I have suffered grievously at the hands of the Nazis. 2353: I return to the Death House, climb up the last stairway, see the gallows for the first time. [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. 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. Reference to telephone orders by Himmler days before Hitler's suicide. 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. [30] During September 1941, Ohlendorf's group slaughtered 22,467 Jews and communists at Mykolaiv near the Black Sea port of Odesa. 1910: We enter office of prison commandant, Colonel Walter Graham. .. 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. That sick feeling comes over me again. The Tribunal rendered its judgment on April 89, 1948. 2045: Hulse calls Bickel. . The Einsatzgruppen were special task forces of the SS and Police. Each one was charged with committing all three counts between June 1941 and July 1943. He is obsessed with fear of a suicide attempt. Thats enough. He had studied the cases not with any political considerations in mind but purely in judicial terms. [11] Routine public opinion surveyswhich were under the purview of Ohlendorf and SS-Major Reinhard Hhnconstituted some of these reports. The sergeant aide is looking into the pit where architect Blobel is hanging. The rope doesnt fit correctly. I shake it off with difficulty. 2250: Warrant Officer Britt is discussing hangings with the medical officer. Gerwarth, Robert. 1, The judges at Nuremberg rejected the following orders defense. We hear a murmur, then the soft voice of the medical officer. Ohlendorfs Einsatzgruppe was responsible for the 13-12-1941 massacre at Simferopol where at least 14,300 people, mostly Jews, were killed. Second mistake: He personally selected prisoners for medical experiments. In a webinar in December 2020 with The National WWII Museum, historian Michael Geyer stressed the significance of those ideological fighters who implemented the Third Reichs vicious programs of mass murder. how it requires 15 to 19 minutes in some cases for final consummation. I remember that I must dial 22, which is Bickels extension in Grahams office. I returned to Grahams office. Doubts begin to stir in us again. Start your risk free trial with unlimited access. He refuses to comment. 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. Otto Rasch was deemed too ill to stand trial. His murderous activity certainly influenced the decision-making process of the other Einsatzgruppenleaders, insofar as Ohlendorfs formal transgressions were obviously in no way restricted, neither by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt[RSHA] nor by the relevant military commander. In September 1941, the earliest known murder of Soviet Roma by EinsatzgruppeD occurred at Nikolayev. In some cases they had to dig their own graves. 08-06-1951, age 44, hangedat theLandsberg PrisoninBavaria. . Is their defense persuasive to you? There is a slight crackle. His face is that of a storekeeper or a teacher. I agree. Graham says the last suppers were cooked at Augsberg, some miles away from Landsberg Prison. Ohlendorf. Then two GI guards, unarmed, follow. Like many German youth, the politics of the extreme Right attracted Ohlendorf with the promise to restore Germanys greatness after the events of 1918-19defeat in World War I after victory seemed so near, socialist revolution, and the imposition of the humiliating Treaty of Versailles. [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. To put it bluntly, this was a coordinated effort of mass killing enacted by the SS-led Special Task Force and the Wehrmacht. The sentences were reduced in a number of cases where there appeared a basis for clemency. No newsmen will be admitted to the executions, by unanimous decision of the High Commissioners staff and General Handys advisers. 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. Ferencz called no witnesses and based the case on wartime SS reports that detailed mass shootings conducted by the Einsatzgruppen. Reichsfhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler once characterized Ohlendorf as "an unbearable Prussian" who was "without humour". Oswald Pohl, who received more support than any of his fellow prisoners, although his crimes (i.e., the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto) were among the worst, had great success with a booklet called The Way to God in which he explained his reason for converting to the Catholic faith. Over 90,000 murders throughout Ukraine and the Caucusus are attributed to Ohlendorf's unit. Right from the beginning, most Nazi war criminals never apologized for anything. 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. 2100: Graham is excited over report from Munich newspaper to the effect that there has been another stay of execution. There is a batch from German nationals offering to die in place of the condemned. There is still debate about how much local initiative taken by the leaders of the Einsatzgruppenand other SS officials (like the Higher SS and Police Leaders) pushed Berlin to broaden and escalate the violence from mass murder to genocidal destruction. Soon, the five foot five airman would make US military aviation history. Everyone present agrees that the only hope is John J. McCloy. 2147: Bickel receives confirmation from Frankfort: proceed with executions. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. 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. 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. It is cold up here in the loft of the prison workshop which has now been temporarily outfitted for this unusual purpose. This quickly devolved into identifying and executing Jewish men considered potential partisans. Benjamin Ferencz, International Law Scholar and Former Nuremberg Prosecutor, shares his experience as Chief Prosecutor at the trial of the Einsatzgruppen commanders. He studied at the University of Pavia, where he gained his doctor's degree in jurisprudence; and by 1933 he obtained the position of a research directorship in the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Students develop a contract establishing a reflective classroom community as they prepare to explore the historical case study of this unit. He has executed scores of criminals and has been flown from Texas to perform his job again. There is a report from Bonn that the Ministry of Justice is working frantically for a last minute reprieve. [39], Historian Donald Bloxham referred to Ohlendorf as a bureaucrat, who was trying to "prove himself in the field". I am listening half-heartedly, reply in the negative. First Blobel, then the jurist Braune; Naumann, the SS General; Ohlendorf, the economist and lawyer who murdered 90,000; Pohl and Schallermair and Schmidteach in his turn. On the 31st of January, the High Commissioners final decisions were promulgated and published. Yet they were not the only targets. His remarks have a refreshing banality. The waiter is a former Malmdy murderer, one of Pfeiffers flunkeys. Mueller vanished after the war, and for years it was surmised that Mueller offered himself to the U.S. or USSR for intelligence purposes. 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. Beorn, Waitman Wade. Photos and Memories (0) Do you know Gustav? Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009. Forced at gunpoint to jump down into these pits, they were shot after pleading for their own lives and those of their families and neighbors. I am to identify them before certifying. In the end, only 22 of those charged were tried. I return to Grahams office. The lieutenant colonel from the Judge Advocate Generals Office in Heidelberg, has reversed himself and is now offering 6 to 5 that there will be no stay of execution. We wait. Ohlendorf himself spoke out for active and courageous entrepreneurship, which was intended to replace bureaucratic state planning of the economy after the war. Otto Ohlendorf. Even the drinking water was hauled in from Augsberg. 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW The following diary records events of that night and of the following morning, Wednesday, June 7, on a 24-hour clock (7 P.M. is equivalent to 1900 hours, etc.). Thus, his entire socialization as a young man occurred within the organizations of the Nazi Party. The following year he returned to economic research, becoming Ministerial Director and deputy to the State Secretary in the Ministry of Economics. Fourteen defendants were sentenced to death. Hans Theodor Schmidt was trailed and hanged in Landsberg prison, on 07-06-1951, age 51.. What insights do the Milgram experiments (see reading. 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. The army executioner, Mr. Britt, suddenly puts in an appearance, trim and neat in his tight-fitting uniform. Later this expanded to include the Caucasus. Allied Control Council no. 2330: The time now passes swiftly. Graham calls out: Attention! All in the room stand. The crimes they committed were crimes against you. "[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". Quick access. 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. Ohlendorf took part in Himmlers flight from Flensburg and was arrested with him near Lneburg, where Himmler committed suicide. GI alert units are much in evidence, tommy guns at the ready. Otto Ohlendorf joined the Nazi Party in 1925 and in 1926. EinsatzgruppeDs zone of operations covered, initially, Bukovina and Bessarabia (territories seized from Romania by Joseph Stalin), then southern Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula. Twenty Einsatzgruppen leaders were found guilty by the court, and four, including Ohlendorf, were eventually executed. He tells me that he always had a hard time finding matches during the invasion of Nazi-controlled France. He says he once had a case with a bad heartit took that one only ten minutes! the charge of purposeful homicide in this case reaches such fantastic proportions and surpasses such credible limits that believability must be bolstered with assurance a hundred times repeated. COL. AMEN: And when was Heydrich's death? But only four were executed, including Otto Ohlendorf, a notorious SS commander. Fourteen of the thirty-two men who served as judges in these tribunals had sat in the highest courts of their home states, eleven had sat in state appellate or trial courts, and the others included a law school dean and several eminent bar association members. The mass murder of Jews by Ohlendorfs men continued into 1942. But I should like to emphasize that if you execute these men, their lives will be wasted! The judges agreed that members of the Einsatzgruppen had not been threatened with physical harm if they did not murder their victims. He thinks the reason is that people no longer believe the USA will carry out the executions. The latter have invented stories about how their husbands are being mistreated. Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Allied Control Council Law No. Copyright 2023 Facing History & Ourselves. 2356: Seven minutes more. [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". 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. [37] After the victims' deaths, Jewish Sonderkommando were forced to unload the bodies, clean the excrement and feces from inside the van's gas chamber, and once the clean up was complete, were themselves immediately shot. 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. 0015: I make my way down the steps to call Bickel. 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. Please enter your email address. It consisted of fried chicken, potatoes, green peas, and carrots. They matter particularly because there are only a dwindling number of Nazi war criminals still alive. ". I ask. Otto Ohlendorf, et al.. Case #9 is usually referred to as the Einsatzgruppen Case. 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. I ask. 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.
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