1945: Dinner in the prison mess. Schmid also made the argument that in view of West Germanys abolishing of capital punishment, it would be ill advised for the U. S., although the occupying power, to act in violation of German law. Even one of the most notorious architects of the Final Solution, Adolf Eichmann, organizer of the mass deportation of Jews to Auschwitz and other concentration camps, portrayed himself as a mere functionary who had no animosity towards his victims. Otto Ohlendorf 1907-1951 - Ancestry Ohlendorf led the mobile SS death squad in Crimea. The judges agreed that members of the Einsatzgruppen had not been threatened with physical harm if they did not murder their victims. Explore resources that meet the Massachusetts History and Social Science Framework. But it is almost unprecedented for those who have been charged with carrying out the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes since the end of World War Two. Marking the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, The National WWII Museum connects two instances of remorse for Nazi criminality by leading German politicians. . Otto Ohlendorf (1907-1951) FamilySearch The letter cited alleged mistakes in the biographical section of the document, Landsberg, A Documentary Report, which had been published in connection with the final announcement of McCloys decisions. Defense attorneys of people accused of war crimes have looked hard for such a case because it would support the claim that their clients had no choice. Otto Ohlendorf, et al.. Case #9 is usually referred to as the Einsatzgruppen Case. 2235: Graham is discussing the business of last rites. He studied at the University of Pavia, where he gained his doctors degree in jurisprudence; and by 1933 he obtained the position of a research directorship in the Kiel Institute for the World Economy(at that timeInstitut fr Weltwirtschaft und Seeverkehr Institute for World Economy and Maritime Transport). Einsatzgruppen trial - Wikipedia He adds one thought, that none of us likes this business but weve got to go through with it. Since Jews were automatically assumed to be ultra-Bolsheviks and to be the ruling class of the Soviet Union, they were singled out. The appearance of the Einsatzgruppenwas a death sentence for entire Jewish communities. There was another who admitted responsibility for the massacre of 30,000 Jews (in Kiev). BillionGraves FREE Dr. Phil Otto Ohlendorf, 1879 - 1913 was born in 1879. I have suffered grievously at the hands of the Nazis. One hour and some 25 minutes are left now. [34], Between February and March 1942, Himmler ordered that gas vans should be used to murder women and children so as to reduce the strain on the men, but Ohlendorf reported that many of the Einsatzkommandos refused to utilize them since burying the victims proved an "ordeal" afterwards. . Jesus famously said when he was crucified: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. The Nazi criminals knew all too well what they were doing. Mr. McCloys mail was marked by an increasingly large number of appeals for clemency, both signed and anonymous, and soon these appeals assumed the proportions of an avalanche. [47][48] Himmler committed suicide shortly after being captured. Otto Rasch: Rasch led Einsatzgruppe C. This unit perpetrated mass murder in Ukraine, including the shooting of more than 33,000 Jews of Kiev at. London: Bloomsbury, 2018. [32] This act should not be seen as a change of heart or kindness, as just a month prior in September 1941, Ohlendorf reported to his men that "from now on the Jewish question is going to be solved and that means liquidation". The Einsatzgruppen led by the defendants organized and conducted mass shootings of Jews, Communists, and others in territory that Germany seized from the Soviet Union. Berlin: Edition Heinrich, 1997. Ohlendorf said that Himmler showed the letter to him and that he altered Himmler's text because "it had been unfortunately worded." In the aftermath of the Battle of Kasserine Pass, US II Corps passed to the command of General Harold Alexanders 18th Army Group. JAG officers speculate on how any judge in Frankfort could have granted an appeal, with full knowledge of the facts. New York: Macmillan, 1982. Fighting the Allies during the North African campaign of 1942-1943, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommels Afrika Korps (DAK) was resupplied by a concerted air and sea lift effort. Will I be able to perform this simple act? Some 20 newspaper-men have converged on the Hotel Goggol, the towns leading hotel, where they are waiting for news and filing background and human interest stories. An economist by education, he is head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Inland, responsible for intelligence and security within Germany. Seven times I have listened as they swore, in their dying words, that they had merely carried out orders; that they had been fighting for their country; that the Americans were their enemies. What did the shift entail? The trial ran from September 29, 1947, to February 12, 1948. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011. Graham says the men have eaten their last supper. Students examine how choices made by individuals and groups contributed to the rise of the Nazi Party in the 1920s and 1930s. Born in February 1907 into a peasant family in Hoheneggelsen, a small town in Lower Saxony in northwest Germany, he was not yet a teenager when Germany suffered a crushing defeat in World War I. On September 10, 1947, the US Military Government for Germany created Military Tribunal II-A (later renamed Tribunal II). Ohlendorf mentions a personal letter, dated 9 May 1945, which Himmler wrote and sent to British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. This trial, known generally as the EinsaztgruppenCase (officially classified as the United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al. Although much of the U.S. Army's investigative file on Ohlendorf was declassified in 1987, some documents were withheld and are being released under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act. and 5 received sentences that ranged from 10 to 20 years. The resources Im getting from my colleagues through Facing History have been just invaluable. Photos and Memories (0) Do you know Gustav? Army still awaiting receipt of confirming cable. He shakes hands also with Bickel when I introduce them. The Einsatzgruppen were special task forces of the SS and Police. Bickel studies Britts face. He explained: Dont you see, we SS men were not supposed to think about these things; it never even occurred to us. Students turn their attention to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of a strong current of ethno-nationalism rooted in Turkish identity. . Then two GI guards, unarmed, follow. The following year he returned to economic research, becoming Ministerial Director and deputy to the State Secretary in the Ministry of Economics. The High Commissioner thanked the delegation for traveling from Bonn to Frankfort to present their ideas. He says, whatever I have done, I did as a soldier who obeyed orders. We left the death chamber after Schmidt, of Buchenwald infamy, had been pronounced dead and after I had signed the affidavits as the governments official witness. He said that the Landsberg men had been imprisoned between two and three years ago, and were still waiting for the final verdict. Over 90,000 murders are attributed to Ohlendorfs command, who testified to this effect during his trial at Nuremberg. 2242: Big clock is ticking. He is clean shaven now and looks older than his 57 years. Twenty Einsatzgruppen leaders were found guilty by the court, and four, including Ohlendorf, were eventually executed. The crimes they committed were crimes against you. In this same prison Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, and was released for political reasons. Of course, the biographical matter issued in connection with the final announcements was not part of the official documentation and was intended simply to help people remember Pohls crimes. 4 February 1907-7 June 1951 . Otto Ohlendorf Biography - German SS officer and Holocaust perpetrator His pipe throws off a delicious fragrance. The four-week tradition invoked by Dr. Strauss obviously applied to ordinary criminal cases, and the cases at Landsberg were not ordinary criminal cases: they had been heard in courts designed to meet an extraordinary spasm of criminality. Moreover, the Landsberg murderers had committed their crimes on non-German soil against non-German victims; that the prison happened to be situated in Germany was only a geographical accident. Joseph Stalins calls for partisan warfare in early July 1941 gave the Nazis a pretext for further radicalization. They are brought in on huge trays by a young prisoner whose face could be that of a friendly, smiling Kansas farmer. . Copyright 2023 Facing History & Ourselves. A few extra folding chairs have been set up. There is a report from Bonn that the Ministry of Justice is working frantically for a last minute reprieve. Explore resources that meet the California HistorySocial Science Framework standards. Eventually, auxiliaries drawn from the peoples of the USSR, including the recently annexed Baltic States, augmented their ranks. Otto Ohlendorf, one of the most notorious SS officials in Nazi Germany, was captured and interrogated extensively after the war. The army executioner, Mr. Britt, suddenly puts in an appearance, trim and neat in his tight-fitting uniform. 3. 2357: Hard wood benches line the sides of the loft. I light a cigarette. As a nonprofit, we offer free help to those looking to learn the details of their family story. For example, Otto Ohlendorf commanded Einsatzgruppe D while it committed mass murder in territories that are part of Romania and Moldova, as well as in Ukraine and around the Crimean Sea. His face is that of a storekeeper or a teacher. Bickel says he will not be a witness. Facing History & Ourselves, "Obeying Orders," last updated August 11, 2017. The Nazi system, however, did not work that way. This was done to avoid any possibility of poison or suicides. As higher SS and Police Leader in Austria after the Anschluss, he supervised and had knowledge of the activities of the Gestapo and the SD in Austria. Seven Nazis Were Hanged: The Diary of a Witness Someone asks about the 650,000 signatures appended to a petition for clemency sent to President Truman from Germany. We may be seated and smoke after each drop. The queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach comes back. [6], Ohlendorf joined the SD in 1936 and became an economic consultant of the organisation. Otto Ohlendorf in MyHeritage family trees (Family site (Family Tree Legends)) view all Immediate Family Conrad Christoph Carl Ohlendorf father Ernestine Wilhelmine called Minn. mother Emilie Emmie von Roeder sister Carl Ohlendorf brother Julius Ohlendorf brother Albert Ohlendorf brother Herman Ohlendorf brother Ida Emilie Caroline Thoene sister Hanning declared he was sincerely sorry and ashamed that he had belonged to a criminal organization that committed mass murder and countless atrocities, and that he had never done anything to prevent such actions. We tell one another the prisoners could easily have spared themselves this inhuman waiting, simply by refraining from submitting petitions. These trials are known as the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings. Case #9 of these twelve trials is known today as the Einsatzgruppen Case. After World War II ended in Europe, the Allies established an International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg. If so, login to add it. The 11th Army of Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedts Army Group South, to which Ohlendorfs unit was attached, bore responsibility for providing EinsatzgruppeD with food, lodging, gasoline, and taking care of maintenance and repair of its motor vehicles. He joined the Nazi Party in 1925 (member nr 6631) and the SS (member nr 880) in 1926. Each chaplain is allowed all the time he needs in the cell with the condemned man before he is led to the gallows. After the IMT trial, the United States conducted twelve additional trials on the basis of the Charter. Ferencz called no witnesses and based the case on wartime SS reports that detailed mass shootings conducted by the Einsatzgruppen. The Supreme Court has rejected final appeal, Justice Robert Jackson (who served as chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg trials) abstaining after disqualifying himself. Students deepen their thinking about memory and identity by reflecting on the stories of Holocaust and Armenian Genocide survivors and their descendants. There are no newspapermen around prison grounds. 14 officials of other Nazi organizations that engaged in racial persecution. Has been making a lot of trouble for us.. No newsmen will be admitted to the executions, by unanimous decision of the High Commissioners staff and General Handys advisers. I wonder what other arrangements are necessary at this point. Ten of the fifteen death cases under McCloys jurisdiction were commuted, five confirmed; two of the eleven death cases under General Handys jurisdiction were confirmed, nine commuted. The men charged were: Paul Blobel, Ernst Biberstein, Walter Blume, Werner Braune, Lothar Fendler, Matthias Graf, Walter Haensch, Emil Hausmann, Waldemar Klingelhoefer, Gustav Noske, Adolf Ott, Waldemar von Radetzky, Felix Rhl, Martin Sandberger, Heinz Schubert, Erwin Schultz, Willy Seibert, Franz Six, Eugen Steimle, and Eduard Strauch. Showing real aptitude as a student, Ohlendorf attended Gymnasium in nearby Hildesheim. Encased in the statistics from EinsatzgruppeD were the extinguished lives of 90,000 people. as adjutant general and quartermaster general, etc. Mother Unavailable. COL. AMEN: And when was Heydrich's death? Otto Ohlendorf - Axis History Forum His only criterion was that justice must be done. The High Commissioner therefore undertook a review of the sentences with the help of an Advisory Board on Clemency which began work in Washington early in 1950, and continued in Munich in July 1950. I have committed no crime. Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Allied Control Council Law No. Execution of Otto Ohlendorf - Brutal Nazi Commander of Einsatzgruppen This deep interest in economics carried over into work for the Reich Trade Group, where he quickly ascended the ladder. 10, Nuernberg October 1946-April 1949, Volume IV: The Einsatzgruppen Case & The RuSHA Case. This leaves me the only witness for the State Department. It takes a special human type to shoot small children in a pit before the very eyes of their parents, themselves destined to die as well. Ohlendorf's apparently reliable testimony was attributed to his distaste for the corruption in Nazi Germany and a stubborn commitment to duty. . His liaison man translated sentence by sentence. The numbers killed reached over 35,000 by early October. Emil Hausmann committed suicide. He was the leader of the SS in Austria prior to the Anschluss and played a principal role in the betrayal of his native country to the Nazi conspirators. This type of evidence I have accepted in mitigation of the original sentence., The High Commissioner said that he had been struck by the extent of the misinformation in the letters and petitions which were being sent to him. It is a report from Denmark, of all places, to the effect that the men have already been executed. He expressed no remorse for his actions, telling prosecutor Benjamin B Ferenz, a Hungarian-born American lawyer that the Jews of America would suffer for what the prosecutor had done, and seemed to have been more concerned about the moral strain on those carrying out the murders than those being murdered. 2120: Graham receives message from Heidelberg. And Ive never ordered anyone to kill a Jew. That gave him a certain peace of mind, he added, although he was under no illusions about his ultimate fate. Ohlendorf said that Himmler until the very end believed that an agreement could be struck and that he hoped to be the Allies' "confidence man in Europe. I have lost my parents, my relatives and friends in the concentration camps. He is determined to prevent suicide. 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW Fourteen defendants were sentenced to death. His face is yellow in the lamplight. He says there is to be a conference on the subject in the near future, urges me to attend. spent three years in detention before being hanged at the Landsberg Prison in Bavaria on 07-06-1951, age 44, and he buried on the Spottinger prison cemetery. . According to the ordinance of October 18, 1946, these judgments were final and not subject to review. What other motivations might have contributed to their participation in mass murder? . The Military Tribunals, Mr. McCloy went on, had been set up by men of peace, good will, and great character. Apart from all this, illustrated weeklies went in for special feature stories denouncing the cruelty of the American authorities in keeping the condemned men waiting so long for a final verdict. Preparations are being completed. We were all so trained to obey orders without even thinking that the thought of disobeying an order would simply never have occurred to anybody, and somebody else would have done just as well if I hadnt. Under what circumstances is it permissible or necessary for a person to disobey either an order from an authority figure or the law of a country? It is only now that at least one of them is admitting as much. Subsequently, he was a witness during the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. I ask him if he will pronounce the men dead. He suggests that we settle down in an adjoining office for the long wait. She has red-rimmed eyes, is dressed in plain calico dress, carries nothing, not even a pocketbook. Graham says: I ought to accept this offer; that guys been begging to be executed.. 2300: Bickel calls Frankfort. Our headquarters are located at: 89 South Street, Suite 401, Boston, MA 02111. He doesnt want it delayed or snafued by a suicide, which would mean writing lengthy reports and involve him in interminable red tape. This Board, consisting of New York State Supreme Court Justice David Peck, Commissioner Frederick A. Moran (the chairman of the New York Board of Parole), and Brigadier General Conrad E. Snow, was not empowered to review the decisions of the Military Tribunals on questions of law or fact, but to consider disparities among the sentences for comparable crimes and other matters which tended to show that the sentences imposed were excessive. The Board was directed to consider anything that might warrant mitigation of sentences.. Ehlers declared that while they held no brief for many individual war criminals, yet at a time when West Germany was being called upon to make a military contribution to Western defense, they felt bound to call for modification of the death sentence on the ground of political and psychological factors. [24] To ensure the group killing mentality, Ohlendorf forbade any commando from taking individual actions and explicitly instructed his men not to take any of the victim's valuables. Left to right: Kthe Ohlendorf, wife of Otto Ohlendorf; Margot Schmidt, wife of Hans Theodor Schmidt, adjutant at Buchenwald concentration camp; von Ysenburg, who brought word to the wives of the reprieve; Magda Braune, wife of Werner Braune; and Elisabeth Naumann, wife of Erich Naumann. Holmes, the commandant of Landsberg Military sub-Post, is seated within speaking distance of me and next to the towns civilian (German) Registrar of Vital Statistics. Otto Ohlendorf, the head of the SD Domestic office in the RSHA, personally commanded Einsatzgruppe D. This unit deployed to southern Ukraine, Crimea, and the North Caucasus. He also cited examples from other cases, including the High Command Case in which military commanders carried out the so-called Fuehrer Order calling for the murder of undesirable elements such as Jews and Gypsieswomen, men, and children alike who were offensive to the Germans. And he further noted that a great number of terrible and terrifying crimes had been committed in the name of maintaining the ethnic purity of the German people. 2 (a subunit of Einsatzgruppe A), who received a death sentence, was extradited to Belgium. Historian Christian Ingrao quips that for Ohlendorf, Nazism was a "quest for race" in the historical continuum, and even though he never stated it that way, his faith in Germandom was akin to that of his fellow SS intellectuals. Otto Ohlendorf on Trial Chief among the SS officials put on trial following the conviction of the surviving Nazi government ministers were the commanders and senior staff of the four Einsatzgruppen that operated on the Eastern Front in conjunction with the Wehrmacht. I ask. They said that when an individual follows an order that is illegal under international law, he is responsible for that choice, except under certain circumstances. The 24 defendants in Case #9 were all leading members of, that operated on the Eastern Front during World War II. The High Commissioner listened intently, eyes fixed on his scratch pad. The United States charged 24 defendants with war crimes, crimes against humanity, and membership in a criminal organization. Is their defense persuasive to you? Martin Holler has argued convincingly that Otto Ohlendorf became to a certain degree the trailblazer for the complete solution of the Gypsy question on Soviet soil. Otto Ohlendorf (1866 - 1866) - Genealogy Washington, DC 20024-2126 Unlike some in the SS, Ohlendorf refused to distinguish between itinerant and sedentary Gypsies. The latter, seen as more civilized, were often left alone. [51] During the trial, Ohlendorf insisted that he, as a loyal Nazi, had acted properly and had done nothing wrong. Interest in the condemned men in Landsberg prisonthe so-called Lands-berg menbegan to mount in Germany around mid-December of 1950 when it became known that High Commissioner McCloy and his colleague, General Handy, had the cases under study. How silent it has become. An economist by education, he was head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Inland, responsible for intelligence and security within Germany. An officer reports that hes taking a bath. He. As chief of the Public Relations Division for the High Commissioners Office, I was sent to Landsberg to handle the two hundred or so newspaper men covering the story of the hanging. He was sentenced to death on 08-04-1948 and spent three years in detention before being hanged at the Landsberg Prison in Bavaria on 07-06-1951, age 44, and he buried on the Spottinger prison cemetery. For the Nazi hunters -- the government investigators and prosecutors along with the freelance operatives who have tracked and exposed the perpetrators -- this magnifies the role of these remaining court cases. Have you ever done this before? Their own reports will show that the slaughter committed by these defendants was dictated, not by military necessity, but by that supreme perversion of thought, the Nazi theory of the master race.1. I think: Hadnt I better stay in Grahams office rather than witness this thing? No, he says rather unhappily. 47% of Ohlendorf men worked as a Farmer and 40% of Ohlendorf women worked as a Housekeeper. 2147: Bickel receives confirmation from Frankfort: proceed with executions. They were to be the last death sentences on the soil of the Federal Republic. He hangs up. Three times the gallows had been prepared, three times the official army executioner was instructed to have his gear ready, three times the wives of the condemned men visited their husbands for the last time. Three times the prisoners ate their last meal.. Though short, he is athletic, wiry and powerful. Essentially, they were to murder commissars attached to units of the Red Army, officials of the Communist Party, and deal with any overt resistance to the German presence.