Sometime between mid-July and mid-August 1941 Himmler, certainly with Hitlers approval, ordered the expansion of killing. . According to Dehler, Pohl did not select them personally; he had delegated this authority to someone else. USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration EinsatzgruppeDs zone of operations covered, initially, Bukovina and Bessarabia (territories seized from Romania by Joseph Stalin), then southern Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula. Allied Control Council no. The other defendants had their sentences commuted or were paroled. In June 1941, Reinhard Heydrich appointed Ohlendorf to be commander of Einsatzgruppe D which operated in southern Ukraine and Crimea. I learn that he was sent up for shooting captured paratroopers. The cable has come from Washington.. They killed on their own. I returned to Grahams office. Himmler then had an adjutant take the letter to Montgomery. Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings, Case #9, The Einsatzgruppen Case I seat myself next to Lieutenant Colonel Borom. 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. And Ohlendorfs men engaged in such depravity over and over again. This was more than 100,000 men. According to Dehler, someone else was adjutant general. Otto Ohlendorf is born February 4, 1907 in Hoheneggelsen, Province of Hanover, Prussia, German Empire. Graham nods. [35][e] When gas van killing operations were conducted, it was usually at night to keep the population from witnessing the macabre affair. He is determined to prevent suicide. The rope doesnt fit correctly. Otto Ohlendorf testified at the IMT that Einsatzgruppe D, the mobile security unit he commanded in the Crimea between June 1941 and 1942, was responsible for the murder of approximately 90,000 people. Of the 28 death sentences, only seven were carried out in June 1951 Pohl and Ohlendorf among them. . Ohlendorf obliquely mentioned this letter's existence at his trial in 1947 but this British interrogation provides more detail. Discover life events, stories and photos about Otto Ohlendorf (1907-1951) of . I really never gave much thought to whether it was wrong. Otto Ohlendorf (1866 - 1866) - Genealogy 2242: Big clock is ticking. Another voice in my head says, No, you must see it through. Twenty Einsatzgruppen leaders were found guilty by the court, and four, including Ohlendorf, were eventually executed. Our headquarters are located at: 89 South Street, Suite 401, Boston, MA 02111. 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. Case #9 tried leading members of the Einsatzgruppen. . [20][b] Ohlendorf's Einsatzgruppe in particular was responsible for the 13 December 1941 massacre at Simferopol, where at least 14,300 people, mostly Jews, were killed. "Our aim," said Ohlendorf, "was not to put up any resistance, but to let the Allies advance as far as the ELBE, having first concluded a tacit agreement that they'd halt there and thus to cover our rear for the continuation of the struggle against the East. The official cameramen photograph the prisoner after one of the GI assistants places the nameplate across the condemned mans chest. Seven towers around the prison compound are manned by Polish guards, all heavily armed. 47% of Ohlendorf men worked as a Farmer and 40% of Ohlendorf women worked as a Housekeeper. . Otto Ohlendorf was born on the 4th of February 1907. Beorn, Waitman Wade. The Testimony of SS General Otto Ohlendorf, Einsatzgruppe D [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. For Germanys most famous Nazi hunter, the behavior of those relatively few mass murderers who were ever held to account for their crimes was exasperating for another reason. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. They did not need commands. Right from the beginning, most Nazi war criminals never apologized for anything. In 1936, three years after Hitler and the Nazi Party came int Show more The. CONTENT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED BY WIKITREE COMMUNITY MEMBERS. 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? He says, whatever I have done, I did as a soldier who obeyed orders. There are 513 prisoners in Landsberg as of 2120 hours on June 6. 9)), is still frequently overlooked. Obeying Orders | Facing History & Ourselves That was my biggest disappointment; nobody, including my mass murderers, ever said Im sorry. JAG officer observes that they cant do a thing until Graham has a piece of paper from the Department of the Army in the Pentagon. Another exception, the judges said, would be if a person obeyed an illegal order to avoid physical harm, torture, or death. He coordinated plans to rebuild the German economy after the war. [47][48] Himmler committed suicide shortly after being captured. I notice on the other side of the loft a neatly piled stack of white pine coffins which presumably were made for the war criminals whose sentences have been commuted. 1920: Bickel reports to Fred Hulse, in McCloys office in Frankfort. What other motivations might have contributed to their participation in mass murder? The views expressed in this article are not those of Reuters News. . Crimes against peace: participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of invasions, aggressive wars, etc. 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. [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. 2249: Graham answers the telephone. Dr. We hear a murmur, then the soft voice of the medical officer. Blobel is dressed for death. COL. The Holocaust in Eastern Europe: At the Epicenter of the Final Solution. 2346: Graham addresses us briefly. Bishops, lawyers, the man on the street, all felt the same impulseto hide things under the carpet. 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. The trial ran from September 29, 1947, to February 12, 1948. The 24 defendants in Case #9 were all leading members of Einsatzgruppen that operated on the Eastern Front during World War II. 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. The mass murder of Jews by Ohlendorfs men continued into 1942. 4, 1950, p. 412. Someone asks about the 650,000 signatures appended to a petition for clemency sent to President Truman from Germany. His only criterion was that justice must be done. 2255: Borom, the lieutenant colonel from Heidelberg, is lighting his pipe. Excellent. Gustav Ohlendorf (1892-1989) FamilySearch [13], In June 1941, Reinhard Heydrich appointed Ohlendorf to be commander of Einsatzgruppe D,[14] which operated in southern Ukraine and Crimea. He is tried at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, convicted, and executed on June 8, 1951 in Landsberg Prison, West Germany, https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1042218. Behind him is Paul Blobel whose Sonderkommando SS unit was involved in sixteen instances of mass murder, including the killing of 33,000 Jews in the Kiev massacre alone. They acted on their own. His defense was simple: he was just following orders. Lincoln and Jerusalem: University of Nebraska Press and Yad Vashem, 2004. 0236: Seven times I have watched, compared the face of the condemned man with his official prison photograph. I am glad to talk. Will there be another reprieve? ; Crimes against humanity: extermination, enslavement, rape, persecution on political, racial, or religious grounds whether or not such persecution violated the laws of the country in which it was perpetrated; membership in organizations declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal (that a man had acted pursuant to the order of his government or of a superior does not free him from responsibility for a crime, but may be considered in mitigation). Many historians have written about the famous Buffalo Soldiers of the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division, who fought with distinction during World War II. Doubts begin to stir in us again. By 1938 he was also manager in the Trade section of the Reich business board (Reichswirtschaftskammer). What insights do the Milgram experiments (see reading. Students consider the ways in which World War I intensified peoples loyalty to their country and resentment toward others perceived as a threat. . Montgomery had accepted the surrender of German forces in the Northwest on the 4th. It now appears that the hanging will take place after all, unless defense counsel can find some new loophole. Among those brought to trial were. Everyone present agrees that the only hope is John J. McCloy. Explore resources that meet the Massachusetts History and Social Science Framework. There was another who admitted responsibility for the massacre of 30,000 Jews (in Kiev). Reference to telephone orders by Himmler days before Hitler's suicide. . Otto Ohlendorf, the former commandant of Einsatzgruppe D, was sentenced to death for the murder of about 90,000 Jews, Roma, and Sinti after admitting that he had ordered his men to kill children as well as adults. Please enter your email address. 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. And, he went on, American-German relations would improve greatly if the Landsberg death sentences were commuted. God have mercy on those who murder me. 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. It would be bad for the soul of the German people, McCloy went on, to put these things under the carpet. One of the lieutenant colonels from Heidelberg offers odds of 6 to 5 that it wont happen tonight. Even the drinking water was hauled in from Augsberg. Start your risk free trial with unlimited access. 2105: A prison officer comes into Grahams office to announce that the war criminals appeal to an American judge in Frankfort Military Courts has been rejected. These trials are known as the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings. Case #9 of these twelve trials is known today as the Einsatzgruppen Case. You cant hurry them, you know, says the Colonel philosophically. He married Lena Hausmann on 23 April 1921, in Belleville, St. Clair, Illinois, United States. Little or nothing was said in print or on the air about the crimes committed by these men. He was tried at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, sentenced to death, and executed by hanging in 1951. Wives have been asked to say their final goodbyesfor the fourth time. And the way we treat them.. Otto Ohlendorf - Axis History Forum 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. [7] Attached to the SS with the rank of SS-Hauptsturmfhrer, by 1939, he had obtained the rank of SS-Standartenfhrer and was appointed as head of Amt III (SD-Inland) of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA),[8][9] a position he kept until 1945. The colonel takes the center of the floor. Eduard Strauch, the head of Einsatzkommando 2 (a subunit of Einsatzgruppe A), who received a death sentence, was extradited to Belgium. 2300: Bickel calls Frankfort. Instead, the victims arrived at places where pits, ditches, trenches, or ravines awaited them. How are you feeling? After him are Konstantinos Karamanlis, Giovanna of Italy, Compay Segundo, Erich Mielke, Daniel Bovet, and Barbara Stanwyck. 10, Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals, vol. [6], Ohlendorf joined the SD in 1936 and became an economic consultant of the organisation. Students are introduced to the many factors that influenced Americans will and ability to respond to the Jewish refugee crisis, including isolationism, racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism. The apple trees are in full blossom. Two of the men have fathers who were high-up servants of Hitler and soaked in the blood of the Holocaust. Create a FREE Account. . But were any of the defendants coerced into killing Jews under the threat of being killed themselves if they failed in their homicidal mission? Quick access. There were pleas from churchmen and politicians, university men and students, former soldiers, disinherited royalty. These, however, were turned down by the Allies. 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. We are to stand at attention during the hangings. 2244: Graham hangs up the telephone. Gaps, recalled Schubert, existed in what was transmitted. Dehler indicated that an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court would be based on these alleged mistakes. 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. Then: Any news? Hulse tells him that counsel for the criminals in Washington has brought the case before the Supreme Court, in session at this moment3 P.M. Washington timeasking for another stay of execution. He says, yes, yes, yes, right, OK, ONeill, thanks, OK. Hans Theodor Schmidt was trailed and hanged in Landsberg prison, on 07-06-1951, age 51.. Ohlendorf's testimony horrified the court and had a depressing effect on the defendants. He says the big brass has conferred, McCloy has talked with General Handy. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. The footsteps have a hollow sound on the wooden stairway leading up into the loft. Theres no backing out now. Have you taken a DNA test? With the onset. Seventy years after the Nuremberg trials, something truly extraordinary happened in a German courtroom last week. He devoted only four years (193943) to full-time activity in the RSHA, for in 1943, in addition to his other jobs, he became a deputy director general in the Reich Ministry of economic affairs. Search for Another Deceased Ancestor. Someone suggests that the prisoners must be well heeled to have been able to lay out the money it cost to circulate the petition. He served there with figures like Adolf Eichmann and Ernst Kaltenbrunner, both roughly his age, who aided Himmler and Heydrich in their policies of terror, mass extermination, and genocide across the European continent. 0003: Britt steps back, glances at Graham. 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. After World War II ended in Europe, the Allies established an International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg. In fact, Landsberg is one of the best operated prisons in Europe, and its inmates receive civilized treatment. Another newspaper calls to inquire whether it is true that the executions will go forward. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA. Later this expanded to include the Caucasus. In June 1941, Reinhard Heydrich appointed Ohlendorf to be commander of Einsatzgruppen D ((mobile killing unit D) which operated in southern Ukraine and Crimea. On the 31st of January, the High Commissioners final decisions were promulgated and published. 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. [46], In May 1945, Ohlendorf participated in Himmler's flight from Flensburg. On September 10, 1947, the US Military Government for Germany created Military Tribunal II-A (later renamed Tribunal II). 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. On August 8, 1945, in London, the governments of the USA, France, Britain, and the USSR resolved to punish those German officers and men and members of the Nazi party who have been responsible for or have taken a consenting part in atrocities and crimes. Mr. Britt is testing the rope now; he lifts and then lowers himself on the closed trap. [41] He did, however, express misgivings about the barbarity and sadism being meted out by the Romanian units that accompanied the Einsatzgruppen in their murderous tasks, since they were not only leaving a trail of corpses in their wake, they were also pillaging and raping in the process. St. John's Scholar | St. John's University Research Mr. McCloy emphasized that the cause for delay was a humane one: There are probably no prisoners anywhere in the world whose cases have received the same painstaking attention given to the Landsberg cases. Ferencz called no witnesses and based the case on wartime SS reports that detailed mass shootings conducted by the Einsatzgruppen. Attorneys for the defense of the condemned men (including counsel engaged in Washington, D.C., and paid for by the federal government) made plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. I cannot understand, he continued, how human beings can commit such crimes. [31], Due to the Wehrmacht's insistence that Ukraine's agricultural production was needed to sustain its military campaign, Ohlendorf was asked during October 1941 to refrain from killing some of the Jewish farmersa request he honoredbut one which earned him Himmler's contempt. No, he says rather unhappily. On January 2, 1942, Ohlendorf reported that his unit had killed 17,645 Jews between November 16 and December 15, 1941, in western Crimea. Hitler envisioned Barbarossa as a modern crusade against Jewish Bolshevism and the Einsatzgruppenwould be at the forefront of this war of subjugation and extermination against the Soviet Union. During a trial that featured a procession of survivors who testified in agonizing detail about their ordeals, Bauer vented his frustration. In the summer of 1942 Ohlendorf was transferred from the Soviet Union back to desk work in the RSHA. Of three hundred people brought to Muehldorf in the fall of 1944, only 72 survived. I have photographs of the seven men in my hands. 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. There, he was sentenced to death and died in Belgian custody. Ive never killed a Jew. General William H. Simpson, commander of Ninth Army, has received little attention in the historiography of World War II. 1930: Graham tells us there will be no executions unless specific instructions come from both the State Department and the War Department. There is a report from Bonn that the Ministry of Justice is working frantically for a last minute reprieve. 2045: Hulse calls Bickel. The High Commissioner listened intently, eyes fixed on his scratch pad. They were to be the last death sentences on the soil of the Federal Republic. He was the longest serving of the four commanders. Christopher Browning and Jrgen Matthus have contended that the turning point from mass murder to genocide was reached with the liquidation of the Jewish community in Nikolayev in mid-September 1941. Receiving support from the 11th Army, Ohlendorfs men murdered 5,000 Jews there, including women and children. The treaty that Hitler hated even more than the Treaty of Versailles and one of the most important treaties you have probably never heard of. 2100: Graham is excited over report from Munich newspaper to the effect that there has been another stay of execution. 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. Ohlendorf. 2250: Warrant Officer Britt is discussing hangings with the medical officer. Most of them are biblical quotations, others enclose pressed flowers. The opinions expressed are his own. Holler, Martin. New York: Macmillan, 1982. Graham says the last suppers were cooked at Augsberg, some miles away from Landsberg Prison. In November 1944 he was promoted again to Gruppenfhrer. Ohlendorfs Einsatzgruppe was responsible for the 13-12-1941 massacre at Simferopol where at least 14,300 people, mostly Jews, were killed. Two of the defendants were found guilty on only count three. He suggests that we settle down in an adjoining office for the long wait. [4] Nonetheless, Ohlendorf was instrumental as a member of the SD in shaping Nazi economic doctrine, which became "increasingly virulent as the war progressed" as he attempted to mould the economy "in an ethnic context". The SS and police now pursued, rounded up, and executed women, children, and the elderly. Students explore the intertwined personal stories of Jewish refugees who attempted to flee to the United States and the American rescuers who intervened on their behalf. 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130info@nationalww2museum.org Top Home Latest TRENDING Studio9 Specials State INDIA WORLD SPORTS The Military Tribunals, Mr. McCloy went on, had been set up by men of peace, good will, and great character. After the sentencing, Ferencz decided to meet with Ohlendorf in a courtroom holding cell. . His remarks have a refreshing banality. 2359: One minute before midnight. [5] By 1938 he was also manager in the Trade section of the Reich Business Board (Reichswirtschaftskammer[de]). I ask. He had studied the cases not with any political considerations in mind but purely in judicial terms. I stare out into the lovely June night, watch the big searchlights swinging around the heavily guarded compound. 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. OHLENDORF: Heydrich was wounded at the end of May 1942, and died on 4 June 1942.
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