In 1941, Ohlendorf is appointed the commander of Einsatzgruppe D, which perpetrates mass murder in Moldova, south Ukraine, the Crimea, and, during 1942, the North Caucasus. Facing History & Ourselves, "Obeying Orders," last updated August 11, 2017. . In September and October Einsatzgruppe D moved on to cities like Cherson, Berdyansk, and Taganrog. 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 others are relaxed now, smoking. Right from the beginning, most Nazi war criminals never apologized for anything. 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. Much has been made in the historical record of the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany in early March of 1945. To put it bluntly, this was a coordinated effort of mass killing enacted by the SS-led Special Task Force and the Wehrmacht. We are to proceed with executions unless instructions are received to the contrary. . 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. The suppers were served by GIs. Case #9 is usually referred to as the Einsatzgruppen Case. Army still awaiting receipt of confirming cable. 2249: Graham answers the telephone. Each chaplain is allowed all the time he needs in the cell with the condemned man before he is led to the gallows. ON AUGUST 8,1945, in London, the governments of the USA, France, Britain, and the USSR resolved to punish "those German. Will I be able to perform this simple act? Birth 4 Feb 1907 - Unavailable. The mass murder of Jews by Ohlendorfs men continued into 1942. He suggests that we settle down in an adjoining office for the long wait. Many historians have written about the famous Buffalo Soldiers of the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division, who fought with distinction during World War II. Eduard Strauch, the head of Einsatzkommando 2 (a subunit of Einsatzgruppe A), who received a death sentence, was extradited to Belgium. Himmler, these men hoped, would lead this government and Hitler would be pushed aside if necessary. Afterwards, Ohlendorf secured a position as director of research at the Institute for World Economy and Maritime Transport in Kiel. It will be without levity, emotion, or demonstrations of any kind. Graham is amused. 0007: Borom says he wishes there were a seven-man gallows. There, he was sentenced to death and died in Belgian custody. [2] He joined the Nazi Party in 1925 and the SS in 1926. 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. Educated at a humanistic Gymnasium in Hildesheim, he later studied law at the . I return to Grahams office. An act of grace from you, Mr. McCloy, would be a great gesture of reconciliation between the American and the German people, and it will never be forgotten.. 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". 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. 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. 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. Ive never killed a Jew. Otto Ohlendorf is born February 4, 1907 in Hoheneggelsen, Province of Hanover, Prussia, German Empire. Preparations are being completed. They were to be the last death sentences on the soil of the Federal Republic. Explore resources that meet the Massachusetts History and Social Science Framework. 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.). . GI alert units are much in evidence, tommy guns at the ready. He refuses to comment. Klein, Peter, ed. [30] During September 1941, Ohlendorf's group slaughtered 22,467 Jews and communists at Mykolaiv near the Black Sea port of Odesa. . Ferencz called no witnesses and based the case on wartime SS reports that detailed mass shootings conducted by the Einsatzgruppen. There is insufficient attention paid to the long history of the Roma within European culture. Our small talk is mostly about McCloy and his amazing courage. .. It is a report from Denmark, of all places, to the effect that the men have already been executed. [4] His role in collecting intelligence from his secret police agents was disliked by some of the Nazi leadership. I shake it off with difficulty. 2008 - 2023 INTERESTING.COM, INC. . [53], At the trial, Ohlendorf 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". His wrists are tied behind him. 2246: The sergeant has announced coffee and doughnuts. Then two GI guards, unarmed, follow. Re: Otto Ohlendorf by Helge 05 May 2012, 10:55 The children were two boys and three girls: 1) Henning - Born February 11, 1938 2) Behrend - Born September 18, 1943 3) Irmtraut - Born March 25, 1936 4) Meinhard - Born October 30, 1940 5) Ulrike - Born May 11, 1945 Sota ei pt kuka on oikeassa, vain sen ett kuka on jljell. The Registrar sits very still, his legs crossed, staring at the gallows. The JAG lieutenant colonel seated next to me whispers, there but for the grace of God go I. Emil Hausmann committed suicide. Otto Ohlendorf ( German pronunciation: [to olndf]; 4 February 1907 - 7 June 1951) was a German SS functionary and Holocaust perpetrator during the Nazi era. They are followed by the chaplain, wearing a white tunic and reading from his prayer book. Explore the scintillating May 2023 issue of Commentary. Ferencz, now 96, pointed out that right after the war, this refusal to admit guilt or show any compassion to the victims was widespread. and 5 received sentences that ranged from 10 to 20 years. Montgomery had accepted the surrender of German forces in the Northwest on the 4th. On the other side, Heinrich Himmler, who detested the state interventionstregime of Albert Speer as totally bolshevik and was himself hoping for a career in a militarily defeated Germany, protected the working group around Ohlendorf, Ludwig Erhard. 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. [35][e] When gas van killing operations were conducted, it was usually at night to keep the population from witnessing the macabre affair. IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. Ultimately, only four of the 14 death sentences were carried out. Sometime between mid-July and mid-August 1941 Himmler, certainly with Hitlers approval, ordered the expansion of killing. 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. Accounts of Himmler's final days do not mention the letter, so one can only surmise what it said. 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. There is a report from Bonn that the Ministry of Justice is working frantically for a last minute reprieve. Colonel Graham, whose office is the nerve center, makes pointed reference to the possibility of suicide. The colonel takes the center of the floor. I have photographs of the seven men in my hands. According to the ordinance of October 18, 1946, these judgments were final and not subject to review. Otto Ohlendorf, one of the most notorious SS officials in Nazi Germany, was captured and interrogated extensively after the war. We hear a murmur, then the soft voice of the medical officer. ". He is a German SS functionary and Holocaust perpetrator during the Nazi era. According to Raul Hilberg, Heydrich soon grew weary of Ohlendorfs multiple intellectual pursuits. London: Bloomsbury, 2018. We are to stand at attention during the hangings. All of the remaining convicted defendants in this case were released from prison in 1958. Heinrich Hoefler, a founder of the Christian Democratic party, based his appeal on humanitarian grounds. We left the death chamber after Schmidt, of Buchenwald infamy, had been pronounced dead and after I had signed the affidavits as the governments official witness. I think of the evil conspiracies which have been hatched within these high walls. [16] Transfers from the RSHA to the Einsatzgruppen were in part due to personnel shortages but also to keep the initial killing operations confined to those who already knew the details, such as Ohlendorf, Arthur Nebe, and Paul Blobel. Another defendant, Rudolf Hss, the commandant at Auschwitz, used the same defense. Students examine how choices made by individuals and groups contributed to the rise of the Nazi Party in the 1920s and 1930s. He says this takes considerable time. 1930: Graham tells us there will be no executions unless specific instructions come from both the State Department and the War Department. The sentences were announced on April 10, 1948: Matthias Graf was released with time served. ; 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). Heinz Jost: Jost was in charge of Einsatzgruppe A. They came from every state in West Germany, and even from the United States. Then there is another sound, the sound of the cover being nailed onto the coffin. But only four were executed, including Otto Ohlendorf, a notorious SS commander. 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. Caloric content per man per day is the same as that of the GI, 3,600 calories. He. St. John's Scholar | St. John's University Research I am to identify them before certifying. 4, 1950, p. 30. 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. 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. 2235: Graham is discussing the business of last rites. June 7, 1951 And for providing the also rapidly dwindling number of Holocaust survivors the chance to face their tormenters. Otto Ohlendorf was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during World War II.

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