Berlin: Edition Heinrich, 1997. The rope doesnt fit correctly. I wonder how he can sleep with himself. She has red-rimmed eyes, is dressed in plain calico dress, carries nothing, not even a pocketbook. [caption=0c5326ca-3fd0-4df0-8f36-5840fd057055] - [credit=0c5326ca-3fd0-4df0-8f36-5840fd057055]. Graham says the men have eaten their last supper. His job was to wait for a possible last-minute reprieve by the Supreme Court. Ohlendorf mentions a personal letter, dated 9 May 1945, which Himmler wrote and sent to British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. These trials are known as the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings. Case #9 of these twelve trials is known today as the Einsatzgruppen Case. Within the RSHA, he directed Office III, which, tellingly, undertook surveillance on the German population, monitoring attitudes towards the Hitler dictatorship and producing reports about what it discovered. 2350: I look into the telephone shack to see exactly where I have to call Bickel after the first drop. Discover life events, stories and photos about Otto Ohlendorf (1907-1951) of . 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. Otto Ohlendorf is born February 4, 1907 in Hoheneggelsen, Province of Hanover, Prussia, German Empire. Dr. Over 90,000 murders throughout Ukraine and the Caucusus are attributed to Ohlendorf's unit. The other defendants had their sentences commuted or were paroled. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1981. No, he says rather unhappily. He refuses to comment. [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. In some cases they had to dig their own graves. 2100: Graham is excited over report from Munich newspaper to the effect that there has been another stay of execution. 1900: Arrive with Bickel in army staff car. The decision made it harder for the shooter to know who he killed. Their names were Paul Blobel, Werner Braune, Erich Naumann, Otto Ohlendorf, Oswald Pohl, Georg Schallermair, and Hans Schmidt. 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. . The Einsatzgruppen trial (officially, The United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al.) 2330: The time now passes swiftly. 2226: Graham reports that the prisoners have had their teeth examined once more, and that false teeth have been removed. Another popular leaflet was a catalogue of the good deeds of Otto Ohlendorf who, by his own uncontroverted testimony, was responsible for slaughtering 60,000 Jews and Gypsies. Colonel Graham, whose office is the nerve center, makes pointed reference to the possibility of suicide. The GI interpreter asks: Have you any last words? The prisoner replies: Jawohl!. Crimes against peace: participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of invasions, aggressive wars, etc. Each chaplain is allowed all the time he needs in the cell with the condemned man before he is led to the gallows. . Have you taken a DNA test? He thinks the reason is that people no longer believe the USA will carry out the executions. 2355: Quite a few people are now in the loft. The public reaction to McCloys announcement was exactly as anticipated. This is what passed for compassion within the ranks of the SS. 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. During a trial that featured a procession of survivors who testified in agonizing detail about their ordeals, Bauer vented his frustration. Schallermair had been directly in charge of prisoners in a sub-camp of Dachau named Muehldorf where large numbers of beatings were personally administered by him. This was done to avoid any possibility of poison or suicides. [28] The number of persons killed under the leadership of Einsatzgruppen commanders such as Ohlendorf are "staggering" despite the use of varying murder techniques. and other experts, who planned, e.g., how to introduce the new German currency Deutsch Mark. 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. In 1940, Farmer and Housekeeper were the top reported jobs for men and women in the USA named Ohlendorf. This deep interest in economics carried over into work for the Reich Trade Group, where he quickly ascended the ladder. 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. Holler, Martin. To this day no one has found an example of a German who was executed for refusing to take part in the killing of Jews or other civilians. Carlo Schmid, vice-president of the Bundestag, one of the principal Socialist party leaders, and a highly regarded anti-Nazi and enemy of anti-Semitism, then added that We wish to create a new moral climate in Germany. He said that if the U.S. and the other occupying powers in West Germany granted clemency, the Soviet Military Administration in Eastern Germany would in all probability follow suit. At the start, the Special Task Forces were charged with political security. This euphemism conceals more than it reveals. Students develop a contract establishing a reflective classroom community as they prepare to explore the historical case study of this unit. Explore resources that meet the California HistorySocial Science Framework standards. Gaps, recalled Schubert, existed in what was transmitted. . 2400: Now we hear footsteps and the voice of a chaplain praying in sonorous German. The Einsatzgruppen were special task forces of the SS and Police. His only criterion was that justice must be done. After a decade in the SS, he entered Reinhard Heydrichs SD in 1936 as an advisor on economic issues. 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. 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. At the trial, Ohlendorf also attempted to present the operations in the Soviet area not as a racist programme for the annihilation of all the Jews but as a general liquidation order primarily aimed at securing the newly won territory. Has been making a lot of trouble for us.. Blobel is dressed for death. He was sentenced to death on 08-04-1948 and. Holmes confides that the Registrar had refused to attend the executions for political reasons, that he had been ordered to attend, that he was a die-hard Nazi. Blobels muffled voice is heard, but what he says is a mystery to those of us in the second circle. There are new instructions nowa reversal of the previous arrangement. COL. 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. 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. Graham says the last suppers were cooked at Augsberg, some miles away from Landsberg Prison. The extreme anti-Semitism of the Nazi regime was given full license with these criminal orders. That is in large part the product of the efforts of Nazi hunters like Ferencz, Bauer and others who pushed for such trials, not allowing the past to be buried along with its victims. 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. 2 (a subunit of Einsatzgruppe A), who received a death sentence, was extradited to Belgium. He says: Thats it, boys. To that end, he orchestrated the Frankfurt trial of 22 former Auschwitz personnel in the 1960s -- not the big bosses, but the people who had tortured and killed prisoners on a daily basis. In 1941, Ohlendorf was appointed the commander of Einsatzgruppe D, which perpetrated mass murder in Moldova, south Ukraine, the Crimea and, during 1942, the North Caucasus. 2110: Graham shows me a letter which had been intercepted and copied before delivery to its addresseeOswald Pohl. He had studied the cases not with any political considerations in mind but purely in judicial terms. He and several other subordinates were arrested by the British near Lneburg on 23 May 1945. 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. After leaving Flensburg on the 9th, he regularly sent a man to Ohlendorf to see if Montgomery had replied. Only Ohlendorf, his deputy in EinsatzgruppeD, Willy Seibert, and the telegraphist, a man named Fritsch, could remain in the radio station when these happened. I will be vindicated by God and history. 2. An economist by education, he is head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Inland, responsible for intelligence and security within Germany. Ohlendorfs apparently reliable testimony was attributed to his distaste for the corruptionin Nazi Germany and a stubborn commitment to duty. and 5 received sentences that ranged from 10 to 20 years. ; 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). It will be without levity, emotion, or demonstrations of any kind. He is a small, slight man with soft, kindly eyes. The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942. 2249: Graham answers the telephone. Unlike some in the SS, Ohlendorf refused to distinguish between itinerant and sedentary Gypsies. The latter, seen as more civilized, were often left alone. Their names were Paul Blobel, Werner Braune, Erich Naumann, Otto Ohlendorf, Oswald Pohl, Georg Schallermair, and Hans Schmidt. Another voice in my head says, No, you must see it through. He tells me that he always had a hard time finding matches during the invasion of Nazi-controlled France. 2250: Warrant Officer Britt is discussing hangings with the medical officer. It was a fine point of law, Mr. McCloy insisted, to claim that traditional German legal methods should be applied to cases such as these. Encased in the statistics from EinsatzgruppeD were the extinguished lives of 90,000 people. Graham nods. 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. I really never gave much thought to whether it was wrong. His face is that of a storekeeper or a teacher. 1915: I look through Grahams window at the prison compound. 100-year-old tried for war crimes: Germany's continued confrontation with Nazi past The man, who has not been named due to German privacy laws, is charged with "knowingly and willingly" assisting in the murder of 3,518 people as a former SS guard at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Nonetheless, this does not diminish the significance of Hannings remarks. . The cameramans flash goes off in a sudden stab of light. Montgomery had accepted the surrender of German forces in the Northwest on the 4th. Die Einsatzgruppen in der besetzten Sowjetunion 1941/42: Die Ttigkeits-und Lageberichte des Chefs der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD. He seems calm and placid as a lake. [15] Joining the Einsatzgruppen was an unappealing prospect and Ohlendorf refused twice before his eventual appointment. I tell him Blobel has been pronounced dead at 0014, June 7. [12] These public opinion polls on the social climate of Nazi Germany were both unpopular and controversial. One of the lieutenant colonels from Heidelberg offers odds of 6 to 5 that it wont happen tonight. 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130info@nationalww2museum.org 2210: We wait, smoking and looking uneasily at the clock. Army still awaiting receipt of confirming cable. [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. [11] Routine public opinion surveyswhich were under the purview of Ohlendorf and SS-Major Reinhard Hhnconstituted some of these reports. For some reason, Warrant Officer Britt seems just right for his job. The executioners, frequently intoxicated, became more and more numb to the end results of their deeds. . Nor need the peril be that imminent in order to escape punishment. It is still remotely possible. Reichsfhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler once characterized Ohlendorf as "an unbearable Prussian" who was "without humour". Why might it be difficult to disobey the order of a superior or authority figure? . [3] Believing their expertise invaluable, Ohlendorf, Ludwig Erhard, and other experts concerned themselves with how to stabilize German currency after the war. General William H. Simpson, commander of Ninth Army, has received little attention in the historiography of World War II. The 24 defendants in Case #9 were all leading members of Einsatzgruppen that operated on the Eastern Front during World War II. . 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. Britt is fooling with the second noose. 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. And, he went on, American-German relations would improve greatly if the Landsberg death sentences were commuted. I watch the preparations. Tens of thousands of Roma and members of the Communist Party of the USSR were also slain. 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. You will receive a link to create a new password via email. Himmler, these men hoped, would lead this government and Hitler would be pushed aside if necessary. Twenty-two of the defendants were tried. . According to Dehler, Pohl did not select them personally; he had delegated this authority to someone else. 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. The rope dangles slightly, then suddenly is very still. Ohlendorf joined the SD in 1936 and became an economic consultant of the organisation. 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. You cant hurry them, you know, says the Colonel philosophically. One task which Ohlendorf disdained was providing guards for the harvest at the behest of Army commanders, who wanted to prevent the Romanians from consuming any of the goods. Graham refuses to comment. One hour and some 25 minutes are left now. 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. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011. Although preparations have been a strictly guarded secret, the news that the seven will be hanged has leaked outprincipally via the wives of the condemned, their defense counsel, and the prison grapevine. His defense was simple: he was just following orders. He says we must realize the seriousness of the occassion. I agree. ), 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. He has executed scores of criminals and has been flown from Texas to perform his job again. He tweets @AndrewNagorski. Our small talk is mostly about McCloy and his amazing courage. Seven towers around the prison compound are manned by Polish guards, all heavily armed. Such planning for the post-war time was strictly forbidden, on one side. The Bundestag adopted a unanimous resolution condemning the execution of any of the prisoners. Of three hundred people brought to Muehldorf in the fall of 1944, only 72 survived. The waiter is a former Malmdy murderer, one of Pfeiffers flunkeys. Dehler indicated that an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court would be based on these alleged mistakes. Those bastards, he mutters, those unmitigated bastardsif they try anything. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA. When Gustav Ohlendorf was born on 19 October 1892, in Heinrichswalde, Elchniederung, East Prussia, Prussia, Germany, his father, Gottlieb Ohlendorf, was 38 and his mother, Amalie Wenzel, was 25. With Ohlendorf, he apparently was briefed by Heydrich on the new phase in mid-August during a visit to Berlin. Mr. McCloy invited the delegation to advise him on some of the difficult cases he had to review. After he had started his blood bath, he was asked whether he would say something for the survivors. As the leader of EinsatzgruppeD, Otto Ohlendorf was responsible for the murder of 90,000 Soviet Jews, Roma, and Communists. This was not the unprecedented, continent-wide industrialized process of mass annihilation of Treblinka and Auschwitz-Birkenau, where Jews, Roma, and other victims were transported from all over to Europe to ultimately be gassed and cremated. Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges: Die Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD 1938-1942. He had to wait, though, for his appointment with the hangman. 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. On Jan. 3, 1946, Col. John Amen, Assistant American Associate Trial Counsel at the Nuremberg Trial, called Otto Ohlendorf as a witness. The routine, carefully prepared in advance, is followed to the letter. 2151: There is a lot of bustle in Grahams office now, as uniformed officers and men come and go. 2229: A German Evangelical chaplain named Ermann, employed for two years by the prison, was intercepted smuggling mail out for the prisoners, and was sacked. 3. They argued that they had acted legally and in obedience to superior orders. 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. The cable has come from Washington.. Two cameramen, both GI noncoms, are fooling with their apparatus. However, it should.. 4 February 1907-7 June 1951 . Lost your password? USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration Judgment was finally rendered more than two years later, on April 14, 1949 (in United States vs. Weizaecker et al. He will take phone calls in Grahams office. Ehlers called on the next speaker, Dr. Walter Strauss, of the Ministry of Justice. 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. Either Ohlendorf or Seibert dictated every word to Fritsch. This was not a small group, Geyer elaborated. 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.
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