The governments of the German Empire and Nazi Germany ordered, organized and condoned a substantial number of war crimes in World War I and World War II respectively. The most notable of these is the Holocaust in which millions of people were systematically murdered or died from abuse and mistreatment. Millions also died as a result of other German actions in those two conflicts. The true number of victims may never be known, since much of the evidence was deliberately destroyed by the perpetrators in an attempt to conceal the crimes.
Considered to have been the first genocide of the 20th century, the Herero and Namaqua Genocide was perpetrated by the German Empire between 1904 and 1907 in German South-West Africa (modern day Namibia), during the scramble for Africa. On January 12, 1904, the Herero people, led by Samuel Maharero, rebelled against German colonialism. In August, General Lothar von Trotha of the Imperial German Army defeated the Herero in the Battle of Waterberg and drove them into the desert of Omaheke, where most of them died of thirst. In October, the Nama people also rebelled against the Germans only to suffer a similar fate.
In total, from 24,000 up to 100,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama died. The genocide was characterized by widespread death by starvation and thirst because the Herero who fled the violence were prevented from returning from the Namib Desert. Some sources also claim that the German colonial army systematically poisoned desert wells.
Documentation regarding German war crimes in World War I were subsequently seized and destroyed by Nazi Germany during World War II, after occupying France, along with monuments commemorating their victims.
Poison gas was first introduced as a weapon by Imperial Germany, and subsequently used by all major belligerents, in violation of the 1899 Hague Declaration Concerning Asphyxiating Gases and the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, which explicitly forbade the use of "poison or poisoned weapons" in warfare.
In August 1914, as part of the Schlieffen Plan, the German Army invaded and occupied the neutral nation of Belgium without explicit warning, which violated a treaty of 1839 that the German chancellor dismissed as a "scrap of paper" and the 1907 Hague Convention on Opening of Hostilities. Within the first two months of the war, the German occupiers terrorized the Belgians, killing thousands of civilians and looting and burning scores of towns, including Leuven, which housed the country's preeminent university, mainly in fear of Belgian resistance fighters, or francs-tireurs. This action was in violation of the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare provisions that prohibited collective punishment on civilians and looting and destruction of civilian property in occupied territories.
The raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby, which took place on December 16, 1914, was an attack by the Imperial German Navy on the British seaport towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool, and Whitby. The attack resulted in 137 fatalities and 592 casualties. The raid was in violation of the ninth section of the 1907 Hague Convention which prohibited naval bombardments of undefended towns without warning, because only Hartlepool was protected by shore batteries. Germany was a signatory of the 1907 Hague Convention. Another attack followed on 26 April 1916 on the coastal towns of Yarmouth and Lowestoft but both were important naval bases and defended by shore batteries.
Unrestricted submarine warfare was instituted in 1915 in response to the British blockade of Germany in the North Sea. Prize rules, which were codified under the 1907 Hague Convention—such as those that required commerce raiders to warn their targets and allow time for the crew to board lifeboats—were disregarded and commercial vessels were sunk regardless of nationality, cargo, or destination. Following the sinking of the RMS Lusitania on 7 May 1915 and subsequent public outcry in various neutral countries, including the United States, the practice was withdrawn. However, Germany resumed the practice on 1 February 1917 and declared that all merchant ships regardless of nationalities would be sunk without warning. This outraged the U.S. public, prompting the U.S. to break diplomatic relations with Germany two days later, and, along with the Zimmermann Telegram, led the U.S. entry into the war two months later on the side of the Allied Powers.
The Holocaust of the Jews, the Action T4 killing of the disabled and the Porajmos of the Gypsies are the most notable war crimes committed by Nazi Germany during World War II. Not all of the crimes committed during the Holocaust and similar mass atrocities were war crimes. Telford Taylor (The U.S. prosecutor in the German High Command case at the Nuremberg Trials and Chief Counsel for the twelve trials before the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunals) explained in 1982:
it should be noted that, as far as wartime actions against enemy nationals are concerned, the [1948] Genocide Convention added virtually nothing to what was already covered (and had been since the Hague Convention of 1899) by the internationally accepted laws of land warfare, which require an occupying power to respect "family honors and rights, individual lives and private property, as well as religious convictions and liberty" of the enemy nationals. But the laws of war do not cover, in time of either war or peace, a government's actions against its own nationals (such as Nazi Germany's persecution of German Jews). And at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, the tribunals rebuffed several efforts by the prosecution to bring such "domestic" atrocities within the scope of international law as "crimes against humanity."
German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war — at least 3.3 million Soviet POWs died in German custody, out of 5.7 million captured; this figure represents 57% POW casualty rate.
Le Paradis massacre, May 1940, British soldiers of the Royal Norfolk Regiment, captured by the SS and subsequently murdered. Fritz Knoechlein tried, found guilty and hanged.
Wormhoudt massacre, May 1940, British and French soldiers captured by the SS and subsequently murdered. No one found guilty of the crime.
Lidice massacre after assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, when the Czech village was utterly destroyed, and inhabitants murdered.
Ardenne Abbey massacre, June 1944 Canadian soldiers captured by the SS and Murdered by 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend. SS General Kurt Meyer (Panzermeyer) sentenced to be shot 1946; sentence commuted; released 1954
Malmedy massacre, December 1944, United States POWs captured by Kampfgruppe Peiper were murdered outside of Malmedy, Belgium.
Wereth massacre. 17 December 1944, soldiers from 3./SS-PzAA1 LSSAH captured eleven African-American soldiers from 333rd Artillery Battalion in the hamlet of Wereth, Belgium. Subsequently, the prisoners were shot and had their fingers cut off, legs broken, and at least one was shot while trying to bandage a comrade's wounds.
Gardelegen (war crime) of April 1945 when Nazi concentration camp prisoners were herded into a barn, which was the set alight, killing all inside
Oradour-sur-Glane
Massacre of Kalavryta
Unrestricted submarine warfare against merchant shipping.
The intentional destruction of major medieval churches of Novgorod, of monasteries in the Moscow region (e.g., of New Jerusalem Monastery) and of the imperial palaces around St. Petersburg (many of them were left by the post-war authorities in ruins or simply demolished).
The campaign of extermination of Slavic population in the occupied territories. Several thousand villages were burned with their entire population (e.g., Khatyn massacre in Belarus). A quarter of the inhabitants of Belarus did not survive the German occupation.
Commando Order, the secret order issued by Hitler in October 1942 stating that Allied combatants encountered during commando operations were to be executed immediately without trial, even if they were properly uniformed, unarmed, or intending to surrender.
Commissar Order, the order from Hitler to Wehrmacht troops before the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 to shoot Commissars immediately on capture
Nacht und Nebel decree of 1941 for disappearance of prisoners
List of Axis war criminals
List of Nazi doctors
Adolf Eichmann
Heinrich Gross
Hans Heinze
Rudolf Hoess
Karl Linnas
Josef Mengele
Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer
Alfred Trzebinski
Murders of children by Heinrich Gross
The Holocaust in Belarus
Anti-partisan operations in Belarus
Operation Bamberg
Operation Cottbus
1941
28 September – 17 October, Pleszczenice-Bischolin-Szack (Šacak)-Bobr-Uzda (White Ruthenia) massacre (1,126 children)
1942
26 March – 6 April, Operation Bamberg (Hłusk, Bobrujsk; 4,396 people, including children)
9 – 12 May, Kliczów-Bobrujsk massacre (520 people, including children)
Beginning of June, Słowodka-Bobrujsk massacre (1,000 people, including children)
15 June Borki (powiat białostocki) massacre (1,741 people, including children)
21 June Zbyszin massacre (1,076 people, including children)
25 June Timkowiczi massacre (900 people, including children)
26 June Studenka massacre (836 people, including children)
18 July, Jelsk massacre (1,000 people, including children)
15 July – 7 August, Operation Adler (Bobrujsk, Mohylew, Berezyna; 1,381 people, including children)
14 – 20 August, Operation Greif (Orsza, Witebsk; 796 people, including children)
22 August – 21 September, Operation Sumpffieber (White Ruthenia; 10,063 people, including children)
August, Bereźne massacre
22 September – 26 September, Małoryta massacre; 4,038 people, including children)
23 September – 3 October, Operation Blitz (Połock, Witebsk; 567 people, including children)
11 – 23 October, Operation Karlsbad (Orsza, Witebsk; 1,051 people, including children)
23 – 29 November, Operation Nürnberg (Dubrowka; 2,974 people, including children)
10 – 21 December, Operation Hamburg (Niemen River-Szczara River; 6,172 people, including children)
22 – 29 December, Operation Altona (Słonim; 1,032 people, including children)
1943
6 – 14 January, Operation Franz (Grodsjanka; 2,025 people, including children)
10 – 11 January, Operation Peter (Kliczów, Kolbcza; 1,400 people, including children)
18 – 23 January, Słuck-Mińsk-Czerwień massacre (825 people, including children)
28 January – 15 February, Operation Schneehase; Połock, Rossony, Krasnopole; 2,283 people, including children); 54; 37
Until 28 January, Operation Erntefest I (Czerwień, Osipowicze; 1,228 people, including children)
Jaanuar, Operation Eisbär (between Briańsk and Dmitriev-Lgowski)
Until 1 February, Operation Waldwinter (Sirotino-Trudy; 1,627 people, including children)
8 – 26 February, Operation Hornung (Lenin, Hancewicze; 12,897 people, including children)
Until 9 February, Operation Erntefest II (Słuck, Kopyl; 2,325 people, including children)
15 February – end of March, Operation Winterzauber (Oświeja, Latvian border; 3,904 people, including children)
22 February – 8 March, Operation Kugelblitz (Połock, Oświeja, Dryssa, Rossony; 3,780 people, including children)
Until 19 March, Operation Nixe (Ptycz, Mikaszewicze, Pińsk; 400 people, including children)
Until 21 March, Operation Föhn (Pińsk; 543 people, including children)
21 March – 2 April, Operation Donnerkeil (Połock, Witebsk; 542 people, including children)
1 – 9 May, Operation Draufgänger II (Rudnja and Manyly forest; 680 people, including children)
17 – 21 May, Operation Maigewitter (Witebsk, Suraż, Gorodok; 2,441 people, including children)
20 May – 23 June, Operation Cottbus (Lepel, Begomel, Uszacz; 11,796 people, including children)
27 May – 10 June, Operation Weichsel (Dniepr-Prypeć triangle, South-West of Homel; 4,018 people, including children)
13 – 16 June, Operation Ziethen (Rzeczyca; 160 people, including children)
25 June – 27 July, Operation Seydlitz (Owrucz-Mozyrz; 5,106 people, including children)
30 July, Mozyrz massacre (501 people, including children)
Until 14 July, Operation Günther (Woloszyn, Lagoisk; 3,993 people, including children)
13 July – 11 August, Operation Hermann (Iwie, Nowogródek, Woloszyn, Stołpce; 4,280 people, including children)
24 September – 10 October, Operation Fritz (Głębokie; 509 people, including children)
9 October – 22 October, Stary Bychów massacre (1,769 people, including children)
1 November – 18 November, Operation Heinrich (Rossony, Połock, Idrica; 5,452 people, including children)
December, Spasskoje massacre (628 people, including children)
December, Biały massacre (1,453 people, including children)
20 December – 1 January 1944, Operation Otto (Oświeja; 1,920 people, including children)
1944
14 January, Oła massacre (1,758 people, including children)
22 January, Baiki massacre (987 people, including children)
3 – 15 February, Operation Wolfsjagd (Hłusk, Bobrujsk; 467 people, including children)
5 – 6 February, Barycz (near Buczacz) massacre (126 people, including children)
Until 19 February, Operation Sumpfhahn (Hłusk, Bobrujsk; 538 people, including children)
Beginning of March, Berezyna-Bielnicz massacre (686 people, including children)
7 – 17 April, Operation Auerhahn (Bobrujsk; c. 1,000 people, including children)
17 April – 12 May, Operation Frühlingsfest (Połock, Uszacz; 7,011 people, including children)
25 May – 17 June, Operation Kormoran; Wilejka, Borysów, Minsk; 7,697 people, including children)
2 June – 13 June, Operation Pfingsrose (Talka; 499 people, including children)
June, Operation Pfingstausnlug (Sienno; 653 people, including children)
June, Operation Windwirbel (Chidra; 560 people, including children)
The Holocaust in Estonia
Murders of children by Karl Linnas
1941
2 November, Mass murder of children in Pärnu synagogue (34 children)
1942
27 March Murder of Pliner children (Holocaust in Estonia; 3 children)
Le Paradis massacre
Wormhoudt massacre
murders of children in the Drancy internment camp
Ascq massacre April 1944
arrest and deportation to Auschwitz of the children of the orphanage of Izieu, 6 April 1944
Maillé massacre
Maillé, Indre-et-Loire
Tulle massacre, 9 June 1944
Oradour-sur-Glane massacre (205 children) 10 June 1944
Ardenne Abbey massacre of British and Canadian troops by Waffen-SS
Action T4
Murders of children in the Hadamar Clinic (NS-Tötungsanstalt Hadamar) mostly by Irmgard Huber
Murders of children by Hans Heinze
Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer#Involvement in Nazi human experimentation
1945
8 April - The Celle Massacre
13 April - Gardelegen Massacre
20 April - Murder of 20 children by Alfred Trzebinski
Massacre of Kondomari (Crete, 60 men, mainly elder)
Razing of Kandanos (Crete, 180, including women children)
Holocaust of Viannos (Crete, 500+, including women children)
Distomo massacre (Central Greece, 218, including women children)
Drakeia massacre (Thessaly, 118 men)
Holocaust of Kedros (Crete, 164, including women children)
Kommeno (Epirus, 317, including women children)
Massacre of Kalavryta (Peloponnese, 1,200+, including women children)
Lyngiades massacre (Epirus), 92, mostly infants, children, women and elderly
Massacre of the Acqui Division (Kefalonia, 5,000, Italian anti-fascist troops)
Mesovouno massacre (Macedonia, 268, including women and children)
Paramythia executions (Epirus, 201, including women children)
The Massacre of Chortiatis (Macedonia, 146, including women children)
Executions of Kaisariani (Athens, 200+, all civilians)
Massacre of Mousiotitsa (Epirus, 153, including women children)
Executions of Kokkinia (Athens, 300+, all civilians, assisted by Security Battalions)
Alikianos executions (Crete, 118, all civilians)
Razing of Anogeia (Crete, unknown, including women and children)
In addition, more than 90 villages and towns are recorded from the Hellenic network of martyr cities. During the triple German, Italian and Bulgarian, occupation about 800,000 people lost their lives in Greece (see World War II casualties).
List of massacres in Italy
29 September – 5 October 1944, Marzabotto massacre (Marzabotto, Emilia-Romagna; between 770 and 1,830 civilians killed)
12 August 1944, Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre (Sant'Anna di Stazzema, Tuscany; 560 people, including children)
29 June 1944, Civitella-Cornia-San Pancrazio massacre (Abruzzo; 203 people, including children)
Ardeatine massacre (Rome, Lazio; 335 prisoners executed)
Boves massacre (Cuneo, Piedmont; 189 civilians and partisans killed in two separate massacres)
Padule Fucecchio massacre (Fucecchio, Tuscany; 176 civilians killed on 23 August 1944)
Cavriglia-Castelnuovo dei Sabbioni massacre (Tuscany; 173 civilians killed on 4 July 1944)
Vinca massacre (Fivizzano, Tuscany; between 160 and 178 civilians executed on 24 August 1944)
Fosse del Frigido massacre (Massa, Tuscany; 146-149 prisoners murdered on 10 September 1944)
Pietransieri massacre (Roccaraso, Abruzzo; 128 civilians killed on 21 November 1943)
Stia massacre (Stia, Tuscany; 122 civilians killed between 12 and 15 April 1944)
San Terenzo Monti massacre (Fivizzano, Tuscany; 110 civilians and 52 political prisoners killed on 21 August 1944)
Valla massacre (Fivizzano, Tuscany; 103 civilians killed on 19 August 1944)
Serra di Ronchidoso massacre (Gaggio Montano, Emilia-Romagna; over 100 civilians killed on 28–29 September 1944)
Verghereto massacre (Verghereto, Emilia-Romagna; 96 civilians killed between 22 and 25 July 1944)
Massacre of Monchio, Susano and Costrignano (Palagano, Emilia-Romagna; between 79 and 136 civilians killed on 18 March 1944)
Leonessa and Cumulata massacre (Leonessa, Lazio; 51 civilians killed between 2 and 7 April 1944)
Cumiana massacre (Cumiana, Piedmont; 51 civilians killed on 3 April 1944)
Tavolicci massacre (Verghereto, Emilia-Romagna; 64 civilians killed on 22 July 1944)
Forno massacre (Massa, Tuscany; 72 civilians killed on 13 June 1944)
Gubbio mssacre (Gubbio, Umbria; 40 civilians executed on 22 June 1944)
Valdine massacre (Fivizzano, Tuscany; 52 hostages executed in August 1944)
Casaglia massacre (Marzabotto, Emilia-Romagna; 42 civilians killed on 29 September 1944)
Bergiola Foscalina massacre in Carrara (Carrara, Tuscany; 72 civilians killed on 16 September 1944)
Madonna dell'Albero massacre (Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna; 56 civilians killed on 27 November 1944)
"La Romagna" massacre (Molina di Quosa, San Giuliano Terme, Tuscany; 75 civilians killed on 11 August 1944)
San Polo di Arezzo massacre (Arezzo, Tuscany; 65 civilians killed on 14 July 1944)
Certosa di Farneta massacre (Lucca, Tuscany; 60 civilians killed between 2 and 10 September 1944)
Guardistallo massacre (Guardistallo, Tuscany; 46 civilians killed on 29 June 1944)
Massaciuccoli-Massarosa massacre (Massaciuccoli, Massarosa, Tuscany; 41 civilians killed between 2 and 5 September 1944)
Fossoli-Carpi massacre (Carpi, Emilia-Romagna; 67 civilians killed on 12 July 1944)
Turchino Pass massacre (Fontanafredda, Liguria; 59 civilians executed on 19 May 1944)
Pedescala massacre (Valdastico, Veneto; 82 civilians killed between 30 April and 2 May 1945)
The Holocaust in Latvia
1941
30 November and 8 December, Rumbula massacre (25,000 people, including children)
The Holocaust in Lithuania
1941
13 July – 21 August Daugavpils massacre by Einsatzkommando 3 (9,585 people, including children)
July–August 1944, Ponary massacre (c. 100,000 people, including children)
18 August – 22 August, Kreis Rasainiai massacre (1,020 children)
19 August, Ukmerge massacre (88 children)
Summer-autumn-winter, Complete murder of native Jewish population in Estonia (900 individuals, including 101 children)
1 September, Marijampolė massacre (1,404 children)
2 September, Wilno massacre (817 children)
4 September, Čekiškė massacre (60 children)
4 September, Seredžius massacre (126 children)
4 September, Veliuona massacre (86 children)
4 September, Zapyškis massacre (13 children)
6 September – 8 September, Raseiniai massacre (415 children)
6 September – 8 September, Jurbork massacre (412 people, including children)
29 October, Kaunas massacre (4,273 children)
25 November, Kauen-F.IX massacre (175 children)
Netherlands
1940
14 May, Rotterdam bombing (nearly 1,000 people were killed and 85,000 made homeless.)
1944
1 October, Putten raid (552 deaths)
5 November, Heusden Town Hall Massacre (134 people, including 74 children)
Attempted deportation of children of Jewish Children's Home in Oslo
Poland
The Holocaust in Poland
Borów massacre (103 children)
Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany
German AB-Aktion in Poland
Gmina Aleksandrów, Lublin Voivodeship
Gmina Besko
Gmina Gidle
Gmina Kłecko
Gmina Ryczywół
Gmina Siennica
Huta Pieniacka massacre
Intelligenzaktion Pommern
Jedwabne pogrom
Jeziorko woodland cemetery
Kidnapping of Polish children by Nazi Germany
Krasowo-Częstki massacre (83 children)
Lviv pogroms
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia
Michniów massacre (48 children)
Murders of children by Josef Mengele
Pacification Operations in German occupied Poland
Planned destruction of Warsaw
Ponary massacre
Operation Tannenberg
Szczecyn massacre (71 children)
Valley of Death (Bydgoszcz)
1942
2 July, murder of children of Lidice in the Kulmhof extermination camp (82 children)
1943
12 March, Murder of Czesława Kwoka in KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau (1 child)
23 May, Kielce cemetery massacre (45 children)
3 August, Szczurowa massacre (93 people, including children)
29 September, Ostrówki massacre (246 children)
29 September, Wola Ostrowiecka massacre (220 children)
1944
28 February, Huta Pieniacka massacre
28 – 29 February, Korosciatyn Massacre (c. 150 people, including children)
2 June, Murder of Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam's children (9 children)
4–August 25, Ochota massacre (c. 10,000 people, including children)
5 – 8 August, Wola massacre (40,000 up to 100,000 people, including children)
The Holocaust in Russia
Commissar Order
German war crimes against Soviet civilians
German war crimes during the Battle of Moscow
1941
20–21 October Kragujevac massacre (2300–5000 civilians killed, including 217 children)
The Holocaust in Ukraine
Babi Yar
List of victims of the Babi Yar massacre
Drobytsky Yar
Lviv pogroms
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia
1941
June, Czechow massacre (6 children)
29 – 30 September, Babi Jar massacre (33,771 people, including children: List of victims of the Babi Yar massacre)
1943
1 – 2 March 1943, Koriukivka massacre
29 September, Wola Ostrowiecka massacre (220 children)
1944
28 February, Huta Pieniacka massacre
28 – 29 February, Korosciatyn Massacre (c. 150 people, including children)
