THE cross on the grave of Nazi war criminal Alfred Jodl is to be removed, a German municipality has decided, after decades of controversy and debate.

The grave is on an island in Chiemsee Lake in the southern German state of Bavaria.

Mayor Georg Huber said Friday that the rights to the grave had not been extended.

Burial sites on the island are time-limited. Jodl was the armed forces chief of operations who, on May 7, 1945, signed the unconditional surrender of the German army to Western Allied and Soviet troops in Rheims, France.

He was executed at Nuremberg in 1946 with other top Nazi figures following the war crimes trial there. Jodl himself is not buried in the cemetery at Chiemsee.

Following his execution for war crimes, Jodl’s ashes were scattered in the Isar River. His relatives are buried in the grave. (Dpa/NAN)

– Feb.  23, 2018 @ 16:09 GMT |