- Born
- Died
- Nickname
- Col. Gen. Fanz Halder
- Franz Halder was born on June 30, 1884 in Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany. He died on April 2, 1972 in Aschau im Chiemgau, Bavaria, Germany.
- He insisted on focusing on taking Moscow during the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, although Adolf Hitler wanted to focus on defeating the Red Army.
- 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.
- His plans for the invasion of Poland in 1939 authorized the SS to carry out security tasks on behalf of the army that included the imprisonment and execution of Poles.
- In 1961, he was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Award by John F. Kennedy, becoming the only German ever to be decorated both by Adolf Hitler and by an American president.
- Played a key role in creating the myth of the clean Wehrmacht.
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