Whatever happened to these war criminals? -

History is full of tyrants, despots, and dictators, but not all of them have committed (or have been punished for) war crimes. In fact, some war criminals were not even leaders or heads of state.  In this gallery we look at some of the most infamous war criminals and what happened to them. 

Click through and delve into the dark history of war criminals. 

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Amon Göth -

The Austrian SS killer served as the commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp in Płaszów, Poland. "The Butcher of Płaszów" committed numerous atrocities and was the first person ever to be convicted of homicide as a war crime. 

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Amon Göth -

Amon Göth was arrested and tried by the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland. Göth was hanged on September 13, 1946. His body was cremated and his ashes thrown in the river. Göth is portrayed in Steven Spielberg's 1993 movie 'Schindler's List.'

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Tôjô Hideki -

The leader of the Imperial Japanese Army and Prime Minister of Japan was infamously responsible for orchestrating the attack on Pearl Harbor. Tôjô Hideki also committed numerous war crimes, including the massacre of thousands of civilians and prisoners of war.  

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Tôjô Hideki -

The US military found Tôjô Hideki at home with a gunshot wound to his chest, but his attempt to take his own life was unsuccessful. Hideki was eventually tried and sentenced to death by hanging in December 1948.

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Ilse Koch -

"The Witch of Buchenwald" was a sadistic war criminal who took advantage of her husband's job overseeing concentration camps (Buchenwald and Majdanek). 

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Ilse Koch -

Koch was known to keep body parts of dead prisoners as souvenirs. She would skin them or remove organs and make pieces for her private collection (pictured). Ilse Koch hanged herself at Aichach women's prison in September 1967.  

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Henry Wirz -

Henry Wirz was the only person to be tried for war crimes during the American Civil War. The Confederate officer had about 32,000 prisoners of war living in deplorable conditions at Camp Sumter in Georgia. Approximately 13,000 of them died as a result. 

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Henry Wirz -

Henry Wirz was publicly hanged on November 10, 1865, at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington D.C. Over 300 people were present. 

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Adolf Eichmann -

Adolf Eichmann is credited for being one of the main orchestrators of the Holocaust. The Nazi officer is believed to have been responsible for the death and deportation of around six million European Jews.

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Adolf Eichmann -

Eichmann tried to escape to Argentina during the Nuremberg Trials, but was captured, tried, and publicly hanged in Israel in 1962.

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Ratko Mladić -

General Ratko Mladić was the leader of the Bosnian Serb Army during the Bosnian War in the 1990s. He was responsible for the Srebrenica massacre (or genocide) in 1995, where 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed. Mladić also orchestrated the Siege of Sarajevo, which resulted in the deaths of more than 10,000 people.

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Ratko Mladić -

Ratko Mladić was captured in 2011 and tried before the International Court of Justice. A number of delays and appeals followed. It was not until June 2021 that Mladić's final appeal was rejected and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. 

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Josef Mengele -

The SS officer and physician known as the "Angel of Death" infamously performed deadly experiments on prisoners. 

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Josef Mengele -

Josef Mengele managed to escape to South America after the end of the war. He eventually died in February 1979 in Brazil. Mengele's body was exhumed and his identity confirmed in 1992 via DNA testing.

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Charles Taylor -

The former President of Liberia was accused of committing numerous war crimes, including murder, slavery, and the use of child soldiers.

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Charles Taylor -

In 2012, the African warlord was put on trial at the Special Court in The Hague, where he was found guilty of 11 war crimes and crimes against humanity. Taylor was sentenced to 50 years behind bars. 

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Hermann Göring -

Hermann Göring was a high-ranking Nazi leader. Göring founded the Gestapo and designed the concentration camp system, among other horrific structures in the Nazi regime. Hermann Göring was tried at the Nuremberg trials in 1946.

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Hermann Göring -

Göring was convicted of war crimes, conspiracy, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity. The Nazi leader was sentenced to death by hanging, but took his own life a few hours before the execution by ingesting cyanide.

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Omar al-Bashir -

The former President of Sudan was accused of being involved in the killing of 300,000 people during the conflict in Darfur. In 2008, the International Criminal Court (ICC), accused al-Bashir of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. He was overthrown in a 2019 coup, and in 2020, the Sudanese government handed al-Bashir over to the ICC. His trial is ongoing. 

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Irma Grese -

Grese was a Nazi concentration camp guard at Ravensbrück and Auschwitz. The "Hyena of Auschwitz," as she was known, was eventually tried and convicted of war crimes.

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Irma Grese -

Irma Grese (pictured with number 9) was the youngest woman to be executed under British law in the 20th century. She was 22.

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Radovan Karadžić -

Also known as the "Butcher of Bosnia," Karadžić was accused of killing 8,000 Bosniaks, as well as facilitating the Srebrenica Genocide. 

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Radovan Karadžić -

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia found Karadžić guilty of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

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Hans Frank -

The "Butcher of Poland" was Hitler's legal adviser and head of the General Government in Nazi-occupied Poland and a leader of the genocide in the country.

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Hans Frank -

Hans Frank was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to death by hanging. He wrote his memoir, 'Im Angesicht des Galgens,' which translates to 'In the Face of the Gallows,' while awaiting his execution.

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Jean-Pierre Bemba -

Bemba was the leader of the rebel group Movement for the Liberation of the Congo. He was deemed responsible for his troops' crimes in the Central African Republic.

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Jean-Pierre Bemba -

Bemba was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2008, but the ICC overturned its decision in 2018. Jean-Pierre Bemba was then acquitted of the charges. 

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Joachim von Ribbentrop -

The Nazi Minister of Foreign Affairs played a crucial role in enabling the Holocaust, and was tried at Nuremberg for the war crimes he committed.  

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Joachim von Ribbentrop -

Joachim von Ribbentrop became the first Nuremberg defendant to be executed by hanging on October 16, 1946.

Sources: (Ranker) (The Famous People)

See also: The shameful story of Nazi plunder

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