Page "Gerd von Rundstedt" Paragraph 83

When Rundstedt learned that he was not to be tried personally at Nuremberg, he wrote to the Tribunal asking permission to appear as a defence witness for the Army high command.

In May 1946 he was summonsed to appear.

When he left Island Farm, all the 185 senior officers being held there lined up to salute him.

On 19 June he appeared before a preliminary hearing of the IMT Commission.

Since he was a witness, not a defendant, the questioning was not intended to prove Rundstedt's guilt: it was designed to bolster the prosecution's case that the high command had functioned as an organisation and that it was collectively responsible for the German invasions of various countries between 1939 and 1941 and also for the war crimes committed during those invasions.

Rundstedt was adamant that the high command played no part in the decisions to invade Poland, Norway, France or the Soviet Union.

These decisions were made by Hitler and communicated to the Army as faits accomplis.

He insisted that the Army had obeyed the laws of war and was not responsible for the actions of the Einsatzgruppen.

He also denied that the Army had deliberately starved three million Soviet prisoners-of-war to death in 1941-42.

" As much as it would have liked to, the German Army could not supply enough food for the poor prisoners from its own stocks, as these were short as well ," he said.