I was wondering, so I checked out the first guy on Wikipedia. The image isn’t lying about him, but the chief of staff part is sensationalizing it a bit. Dude was a career soldier since world War one, rose through the ranks and was chief of staff for an entirety of two weeks. Neither the German nor the English Wikipedia article on him really shine a clear light on his opinions. But he was definitely involved in the planning for military operations of the Nazis against the soviet union, and hunting down “partisans” in the occupied areas. According to the German wiki, one biographer claims that he did that as “humanely as possible given the circumstances” and “taking care of civilians as much as possible” (quotes roughly translated by myself), whereas some other historian cites some evacuation event at that time as clear evidence that he wasn’t that humane.

I personally feel quite confident in calling him a Nazi. He stood next to Hitler during the stauffenberg bombing and got injured (that was while he was chief of staff), He was suspected of being involved in the planning, but there was no evidence. And apparently he told the Gestapo everything he knew about the attackers, fully supporting the investigation against the conspirators. (to be clear, that last part isn’t stated like that in the articles, but I think it is a fair interpretation of what it sais). He also saw it as a duty of a Soldier in the Reich to fight on the east front, despite explicitly believing that that fight was a lost cause, and that many would die a needless death.

After the war, he gave testimony at the Nürnberg trials, and later worked together with the US army building up west German forces against the communists. (my personal interpretation: he had experience fighting against Russia, so they kept him involved.) Dwight Eisenhower liked him so much, he involved him majorly in the development of some European defense forces. At that point I got tired of reading, and only skimmed over the rest. Stuff continued, he built up the west German army, and later got his job at NATO. I did not read up on what that job actually was, and what he did in that role. But at this point I have no reason to doubt that it was a high level position, doing strategic stuff against the Soviets.

So, the guy was surely a Nazi, definitely a chief of staff under Hitler, and he did later hold a high position at NATO. Why would I call the image sensationalizing it, when it’s true? Cause explicitly calling him “Chief of Staff under Hitler” in the way it is in the image to me implies to me that he was a major thought leader in fashism. But everything I read about him makes him more the just-following-orders type of Nazi. Still a Nazi though. I also kinda understand how he ended up at NATO. I see it as a product of it’s time, and something we should acknowledge. US took in Nazi scientists to put people on the moon, and they apparently also took in (high ranking) Nazi soldiers to prepare/fight against the Soviets. But to me this doesn’t necessarily imply some Nazi conspiracy inside NATO. I don’t think someone like that should be in a top level position in that organization today. But he was, and given the circumstances, he was probably even a fitting choice. That alone should be reason enough to do better today.

Sources: the English and German Wikipedia articles on Adolf Heusinger. Was my first time reading up on him, on mobile on a train. Hope I did enough to separate what the articles said about the guy from my interpretation on it.