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. Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office, 1950. Discover life events, stories and photos about Otto Ohlendorf (1907-1951) of . how it requires 15 to 19 minutes in some cases for final consummation. The High Commissioner thanked the delegation for traveling from Bonn to Frankfort to present their ideas. The chief prosecutor was 27-year-old Ben Ferencz. The defendants were arraigned between September 15 and 22, 1947. 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. There is a batch from German nationals offering to die in place of the condemned. 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. Holmes starts discussing the injustices of the law. The crimes they committed were crimes against you. We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. With Alexander Bickel of the Office of the General Counsel, I motored to Landsberg-on-the-Lech, in Bavaria, on Tuesday the 6th, in an army staff car with a GI driver, arriving at 7 P.M. An attorney from McCloys office was detailed to remain in the Frankfort headquarters of the High Commissioner, where he was in radio-telephone communication with the General Counsels office in the State Department in Washington. 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. The decision made it harder for the shooter to know who he killed. Krausnick, Helmut, and Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm. Born in Hoheneggelsen (today part of Shlde; then in the Kingdom of Prussia), Otto Ohlendorf came into the world as part of "a farming family". He tweets @AndrewNagorski. . 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. Photos and Memories (0) Do you know Gustav? Since Jews were automatically assumed to be ultra-Bolsheviks and to be the ruling class of the Soviet Union, they were singled out. Graham is noncommital. [44] Sometime in November 1944, he was promoted to Gruppenfhrer. Mr. McCloy invited the delegation to advise him on some of the difficult cases he had to review. 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. Extending the Genocidal Program: Did Otto Ohlendorf Initiate the Systematic Extermination of Soviet Gypsies? In Nazi Policy on the Eastern Front, 1941: Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization. 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. 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. Ohlendorf went on to study law at two fine institutions, the Universities of Leipzig and Gttingen, as well as the University of Pavia in northern Italy. That was my biggest disappointment; nobody, including my mass murderers, ever said Im sorry. I wonder what they will be using these for now. Because of Ohlendorfs work in this field, petitions for leniency were filed after he was sentenced to death by hanging. No one knows what they said, but theyve talked. Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges: Die Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD 1938-1942. 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. This leaves me the only witness for the State Department. St. John's Scholar | St. John's University Research 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. Has been making a lot of trouble for us.. The Einsatzgruppen trial (officially, The United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al.) In November 1944 he was promoted again to Gruppenfhrer. 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. was the ninth of the twelve trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity that the US authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. I really never gave much thought to whether it was wrong. Otto Ohlendorf is born February 4, 1907 in Hoheneggelsen, Province of Hanover, Prussia, German Empire. His pipe is fragrant. He was the longest serving of the four commanders. 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. Someone asks about the 650,000 signatures appended to a petition for clemency sent to President Truman from Germany. [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". They acted on their own. The 24 defendants in Case #9 were all leading members of Einsatzgruppen that operated on the Eastern Front during World War II. The letter used the terminology that has become so familiarinhuman to keep men waiting so long to die, etc. Whos Who in Nazi Germany. [23] All forms of contact between the firing squads and victims were limitedper Ohlendorf's insistenceuntil the last moments before the killing started, and up to three rifleman were allocated to each person about to be shot. It was likely a final attempt to split the Anglo-Soviet alliance. 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. In some of these cases, I found that the defendants could establish their resistance to superior orders, which resulted in no instance of the individuals being punished by their Nazi masters. [25] One of Ohlendorf's most trusted "proper" military-style murderers, SS-Haupsturmfhrer Lothar Heimbach, once exclaimed, "A man is the lord over life and death when he gets an order to shoot three hundred childrenand he kills at least one hundred fifty himself. Ferencz presented the case in just two court sessions. They argued that they had acted legally and in obedience to superior orders. We also can examine how the commanders of the Einsatzgruppen, like Ohlendorf, summarized this barbarity. 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. I have suffered grievously at the hands of the Nazis. What kind of tasks did Heydrich have in mind for this group? Otto Rasch was deemed too ill to stand trial. He was tried at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, sentenced to death, and executed by hanging in 1951. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1981. Father Unavailable. It would be far better to keep them in prison as an example to future generations. The waiter is a former Malmdy murderer, one of Pfeiffers flunkeys. . Otto Ohlendorf ( German pronunciation: [to olndf]; 4 February 1907 - 7 June 1951) was a German SS functionary and Holocaust perpetrator during the Nazi era. These, in turn, were handed over to Himmler and Hitler. 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. Blobel, Braune, Naumann, and Ohlendorf had all been leaders of the Extermination Squads ( Einsatzgruppen ), which were the chief instruments devised by the Nazis for wiping out the Jews of Europe. In June 1941, Reinhard Heydrich appointed Ohlendorf to be commander of Einsatzgruppe D which operated in southern Ukraine and Crimea. [6], Ohlendorf joined the SD in 1936 and became an economic consultant of the organisation. On February 1, a special messenger delivered an urgent dispatch from the Federal Minister of Justice, Thomas Dehler, in Bonn. They were to be the last death sentences on the soil of the Federal Republic. SS Gruppenfhrer and head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Inland. Seventy years after the Nuremberg trials, something truly extraordinary happened in a German courtroom last week. Graham says prisoners have been gaining weight on the excellent prison fare. [41] His commitment to the Nazi cause kept him in Ukraine longer than any of his comrades, and while he may have disliked the political direction in which Germany was headed, he never registered complaints about murdering Jews. During this period, 5,000 prisoners died each month as a result of cruelties inflicted upon them by the SS. At years end, Ohlendorf could report that his men had eliminated 55,000 Jews. Otto Ohlendorf is born February 4, 1907 in Hoheneggelsen, Province of Hanover, Prussia, German Empire. And for providing the also rapidly dwindling number of Holocaust survivors the chance to face their tormenters. His wrists are tied behind him. The cable has come from Washington.. 2 (a subunit of Einsatzgruppe A), who received a death sentence, was extradited to Belgium. 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? The Holocaust in Eastern Europe: At the Epicenter of the Final Solution. . 2147: Bickel receives confirmation from Frankfort: proceed with executions. 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. How are you feeling? It consisted of fried chicken, potatoes, green peas, and carrots. Otto Ohlendorf was born on the 4th of February 1907. On July 29, 1947, the 24 defendants in the Einsatzgruppen Case were indicted for their role in murdering between 723,661 and one million people as part of a systematic program of genocide. The indictment listed three charges: Twenty-four Einsatzgruppen members were charged. Wildt, Michael. One remarks that it seems late in the day politically to be hanging Germans even if they are war criminals. He says he once had a case with a bad heartit took that one only ten minutes! These men, who were sober enough in all other respects, still believed that we had a sporting chance against the East.". [15] Joining the Einsatzgruppen was an unappealing prospect and Ohlendorf refused twice before his eventual appointment. 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. To the end, he exhibited hardly any remorse about what he had done. as adjutant general and quartermaster general, etc. The 24 defendants in Case #9 were all leading members of, that operated on the Eastern Front during World War II. We may be seated and smoke after each drop. The queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach comes back. His face is that of a storekeeper or a teacher. Otto Ohlendorf. Explore resources that meet the California HistorySocial Science Framework standards. Of three hundred people brought to Muehldorf in the fall of 1944, only 72 survived. Ohlendorf mentions a personal letter, dated 9 May 1945, which Himmler wrote and sent to British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. The Supreme Court has rejected final appeal, Justice Robert Jackson (who served as chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg trials) abstaining after disqualifying himself. 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. Heinrich Hoefler, a founder of the Christian Democratic party, based his appeal on humanitarian grounds. He refuses to comment. EinsatzgruppeDs zone of operations covered, initially, Bukovina and Bessarabia (territories seized from Romania by Joseph Stalin), then southern Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula. I think: Hadnt I better stay in Grahams office rather than witness this thing? Thus, his entire socialization as a young man occurred within the organizations of the Nazi Party. 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. 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. 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. I ask. I watch the preparations. Instead, the victims arrived at places where pits, ditches, trenches, or ravines awaited them. This was not a small group, Geyer elaborated. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009. In the end, only 22 of those charged were tried. Sometime between mid-July and mid-August 1941 Himmler, certainly with Hitlers approval, ordered the expansion of killing. Two cameramen, both GI noncoms, are fooling with their apparatus. CONTENT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED BY WIKITREE COMMUNITY MEMBERS. There is a slight crackle. This upsurge of public feeling reached a climax on January 9, when High Commissioner McCloy agreed to receive a six-man Bundestag delegation representing the leading political parties, to ask for amnesty for the war criminals. Graham gets his retirement discharge next week. He says, were all set; well call you right after the first one is pronounced dead, and after the last. Ohlendorf said that Himmler showed the letter to him and that he altered Himmler's text because "it had been unfortunately worded." The GI interpreter asks: Have you any last words? The prisoner replies: Jawohl!. As Waitman Wade Beorn has argued, the, Holocaust by Bullets does not dominate our consciousness the same way as Auschwitz. If so, login to add it. In 1936, three years after Hitler and the Nazi Party came int Show more The. COL. AMEN: And when was Heydrich's death? Educated at a humanistic Gymnasium in Hildesheim, he later studied law at the . 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. And Ohlendorfs men engaged in such depravity over and over again. On Jan. 3, 1946, Col. John Amen, Assistant American Associate Trial Counsel at the Nuremberg Trial, called Otto Ohlendorf as a witness. With the onset. 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. . 2120: Graham receives message from Heidelberg. Doubts begin to stir in us again. 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. 1930: Graham tells us there will be no executions unless specific instructions come from both the State Department and the War Department. 504-528-1944, Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, Two Moments of Remorse for Nazi Crimes: Willy Brandt, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and the Memory of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Operation FLAX, April 1943: Severing the German, General William H. Simpsons Ninth US Army and the Crossing of the Rhine, Black Volunteer Infantry Platoons in World War II, Kasserine Pass: German Offensive, American Victory. As a nonprofit, we offer free help to those looking to learn the details of their family story. 2356: Seven minutes more. It now appears that the hanging will take place after all, unless defense counsel can find some new loophole. Eduard Strauch, the head of Einsatzkommando 2 (a subunit of Einsatzgruppe A), who received a death sentence, was extradited to Belgium. 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. Such planning for the post-war time was strictly forbidden, on one side.
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