Adolf Hitler was leader ofNazi Germany, first asChancellor from 1933 until 1934. He later became Germany'sFührer from 1934 until his suicide in 1945. Hitler came to power during Germany'speriod of crisis afterthe Great War which occurred between the 1920s and early 1930s. During his rule, Germany became afascist state with a policy ofanti-Semitism that led tothe Holocaust. Hitler pursued an extremely aggressiveforeign policy that triggered World War II. He committed suicide on April 30, 1945, along withEva Braun, his long term mistress whom he had married less than 40 hours before their deaths.
Joseph Goebbels wasMinister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda from 1933 until 1945. An avid supporter of the war, Goebbels did everything in his power to prepare the German people for a large-scale military conflict. He was one of Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers. After Hitler's suicide, Goebbels and his wifeMagda had theirsix children poisoned and then also committed suicide. He becameChancellor for one day before his death.
Hermann Göring wasReichsmarschall andPrime Minister of Prussia. Göring held a variety of public offices heaped upon him by Hitler. He was the commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, President of theReichstag, Original Head of theGestapo, Minister of Economics, Paramount Chief of the War Economy, Head of theFour Year Plan,Reichmarshall of the Greater German Reich, Minister of the Forests of the ThirdReich and finally defendant Number 1 at theNuremberg Trials. Hitler awarded Göring theGrand Cross of the Iron Cross for his successful leadership. Originally, Hitler's designated successor, and the second highest-ranking Nazi official. However, by 1942, with his power waning, Göring fell out of favor with the Führer, but continued to be the de jure second-in-command of the Third Reich. Göring was the highest-ranking Nazi official brought before theNuremberg Trials. He committed suicide with cyanide before his sentence was carried out.
Heinrich Himmler became the second-in-command of Nazi Germany following Göring's downfall after the repeated losses of theLuftwaffe which the Reichsmarshall commanded, as Supreme Commander of the Home Army andReichsführer-SS. As commander of theSchutzstaffel (SS), Himmler also held overall command of theGestapo. He was the chief architect of the "Final Solution" and through the SS was overseer of theNazi concentration camps, extermination camps, andEinsatzgruppen death squads. He held final command responsibility for annihilating "subhumans" who were deemed unworthy of living. Shortly before the end of the war, he offered to surrender "Germany" to the Western Allies if he was spared from prosecution as a Nazi leader. Himmler committed suicide with cyanide after he became a captive of the British Army.
Martin Bormann was head of the Party Chancellery (Parteikanzlei) and private secretary to Adolf Hitler. He gained Hitler's trust and derived immense power within the Third Reich by controlling access to the Führer and by regulating the orbits of those closest to him.
Rudolf Hess was Hitler's deputy in theNazi Party. Hess hoped to score a stunning diplomatic victory by sealing a peace between the ThirdReich and Britain. He flew toScotland in an attempt to negotiate peace, but was arrested. He wastried at Nuremberg and sentenced tolife imprisonment.
Robert Ley was a member of the Nazi party who headed theGerman Labour Front from 1933 to 1945. He also held many other high positions in the Party, includingGauleiter,Reichsleiter (which is the second-highest political and military rank of the Nazi Party, next only to the office of Führer) andReichsorganisationsleiter. He committed suicide while awaitingtrial at Nuremberg forcrimes against humanity andwar crimes.
Albert Speer was German Minister of Armaments from 1942 until the end of the war, in which position he was responsible for organizing most of the logistical aspects of Germany's war effort. He was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to twenty years in prison.
Alfred Rosenberg was a German philosopher and an influential ideologue of the Nazi Party. He is considered one of the main authors of key National Socialist ideological creeds, including its racial theory, persecution of the Jews, Lebensraum, abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles, and opposition to degenerate modern art. During the war he headed theNSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs and later theReich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories. After the war he was condemned to death atNuremberg and hanged.
Reinhard Heydrich wasSS-Obergruppenführer (general) and General der Polizei, chief of theReich Security Main Office (including the Gestapo, Kripo, and SD) and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor (Deputy/Acting Reich-Protector) ofBohemia and Moravia (in what is now the Czech Republic). Heydrich served as president of the ICPC (later known asInterpol) and was one of the main architects of the Holocaust. He died of wounds from an assassination attempt in Prague 1942.
Wilhelm Canaris was a German admiral, and chief of theAbwehr, the German military intelligence service, from 1935 to 1944. During the Second World War, he was among the military officers involved in the clandestine opposition to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. He was executed in the Flossenbürg concentration camp for the act of high treason.
Wilhelm Keitel was an army general and the chief of theOKW, theOberkommando der Wehrmacht or High Command of the German Military, throughout the war. He was condemned to death at Nuremberg for the commission of war crimes and hanged.
Alfred Jodl was an army general and operations chief of the OKW throughout the war. Like his chief, Keitel, he was condemned to death at Nuremberg and hanged.
Franz Halder was a German general and the chief of the OKH,Oberkommando des Heeres, from 1938 until September 1942, when he was dismissed after frequent disagreements with Hitler.
Kurt Zeitzler was a German general and the chief of the OKH, from 1942 until July 1944.
Walther von Brauchitsch was commander-in-chief of theWehrmacht from 1940 until his dismissal in December 1941, when Hitler took personal command of the army.
Albert Kesselring was a German Luftwaffe general. He served as commander ofLuftflotte 2 for the early part of the war, commanding air campaigns in west and east, before being assigned as commander-in-chief of German forces in the Mediterranean, a position he would occupy for most of the war, commanding German forces in the defense of Italy. In March 1945, he became the last German commander-in-chief in the west.
Erich von Manstein is credited with the drawing up of theArdennes invasion plan of France. In theSoviet campaign, he also conqueredSevastopol in 1942 and was then madeGeneralfeldmarschall and took command of Army Group South. A command he held until he was dismissed by Hitler in March 1944. He is often considered one of the finest German strategists and field commanders of World War II.
Heinz Guderian was the principal creator ofBlitzkrieg. He commanded several front line armies in the early years of the war, most notably Panzergruppe Guderian during Operation Barbarossa. Guderian later served as chief of staff of the army from July 1944 to March 1945.
Erwin Rommel was the commander of theAfrika Korps in theNorth African campaign and became known by the nickname "The Desert Fox". Rommel was admired as a tactical genius by both Axis and Allied leaders during the war. He was subsequently in command of the German forces during thebattle of Normandy. He was forced to commit suicide on October 14, 1944, for being implicated in the July 20th plot against Hitler.
Walter Model was a general in the German army who became best known as a skilled practitioner of defensive warfare on both theEastern andWestern Fronts. Following theinvasion of Normandy in June 1944 he was reassigned to the west where he took command ofArmy Group B. He was also the principal architect of theArdennes Offensive. He committed suicide on April 21, 1945.
Hans-Jürgen von Arnim was a German colonel general and commander-in-chief of the Army Group Africa and de facto commander of the Afrika Korps from March 9, 1943, until his capture by the British Indian Army's 14th Infantry Division on May 12, 1943.
László Bárdossy was hisprime minister from 1941 until 1942. After World War II, Bárdossy was tried by a People's Court in November 1945. He was sentenced to death and executed in 1946.
Döme Sztójay was prime minister from March until August 1944. Sztójay was captured by American troops and extradited to Hungary in October 1945, after which time he was tried by a Communist People's Tribunal in Budapest. He was sentenced to death and executed in 1946.
Géza Lakatos was a general in the Hungarian Army during World War II who served briefly as prime minister, under governor Miklós Horthy from August 29, 1944, until October 15 the same year.
Ferenc Szálasi was the leader of the fascistArrow Cross Party, the "Leader of the Hungarian Nation" (Nemzetvezető), and the prime minister from 1944 to 1945. He was tried by the People's Tribunal in Budapest. He was sentenced to death and executed in 1946.
Béla Miklós was acting as prime minister, at first in opposition, from 1944 to 1945.
Károly Bartha was a colonel general, Minister of Defence.
Iván Hindy was a colonel-general in theHungarian Army. He orchestrated thedefence of Budapest. Hindy was captured by the Soviets On February 11, 1945, when he tried to escape just prior to the fall of the city on February 13. He was sentenced to death and executed in 1946.
Gusztáv Jány was the commander of the Hungarian forces at the Battle of Stalingrad.
Benito Mussolini was Prime Minister of theKingdom of Italy from 1922 to 1943. The founder of fascism, Mussolini made Italy the first fascist state, using the ideas ofnationalism,militarism,anti-communism andanti-socialism combined with state propaganda. In 1925, he assumed dictatorial powers as theDuce ("Leader") of Fascism, and was subsequently calledDuce by his Fascist supporters. From 1925, King Victor Emmanuel III delegated his powers to Mussolini and opposition to Mussolini and the Fascist state was seen as treason. Though his regime influenced Adolf Hitler andNazi Germany, Mussolini did not subscribe to Nazi racial theories, dismissing them as mythical and fabricated. Only in 1938, under increased pressure from Hitler, did he adopt anti-Semitism as a state policy, and opposed the deportation of Jews by the Germans from Italian territory. Mussolini was the official head of theMilizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, MVSN ("Volunteer Militia for National Security"), often called the "Blackshirts", who were Fascist partisans loyal specifically to him, rather than the King. Successive military defeats from 1941, culminating in theBattle of El Alamein in 1942 and theAllied invasion of Sicily in July 1943, led to Mussolini and his government's dissolution and dismissal by the King. Arrested on the orders of the King, Mussolini was rescued by the Germans and became the puppet Head of State of theItalian Social Republic (regime under control of Nazi Germany) in northern Italy. Mussolini was executed by Italian partisans on 28 April 1945, while attempting to flee to Spain.
Ugo Cavallero was the head of the Italian Royal Army during the Second World War, his powers being delegated to him from the King, who was the official supreme commander of the Italian Royal Army. He led Italian forces during theGreco-Italian War in which Italian forces faltered badly.
Ettore Bastico was the overall commander of the Axis forces in North Africa from 1941 to 1943.
Arturo Riccardi was the head of the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) from 1940 to 1943, his powers being delegated to him from the King, who was the official supreme commander of the Italian Royal Navy.
Angelo Iachino succeeded Campioni as commander of the Royal Italian Navy.
Italo Balbo was the most important person of the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) from the 1930s until his death in 1940. His powers were officially delegated to him from the King, who was the official supreme commander of the Italian Royal Air Force. He also commanded the Tenth army in Libya until his death.
Galeazzo Ciano was appointed minister of foreign affairs in 1936 by Mussolini (who was also his father-in-law) and remained in that position until the end of the Fascist regime in 1943. Ciano signed thePact of Steel with Germany in 1939 and subsequently the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Japan in 1940. Ciano attempted to convince Mussolini to bring Italy out of the war as casualties mounted but was ignored. In 1943, Ciano supported the ousting of Mussolini as prime minister. Ciano was later executed by Fascists in the Italian Social Republic for betraying Mussolini.
Rodolfo Graziani was commander of Italian North Africa and Governor-General of Libya. Graziani was ordered to invade Egypt by Mussolini. Graziani expressed doubts about the ability of his largely un-mechanized force to defeat the British, however, he followed orders and the Tenth Army attacked on September 13. He resigned his commission in 1941 after being defeated by the British inOperation Compass. Graziani was the only one of the Italian marshals to remain loyal to Mussolini after Dino Grandi's Grand Council of Fascism coup, and was appointed Minister of Defense of theItalian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana, or RSI). Graziani had under his command the mixed Italo-GermanLXXXXVII "Liguria" Army (Armee Ligurien) of the RSI.
Mario Roatta was a general of the Italian army, best known for his role in Italian repression against civilians, in the Slovene and Croatian-inhabited areas of the Italian-occupiedYugoslavia.
Rino Corso Fougier was a general in the Royal Italian Air Force and Chief of Staff 1941–43.
Giuseppe Fioravanzo was one of the "intellectuals" of theRegia Marina; he was one of the main authors of the development of Italian naval doctrine between the two World Wars.
Hirohito (posthumously known asEmperor Shōwa) was the Emperor from 1926 until his death in 1989, making him the last surviving leader of the big three (Germany, Italy, and Japan). He was viewed as a semi-divine leader. He was Commander of theImperial General Headquarters from 1937 to 1945 and authorized in 1936, by imperial decree, the expansion ofShirō Ishii'sbacteriological research unit,[3] while, according to some authors, assuming control over the use of chemical and bacteriological weapons.[4] His generals took the full blame and he was exonerated from criminal prosecution, with all members of the imperial family, by theSupreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP).
Mitsumasa Yonai was prime minister in 1940 and minister of the Navy from 1937 to 1939 and 1944 to 1945. During his second mandate as Navy minister, theImperial Japanese Navy implemented thetokkōtai or suicide units against theAllied fleet. He cooperated with SCAP to fix the testimony of the senior officers accused in theTokyo trials and was exonerated from criminal prosecutions.
Hideki Tojo was minister of the Army in the second cabinet of Fumimaro Konoe from 1940 until 1944, and prime minister from 1941 until 1944. He was a strong supporter of theTripartite Pact between Japan, Germany and Italy and a main proponent of the war against the Occidental powers. Tojo strengthened theTaisei Yokusankai to create a single-party state. He was demoted in July 1944 by the emperor, following theBattle of Saipan and condemned to death by theTokyo tribunal and executed.
Kuniaki Koiso was a senior army general who served as prime minister from July 1944 to April 1945.
Kantarō Suzuki was an admiral who served as prime minister from April to August 1945. He agreed to Japan's surrender to the Allies on August 15, 1945.
Kotohito Kanin was Chief of Staff of the Army from 1931 to 1940. During his mandate, the Army committed theNanking massacre and regularly usedchemical weapons in China. Kan'in was one of the main proponents ofState Shinto. He died before the end of the war.
Hajime Sugiyama was Minister of the Army from 1937 to 1938, then chief of staff from 1940 to 1944. During this period, the Army kept using chemical weapons and implemented thesanko sakusen. He committed suicide in 1945.
Hisaichi Terauchi was a Marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army and the Commander of theSouthern Expeditionary Army Group from 1941 to 1945, overseeing all IJA operations across South-East Asia and the South-West Pacific. He surrendered at the end of the war and died of a stroke in 1946, while a prisoner of war.
Yoshijirō Umezu was Commander of theKwantung Army from 1939 to 1944, and was the Chief of Staff of the Army from 1944 to 1945. He was sentenced by the Tokyo Tribunal to life imprisonment in 1948, and died of cancer in prison the following year.
Otozō Yamada was the final Commander of the Kwantung Army from 1944 to 1945. Taken prisoner in Manchuria by theRed Army at the end of the war, he was sentenced at theKhabarovsk War Crime Trials to 25 years in a Sovietlabor camp forwar crimes primarily related to the activities ofUnit 731, but was released in 1956 and repatriated to Japan.
Tomoyuki Yamashita was lieutenant-general of theJapanese Imperial Army from 1905 to 1945. He was most famous for conquering the British colonies of Malaya and Singapore, earning the nickname "The Tiger of Malaya". He was hanged on 23 February 1946.
Osami Nagano was Chief of Staff of the Navy from 1941 to 1944. During this period, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service committed theattack of Pearl Harbor and the strategicbombing of Chongqing. He was tried before theTokyo tribunal but died in prison before his sentence was carried out.
Isoroku Yamamoto was Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1939 to 1943 and was responsible for Japan's early naval victories, including the attack on Pearl Harbor. Considered the most brilliant Japanese naval commander of the war, his death in 1943 deprived the military of a skilled tactician and was a severe blow to Japanese morale.
Shunroku Hata was commander of Japanese forces during theZhejiang-Jiangxi campaign. He was tried with war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment after the war, but was paroled in 1954. He took command of Hiroshima after the bombing of the city.
Michael I wasKing from 1940 until 1947. He was installed by Antonescu to replace Michael's fatherCarol II. He did not have much power. He leda coup to overthrow Antonescu and switched sides to the Allies in 1944. He died in 2017.
Ion Gigurtu was the Prime Minister of Romania from July to September 1940, right before Antonescu. A committed Germanophile, he took the first major steps for the integration of Romania into the Axis, including the withdrawal of Romania from theLeague of Nations (11 July) and the enacting of a local version of theNuremberg Laws (9 August).
Carol II was King from 1930 to 1940. He named Gigurtu and then Antonescu as Prime Ministers, being forced to resign by the latter after giving him dictatorial powers.
Philippe Pétain was anArmy Marshal and Chief of State ofVichy France from its establishment in 1940 until the invasion of Normandy in 1944. ThePétain government collaborated with theNazis, and organized raids to capture French Jews. The Pétain government was opposed byGeneral de Gaulle'sFree French Forces, and eventually fell to them. After the war, Pétain was tried fortreason and sentenced to life in prison.
Pierre Laval was Pétain's head of government in 1940, and from 1942 to 1944. Under his second government, collaboration with Nazi Germany intensified. In 1945, Laval was tried for treason, sentenced to death and executed.
René Bousquet was the deputy head of the Vichy police force.
Joseph Darnand was the commander of the paramilitary French Militia. A pro-Nazi leader, he was a strong supporter of the Hitler and Pétain governments. He established theMilice to round-up Jews and fight theFrench Resistance. He was tried for treason and executed after the war.
Jean Decoux was theGovernor-General of French Indochina representing the Vichy government. Decoux's task in Indochina was to reverse the policy of appeasement towards the Japanese led by his predecessor GeneralGeorges Catroux, but political realities soon forced him to continue down the same road. Arrested and tried after the war, Decoux was not convicted.
Werner Best, served as a civilian administrator in Denmark.
Erik Scavenius, Prime minister of Denmark from 1942 to 1943. He pursued a collaborative policy with the German occupation force until he dissolved the Danish government in 1943, and was replaced by German martial law.
Jonas Lie, Minister of Police andSS-Standartenführer of the Germanic-SS Norway.
Karl Marthinsen, General of Police, head of Norwegian STAPO (Statspolitiet) and SIPO (Sikkerhetspolitiet). He was assassinated by the resistance in 1945 due to increasing power and influence over the Norwegian military.
Zhang Jinghui was the Prime Minister of Manchukuo. Zhang was a Chinese general and politician during theWarlord Era who collaborated with the Japanese to establishManchukuo. After the war, he was captured and imprisoned by the Red Army.
Xi Qia was the finance superintendent of Manchukuo in 1932, a minister of Manchukuo in 1934, and palace and interior minister in 1936. At the end of World War II he was captured by the Soviets and held in a Siberian prison until he was returned to China in 1950, where he died in prison.
The following countries fought side by side with the Axis powers for a common cause. These countries were not signatories of the Tripartite Pact and thus not formal members of the Axis.
Haj Amin al-Husseini was theGrand Mufti of Jerusalem who had been exiled from theBritish Mandate of Palestine for his nationalist activities. Husseini issued a 'fatwa' for a holy war against British rule in May 1941. The Mufti's widely heralded proclamation against Britain was declared in Iraq, where he was instrumental in the anti-BritishIraqi revolt.
Ananda Mahidol wasKing of Thailand from 1935 until his assassination in 1946. During the war, Mahidol stayed in neutral Switzerland. He returned to Thailand in 1945 after the war.
Plaek Phibunsongkhram wasField Marshal of theThai Army and wasPrime Minister of Thailand from 1938 until 1944. The Pibulsonggram regime embarked upon a course of economic nationalism and anti-Chinese policies. In 1940, he decided to invadeIndo-China in hostilities known as theFrench-Thai War. In 1941, he allied Thailand with Japan and allowed it to use the country for the invasions of Burma and Malaya. When Japanese defeat was imminent, he was pressured to resign in 1944.
Pridi Banomyong a formerrevolutionary and cabinet minister, was appointed to the regency council in 1941. By 1944, he became sole Regent and de facto Head of State, but this position was only nominal. He secretly became leader of the resistance forces or theFree Thai Movement in 1942.
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