...After the execution of fifteen American POWs, life went on as normal for General Dostler. In November 1944, he was transferred to the 73rd Army Corps, where he ended the war. Justice finally caught up with Dostler when he was captured by the United States Army. Unlike the 15 soldiers he shot, General Dostler, after the Americans discovered the fate of the commando team, had his day in court and was tried for war crimes on May 8, 1945. A military tribunal was held at the headquarters of the Supreme Allied Commander, the Royal Palace in Caserta, Italy, on October 8, 1945. In the first Allied war crimes trial, he was charged with executing an illegal order to kill fifteen American POWs. In his defense, he maintained that he had not issued the order, but had merely passed it on to Colonel Almers from Field Marshal Kesselring, and that the execution of the OSS men was lawful. Dostler's claim of superior orders failed before the tribunal, which found that he had acted independently of the Führer's orders when he ordered the mass execution. The Military Commission also rejected his application for clemency, finding that the mass execution of the commando group violated Article 2 of the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, which prohibited acts of reprisal against prisoners of war. In its ruling, the Commission stated that "no soldier, much less a general commander, can say that he considers the mass shooting of prisoners of war to be justified, even as a form of reprisal." Under the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, it was legal to shoot spies and saboteurs dressed in civilian clothing or enemy uniforms, but not those captured in the uniforms of one's own army. Because the 15 American soldiers were properly dressed in American uniforms behind enemy lines rather than dressed in civilian clothing or enemy uniforms, they should not have been treated as spies but as prisoners of war, a principle that Dostler violated by carrying out the execution order. The trial rejected the "orders of superiors" defense, as Dostler defended himself by claiming that he had ordered the executions only because he himself was carrying out the orders of his superiors, and as such only his superiors could be held responsible. The rejection of Dostler's defense by the court-martial set an important precedent for the trial of Nazi war criminals several months later at Nuremberg, because it did not allow the defendants to claim in their defense that they were merely carrying out orders. On October 12, 1945, an American military tribunal found General Dostler guilty of war crimes and sentenced him to death by firing squad. Anton Dostler was 54 years old when a prison guard delivered him to his execution site shortly after sunrise on December 1, 1945. The officer in charge read the indictment, the verdict, and gave Dostler a brief moment to talk with the Roman Catholic chaplain. Then things happened quickly: Three soldiers tied him to a post with his hands behind his back. Then a medical officer put a black hood over Dostler’s head and attached a four-inch white shield over his heart. After the 12-man firing squad took up position 50 feet from Dostler, the officer in charge gave the order to fire. As the shots rang out, Dostler’s body fell forward, lifeless. The execution was captured on black-and-white photos and movie cameras. Immediately after the execution, Dostler's body was carried onto a stretcher, wrapped in a white cotton mattress, taken away in a military truck, and buried at the German War Cemetery in Pomezia, Italy. Almost immediately after the end of the war, a myth arose that the German army had fought only its enemies, including the Soviets, in a conventional war and had not been involved in the Holocaust or other genocidal activities. This legend began at Nuremberg, where the SS was declared a criminal organization, but the military was not. Only members of the highest command were tried as war criminals. However, ongoing research shows how willingly and deeply the military participated in the Holocaust and other atrocities of the Nazi regime. Disclaimer: All opinions and comments below are those of viewers and do not reflect the views of the World History Channel. We do not condone the promotion of violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on characteristics such as race, nationality, religion, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation. World History reserves the right to review comments and remove them if they are deemed inappropriate. ► Click the SUBSCRIBE button to see more interesting clips: / @worldhistoryvideospl #history #worldhistory #holokaust #ww2