Years of service 1902–45 Name Walter Kuntze | Service/branch German Army | |
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Born 23 February 1883Pritzerbe ( 1883-02-23 ) Battles/wars World War IWorld War IIBattle of FranceOperation Sea LionOperation BarbarossaSiege of Leningrad Battles and wars World War I, Battle of France, Operation Sea Lion, Operation Barbarossa, Siege of Leningrad, World War II Commands held 6th Infantry Division, 24e corps d'armee, 42e corps d'armee, 12th Army | ||
Walter Kuntze (23 February 1883 – 1 April 1960) was a highly decorated General der Pioniere (US equiv. Lieutenant General of Engineers) in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded the 12. Armee. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. He was officer in command when the executions of men and children were ordered in Kragujevac Yugoslavia. Serbian civilians were selected merely to fill the quota of one hundred Serbs for every German soldier killed. General Walter Kuntze was assigned Deputy Wehrmacht Commander Southeast and Commander-in-Chief of the 12th Army on October 24. This was a temporary appointment, until List could return to duty. On October 31, Bohme submitted a report to Kuntze in which he detailed the shootings in Serbia:
“Shooting: 405 hostages in Belgrade (total up to now in Belgrade, 4,750). 90 Communists in Camp Sebac. 2,300 hostages in Kragujevac. 1,700 hostages in Kraljevo.”
Executions of Serbian civilians continued well into the following year. Kuntze stated the following in a directive of March 19, 1942:
"The more unequivocal and the harder reprisal measures are applied from the beginning the less it will become necessary to apply them at a later date. No false sentimentalities! It is preferable that 50 suspects are liquidated than one German soldier lose his life…If it is not possible to produce the people who have participated in any way in the insurrection or to seize them, reprisal measures of a general kind may be deemed advisable, for instance, the shooting to death of all male inhabitants from the nearest villages, according to a definite ratio (for instance, one German dead: 100 Serbs, one German wounded: 50 Serbs).” The Nazi Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. Walter Kuntze was captured by Allied troops in 1945 and was tried at the Hostages Trial in 1947. He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, but was released in 1953 due to ill health. He died on 1 April 1960.