War Criminals

Known as Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele was the chief doctor of Auschwitz concentration camp and was responsible for killing thousands of Jews as well as torturing the prisoners mercilessly and conducting inhuman experiments on them. These included injecting them with chemicals and stitching twin children together. Despite his horrible crimes, the infamous Nazi doctor could never be captured.

Hideki Tojo headed the Imperial Japanese Army and was the Japanese minister of war, apart from being Japan’s prime minister from 1941 to 1944. His tenure witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor. After Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers, Tojo was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death.

Irma Grese, or the Hyena of Auschwitz, served as an SS guard at the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Ravensbrück. She was also the warden of the ladies’ section of the Bergen-Belsen camp and ended up being convicted of torture and murder of prisoners. She was executed at 22.

Omar al-Bashir is a Sudanese politician who served as the seventh president of Sudan. A former military officer, he is the founder of the National Congress Party that remained the dominant political party in the country until 2019. He was deposed in a coup d'état the same year and subsequently arrested and convicted on multiple corruption charges.

Klaus Barbie was a Gestapo and SS official during the Nazi era. Dubbed the Butcher of Lyon, Barbie was known for having tortured prisoners of the Gestapo while stationed in Lyon, France. It is also believed that he played a major role in the execution of Che Guevara. Barbie's life and work inspired the 2007 documentary film My Enemy's Enemy.

Mutsuhiro Watanabe was an Imperial Japanese Army soldier in World War II. Following Japan’s defeat, he was classified a war criminal for his mistreatment of prisoners of war (POWs) by the US Occupation authorities. However, the US authorities could not capture him. In his later years, he became an insurance salesman and grew wealthy.

Alfred Jodl was a German colonel-general who played an important role throughout World War II by serving as Chief of the Operations Staff of a German Armed Forces High Command called the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. After the war, Jodl was tried at the Nuremberg trials and was found guilty on charges, such as crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Oskar Groening was a German SS Unterscharführer at the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was in charge of counting and sorting the money retrieved from the prisoners arriving at the camp. At the end of the war, he surrendered to the British and was transferred to Britain as a prisoner of war. Years later, he was named a war criminal.

Khmer Rouge leader Kang Kek Iew headed the Cambodian government’s internal security branch and was in charge of the Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison camp. Charged with crimes against humanity, he was punished with 30 years of imprisonment, a sentence that was later extended to life imprisonment.

Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury was a Bangladeshi politician who served under Prime Minister Khaleda Zia as the adviser of parliamentary affairs from 2001 to 2006. In 2013, he was convicted of war crime charges and sentenced to death for his actions during the Bangladesh War of Independence. Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury was executed by hanging in 2015. 

Reinhard Heydrich was a Nazi police officer and a high-ranking SS. Heydrich is widely regarded as one of the main architects of the Holocaust, a World War II genocide that killed some six million Jews. Described by Adolf Hitler as the man with the iron heart, Heydrich is regarded as the darkest figure of the Nazi era by many historians.

Amon Goeth was an Austrian war criminal and SS functionary. During World War II, Goeth served as the commandant of the Płaszów concentration camp operated by the SS. After the war, he was convicted of homicide and was executed by hanging. Amon Goeth was played by Ralph Fiennes in the 1993 epic historical drama film Schindler's List.

Martin Bormann was a Nazi Party official. Bormann headed the Nazi Party Chancellery, and gained immense power after he was accepted into Adolf Hitler's inner circle. In 1935, he became Hitler's personal secretary and served as the minister of the Nazi Party after Hitler's suicide in 1945.

Rudolf Höss was a German SS officer who was convicted of war crimes after the defeat of Nazi Germany. The longest-serving commandant of the Auschwitz extermination camp, Höss implemented means to accelerate the Final Solution, a Nazi plan for the genocide of Jews. Upon his order, pesticide Zyklon B was used in gas chambers, killing millions of people.

Wilhelm Keitel was a German field marshal. As the chief of the Armed Forces High Command, Keitel was Nazi Germany Armed Forces' highest-ranking officer during World War II. Wilhelm Keitel was responsible for the loss of many lives as he signed several criminal orders. After the war, he was indicted as one of the war criminals and sentenced to death.

Regarded by Hitler as a potential rival, Röhm was murdered at the Führer’s order. Ernst Röhm was a prominent German military officer and an early member of the Nazi Party. He was wounded thrice in World War I and was briefly imprisoned for his part in the Beer Hall Putsch. 

Alois Brunner was an Austrian SS-Hauptsturmführer who played a major role in the execution of the Holocaust. Considered Adolf Eichmann's right-hand man, Brunner was responsible for deporting more than 100,000 European Jews from places like Austria, Slovakia, and France to concentration camps and ghettos in Eastern Europe. After the war, Alois Brunner evaded all attempts to kill or capture him.

Chechen separatist Dokka Umarov later declared himself the emir of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate. Though a civil engineer by profession, he continued to indulge in criminal activities while working in Russia. He was eventually poisoned, and his body was found in a remote Russian area.

Diego Murillo Bejarano is a former gangster who led the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia as well as the Office of Envigado cartel. He is also known for his association with Pablo Escobar and the Galeano family. Murillo has been played by actors like Carlos Velásquez and Mauricio Cujar in TV series. He was portrayed by Cujar on Netflix series Narcos.

Herbert Kappler was a German SS official who served in the Nazi regime. As the head of German police in Rome, Kappler was responsible for the Fosse Ardeatine massacre, which killed 335 civilians and political prisoners. The massacre inspired a film titled Massacre in Rome, where Kappler was played by Richard Burton. Kappler was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Jean-Pierre Bemba is a politician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  He served as one of the four vice-presidents in the transitional government of the nation from 2003 to 2006. He also leads the rebel group turned political party Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC). He was arrested and convicted on charges of crimes against humanity.

One of the leaders of the Action T4 euthanasia plan that exterminated the physically and mentally disabled, Nazi Party member Viktor Brack also specialized in child euthanasia. He was also chosen to plan a sterilization drive for physically fit Jews. He was eventually hanged for his war crimes.

Otto Ohlendorf was a German SS official who played an important role in carrying out the Holocaust in the Nazi regime. As the commander of Einsatzgruppen, Nazi Germany's paramilitary death squads, Otto Ohlendorf was responsible for mass murder in south Ukraine, Moldova, the Crimea, and the North Caucasus. He was tried for crimes against humanity and executed in 1951.

The son of an Austrian army lieutenant, Odilo Globocnik was initially a builder and joined the Nazi Party later. Known as one of the most prominent perpetrators of the ethnic cleansing of Jews during the Holocaust, he headed Operation Reinhard. After being captured, he committed suicide by consuming cyanide.

Chinese bandit and warlord Zhang Zuolin initially ruled over Manchuria and then became the military dictator of the Republic of China. Later, the Nationalist Party’s march into China forced him to move his troops out of Beijing. He died when his train became the target of a bomb blast.

Initially a professor of sports medicine, Karl Gebhardt later joined the Nazi camp. He had headed the German Red Cross and also developed sports for the physically disabled. After being accused of failing to treat Reinhard Heydrich, he conducted deadly experiments on concentration camp inmates to prove his innocence.

Bangladeshi Islamist leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi was a prominent part of the Jamaat-e-Islami party. In 2010, he was arrested on charges of genocide and rape of Hindus during the war of 1971, or the Bangladesh Liberation War. Initially sentenced to death, he later got his sentence commuted to life imprisonment.