__NOTOC__ Walter Kuntze (23 February 1883 – 1 April 1960) was a German general and war criminal during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

who commanded the 12th Army. He was the commanding officer responsible for the execution of men and teenage boys in the

Kragujevac massacre The Kragujevac massacre was the mass murder of between 2,778 and 2,794 mostly Serb men and boys in Kragujevac, by German soldiers on 21 October 1941. It occurred in the German-occupied territory of Serbia during World War II, and came as a r ...

, when Serbian civilians were murdered in

reprisal A reprisal is a limited and deliberate violation of international law to punish another sovereign state that has already broken them. Since the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (AP 1), reprisals in the laws of war are extremel ...

for an attack on German troops, at the ratio of one hundred Serbs for every German soldier killed. Kuntze was assigned Deputy Wehrmacht Commander Southeast and Commander-in-Chief of the 12th Army on October 29. This was a temporary appointment, until

Wilhelm List Wilhelm List (14 May 1880 – 17 August 1971) was a German field marshal during World War II who was convicted of war crimes by a US Army tribunal after the war. List commanded the 14th Army in the invasion of Poland and the 12th Army in the ...

could return to duty. On October 31,

Franz Böhme Franz Friedrich Böhme (15 April 1885 – 29 May 1947) was an Army officer who served in succession with the Austro-Hungarian Arny, the Austrian Army and the German Wehrmacht. He rose to the rank of general during World War II, serving as Comm ...

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)." Kuntze surrendered to the Allied troops in 1945 and was tried at the

Hostages Trial The Hostages Trial (or, officially, ''The United States of America v. Wilhelm List, et al.'') was held from 8 July 1947 until 19 February 1948 and was the seventh of the twelve trials for war crimes that United States authorities held in their occ ...

in 1947. He was found guilty and sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

, but was released on medical parole in 1953. He died on 1 April 1960.

Awards and decorations

Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (german: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes), or simply the Knight's Cross (), and its variants, were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. The Knight' ...

on 18 October 1941 as ''

General der Pioniere ''General der Pioniere'' (en: ''General of the engineers'') was a General of the branch rank of the German Army in Nazi Germany. Until the end of World War II in 1945, this particular general officer rank was on three-star level (OF-8), equiv ...

'' and commander of XXXXII. ArmeekorpsFellgiebel 2000, p. 229.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuntze, Walter 1883 births 1960 deaths People from Rathenow German Army generals of World War II Generals of Engineers German Army personnel of World War I Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross German people convicted of war crimes German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States Yugoslavia in World War II German people convicted of crimes against humanity People convicted by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States military People from the Province of Brandenburg Recipients of the clasp to the Iron Cross, 1st class German anti-communists Major generals of the Reichswehr German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United Kingdom Military personnel from Brandenburg

Awards and decorations

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