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. We are to stand at attention during the hangings. . I am quite sick now, my hands are cold as ice. [3][55], "Five death sentences were confirmed: the sentence against Oswald Pohl, as well as those passed against the leaders of the Mobile Killing Units, Paul Blobel, Werner Braune, Erich Neumann, and Otto OhrlendorfIn the early morning hours of 7 June, the Nazi criminals were hanged in the Landesburg prison courtyard.". Ohlendorf was married with Kthe Wolpers on 10-06-1934 and they had five children, two boys and three girls, Henning, born 11-02-1938, Behrend, born 18-09-1943, Irmtraut, born March 25-03-1936, Meinhard, born 30-10-1940 and Ulrike, born 11-05-1945. . 1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272, Nazi War Crimes Interagency Working Group, Discussions held in Berlin in April 1945 between senior SS officials including Ohlendorf, SS-General Felix Steiner, and SS-General Richard Hildebrandt. Many historians have written about the famous Buffalo Soldiers of the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division, who fought with distinction during World War II. The Nazi system, however, did not work that way. 0014: The sergeant pulls up the body while from the floor below someone disentangles the rope. 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. Will I be able to perform this simple act? "[26][d], Many of the killing operations were personally overseen by Ohlendorf, who wanted to ensure they were "military in character and humane under the circumstances". 2120: Graham receives message from Heidelberg. And Ohlendorfs men engaged in such depravity over and over again. CONTENT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED BY WIKITREE COMMUNITY MEMBERS. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009. I have lost my parents, my relatives and friends in the concentration camps. Twenty Einsatzgruppen leaders were found guilty by the court, and four, including Ohlendorf, were eventually executed. I have a queasy feeling in my stomach. In the aftermath of the Battle of Kasserine Pass, US II Corps passed to the command of General Harold Alexanders 18th Army Group. Lost your password? If so, login to add it. Whos Who in Nazi Germany. Radio transmissions were conducted weekly or bi-weekly under conditions of absolute secrecy. I am listening half-heartedly, reply in the negative. 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. He coordinated plans to rebuild the German economy after the war. Second mistake: He personally selected prisoners for medical experiments. After him are Konstantinos Karamanlis, Giovanna of Italy, Compay Segundo, Erich Mielke, Daniel Bovet, and Barbara Stanwyck. In the United States, there was sharp criticism of the decisions as having been too lenient, while in Germany, McCloy was attacked for having been too severe. Categories: Death by Hanging | Executed | Nazi Party, World War II | Nazis, WIKITREE HOME | ABOUT | G2G FORUM | HELP | SEARCH. A handsome Negro captain, Artillery, a huge bunch of keys dangling from his belt, tells me in answer to a question that she is Mrs. Oswald Pohl. The IMT prosecuted German leaders for international crimes defined in the Nuremberg Charter. Each assumed the right to decide the fate of men, and death was the intended result of his power and contempt. Have you ever done this before? I think: Hadnt I better stay in Grahams office rather than witness this thing? 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. 2250: Warrant Officer Britt is discussing hangings with the medical officer. And one of them is a Jew whose family perished because of the berserk racial policies. 2400: Now we hear footsteps and the voice of a chaplain praying in sonorous German. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. It now appears that the hanging will take place after all, unless defense counsel can find some new loophole. In the spring of 1941, he assigned a new mission to Ohlendorf. In an office across the corridor from Colonel Grahams a few GIs are listening to a shortwave broadcast of a big league baseball game in New York. I agree. These, however, were turned down by the Allies. They access the appalling and almost incomprehensible atmosphere of the final moments of these men, women, and childrenand the murderers and their auxiliaries who organized and carried out the killing. Either Ohlendorf or Seibert dictated every word to Fritsch. By 1938 he was also manager in the Trade section of the Reich business board (Reichswirtschaftskammer). [4] His role in collecting intelligence from his secret police agents was disliked by some of the Nazi leadership. Ohlendorf joined the SD in 1936 and became an economic consultant of the organisation. A former Newsweek foreign correspondent and editor, Andrew Nagorski is the author of The Nazi Hunters, which will be released on May 10. The suppers were served by GIs. An economist by education, he is head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Inland, responsible for intelligence and security within Germany. 1935: JAG1 lieutenant colonels from Heidelberg, two of them, have arrived to serve as army witnesses. . This tribunal was tasked with trying Case #9 of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings: United States v. Otto Ohlendorf, et al.. Case #9 is usually referred to as the Einsatzgruppen Case. It consisted of fried chicken, potatoes, green peas, and carrots. [15] Joining the Einsatzgruppen was an unappealing prospect and Ohlendorf refused twice before his eventual appointment. Each defendant pleaded not guilty. Even those who admitted playing a role in the mass killings denied their culpability. I ask. He adds one thought, that none of us likes this business but weve got to go through with it. The charter defined as crimes the following acts: The United States Military Government in Germany, on October 18, 1946, enacted an ordinance under which military tribunals were established in the American Zone of Occupation, with the purpose of trying and punishing criminals within that zone who had escaped prosecution at Nuremberg. He makes notes on a piece of paper. An Uncompromising Generation: The Nazi Leadership of the Reich Security Main Office. It would be bad for the soul of the German people, McCloy went on, to put these things under the carpet. On June 17, as the day of the assault on the USSR loomed, Heydrich summoned Ohlendorf and the commanders of EinsatzgruppenA, B, and C to Berlin for a crucial meeting. Otto Ohlendorf was the Head of Amt lll of the Reich Main Security Office during the Second World War and organiser of mass murders in the Southern Ukraine in 1941 and 1942. But I should like to emphasize that if you execute these men, their lives will be wasted! He objected to the sentence: The destruction of the Warsaw ghetto, including the deportation or extermination of more than 56,000 Jews, was personally committed by him [Oswald Pohl]. According to Dehler, Pohl destroyed the ghetto but not its inhabitants. Graham says his fan mail from Nazi sympathizers has slowed down. [6], Ohlendorf joined the SD in 1936 and became an economic consultant of the organisation. 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. He is a small, slight man with soft, kindly eyes. It would be far better to keep them in prison as an example to future generations. 4, 1950, p. 30. . These, in turn, were handed over to Himmler and Hitler. Before him are Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, Maurice Blanchot, Daphne du Maurier, Dora Maar, Solomon Asch, and Burgess Meredith. There is a slight crackle. He is dressed in a shabby suit and spring topcoat, his shoes have been worn through the soles, his hands are those of a farmer. Moreover, West Germany had abolished the death penalty in the new constitution, and for the U. S. authorities to carry out capital punishment would show lack of respect for this constitution, with far-reaching consequences for American-German relations.. It will be without levity, emotion, or demonstrations of any kind. His defense was simple: he was just following orders. Found guilty for the mass murder of 90,000 men, women, and children, mostly Jews, Ohlendorf was sentenced to death in April 1948. All the while, Himmler encouraged the butchery, sanctioning it as indispensable for the final victory over Bolshevism. 9)), is still frequently overlooked. The first of a series of indictments was filed on October 25, 1946, and the trial opened on December 9 of that year. He is talking in his friendly Alabama drawl, but I scarcely know what he is saying. 1900: Arrive with Bickel in army staff car. . The opinions expressed are his own. TTY: 202.488.0406. tried leading members of the Einsatzgruppen. 2356: Seven minutes more. He joined the SA in 1925 when he was only 18, then Heinrich Himmlers SS the following year. It was, he argued, almost inhuman to keep men, regardless of the crimes they might have committed, in a state of terrible uncertainty as to whether they were going to live or die. Find topics of interest and explore encyclopedia content related to those topics, Find articles, photos, maps, films, and more listed alphabetically, Recommended resources and topics if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust, Explore the ID Cards to learn more about personal experiences during the Holocaust. [18] Additional manpower for Einsatzgruppe D came from Ukrainian auxiliary police formations. The crimes they committed were crimes against you. He refuses to comment. Another newspaper calls to inquire whether it is true that the executions will go forward. It is quiet and orderly; beautifully manicured grounds with only a knoll of American soldiers near the big gates to destroy the illusion of a rest camp. They offer a last chance for confronting not just the legal but the moral issues that the perpetrators have so consistently tried to dodge in the past. [55], Despite his attempts to establish moral equivalency for atrocities upon the Allies, Otto Ohlendorf was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during World War II. Bickel says the criminals should have been hanged earlier. Some less common occupations for Americans named Ohlendorf were Clerk and Bookkeeper. All 22 defendants were found guilty of at least one charge. Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Allied Control Council Law No. In June 1941, Reinhard Heydrich appointed Ohlendorf to be commander of Einsatzgruppen D ((mobile killing unit D) which operated in southern Ukraine and Crimea. After the launching of Barbarossa on June 22, Ohlendorf could also turn to the Army for ammunition, maps, and telecommunications. 2353: I return to the Death House, climb up the last stairway, see the gallows for the first time. Subsequently, he was a witness during the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. Most of them are biblical quotations, others enclose pressed flowers. At the Arcadia Conference, held in Washington, DC, from December 24, 1941 to January 14, 1942, the Western Allies agreed to a Germany First policy to govern global strategy, but the question where to engage Germany, and when, remained unsettled. Altmeiers opening words came as a shock to the High Commissioner who, for the first time in the meeting, kept his eyes glued to the speaker. 1920: Bickel reports to Fred Hulse, in McCloys office in Frankfort. 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. His hand is moist, clammy. Not to elicit a. Yet they were not the only targets. He said that reviewing the sentences of the Landsberg prisoners was the most difficult task he had been charged with since coming to Germany. The sentences were reduced in a number of cases where there appeared a basis for clemency. There are no newspapermen around prison grounds. You will receive a link to create a new password via email. ), condemning a total of twenty-six men to death, fifteen under the jurisdiction of the High Commissioner and eleven under the jurisdiction of the army. A total of seven men, then, were to be executed at Landsberg. [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. They argued that they had acted legally and in obedience to superior orders. A previous version of this newly revised reading was titled We Were Not Supposed to Think., After the first trial ended in October 1946, the United States held 12 other trials at Nuremberg under the authority of the International Military Tribunal. Defending his actions, Ohlendorf compared Einsatzgruppenactivities to the Biblical Jewish extirpation of its enemies; he likewise claimed that his firing squads were no worse than the press-button killers who dropped the atom bomb on Japan. 2210: We wait, smoking and looking uneasily at the clock. Pamphlets and leaflets attacking American injustice were circulated by unknown and unidentified organizations. On September 10, 1947, the US Military Government for Germany created Military Tribunal II-A (later renamed Tribunal II). According to the ordinance of October 18, 1946, these judgments were final and not subject to review. I look for signs of the desperate hater, the ruthless killer, but I dont find any. All 22 defendants were found guilty, and four of them, including Ohlendorf, were hanged. He says we must realize the seriousness of the occassion. [49] For several weeks after his arrest, Ohlendorf was carefully interrogated, during which he revealed the criminal nature of the German campaign in the East. Reinhold Hanning, a 94-year-old former Auschwitz guard who will go down in history as one of the last of Hitlers perpetrators to be charged for his role in the Third Reich, offered an apology. He is a German SS functionary and Holocaust perpetrator during the Nazi era. After World War II ended in Europe, the Allies established an International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg. Because of Ohlendorfs work in this field, petitions for leniency were filed after he was sentenced to death by hanging. Students deepen their thinking about memory and identity by reflecting on the stories of Holocaust and Armenian Genocide survivors and their descendants. 0003: Britt steps back, glances at Graham. 2205: A German newspaper calls from Ulm to advise Graham there has been a stay of execution. Reichsfhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler once characterized Ohlendorf as "an unbearable Prussian" who was "without humour". As Ferencz told me during an interview for my book The Nazi Hunters, he still vividly recalls the protestations of Otto Ohlendorf, one of those condemned to death, that he was only doing his duty. 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. His defense was simple: he was just following orders. He died on 3 March 1989, in Riedlingen, Biberach, Baden-Wrttemberg, Germany, at the age of 96. Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office, 1950. Translated by Tom Lampert. I light a cigarette. . Emil Hausmann committed suicide. It is still remotely possible. The official cameramen photograph the prisoner after one of the GI assistants places the nameplate across the condemned mans chest. One hour and some 25 minutes are left now. Twenty-two of the defendants were tried. Graham says prisoners have been gaining weight on the excellent prison fare. Then he saw them off as they left Pretzsch to get ready for the invasion. They came from every state in West Germany, and even from the United States. There had been three last-minute reprieves prior to June 7the most recent on May 24, ninety minutes before the actual hangings were due to take place. 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. I remember that I must dial 22, which is Bickels extension in Grahams office. A tall, gray-faced woman is signing out. A few extra folding chairs have been set up. Ehlers called on the next speaker, Dr. Walter Strauss, of the Ministry of Justice. Quick access. Discover life events, stories and photos about Otto Ohlendorf (1907-1951) of . The extreme anti-Semitism of the Nazi regime was given full license with these criminal orders. Ohlendorf took part in Himmlers flight from Flensburg and was arrested with him near Lneburg, where Himmler committed suicide. 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? 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. 47% of Ohlendorf men worked as a Farmer and 40% of Ohlendorf women worked as a Housekeeper. Eduard Strauch, the head of Einsatzkommando 2 (a subunit of Einsatzgruppe A), who received a death sentence, was extradited to Belgium. Such actions continued right through December 1941. I feel as though I am moving in a weird dream as I watch these macabre figures around me, figures in the khaki of the U.S. Army uniform. Writer was one Frederick Wiehl, Pohls counsel in Germany: There will be no execution on Tuesday. These discussions aimed at the creation of a new government that could procure a separate peace with the Allies. The High Commissioner thanked the delegation for traveling from Bonn to Frankfort to present their ideas. 4 February 1907-7 June 1951 . He joined the Nazi Party in 1925 (member nr 6631) and the SS (member nr 880) in 1926. The 24 defendants in Case #9 were all leading members of, that operated on the Eastern Front during World War II. 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. 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. WIKITREE PROTECTS MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND PRIVACY POLICY. Ohlendorfs apparently reliable testimony was attributed to his distaste for the corruptionin Nazi Germany and a stubborn commitment to duty. The Einsatzgruppen were special task forces of the, membership in organizations declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal, Four of the defendants who were charged had commanded Einsatzgruppen units sent into the Soviet Union and Soviet-controlled territory as part of. [28] The number of persons killed under the leadership of Einsatzgruppen commanders such as Ohlendorf are "staggering" despite the use of varying murder techniques. Fine, he says. [45] Hoping to salvage the reputation of the SD, Ohlendorf offered his services in the hopes that he could shape the postwar reconstruction of Germany, but along "National Socialist lines", remaining convinced as was Admiral Karl Dnitz (who gave Ohlendorf the economics portfolio), that some form of Nazism would ultimately survive. To the end, he exhibited hardly any remorse about what he had done. Ohlendorf, Otto. Shes a nuisance, he says. Himmler, these men hoped, would lead this government and Hitler would be pushed aside if necessary. In an interview, he pointed out that the prosecution had been waiting for one of the defendantsto address the witnesses who had survived and had their whole families annihilated with one humane wordit would have cleared the air. That never happened. Lincoln and Jerusalem: University of Nebraska Press and Yad Vashem, 2004. His only criterion was that justice must be done. 2100: Graham is excited over report from Munich newspaper to the effect that there has been another stay of execution. Main telephone: 202.488.0400 However, the U. S. Military Governor (General Lucius Clay), and his successor (High Commissioner John J. McCloy) felt that the right of appeal should not be denied the convicted men. The colonel takes the center of the floor. [10] It was Ohlendorf's responsibility as head of the SD-Inland to collect data and scientifically examine social, cultural, and economic issues, assembling reports to his superiors in the Nazi government. There is a report from Bonn that the Ministry of Justice is working frantically for a last minute reprieve. [29] On 1 August 1941, Einsatzgruppen commanders including Ohlendorf, received instructions from Gestapo chief Heinrich Mller to keep headquarters (Hitler especially) informed of their progress in the East; Mller also encouraged the speedy delivery of photographs showing the results of these operations.

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