How to Pronounce Franz Halder
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Jun 30, 1884 Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany Died on 02 Apr 1972 (aged 87)
German general
CancerFranz Halder - Place of Birth, Date of Birth, Age, Wiki, Facts, Net Worth, Birthday, Biography and Family
Franz Halder, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Family, Facts, Age, Net Worth, Biography and More in FamedBorn.com
About Franz Halder
- Franz Halder (30 June 1884 – 2 April 1972) was a German general and the chief of staff of the Army High Command (OKH) in Nazi Germany from 1938 until September 1942 who, after World War II, had a decisive role in the development of the myth of the clean Wehrmacht.
- He directed the planning and implementation of Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.
- Halder became instrumental in the radicalisation of warfare on the Eastern Front.
- He had his staff draft both the Commissar Order (issued on 6 June 1941) and the Barbarossa Decree (signed on 13 May 1941) that allowed German soldiers to execute Soviet citizens for any reason without fear of later prosecution, leading to numerous war crimes and atrocities during the campaign. Halder joined the Imperial German Army in a unit under the command of his father and served in World War I (1914–1918).
- In 1937 he met and became a loyal supporter of Adolf Hitler.
- Halder participated in the strategic planning for the 1939 German invasion of Poland.
- The plans authorised the SS to carry out security tasks on behalf of the army that included the imprisonment or execution of Poles. At the end of 1939, Halder oversaw the development of the invasion plans of France, the Low Countries, and the Balkans.
- In August 1940 he began planning for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa, which began on 22 June 1941.
- That summer Halder engaged in a long-running and divisive dispute with Hitler over strategy. The Barbarossa Decree and Commissar Order became fundamental during the Battle for Moscow in the winter of 1941–1942.
- By this time thousands of Soviet civilians and prisoners-of-war in the already-occupied areas of the Soviet Union were being murdered every day.
- Halder's strategy failed, leading to unprecedented Wehrmacht losses.
- Hitler removed Halder from command and retired him in September 1942.
- The Gestapo arrested Halder in 1944 after the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler.
- He was not involved; however, it came to light that he had been involved in an earlier plot, leading to his imprisonment.
- As chief of OKH General Staff, he had kept extensive notes which were later published as The Halder Diaries. After the war, Halder served as a lead consultant for the US Army Historical Division.
- He oversaw the writing of over 2,500 historical documents by over 700 former Nazi officers, whom he instructed to remove material detrimental to the image of the German armed forces.
- Halder used his influence to foster a false history of the German-Soviet war in which the German army fought a "noble war" and which denied its war crimes.
- The US Army overlooked Halder's apologia because Halder's group was providing military intelligence on the Soviet Union that it deemed important in the light of the Cold War.
- Halder succeeded in his aim of exonerating the German Army: first with the US military, then amongst widening circles of politicians and eventually in the American popular culture.
- In 1961, he was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Award, becoming the only German ever to be decorated both by Hitler and by an American president.
- The praise which he received starkly contrasted with the reality of his military career and the atrocities on the Eastern Front.
