Walter Karl Ernst August von Reichenau (8 October 1884 – 17 January 1942) was a field marshal in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. Reichenau commanded the 6th Army, during the invasions of Belgium and France. During Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, he continued to command the 6th Army as part of Army Group South as it captured Ukraine and advanced deep into Russia. While in command of the 6th Army during Operation Barbarossa in 1941, he issued the notorious Severity Order which encouraged German soldiers to murder Jewish civilians on the Eastern Front. Reichenau's troops cooperated with the SS Einsatzgruppen in the commission of the massacre of over 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar, and assisted with other crimes against humanity that occurred in areas under his command during the Holocaust. Early life and service The son of Prussian Lieutenant General Ernst August von Reichenau (1841–1919), Walter von Reichenau was born in 1884, in Karlsruhe. One of his brothers was Ernst von Reichenau. Walter joined the Prussian Army as an artillery officer cadet on 14 March 1903. He then attended the Prussian War Academy, going on to serve as a staff officer to Max Hoffmann in the First World War. At the beginning of the war, Reichenau was Adjutant of the 1st Guards Field Artillery Regiment and in this position he was promoted to Captain on 28 November 1914 and awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class and 1st Class over the course of the year. The following year he was transferred to the German General Staff and in the course of 1915 he served as Second Staff Officer (Ib) of the 47th Reserve Division and then as First Staff Officer (Ia) of the 7th Cavalry Division. Reichenau's early years are described in conflicting terms, as both progressively minded but also brutal, with a history of executing soldiers who were AWOL, even in times of peace. Greatly unconventional, he was an avid outdoors man, spoke English at home and, in contrast to his later activities in Russia, insisted on supporting World War I Jewish veterans' events in full military uniform, even after Hitler came to power. In April 1919 he married the Silesian aristocrat Alexandrine Gräfin Maltzan Freiin zu Wartenberg und Penzlin (1895-1984). Interwar period After the war, he joined the Grenzschutz Ost Freikorps as a General Staff officer, serving in Silesia and Pomerania. In