Wilhelm Keitel rose to the top of Hitler’s war machine as a loyal “yes-man,” signing criminal orders that fueled massacres and repression across Europe. From the invasion of Poland to Operation Barbarossa, his obedience enabled atrocities. At Nuremberg, he pled he was “just following orders,” but the tribunal found him guilty. His hanging in 1946 was slow and agonizing, marking the grim downfall of Hitler’s obedient field marshal.