If this war is not fought with the greatest brutality against the bands both in the East and in the Balkans then in the foreseeable future the strength at our disposal will not be sufficient to be able to master this plague.

At the Allied court at Nuremberg he was tried sentenced to death and hanged as a war criminal. As head of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Supreme Command of the Armed Forces) and de facto war minister under Adolf Hitler he was one of Germany's most senior military leaders during World War II.