On this date, 7 June
1951, 4 of the 24 defendants at the Einsatzgruppen trial who were sentenced to
death were executed by hanging at Landsberg Prison. I will post the information
about The Commander of Einsatzgruppen D, Otto Ohlendorf from Wikipedia and
other links.
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SS-Brigadeführer Otto
Ohlendorf
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Born
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4 February 1907
Hoheneggelsen, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire |
Died
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7 June 1951 (aged 44)
Landsberg Prison, Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria |
Allegiance
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Service/branch
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Years of service
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1925 — 1945
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Rank
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SS-Gruppenführer
und Generalleutnant der Polizei
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Commands held
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Battles/wars
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World War II
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Awards
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War Merit Cross I class
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Otto Ohlendorf
(4 February 1907 – 7 June 1951) was a German SS-Gruppenführer and head of the
Inland-SD (responsible for intelligence and security within Germany), a section
of the SD. Ohlendorf was the commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe D, which was
accused of conducting mass murder in Moldova, south Ukraine, the Crimea, and,
during 1942, the north Caucasus. As such, Otto Ohlendorf was a Holocaust perpetrator and mass murderer. He
was convicted of and executed for war crimes committed during World War II.
Biography
Early
life
Born
in Hoheneggelsen (part of Söhlde; then in the Kingdom of Prussia), the son of
farm owners, he joined the Nazi Party in 1925 (member 6631) and the SS (member
#880) in 1926. Ohlendorf studied economics and law at the University of Leipzig
and the University of Göttingen, and by 1930 was already giving lectures at
several economic institutions. He studied at the University of Pavia, where he
gained his doctor's degree in jurisprudence; and as a career man he had
successfully worked himself up to a research directorship in the Kiel Institute
for the World Economy (at that time Institut für Weltwirtschaft und Seeverkehr
- Institute for World Economy and Maritime Transport). By 1938 he was also
Hauptgeschäftsführer in the Reichsgruppe Handel, the German trade organization.
While Ohlendorf had joined the party in 1925, the SS in 1926, and the SD in
1936, he regarded his party activities, and even his position as chief of
SD-Inland, as a sideline of his career. Actually, he devoted only four years
(1939–43) to full-time activity in the RSHA, for in 1943 he
became a Ministerialdirektor and deputy to the Staatssekretär (state secretary)
in the Reichswirtschaftsministerium (Reich
ministry of economic affairs).
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Otto Ohlendorf
(1907-1951), German SS-General of the Einsatzgruppen killing squads. This
photograph of Ohlendorf was taken by US Army photographers on behalf of the
Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes (OCCWC) during Nuremberg Trial IX
(Einsatzgruppen Trial / Einsatzgruppen-Prozess).
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Third
Reich
In
early 1936, he became an economic consultant to the SD, attached to the SS with
the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer. In May 1936, he was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer
and took a senior post. In 1939, he was once again promoted to SS-Standartenführer
and appointed as head of Amt III Inland-SD, of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, a
position he kept until 1945. In addition, from 1943 onwards, Ohlendorf was
appointed as deputy director general of the Reich Ministry of Economic Affairs,
and promoted once more in 1944 to Gruppenführer.
In
June 1941, Reinhard Heydrich appointed Ohlendorf to be
commander of Einsatzgruppe D which operated in southern Ukraine and Crimea.
Ohlendorf's Einsatzgruppe would be responsible for the 13 December 1941
massacre at Simferopol where at least 14,300 people, mostly Jews, were killed.
Over 90,000 murders are attributed to Ohlendorf's command, who testified to
this effect during his trial at Nuremberg.
At
the end of 1943, Ohlendorf, in addition to his other jobs, became deputy
secretary of state in the Reichsministerium für Wirtschaft (Reichs-Ministry
for Economics). He coordinated plans to rebuild the German economy after the
war, a war he and others believed to be lost. Such planning for the post-war
time was strictly forbidden, on one side. On the other side, Heinrich Himmler,
who detested the state interventionist regime of Albert
Speer as "totally bolshevik" and was himself hoping for a career
in a militarily defeated Germany, protected the working group around Ohlendorf
and Ludwig
Erhard and other experts, who planned how to introduce the new German
currency Deutsche Mark, among other things. Ohlendorf himself spoke out for
"active and courageous entrepreneurship (aktives und wagemutiges
Unternehmertum)", which was intended to replace bureaucratic state
planning of the economy after the war.
Because
of Ohlendorf's work in this field, many petitions for leniency were filed after
he was sentenced to death by hanging. These, however, were turned down by the Allies.
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Defendant Otto
Ohlendorf testifies on his own behalf at the Einsatzgruppen Trial.
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Description: Two
principal German defendants of the Einsatzgruppen "commandoes" trial
in Nuernberg are SS Major General Otto Ohlendorf and SS Brigadier General Heinz
Jost (front to rear) shown in the dock preparing their final pleas during a
court recess. "The Einsatzgruppen units," the prosecution stated,
"were special task forces whose primary purpose was to accompany the
German army into the Eastern territories and exterminate Jews, Gypsies, Soviet
officials and other civilians regarded as 'racially and politically
undesirable' ". Ohlendorf, as commander of the Einsatzgruppen D, which
operated mainly in Southern Russia, and Jost, as commander of Einsatzgruppen A
operating mainly in the Baltic region, have admitted ordering the execution of
several hundred thousand civilians. They are charged with committing war crimes
and crimes against humanity, and membership in the SS and SD, adjudged criminal
organizations by the International Military Tribunal. [Original Descriptive
Caption] Date: 9 Feb. 1948 Provenance: From Public Relations Photo Section,
Office Chief of Counsel for War Crimes, Nuernberg, Germany, APO 696-A, US Army.
Photo No. OMT-IX-D-56. Citation: Telford Taylor Papers, Arthur W. Diamond Law
Library, Columbia University Law School, New York, N.Y. : TTP-CLS:
15-2-2-113.
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Nuremberg
War Trials
Ohlendorf
took part into Himmler's flight from Flensburg and was arrested with him near Lüneburg,
where Himmler committed suicide.
During
the trial against Einsatzgruppen leaders, Ohlendorf was the chief defendant,
and was also a key witness in the prosecution of many other indicted war
criminals. Ohlendorf's frank, apparently reliable testimony was attributed to
his distaste for the corruption that was rampant in Nazi Germany and a stubborn
commitment to duty. He expressed no remorse for his actions, telling prosecutor
Benjamin B. Ferencz at the trial 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 executions than those actually being executed.
Otto
Ohlendorf was sentenced to death and hanged at the Landsberg Prison in Bavaria
shortly after midnight on 8 June 1951.
In
popular culture
- Ohlendorf appears at length in Jonathan Littell's docudrama Les Bienveillantes.
- He was played by Christopher James in the 2006 British television docudrama Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial
- He was portrayed by Nigel Hawthorne in the miniseries "Holocaust" (1978)
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