Karl Bertholt (died 1946) was a German Wehrmacht general during World War II. After the war, he was tried and executed by the Americans for his culpability in the 1944 Malmedy massacre.
Biography[]
Karl Bertholt was born in Germany, and he served in the Imperial German Army during World War I, becoming a career soldier. During the Interwar period, he married the aristocrat Marlene Bertholt, and the two of them lived in America for two years. Bertholt and his wife were opposed to the Nazi regime, partly because of Adolf Hitler's disliking of General Bertholt's supposed social climbing by marring the aristocratic Marlene. However, Bertholt was brought up to follow orders and fight in battle, and he served as a general of the Wehrmacht during World War II and was implicated in the Malmedy massacre of 1944. As a result, he faced trial before the American occupation court at Nuremberg following the war's end, and prosecutor Tad Lawson secured a death sentence against Bertholt for his war crimes. Bertholt and his wife failed to persuade the Americans to let Bertholt have the honor of a firing squad, and the Americans hanged Bertholt like a common criminal.