Walter von Reichenau

Walter von Reichenau ( Karlsruhe , October 8 1884 - Leipzig , January 17 1942 ) was a German general-field marshal and Nazi war criminal.

Reichenau served during the First World War as a captain on the Western Front . After the war he remained in the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic . In 1932 he joined the Nazi party .

When Hitler took power in 1933, Reichenau was private secretary at the Ministry of War under Werner von Blomberg . He acted as an intermediary between the Nazi Party and the Wehrmacht . In that capacity Reichenau convinced the Nazi leadership that the power of Ernst Röhm and his SA had to be broken.This led directly to the Night of the Long Knives .

In 1935, Reichenau was promoted to lieutenant general. In September 1939, Reichenau commanded the Tenth Army during the Polish campaign and in 1940 he led the Sixth Army during Fall Gelb and the Battle of France . To this he was promoted in July 1940 to field marshal.

During Operation Barbarossa he remained in command of the Sixth Army which include the cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv took. He urged his men to till the murder of the Jews and is directly responsible for the killing of a group of ninety Jewish children whose parents had already been killed.

In January 1942 von Reichenau suffered a heart attack and it was decided to fly him to a hospital in Germany. During a stopover in Lemberg, he was seriously injured and after further transport to Leipzig proved to be the deceased general-field marshal. ==Military career [  edit ] == ==[Decorations  edit ] ==
 * Leutnant : August 18, 1904
 * Oberleutnant : August 18, 1912
 * Hauptmann : November 28, 1914
 * Major : July 1, 1923
 * Oberstleutnant : April 1, 1929
 * Oberst : February 1, 1932 [2]
 * General Major : February 1, 1934 [2]
 * Generalleutnant : October 1, 1935 [2]
 * General of Artillery : October 1, 1936 [2]
 * Colonel General : October 1, 1939 <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-http:.2F.2Fnl.ww2awards.com.2Fperson.2F35610_2-5" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[2]
 * Generalfeldmarschall : July 19, 1940 <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-http:.2F.2Fnl.ww2awards.com.2Fperson.2F35610_2-6" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[2]
 * Knight's Cross on September 30, 1939 as General der Artillery and Oberbefehlshaber of 10. Armée <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[3] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-http:.2F.2Fnl.ww2awards.com.2Fperson.2F35610_2-7" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[2]
 * Iron Cross 1914, 1st and 2nd class
 * Crown Order (Prussia), 4th class
 * Knight's Cross of the House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords
 * Knight's Cross in the Frederiks-Order
 * Hanseaten Cross of Hamburg
 * Cross of Military Merit (Austria-Hungary), 3rd Class with War Decoration
 * Repetition at Buckle 1939 Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-http:.2F.2Fnl.ww2awards.com.2Fperson.2F35610_2-8" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[2]
 * Anschluss Medal with Clasp "Prager Burg" <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-http:.2F.2Fnl.ww2awards.com.2Fperson.2F35610_2-9" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[2]
 * Cross for the World <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-http:.2F.2Fnl.ww2awards.com.2Fperson.2F35610_2-10" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[2]
 * Wehrmacht Dienstauszeichnung for (4, 12, 18 and 25 years of service) <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-http:.2F.2Fnl.ww2awards.com.2Fperson.2F35610_2-11" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[2]
 * Medal Winterschlacht im Osten 1941/42
 * He was once mentioned in the Wehrmacht report . This was done by:
 * September 21, 1941