Alfred Gustav

Alfred Jodl, born in Wurzburg, on 10-05-1890, fifteen months after Adolf Hitler (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know) (see Hitler parents), attended cadet school and 1910 joined a field military regiment in the German Army. Soon after the outbreak of the First World War Jodl suffered a severe thigh wound. He recovered and saw further action on the Western Front and in 1917 Jodl served briefly on the Easter Front before returning to the west as a staff officer. Disillusioned by Germany's defeat he considered leaving the army and becoming a doctor, but Jodl remained in the armed forces and joined the Versailles-limited Reichswehr . Jodl had married Irma Gräfin von Bullion, a woman five years his senior from an aristocratic Swabian family, in September 1913. She died in Königsberg in the spring of 1944 from pneumonia, contracted after major spinal surgery. In November 1944, Jodl married Luise von Benda , a family friend and she became his secretary, she died in 1998, old age 93. 93In 1935 Jodl was promoted to the rank of General Major. After the Anschluss he was sent to Vienna as head of the 44th Artillery Command. He returned to Germany and in September he took part in the invasion of Poland. A strong supporter of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), Jodl worked closely with Adolf Hitler and in October, 1939, was appointed chief of operations.   During the Battle of Britain (see Bomber Harris) Jodl was optimistic of Britain's demise and on 30-06-1940 wrote "The final German victory over England is now only a question of time." In January, 1944, Jodl was promoted to the rank of Generaloberst, acting as deputy to Wilhelm Keitel (see Keitel) Jodl came close to be killed when the bomb exploded in the July Plot, 1944.     Generaloberst Gunther Korten (see Korten) and General Rudolf Schmundt (see Schmundt) were killed. He recovered and on 07-05-1945  he signed the unconditional surrender of Germany

        to the Allies as the representative of Karl Dönitz (see Dönitz), together with Admiral von Friedeburg (see Friedeburg) and Eberhard Kinzel (see Kinzel). Soon afterwards he was arrested and charged with war crimes. At the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial Jodl was charged of approving orders that violated the rules of war.     Alfred Jodl was found guilty and hanged on 06-10-1946, by the U.S. hangman John Woods (see Woods). Jodl is cremated on the Ostfriedhof of Munich together with all condemned Nuremburg persons, (see Joachim von Ribbentrop) (see Wilhelm Keitel) (see Julius Streicher) (see Wilhelm Frick) (see Arthur Seyss Inquart) (see Alfred Rosenberg) (see Kaltenbrunner) and (see Hans Frank)  Fritz Sauckel (see Sauckel),  and Hermann Goering (see Goering) (did you know), Goeringe committed suicide only hours before his hanging. The ashes were secretly, in the night of 16-10-1946, scattered in the river Isar, from a bridge in Munich, the Reichenbachbrücke.

              Veterans say that Jodl's ashes are bought from the Americans and buried on the Fraueninsel in the Bavarain Chiemsee, next to his wife and brother General of the Mountain Troops Ferdinand Jodl (see Ferdinand Jodl). It's the same story as with the ashes and graves of honor for Wilhelm Keitel, in Bad Gandersheim and on Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg and Joachim von Ribbentrop, in Biebrich, Wiesbaden, the family grave of his wife Annelies Henkell.