English source-aligned edition
Walter von Reichenau
Walter von Reichenau served as commander of the Sixth Army and author of the criminal Severity Order. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in occupied Ukraine and the eastern front 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
- Reichenau commanded the Tenth Army during the invasion of Poland and the Sixth Army during the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.
- His order of 10 October 1941 ideologically endorsed violent action against Jews and linked the army's war to Nazi annihilation policy.
- Units and authorities within the Sixth Army's operational area cooperated with Einsatzgruppe C, including around mass murder at Babi Yar.
Place in the chain of responsibility
Reichenau's responsibility rests on command decisions, logistical cooperation and an explicit order encouraging the army's participation in persecution. It does not mean that he personally carried out, or can be assigned without distinction, every crime within the Sixth Army's area.
Key events and mechanisms
- In 1939 he commanded the Tenth Army during Germany's attack on Poland.
- On 10 October 1941 he issued the Severity Order to the Sixth Army in Ukraine.
- In January 1942 he suffered a stroke and died during an attempted medical evacuation.
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
Reichenau died more than three years before the end of the war and was never tried. His order and the army's cooperation with killing units were later used as evidence of Wehrmacht participation in Nazi crimes.
Limits of the evidence
Accounts differ on whether his death resulted from the stroke or injuries sustained during the evacuation flight. Victim estimates for crimes in the Sixth Army's area describe overlapping responsibility among military, SS, police and auxiliary formations.
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.
