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{{Short description|Ninth of the 12 trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis}}{{Italic title|string=Einsatzgruppen}} {{expand German|date=March 2022}}

factoids

The trial (officially, The United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al.) 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. These twelve trials were all held before US military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal. They took place in the same rooms at the Palace of Justice. The twelve US trials are collectively known as the "Subsequent Nuremberg trials" or, more formally, as the "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" (NMT).The accused were 24 former SS leaders who, as commanders of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD, bore responsibility for the crimes committed by the Einsatzgruppen in the occupied Soviet Union. The indictment was based on the Einsatzgruppen reports of more than a million victims.Benjamin Ferencz: Opening Statement of the Prosecution, vorgetragen am 29. September 1947. In: Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10. Vol. 4. District of Columbia 1950, S. 30.The trial marked the first use of the term "genocide" in legal context. The term was used by both the prosecution and by the judges in the verdict.WEB, 2021-12-28, Ben Ferencz recalls his work on the Einsatzgruppen Trial,weblink 2023-10-20, judicature.duke.edu, en-US,

The case

The were SS mobile death squads, operating behind the front line in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. From 1941 to 1945, they murdered around 2 million people; 1.3 million Jews, up to 250,000 Romani, and around 500,000 so-called "partisans", people with disabilities, political commissars, Slavs, homosexuals and others.{{sfn|Rhodes|2002|p=257}}WEB, Extermination camp,weblink live, August 6, 2021, Encyclopaedia Britannica,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150623083318weblink">weblink 2015-06-23, The 24 defendants in this trial were all commanders of these units and faced charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The tribunal stated in its judgment:{{blockquote|... in this case the defendants are not simply accused of planning or directing wholesale killings through channels. They are not charged with sitting in an office hundreds and thousands of miles away from the slaughter. It is asserted with particularity that these men were in the field actively superintending, controlling, directing, and taking an active part in the bloody harvest.Nuremberg Military Tribunal, weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120213004056weblink">United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al. (Einsatzgruppen trial), Judgement (via Internet Archive).}}The judges in this case, heard before Military Tribunal II-A, were Michael Musmanno (presiding judge and Naval officer) from Pennsylvania, John J. Speight from Alabama, and Richard D. Dixon from North Carolina. The Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution was Telford Taylor; the Chief Prosecutor for this case was Benjamin B. Ferencz. The indictment was filed initially on July 3 and then amended on July 29, 1947, to also include the defendants Steimle, Braune, Haensch, Strauch, Klingelhöfer, and von Radetzky. The trial lasted from September 29, 1947, until April 10, 1948.

Indictment

1. Crimes against humanity through persecutions on political, racial, and religious grounds, murder, extermination, imprisonment, and other inhumane acts committed against civilian populations, including German nationals and nationals of other countries, as part of an organized scheme of genocide.
2. War crimes for the same reasons, and for wanton destruction and devastation not justified by military necessity.
3. Membership of criminal organizations, the SS, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), or the Gestapo, which had been declared criminal organizations previously in the international Nuremberg Military Tribunals.

All defendants were charged on all counts. All defendants pleaded "not guilty". The tribunal found all of them guilty on all counts, except Rühl and Graf, who were found guilty only on count 3. Fourteen defendants were sentenced to death. However, only four of them were executed. Nine of those condemned had their sentences reduced. Another, Eduard Strauch, couldn't be executed since he had been transferred to Belgian custody after his conviction.

Defendants{| class"wikitable sortable"

!align="left"|Name!align=center|Photo!align="left"|Function!align="left"|Sentence!align="left"|Outcome, 1951 amnestyvalign = top|Otto Ohlendorf75px)Gruppenführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe D>Einsatzgruppe D|Death by hanging|Executed on June 7, 1951valign = top|Heinz Jost75px)Brigadeführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe A>Einsatzgruppe A|Life imprisonment|Commuted to 10 years; released in December 1951; died in 1964valign="top"|Erich Naumann75px)Brigadeführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe B>Einsatzgruppe B|Death by hangingAdenauer's Germany and the Nazi Past: The Politics of Amnesty and Integration. Columbia University Press, 2002. (iarchive:adenauersgermany00frei/page/370> p. 165) and (iarchive:adenauersgermany00frei/page/370| p. 173)valign = top|Otto Rasch75px)Brigadeführer; member of the SD and the Gestapo; commanding officer of Einsatzkommando#Einsatzgruppe C>Einsatzgruppe C1}}|Died on November 1, 1948valign = top|Erwin Schulz75px)|SS-Brigadeführer; member of the Gestapo; commanding officer of Einsatzkommando 5 of Einsatzgruppe C|20 years|Commuted to 15 years; released on January 9, 1954; died in 1981valign = top|Franz Six75px)|SS-Brigadeführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Vorkommando Moskau of Einsatzgruppe B|20 years|Commuted to 10 years; released in October 1952; died in 1975valign = top|Paul Blobel75px)Standartenführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Sonderkommandos of Einsatzgruppen>Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C|Death by hanging|Executed on June 7, 1951valign = topWalter Blume (SS officer)>Walter Blume75px)|SS-Standartenführer; member of the SD and the Gestapo; commanding officer of Sonderkommando 7a of Einsatzgruppe B|Death by hanging|Commuted to 25 years; released in March 1955; died in 1974valign=top|Martin Sandberger75px)|SS-Standartenführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Sonderkommando 1a of Einsatzgruppe A|Death by hanging|Commuted to life imprisonment; released on May 9, 1958; died in 2010valign = topWilli Seibert|de}}75px)|SS-Standartenführer; member of the SD; deputy chief of Einsatzgruppe D|Death by hanging|Commuted to 15 years; released on May 14, 1954; died in 1976valign = top|Eugen Steimle75px)|SS-Standartenführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Sonderkommando 7a of Einsatzgruppe B and of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C|Death by hanging|Commuted to 20 years; released in June 1954; died in 1987valign = top|Ernst Biberstein75px)|SS-Obersturmbannführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Einsatzkommando 6 of Einsatzgruppe C|Death by hanging|Commuted to life imprisonment; released on May 9, 1958; died in 1986valign = top|Werner Braune75px)|SS-Obersturmbannführer; member of the SD and the Gestapo; commanding officer of Einsatzkommando 11b of Einsatzgruppe D|Death by hanging|Executed on June 7, 1951valign = topWalter Haensch|de}}75px)|SS-Obersturmbannführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Sonderkommando 4b of Einsatzgruppe C|Death by hanging|Commuted to 15 years; released in August 1955; died in 1994valign = top|Gustav Adolf Nosske75px)|SS-Obersturmbannführer; member of the Gestapo; commanding officer of Einsatzkommando 12 of Einsatzgruppe D|Life imprisonment|Commuted to 10 years; released in December 1951; died in 1986valign = topAdolf Ott (SS-Mitglied)lt=Adolf Ott}}75px)|SS-Obersturmbannführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Sonderkommando 7b of Einsatzgruppe B|Death by hanging|Commuted to life imprisonment; released on May 9, 1958; died in 1973valign = top|Eduard Strauch75px)|SS-Obersturmbannführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Einsatzkommando 2 of Einsatzgruppe A2}}; handed over to Belgian authorities and received another death sentence; died prior to execution on 11 September 1955|Emil Haussmann75px)SS-Sturmbannführer; member of the SD; officer of Einsatzkommando 12 of Einsatzgruppe DCommitted suicide before the arraignment on July 31, 1947|Waldemar Klingelhöfer75px)SS-Sturmbannführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Vorkommando Moskau of Einsatzgruppe BDeath by hangingCommuted to life imprisonment; released in December 1956; died in 1977Lothar Fendler75px)SS-Sturmbannführer; member of the SD; second highest-ranking officer of Sonderkommando 4b of Einsatzgruppe C10 years{{Ref|3}}Commuted to 8 years; released in March 1951; died in 1983valign = topWaldemar von Radetzkylt=Waldemar von Radetzky}}75px)|SS-Sturmbannführer; member of the SD; deputy chief of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C|20 years|Released; died in 1990{{Interlanguage linkde}}75px)SS-Hauptsturmführer; member of the Gestapo; officer of Sonderkommando 10b of Einsatzgruppe D10 years{{Ref|4}}Released; died in 1982valign = topHeinz Schubert (SS officer)>Heinz Schubert75px)|SS-Obersturmführer; member of the SD; adjutant to Otto Ohlendorf in Einsatzgruppe D|Death by hanging|Commuted to 10 years; released in December 1951; died in 1987{{Interlanguage linkde}}75px)SS-Untersturmführer; member of the SD; officer in Einsatzkommando 6 of Einsatzgruppe CTime served{{Ref|5}}|  style="font-size:90%;"Notes{hide}plainlist|

• {{note|1{edih} Rasch had to be removed from the courtroom during the arraignment due to his poor health; he was arraigned separately on September 22, 1947.
• {{note|2}} Strauch suffered an epileptic attack during the arraignment on September 15, 1947. His defense later tried to get him removed from the trial on medical grounds, but the tribunal dismissed this, stating that Strauch's testimonies (which he did give subsequently), were coherent and showed no reason why he should not be mentally capable of standing trial.
• {{note|3}} While Fendler was found guilty on all counts, the tribunal considered the evidence presented insufficient grounds in proving that he ordered or helped plan the killings. He seems to have held primarily an office post.
• {{note|4}} Rühl was found guilty only on count 3; regarding counts 1 and 2, the tribunal found him not guilty, stating that as a subaltern officer, he was not responsible for the atrocities committed by Einsatzgruppe D and in no position to prevent them, and although he knew of the killings, it could not be proved that he directly participated in them.
• {{note|5}} Graf was found guilty only of membership of the SD. He had actually been expelled from the SS for "general indifference to the organization"Nuremberg Military Tribunal, weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120213004102weblink">United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al. (Einsatzgruppen trial), Judgment, pages 585-586. Internet Archive. and later had tried to be relieved from the SD. On counts 1 and 2, he was also found not guilty, because as a noncommissioned officer, he had never held any command position, and had even refused one once.}}

The presiding judge, Michael Musmanno, explained his rationale for sentencing while testifying at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials in the 1960s. He had chosen to impose death sentences in all cases where the defendant had actively participated in murder and failed to present mitigating circumstances. For example, although Erwin Schulz confessed to presiding over the execution of 90 to 100 men in Ukraine, he received a 20-year sentence since he had protested an order to exterminate all Jewish women and children, and immediately resigned when he was unable to get the order retracted. Superior orders was rejected as a defense.WEB, Tonbandmitschnitt des 1. Frankfurter Auschwitz-Prozesses,weblink 2023-01-24, www.auschwitz-prozess.de, Of the 14 death sentences, only four were carried out; the others were commuted to prison terms of varying lengths in 1951. In 1958, all convicts were released from prison.

Quotes from the judgment

File:The last Jew in Vinnitsa, 1941.jpg|right|thumb|200px|The Last Jew in VinnitsaThe Last Jew in VinnitsaThe Nuremberg Military Tribunal in its judgement stated the following:{{blockquote|[The facts] are so beyond the experience of normal man and the range of man-made phenomena that only the most complete judicial inquiry, and the most exhaustive trial, could verify and confirm them. Although the principal accusation is murder, ... 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.... a crime of such unprecedented brutality and of such inconceivable savagery that the mind rebels against its own thought image and the imagination staggers in the contemplation of a human degradation beyond the power of language to adequately portray.The number of deaths resulting from the activities with which these defendants have been connected and which the prosecution has set at one million is but an abstract number. One cannot grasp the full cumulative terror of murder one million times repeated.It is only when this grotesque total is broken down into units capable of mental assimilation that one can understand the monstrousness of the things we are in this trial contemplating. One must visualize not one million people but only ten persons – men, women, and children, perhaps all of one family – falling before the executioner's guns. If one million is divided by ten, this scene must happen one hundred thousand times, and as one visualizes the repetitious horror, one begins to understand the meaning of the prosecution's words, "It is with sorrow and with hope that we here disclose the deliberate slaughter of more than a million innocent and defenseless men, women, and children."}}

See also

• Commissar Order, an order stating that Soviet political commissars were to be shot on the battlefield.
• List of Einsatzgruppen with all known Einsatzgruppen
• Nuremberg executions

Notes

{{Reflist}}

References

• Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, Nürnberg, October 1946 – April 1949, Volume IV, ("Green Series) (the "Einsatzgruppen case")
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20050320092207weblink">Description from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20041204084148weblink">Einsatzgruppen trials. Another description.
• Ferencz, Benjamin, “A Prosecutor's Personal Account: From Nuremberg to Rome", Journal of International Affairs, 52: No. 2, Columbia University, Spring 1999
• Benjamin Ferencz, Mémoires de Ben, procureur à Nuremberg et avocat de la Paix mondiale, Michalon, Paris, 2012 (French).
• BOOK, Heller, Kevin Jon, 2011, The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law, Oxford University Press, 978-0-19-955431-7,
• BOOK, Rhodes, Richard, Richard Rhodes, Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust, New York, Vintage Books, 2002, 978-0-375-70822-0,

External links

{{Commons category-inline}}{{Nuremberg trials}}{{Einsatzgruppen}}{{Authority control}}