English source-aligned edition
Anton Dostler
Anton Dostler served as Wehrmacht general and commander of LXXV Army Corps in Italy. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Liguria · Italy through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.
Confirmed findings
- Anton Dostler was born on 10 May 1891 in Munich. In March 1944 he commanded LXXV Army Corps in Italy. (Source: United Nations War Crimes Commission / Library of Congress, Trial of General Anton Dostler, printed pp. 22–34 (PDF pp. 33–45); Source: Harvard Law School Library — Nuremberg Trials Project, Deposition concerning the trial of General Anton Dostler; document description and scans)
- He ordered the shooting of fifteen captured US soldiers from Operation Ginny II despite subordinate warnings that executing prisoners of war was unlawful. (Source: United Nations War Crimes Commission / Library of Congress, Trial of General Anton Dostler, printed pp. 22–34 (PDF pp. 33–45); Source: Harvard Law School Library — Nuremberg Trials Project, Deposition concerning the trial of General Anton Dostler; document description and scans; Source: Harvard Law School Library — IMT transcript, IMT transcript seq. 2204, reference to the Dostler case and Commando Order)
- A US military commission at Rome convicted him of a war crime, sentenced him to death, and the sentence was carried out at Aversa on 1 December 1945. (Source: United Nations War Crimes Commission / Library of Congress, Trial of General Anton Dostler, printed pp. 22–34 (PDF pp. 33–45))
Place in the chain of responsibility
The Dostler trial became a precedent that a superior order does not relieve a commander of responsibility for an obviously unlawful execution of prisoners. The profile concerns one specific order affecting fifteen men. (Source: United Nations War Crimes Commission / Library of Congress, Trial of General Anton Dostler, printed pp. 22–34 (PDF pp. 33–45); Source: Harvard Law School Library — IMT transcript, IMT transcript seq. 2204, reference to the Dostler case and Commando Order)
Key events and mechanisms
- 26 March 1944 – execution of the order to shoot fifteen US prisoners (Source: United Nations War Crimes Commission / Library of Congress, Trial of General Anton Dostler, printed pp. 22–34 (PDF pp. 33–45); Source: Harvard Law School Library — Nuremberg Trials Project, Deposition concerning the trial of General Anton Dostler; document description and scans)
- 8–12 October 1945 – trial before a US military commission at Rome (Source: United Nations War Crimes Commission / Library of Congress, Trial of General Anton Dostler, printed pp. 22–34 (PDF pp. 33–45))
- 1 December 1945 – execution at Aversa (Source: United Nations War Crimes Commission / Library of Congress, Trial of General Anton Dostler, printed pp. 22–34 (PDF pp. 33–45))
The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.
Postwar accountability
A US military commission convicted Dostler for ordering the unlawful killing of prisoners of war. He was executed by firing squad at Aversa on 1 December 1945. (Source: United Nations War Crimes Commission / Library of Congress, Trial of General Anton Dostler, printed pp. 22–34 (PDF pp. 33–45))
Limits of the evidence
The case concerns an individualised order to execute fifteen soldiers, not a complete account of LXXV Corps operations. Subordinates participated in the execution chain, but the judgment focused on Dostler’s personal order. (Source: United Nations War Crimes Commission / Library of Congress, Trial of General Anton Dostler, printed pp. 22–34 (PDF pp. 33–45); Source: Harvard Law School Library — IMT transcript, IMT transcript seq. 2204, reference to the Dostler case and Commando Order)
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.