The Painful Execution of Wilhelm Keitel *Warning HARD TO STOMACH. JJ

Picture this. September 23rd, 1939. Warsaw lies in ruins. Polish civilians huddle in basement as German jack boots march through the streets. But the real horror hasn’t even begun. One Nazi field marshal is about to unleash a campaign of terror so brutal that it will shock even hardened SS officers. Before we reveal how this monster met his agonizing end, writhing on the gallows for 24 excruciating minutes, do me a favor. Hit that subscribe button and smash that like icon right now. We’re

Mountain America and we’re bringing you the darkest untold stories from history that mainstream channels are too afraid to touch. Turn on those notifications because what we’re about to expose will shake you to your core. These stories matter and you deserve to know the truth. His name was Wilhelm Kitle, Hitler’s most loyal lap dog who signed death warrants for millions. Today we reveal how this cowardly field marshal met his agonizing end on the gallows writhing for 24 excruciating minutes

before death finally claimed him. Wilhelm Bodin Johan Gustaf Kitle entered this world on September 22nd 1882 in the small German village of Helm Sherroda. Born into privilege as the eldest son of wealthy landowner Carl Kitle, young Wilhelm’s life took a tragic turn at age six when his mother died from childbirth complications. Raised on the family estate and later educated at Guttingan Gymnasium, Katel showed mediocre academic performance, a pattern that would define his entire career. His dream was simple, become a farmer like

his father. But fate had darker plans. When his father refused to retire, 18-year-old Kitle joined the Prussian army in 1901. Too cheap and status conscious for the prestigious cavalry, he settled for field artillery service. Even then, he was taking shortcuts and choosing easier paths. Marriage to wealthy aerys Lisa Fontaine in 1909 changed everything. Lisa wasn’t just beautiful. She was ambitious, intelligent, and decisively superior to her husband in every way. She pushed Kitle away from his farming dreams

toward military glory, a decision that would ultimately cost millions of lives. World War I erupted on July 28th, 1914. Kitle served competently but unremarkably on the Western Front until shrapnel nearly killed him in Flanders. During recovery, his organizational skills, his only real talent, caught attention. By 1915, he’d clawed his way into the army general staff. When Germany surrendered in November 1918, the humiliating Treaty of Versailles stripped the nation of territory, imposed crushing reparations, and

limited their military to just 100,000 men. For a mediocre officer like Kitle, simply surviving the massive downsizing was an achievement. Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, Kitle worked in various ministry positions, secretly planning German rearmament in direct violation of international law. His defining characteristic emerged. Absolute unquestioning obedience to authority. He was the perfect Nazi before the Nazis even existed. The VHimar Republic struggled under economic chaos and political instability. Hyperinflation

destroyed savings. Unemployment soared and extremist parties gained ground. In this environment of desperation and resentment, men like Kitle quietly prepared for Germany’s military resurrection. Everything changed when Adolf Hitler seized power in January 1933. Kitle was recovering from a heart attack and pneumonia in a tech senatorium. But upon returning, he immediately embraced Nazi ideology. His first meeting with Hitler in July 1933 left him starruck and completely devoted. By 1935, Kitle

served as chief of staff to War Minister Vera von Blumbberg. During the crucial November 5th, 1937 conference, Hitler revealed his vision, a series of localized wars across central and eastern Europe to secure German living space. While other generals questioned the timing, Kitle enthusiastically supported every word. The opportunity for ultimate advancement came through betrayal. In January 1938, Kitle discovered evidence that Bloomberg’s wife had worked as a prostitute. Instead of staying silent, he eagerly forwarded

this information to Herman Guring, who used it to destroy Blumberg’s career. When Hitler asked Bloomberg for a replacement recommendation, the disgraced minister suggested the Furer take personal command, adding dismissively, “Kitle is just the man who runs my office,” Hitler’s eyes lit up. “That’s exactly the man I’m looking for.” February 4th, 1938, Wilhelm Kitle became head of the Supreme Command of Armed Forces, OKW. Everyone, including Kitle himself, knew he was utterly

unqualified. But Hitler didn’t want competence. He wanted obedience. Fellow officers immediately nicknamed him Lakeell, a cruel pun combining Lai, Lackey, with his surname. Behind his back, they called him Hitler’s blindingly loyal Toad and stupid follower. Even Herman Guring, the corpulent Luftwaffer chief, sneered that Kitle had a sergeant’s mind inside a field marshall’s body. Kitle’s first major task involved threatening Austria into submission. When Austrian Chancellor Shushnig announced a

referendum on independence, Hitler ordered Kitle to conduct menacing military exercises along the border. The intimidation worked perfectly. Austria fell without a shot, earning Kitle the Ancelus Medal for his theatrical performance. September 1st, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, igniting World War II. Within days, security police chief Reinhard Hydrickch declared that all Polish nobles, clergy, and Jews must die. On September 12th, Kitle eagerly added Poland’s intellectuals to the extermination list. The results were

horrifying. Between fall 1939 and spring 1940, approximately 60,000 Polish government officials, military officers, landowners, clergy, scientists, teachers, lawyers, and doctors were systematically murdered in what became known as the Intelligencia Action. Over 1,000 prisoners of war were executed in cold blood. Kitle wasn’t just following orders. He was enthusiastically expanding them. He knew exactly what these directives meant. the complete destruction of Polish civilization and the reduction of surviving Poles to

leaderless slaves laboring for German masters. When officers complained about these atrocities, Kitle simply ignored them until the protests stopped. Eventually, commanders and soldiers became morally numb to the horrors surrounding them, exactly as Kitle intended. After conquering France in 6 weeks during spring 1940, the sicopantic Kitle proclaimed Hitler the greatest warlord of all time. To further humiliate France, Hitler ordered the armistice signed in the same railway car where Germany had surrendered in 1918.

Kitle signed for Germany on June 22nd, 1940. His reward, 100,000 rice marks, nearly $1 million today, as a loyalty bonus for the Polish campaign. Shortly after, Kitle received promotion to field marshal. Though this changed nothing about how other Nazi leaders viewed him. They still considered him Hitler’s spineless errand boy. But Kitle’s most horrific contributions came during Operation Barbarosa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. Prior to the attack, he issued a series of criminal

orders that abandoned all military ethics and international law. The commisar order commanded German soldiers to immediately execute captured Soviet political officers. The September 1941 unusual severity directive authorized killing 5100 communists for every German casualty. Kitle specifically stated that human life was less than nothing in the east. The commando order mandated murdering captured allied special forces even when they surrendered in uniform. The 1942 order regarding Yugoslav partisans was perhaps most chilling. The

troops are authorized and obliged to use every means in this fight without restriction, even against women and children, if only it leads to success. Kitle also created the night and fog decree, one of Nazi Germany’s most terrifying policies. Resistance fighters in occupied territories would simply vanish without a trace, transported to concentration camps or execution sites. Families never learned their loved ones fate. They just disappeared into the night. Approximately 7,000 people vanished under this decree across

Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Those who survived interrogation and torture were sent to camps like Gross Rosen and Natsvuto where most perished. The decre’s purpose was psychological warfare, terrorizing occupied populations into submission by demonstrating that resistance meant not just death, but complete erasure from existence. No trial, no grave, no closure for grieving families. Hitler rewarded this cruelty lavishly. 250,000 talons marks in equivalent to $2.4 $4 million today and

246 hectares of prime forest property worth over 7 million modern dollars in 1944. Kitle eagerly accepted these blood soaked gifts. War eventually touched Kitel personally. His youngest son Hans Guog died fighting in Russia in July 1941. His eldest son Carl Hines became a Soviet prisoner. Yet even these devastating losses couldn’t shake his fanatical loyalty to Hitler. During the July 20th, 1944 assassination attempt when Colonel Klaus von Stafenberg’s bomb exploded in the conference room, Kitle

personally helped the wounded Furer escaped the carnage. In the subsequent purge, over 7,000 people were arrested and nearly 5,000 executed on the flimsiest evidence. Kitle not only participated in the kangaroo court proceedings, but personally delivered. Hitler’s ultimatum to Field Marshall Irwin Raml, the legendary desert fox suicide or public trial. To protect his family from Nazi retribution, Raml chose the cyanide pill. Raml chose the cyanide pill. As Berlin crumbled in spring 1945, Kitle desperately called for

counterattacks that couldn’t possibly succeed. German forces were shattered, ammunition exhausted, fuel depleted. Yet Kitle kept issuing impossible orders, detached from reality like his master. When Hitler shot himself on April 30th, the lackis world collapsed. Initially, General Alfred Yodel signed Germany’s surrender in rams on May 7th, but the Soviets insisted that Kitle himself as supreme military commander must personally sign the final document. They feared another stab in the back myth and

demanded the German military’s complete humiliation. On the night of May 8th, 1945, Wilhelm Kitle signed Germany’s unconditional surrender in Berlin. Witnesses reported he graveled to Admiral Donuts exactly as he had to Hitler, a coward to the very end. Minister Albert Spear later confirmed this pathetic display. Arrested on May 13th, 1945, Kitle faced the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Prosecutors charged him with conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, planning aggressive wars, war

crimes, and crimes against humanity. His defense was pathetic. I was just following orders. Prison psychiatrist GM Gilbert observed that Kitle had no more backbone than a jellyfish. When confronted with evidence of his crimes, he claimed, “As these atrocities developed, one from the other step by step, and without any fornowledge of the consequences, destiny took its tragic course, the prosecutors weren’t fooled. They presented overwhelming evidence, the criminal orders bearing his signature, testimony from survivors,

documentation of his enthusiastic participation in planning genocide. Kitle had known exactly what he was doing. The tribunal wasn’t fooled. On October 1st, 1946, they found Kitle guilty on all four counts and sentenced him to death by hanging. His request for a military execution by firing squad was denied. His acts were criminal, not military. October 16th, 1946, execution day. Katel told prison chaplain Henry Gerka, “You have helped me more than you know. May Christ my savior stand by me all the

way. I shall need him so much. After receiving communion, he walked to the gallows with surprising dignity. Perhaps the only dignified moment in his entire career. His final words. I call on God Almighty to have mercy on the German people. More than 2 million German soldiers went to their death for the fatherland before me. I follow now my sons, all for Germany. But justice came with brutal irony. American Master Sergeant John C. Woods, the executioner, deliberately botched the job. The trapoor was too small, causing painful

head injuries as Kitle dropped. Without sufficient force to snap his neck, he strangled slowly, convulsing in agony for 24 excruciating minutes before death finally ended his suffering. Woods later boasted, “I performed all executions correctly and was very proud of my work.” Military policeman Joseph Malter, who assisted, declared 50 years later, “It was a pleasure doing it. I’d do it all over again.” Kitle’s corpse was cremated, and his ashes scattered in the Vensback River. A small tributary of the

Isser. No grave, no memorial. No trace remained of Hitler’s most loyal lap dog. Wilhelm Kitle died as he lived, a coward, a sycopant, and a war criminal. His 24-minute death throws were a fitting end for a man who signed orders condemning millions to far worse fates. Unlike his victims, who died quickly from bullets or slowly in gas chambers, Kitle experienced every second of his prolonged agony, fully conscious until the end. There were no tears shed for Wilhelm Kitle. History remembers him not

as a soldier, but as a spineless lackey who enabled genocide, ordered the murder of women and children, and paid the ultimate price for his crimes. His legacy serves as a permanent reminder that just following orders is never an acceptable defense for evil. The Nuremberg trials established that principle firmly. Every individual bears personal responsibility for their actions regardless of superior orders. This is the power of historical justice. Evil never truly escapes consequences. If these untold stories of Nazi war

criminals and historical justice fascinate you, you need to subscribe to Mountain America right now and smash that notification bell. We’re exposing the darkest chapters of history that others won’t touch, bringing you shocking true stories weekly. Like this video if you believe these stories deserve to be told. and drop a comment below telling us which historical figure or event we should investigate next. Share this with someone who needs to understand how monsters meet their end. Until next time, remember, history’s

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