Gottfried von Erdmannsdorff ( 25 April 1893 – 30 January 1946 ) was a German general during World War II . He was convicted by a Soviet military tribunal for war crimes at the Minsk Trial and executed in 1946 . Erdmannsdorff , who was at that time commander of the so-called " Fortress Mogilev " surrendered to the Soviet troops in late June 1944 during the Mogilev Offensive . He was tried by a Soviet tribunal ( the Minsk Trial ) for crimes committed in Belarus along with 18 other defendants , 14 of whom , including Erdmannsdorff , were sentenced to death on 29 January 1946 . The officers were hanged in public ( with over 100,000 civilian spectators ) in the horse racing venue of Minsk , on 30 January 1946 . He was the younger brother of General der Infanterie Werner von Erdmannsdorff , who himself had been shot for war crimes in Yugoslavia in June of 1945
war crimes
War crimes of the Wehrmacht
Gottfried von Erdmannsdorff