh War of Independence. Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury was executed by hanging in 2015.
40
Friedrich Flick
(Industrialist)
Birthdate: July 10, 1883
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Germany
Died: July 20, 1972
41
Hermann Pister
(German officer)
Birthdate: February 21, 1885
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Lübeck, Germany
Died: September 28, 1948
42
Bernard Ntuyahaga
(Military Leader)
Birthdate: 1952 AD
Birthplace: Rwanda
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.
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.
45
Gudrun Ensslin
(Far-left terrorist and founder of the West German far-left militant group Red Army Faction)
Birthdate: August 15, 1940
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Bartholomä, Germany
Died: October 18, 1977
Birthdate: April 3, 1920
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Dubovi Makharyntsi, Berdychiv uyezd, Kiev Governorate, Ukrainian People's Republic
Died: March 17, 2012
John Demjanjuk was a Trawniki man and a Nazi concentration camp guard at Sobibor, Majdanek, and Flossenbürg. He was part of a highly publicized trial that convicted him for committing atrocities as the infamous Treblinka guard “Ivan the Terrible.” However, lack of any strong evidence suggested he had been misidentified
47
Amon Goeth(Austrian Nazi Officer and Commandant of Poland's Kraków-Plaszow Concentration Camp)
Birthdate: December 11, 1908
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
Died: September 13, 1946
Amon Goeth was an Austrian war criminal and SS functionary. During World War II, Goeth served as the commandant of the Płaszów concentration camp operated by the SS. After the war, he was convicted of homicide and was executed by hanging. Amon Goeth was played by Ralph Fiennes in the 1993 epic historical drama film Schindler's List.
48
Erich Naumann
(War crimal, Police officer)
Birthdate: April 29, 1905
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Meissen, Germany
Died: June 7, 1951
49
Tharcisse Renzaho
(Politician, Criminal)
Birthdate: July 17, 1944
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Kibungo, Rwanda-Urundi
50
Rudolf Höss(German Nazi Commandant and Longest-Serving Commandant of Auschwitz Concentration and Extermination Camp)
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.