Because of Ohlendorfs work in this field, petitions for leniency were filed after he was sentenced to death by hanging. 2357: Hard wood benches line the sides of the loft. Nineteen nations expressed their adherence to this agreement, and the trials were conducted by quadripartite tribunals at Nuremberg in 1946 and 1947. After him are Konstantinos Karamanlis, Giovanna of Italy, Compay Segundo, Erich Mielke, Daniel Bovet, and Barbara Stanwyck. Mr. McCloys mail was marked by an increasingly large number of appeals for clemency, both signed and anonymous, and soon these appeals assumed the proportions of an avalanche. Showing real aptitude as a student, Ohlendorf attended Gymnasium in nearby Hildesheim. [caption=0c5326ca-3fd0-4df0-8f36-5840fd057055] - [credit=0c5326ca-3fd0-4df0-8f36-5840fd057055]. Top Home Latest TRENDING Studio9 Specials State INDIA WORLD SPORTS The Supreme Court has rejected final appeal, Justice Robert Jackson (who served as chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg trials) abstaining after disqualifying himself. ; 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). Altmeiers opening words came as a shock to the High Commissioner who, for the first time in the meeting, kept his eyes glued to the speaker. There were threats, too, against McCloys life. . He says he once had a case with a bad heartit took that one only ten minutes! Hitler envisioned Barbarossa as a modern crusade against Jewish Bolshevism and the Einsatzgruppenwould be at the forefront of this war of subjugation and extermination against the Soviet Union. It is three times as difficult for me as it is for my colleagues, he continued, to plead with you for commutation of the death sentences. 2242: Big clock is ticking. On September 10, 1947, the US Military Government for Germany created Military Tribunal II-A (later renamed Tribunal II). St. John's Scholar | St. John's University Research Search for Another Deceased Ancestor. Showing real aptitude as a student Ohlendorf studied economics and lawat the University of Leipzig and the University of Gttingen, and by 1930 was already giving lectures at several economic institutions. Case #9 is usually referred to as the Einsatzgruppen Case. Mr. Britt is testing the rope now; he lifts and then lowers himself on the closed trap. 2210: We wait, smoking and looking uneasily at the clock. It would be bad for the soul of the German people, McCloy went on, to put these things under the carpet. Ohlendorf led the mobile SS death squad in Crimea. Bickel says the criminals should have been hanged earlier. 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.). BillionGraves FREE Dr. Phil Otto Ohlendorf, 1879 - 1913 was born in 1879. Leave a message for others who see this profile. I wonder what the architect Blobel is thinking down in his cell as he waits to be led out. He is a German SS functionary and Holocaust perpetrator during the Nazi era. Ohlendorfs Einsatzgruppe was responsible for the 13-12-1941 massacre at Simferopol where at least 14,300 people, mostly Jews, were killed. 0004: Britt springs the trap. Will I be able to perform this simple act? [29] On 1 August 1941, Einsatzgruppen commanders including Ohlendorf, received instructions from Gestapo chief Heinrich Mller to keep headquarters (Hitler especially) informed of their progress in the East; Mller also encouraged the speedy delivery of photographs showing the results of these operations. 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. After the launching of Barbarossa on June 22, Ohlendorf could also turn to the Army for ammunition, maps, and telecommunications. He was the longest serving of the four commanders. A former Newsweek foreign correspondent and editor, Andrew Nagorski is the author of The Nazi Hunters, which will be released on May 10. 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. His wrists are tied behind him. A total of seven men, then, were to be executed at Landsberg. The 24 defendants in Case #9 were all leading members of, that operated on the Eastern Front during World War II. On June 17, as the day of the assault on the USSR loomed, Heydrich summoned Ohlendorf and the commanders of EinsatzgruppenA, B, and C to Berlin for a crucial meeting. 4 February 1907-7 June 1951 . . 2200: CIC2 agents come in from the town of Landsberg-on-the-Lech. He also cited examples from other cases, including the High Command Case in which military commanders carried out the so-called Fuehrer Order calling for the murder of undesirable elements such as Jews and Gypsieswomen, men, and children alike who were offensive to the Germans. And he further noted that a great number of terrible and terrifying crimes had been committed in the name of maintaining the ethnic purity of the German people. Ultimately, only four of the 14 death sentences were carried out. Educated at a humanistic Gymnasium in Hildesheim, he later studied law at the . The High Commissioner listened intently, eyes fixed on his scratch pad. The colonel takes the center of the floor. Fritz Bauer, a German prosecutor from a secular Jewish family who had spent most of the Nazi era in exile, returned after the war determined to make his countrymen face up to the horrors committed in their name. I ask. The High Commissioner thanked the delegation for traveling from Bonn to Frankfort to present their ideas. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2012. Father Unavailable. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1981. The commandant, Colonel Graham, cigar between his teeth, is darting about, a sheaf of papers in one hand. 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. Otto Ohlendorf in MyHeritage family trees (Family site (Family Tree Legends)) view all Immediate Family Conrad Christoph Carl Ohlendorf father Ernestine Wilhelmine called Minn. mother Emilie Emmie von Roeder sister Carl Ohlendorf brother Julius Ohlendorf brother Albert Ohlendorf brother Herman Ohlendorf brother Ida Emilie Caroline Thoene sister 1920: Bickel reports to Fred Hulse, in McCloys office in Frankfort. Now not only Jewish men, whether in the Communist Party or deemed of fighting age, were targeted. 1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272, Nazi War Crimes Interagency Working Group, Discussions held in Berlin in April 1945 between senior SS officials including Ohlendorf, SS-General Felix Steiner, and SS-General Richard Hildebrandt. There is a telephone call. 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. But the judges at Nuremberg maintained that it would have been impossible for members of Einsatzgruppen not to know that murdering civilians was both illegal and immoral. Otto Ohlendorf was the Head of Amt lll of the Reich Main Security Office during the Second World War and organiser of mass murders in the Southern Ukraine in 1941 and 1942. Not to elicit a. He says, yes, yes, yes, right, OK, ONeill, thanks, OK. Quick access. This type of evidence I have accepted in mitigation of the original sentence., The High Commissioner said that he had been struck by the extent of the misinformation in the letters and petitions which were being sent to him. Another voice in my head says, No, you must see it through. I am listening half-heartedly, reply in the negative. For instance, if the individual could prove that he was ignorant of the fact that the order was illegal, he would not be responsible. The sentences were reduced in a number of cases where there appeared a basis for clemency. I was there myself, Excellency. To that end, he orchestrated the Frankfurt trial of 22 former Auschwitz personnel in the 1960s -- not the big bosses, but the people who had tortured and killed prisoners on a daily basis. Even one of the most notorious architects of the Final Solution, Adolf Eichmann, organizer of the mass deportation of Jews to Auschwitz and other concentration camps, portrayed himself as a mere. The charter defined as crimes the following acts: The United States Military Government in Germany, on October 18, 1946, enacted an ordinance under which military tribunals were established in the American Zone of Occupation, with the purpose of trying and punishing criminals within that zone who had escaped prosecution at Nuremberg. 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. 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. [19] Supporting military operations, Ohlendorf's group was attached to the Eleventh Army. I agree. By 1938 he was also manager in the Trade section of the Reich business board (Reichswirtschaftskammer). We tell one another the prisoners could easily have spared themselves this inhuman waiting, simply by refraining from submitting petitions. Otto Ohlendorf, et al.. Case #9 is usually referred to as the Einsatzgruppen Case. I refuse to accept the suggestion made by the delegation that humanity breeds inhumanity. When Alexander took command on February 20, 1943, one of his first tasks was to assess II Corps combat readiness after its setbacks during its early engagements around Kasserine Pass. 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. The judges agreed that members of the Einsatzgruppen had not been threatened with physical harm if they did not murder their victims. Tens of thousands of Roma and members of the Communist Party of the USSR were also slain. [33] From that month forward, the Einsatzgruppen had begun the process of systematically shooting not just men but women and children, a transition that historian Peter Longerich terms "a decisive step on the way towards a policy of racial annihilation". Modern mechanized armies need a robust logistics chain to provide fuel, ammunition, and other sinews of war to sustain combat operations. There is a slight crackle. He talks about his law practice in Alabama, tells me how he once saved a man from the gallows. [30] During September 1941, Ohlendorf's group slaughtered 22,467 Jews and communists at Mykolaiv near the Black Sea port of Odesa. A few extra folding chairs have been set up. He suggests that we settle down in an adjoining office for the long wait. GI alert units are much in evidence, tommy guns at the ready. The army executioner, Mr. Britt, suddenly puts in an appearance, trim and neat in his tight-fitting uniform. [51] During the trial, Ohlendorf insisted that he, as a loyal Nazi, had acted properly and had done nothing wrong. And Ohlendorfs men engaged in such depravity over and over again. And for providing the also rapidly dwindling number of Holocaust survivors the chance to face their tormenters. Seven towers around the prison compound are manned by Polish guards, all heavily armed. Otto Rasch was deemed too ill to stand trial. After the sentencing, Ferencz decided to meet with Ohlendorf in a courtroom holding cell. I notice on the other side of the loft a neatly piled stack of white pine coffins which presumably were made for the war criminals whose sentences have been commuted. On January 2, 1942, Ohlendorf reported that his unit had killed 17,645 Jews between November 16 and December 15, 1941, in western Crimea. Ohlendorf himself spoke out for active and courageous entrepreneurship, which was intended to replace bureaucratic state planning of the economy after the war. 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. It is a report from Denmark, of all places, to the effect that the men have already been executed. Britt adjusts the noose over the mans hooded head. They murdered on their own.. 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. . . 0007: Borom says he wishes there were a seven-man gallows. Crimes against peace: participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of invasions, aggressive wars, etc. Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office, 1950. He had studied the cases not with any political considerations in mind but purely in judicial terms. They were to be the last death sentences on the soil of the Federal Republic. We are to stand at attention during the hangings. Each month, a courier brought the written reports directly to Berlin. Army officers and GIs, with enormous keys on their belts, are moving in and out of the office. Showing real aptitude as a student, Ohlendorf attended Gymnasiumin nearby Hildesheim. Each one was charged with committing all three counts between June 1941 and July 1943. [42] Ohlendorf also lodged a complaint about the Romanian forces, who drove thousands of frail elderly persons and children from Bessarabia and Bokovinaall incapable of workinto German-held regions, which his men forced back into Romanian territory but not without killing a significant percentage of them as a result. This function has been disabled for WW2 Gravestone. [44] Sometime in November 1944, he was promoted to Gruppenfhrer. An economist by education, he was head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Inland, responsible for intelligence and security within Germany. But were any of the defendants coerced into killing Jews under the threat of being killed themselves if they failed in their homicidal mission? Allied Control Council no. ", Historian Martin Gilbert reported that in front of the Nuremberg Tribunal, Ohlendorf described the use of gas vans for killing operations as "unpleasant" and that the, "Story 34Mass Murderers Seek to Justify Genocide (19461949)", Otto Ohlendorf, Einsatzgruppe D, and the Holocaust by Bullets, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Otto_Ohlendorf&oldid=1149039801, This page was last edited on 9 April 2023, at 20:51. The opinions expressed are his own. Otto Ohlendorf was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during World War II. I tell him Blobel has been pronounced dead at 0014, June 7. The extreme anti-Semitism of the Nazi regime was given full license with these criminal orders. That was the mentality.. Graham says: I ought to accept this offer; that guys been begging to be executed.. For the Nazi hunters -- the government investigators and prosecutors along with the freelance operatives who have tracked and exposed the perpetrators -- this magnifies the role of these remaining court cases. Start your risk free trial with unlimited access. Explore a timeline of events that occurred before, during, and after the Holocaust. [10] It was Ohlendorf's responsibility as head of the SD-Inland to collect data and scientifically examine social, cultural, and economic issues, assembling reports to his superiors in the Nazi government. I stare out into the lovely June night, watch the big searchlights swinging around the heavily guarded compound. At the trial, Ohlendorf also 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. However, fewer accounts exist of Operation Flashpoint, Ninth US Armys assault crossing of the Rhine, which began on March 24. [12] These public opinion polls on the social climate of Nazi Germany were both unpopular and controversial. [47][48] Himmler committed suicide shortly after being captured. 2400: Now we hear footsteps and the voice of a chaplain praying in sonorous German. . The tradition dated back to the 19th century. how it requires 15 to 19 minutes in some cases for final consummation. [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. He hangs up. He says a sergeant reported finding cherry pits in one of the death cells. They felt strongly that the so-called war crimes allegedly committed by the Landsberg prisoners could be atoned for by life sentences in cases where warranted, and did not call for draconic measures. Twenty Einsatzgruppen leaders were found guilty by the court, and four, including Ohlendorf, were eventually executed. All 22 defendants were found guilty of at least one charge. Instead, the victims arrived at places where pits, ditches, trenches, or ravines awaited them. He shakes hands also with Bickel when I introduce them. Create a FREE Account. 2359: One minute before midnight. [6], Ohlendorf joined the SD in 1936 and became an economic consultant of the organisation. 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. 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. 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.
otto ohlendorf descendants