Chapter 96:
The long trial of the high-ranking Nazi officials was over. Roland Freisler, infamous as a Nazi judge, and Rudolf Hess, the nominal Deputy Führer, were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Paul Hausser, who had surrendered with his subordinates and showed repentance, and Baldur von Schirach, the Jugend leader who had rescinded the order to send the Hitler Youth into combat and surrendered, were sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Considering Josef Dietrich, who had only followed combat orders, also received a 10-year sentence, the two had received quite a lenient verdict.
Among the SS, those three received the lightest sentences, with most other personnel receiving harsher punishments.
Bureaucrats like Funk and Speer, corrupt corporations, and Army figures like Keitel, Jodl, and Brauchitsch, who had been appointed to important posts by Hitler, were all sentenced to imprisonment with labor.
A rumor circulated that so many people were involved that the judge spent several tens of minutes just reading the sentencing statements.
In the Luftwaffe, Chief of the General Staff Jeschonnek, who had tried to arrest General Richthofen while relaying Göring's Frankfurt Bombing Order, received a life sentence.
Milch, who had actively committed corruption in the aviation business with Göring's favor despite suspicions of being Jewish, was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Others, like Albert Kesselring and Udet, who had issued the order to emphasize resistance under Hitler's instructions, also received prison sentences.