otto ohlendorf descendants

He is talking in his friendly Alabama drawl, but I scarcely know what he is saying. God have mercy on those who murder me. He was to lead EinsatzgruppeD, the fourth and final of the Special Task Forces put together for Operation Barbarossa. The judges agreed that members of the Einsatzgruppen had not been threatened with physical harm if they did not murder their victims. On January 2, 1942, Ohlendorf reported that his unit had killed 17,645 Jews between November 16 and December 15, 1941, in western Crimea. 2151: There is a lot of bustle in Grahams office now, as uniformed officers and men come and go. The waiter is a former Malmdy murderer, one of Pfeiffers flunkeys. . Like other talented academics such as Helmut Knochen and Franz Six, Ohlendorf had been recruited by SD talent scouts. 2255: Borom, the lieutenant colonel from Heidelberg, is lighting his pipe. 2242: Big clock is ticking. This deep interest in economics carried over into work for the Reich Trade Group, where he quickly ascended the ladder. His face is yellow in the lamplight. 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW There are new instructions nowa reversal of the previous arrangement. Will I be able to perform this simple act? One remarks that it seems late in the day politically to be hanging Germans even if they are war criminals. According to the ordinance of October 18, 1946, these judgments were final and not subject to review. Forced at gunpoint to jump down into these pits, they were shot after pleading for their own lives and those of their families and neighbors. . 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. He was born in Hoheneggelsen on 4 February 1907, the son of a peasant farmer. He says we must realize the seriousness of the occassion. 1, The judges at Nuremberg rejected the following orders defense. There is some new detail concerning Himmler's state of mind on May 6, 1945 after Hitler's Last Testament appointed Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz as the successor while expelling Himmler from the Nazi Party. Students are introduced to the enormity of the crimes committed during the Holocaust and look closely at stories of a few individuals who were targeted by Nazi brutality. However, fewer accounts exist of Operation Flashpoint, Ninth US Armys assault crossing of the Rhine, which began on March 24. Have you ever done this before? Radio cars were in the prison compound in anticipation of a possible breakdown of telephone communications. 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. Bickel says he will not be a witness. These, however, were turned down by the Allies. He adds one thought, that none of us likes this business but weve got to go through with it. This was the tragic fulfillment of a program of intolerance and arrogance.Each of the defendants in the dock held a position of responsibility or command in an extermination unit. The High Commissioner therefore undertook a review of the sentences with the help of an Advisory Board on Clemency which began work in Washington early in 1950, and continued in Munich in July 1950. He has executed scores of criminals and has been flown from Texas to perform his job again. Those damned Germans. This function has been disabled for WW2 Gravestone. I ask. Ferencz, now 96, pointed out that right after the war, this refusal to admit guilt or show any compassion to the victims was widespread. Two of the men have fathers who were high-up servants of Hitler and soaked in the blood of the Holocaust. With Ohlendorf, he apparently was briefed by Heydrich on the new phase in mid-August during a visit to Berlin. Now I dont think I can stick it out. 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. The Einsatzgruppen were special task forces of the SS and Police. An economist by education, he is head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Inland, responsible for intelligence and security within Germany. He graduated in July 1933 with a doctors degree in jurisprudence. What insights do the Milgram experiments (see reading. This was the tragic fulfillment of a program of intolerance and arrogance.Each of the defendants in the dock held a position of responsibility or command in an extermination unit. At age 27, Benjamin Ferencz was the chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg trial of the commanders of the Einsatzgruppen, the special squads that conducted mass killings of Jews, Gypsies and other civilian enemies on the Eastern Front before the killings shifted to the gas chambers in the camps. He is determined to prevent suicide. Leave a message for others who see this profile. Ohlendorf himself spoke out for active and courageous entrepreneurship, which was intended to replace bureaucratic state planning of the economy after the war. Jason Dawsey, PhD, is a Research Historian at the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy. At years end, Ohlendorf could report that his men had eliminated 55,000 Jews. After his sentencing, Ohlendorf told him: The Jews in America will suffer for this.. There is a staff sergeant, stout and unsmiling, unarmed, standing at the door. After the launching of Barbarossa on June 22, Ohlendorf could also turn to the Army for ammunition, maps, and telecommunications. Graham calls out: Attention! All in the room stand. 0005: I recoil back into my seat. These men, who were sober enough in all other respects, still believed that we had a sporting chance against the East.". 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. 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. 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. I study his photograph, compare it with the man. For some reason, Warrant Officer Britt seems just right for his job. A curious time to take a bath. 0002: There is no wavering in voice or manner, never a sign of fear. I am listening half-heartedly, reply in the negative. [46], In May 1945, Ohlendorf participated in Himmler's flight from Flensburg. Ohlendorf described the broad extent of Himmler's "degrading" and "unworthy" efforts to gain a post in the Doenitz government and Himmler's real anger on hearing that he was an "encumbrance" who would do the new government more harm than good. In 19411943, On September 10, 1947, the US Military Government for Germany created Military Tribunal II-A (later renamed Tribunal II). Third mistake: Pohl was a man of many titles . The Military Tribunals, Mr. McCloy went on, had been set up by men of peace, good will, and great character. My eyes are fixed on the rope. Start your risk free trial with unlimited access. 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. [15] Joining the Einsatzgruppen was an unappealing prospect and Ohlendorf refused twice before his eventual appointment. 2300: Bickel calls Frankfort. Ohlendorf's testimony horrified the court and had a depressing effect on the defendants. ; War crimes: atrocities committed against persons or property constituting violations of the customs of war; murder, ill treatment, deportation to slave labor camps, plunder of public or private property, killing of hostages, wanton destruction of towns, devastation not justified by military necessity, etc. Holmes starts discussing the injustices of the law. Moreover, West Germany had abolished the death penalty in the new constitution, and for the U. S. authorities to carry out capital punishment would show lack of respect for this constitution, with far-reaching consequences for American-German relations.. His pipe throws off a delicious fragrance. Heinz Jost: Jost was in charge of Einsatzgruppe A. In this particular instance, the defendant expressed regret that there werent more to be killed! 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130info@nationalww2museum.org I never had a German come up to me and say Im sorry all the time I was in Germany, he told me. 08-06-1951, age 44, hangedat theLandsberg PrisoninBavaria. Instead, the victims arrived at places where pits, ditches, trenches, or ravines awaited them. As a nonprofit, we offer free help to those looking to learn the details of their family story. 0015: I make my way down the steps to call Bickel. However, Dehlers letter contributed to delaying the executions four more months, until the 7th of June, 1951. His only criterion was that justice must be done. We shake hands with him and members of his staff. [30] During September 1941, Ohlendorf's group slaughtered 22,467 Jews and communists at Mykolaiv near the Black Sea port of Odesa. His liaison man translated sentence by sentence. But it is almost unprecedented for those who have been charged with carrying out the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes since the end of World War Two. . I look around. I ask. Those bastards, he mutters, those unmitigated bastardsif they try anything. Graham gets his retirement discharge next week. [19] Supporting military operations, Ohlendorf's group was attached to the Eleventh Army. We also can examine how the commanders of the Einsatzgruppen, like Ohlendorf, summarized this barbarity. A total of 265 have been hanged since the end of the war. On the 31st of January, the High Commissioners final decisions were promulgated and published. He coordinated plans to rebuild the German economy after the war. GI alert units are much in evidence, tommy guns at the ready. JAG officers speculate on how any judge in Frankfort could have granted an appeal, with full knowledge of the facts. Search for Another Deceased Ancestor. Theres no backing out now. Here the testimony of Heinz Hermann Schubert, Ohlendorfs longtime subordinate, is extremely valuable. Why might it be difficult to disobey the order of a superior or authority figure? Graham remarks acidly that the postage on this petition alone must have cost about 120 Deutsche Mark, or $30. 4, 1950, p. 30. Krausnick, Helmut, and Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm. [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". Holmes, of the Military Post, asks me whether I know anything about the controversial hunting law which allows GIs to hunt in German reserves against the will of the owners. To this day no one has found an example of a German who was executed for refusing to take part in the killing of Jews or other civilians. SS Gruppenfhrer and head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Inland. This was more than 100,000 men. Ferencz says his goal from the beginning was to affirm the rule of law and deter similar crimes from ever. When Otto Friedrich Ohlendorf was born on 31 January 1893, in Millstadt, St. Clair, Illinois, United States, his father, Friedrich Ohlendorf, was 24 and his mother, Maria Schwab, was 21. This quickly devolved into identifying and executing Jewish men considered potential partisans. 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. 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. [38] As far as Ohlendorf was concerned, the gas vans were impracticable for the scale of killing demanded by Himmler; namely, since they could only kill between fifteen and twenty-five persons at a time. How are you feeling? They are moving faster than before, and the keys make a not inappropriate noise. While Ohlendorf never showed much empathy for the slain, he grew concerned about the toll taken on those under his commands. Hans Theodor Schmidt was trailed and hanged in Landsberg prison, on 07-06-1951, age 51.. They argued that they had acted legally and in obedience to superior orders. Graham mutters something to the effect that theyve got to get started on the final arrangements NOW if they are to meet their schedule. The following year he returned to economic research, becoming Ministerial Director and deputy to the State Secretary in the Ministry of Economics. Has been making a lot of trouble for us.. 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.. Dehler indicated that an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court would be based on these alleged mistakes. 0007: Borom says he wishes there were a seven-man gallows. To give effect to the London Protocol, the four powers occupying Germany adopted a charter on December 20, 1945, establishing a uniform legal basis in Germany for the prosecution of war criminals other than those dealt with by the International Military Tribunal. Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office, 1950. And one of them is a Jew whose family perished because of the berserk racial policies. 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. . This unit perpetrated mass murder in the northernmost sector of the Eastern Front, primarily the Baltic countries and the area around Leningrad (today: St. Petersburg). All 22 defendants were found guilty, and four of them, including Ohlendorf, were hanged. What other motivations might have contributed to their participation in mass murder? Eduard Strauch, the head of Einsatzkommando 2 (a subunit of Einsatzgruppe A), who received a death sentence, was extradited to Belgium. He says this takes considerable time. Sometime between mid-July and mid-August 1941 Himmler, certainly with Hitlers approval, ordered the expansion of killing. . Ferencz called no witnesses and based the case on wartime SS reports that detailed mass shootings conducted by the Einsatzgruppen. Preparations are being completed. 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? 2147: Bickel receives confirmation from Frankfort: proceed with executions. He says: Do you know me by any other name? (code word was used for security reasons). 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. The chief prosecutor was 27-year-old Ben Ferencz. In this same prison Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, and was released for political reasons. He talks about his law practice in Alabama, tells me how he once saved a man from the gallows. COL. AMEN: And when was Heydrich's death? 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. [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. His defense was simple: he was just following orders. 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. And Ive never ordered anyone to kill a Jew. That gave him a certain peace of mind, he added, although he was under no illusions about his ultimate fate. 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. Ohlendorf stated that he tried to mitigate any "unnecessary agitation" for the victims during the, Justifying the murder of children, Ohlendorf stated, "the children were people who would grow up and surely being the children of parents who had been killed, they would constitute a danger no smaller than their parents. Otto Ohlendorf on Trial Chief among the SS officials put on trial following the conviction of the surviving Nazi government ministers were the commanders and senior staff of the four Einsatzgruppen that operated on the Eastern Front in conjunction with the Wehrmacht. Then there is another sound, the sound of the cover being nailed onto the coffin. Everyone present agrees that the only hope is John J. McCloy. 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. Someone asks about the 650,000 signatures appended to a petition for clemency sent to President Truman from Germany. The defendants were arraigned between September 15 and 22, 1947. 1920: Bickel reports to Fred Hulse, in McCloys office in Frankfort. He repeats his caution against frivolity, although for the life of me I cant imagine how or why anyone would become frivolous. [3] Ohlendorf studied economics and law at the University of Leipzig and the University of Gttingen, and by 1930 was already giving lectures at several economic institutions. Ohlendorf mentions a personal letter, dated 9 May 1945, which Himmler wrote and sent to British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. Born in February 1907 into a peasant family in Hoheneggelsen, a small town in Lower Saxony in northwest Germany, he was not yet a teenager when Germany suffered a crushing defeat in World War I. Britt adjusts the noose over the mans hooded head. It would be bad for the soul of the German people, McCloy went on, to put these things under the carpet. Otto Ohlendorf joined the Nazi Party in 1925 and in 1926. The others are relaxed now, smoking. Counted together, the four units numbered some 3,000 men. Otto Ohlendorf, one of the most notorious SS officials in Nazi Germany, was captured and interrogated extensively after the war. In June 1941, Reinhard Heydrich appointed Ohlendorf to be commander of Einsatzgruppe D which operated in southern Ukraine and Crimea. 2359: One minute before midnight. Germany has come a very long way since then. spent three years in detention before being hanged at the Landsberg Prison in Bavaria on 07-06-1951, age 44, and he buried on the Spottinger prison cemetery. Doubts begin to stir in us again. Describes how the neck is broken in the fall, how the stomach bulges . 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. . Blobel is dressed for death. Interest in the condemned men in Landsberg prisonthe so-called Lands-berg menbegan to mount in Germany around mid-December of 1950 when it became known that High Commissioner McCloy and his colleague, General Handy, had the cases under study. He was the longest serving of the four commanders. The sentences were announced on April 10, 1948: Matthias Graf was released with time served. It was likely a final attempt to split the Anglo-Soviet alliance. Nineteen nations expressed their adherence to this agreement, and the trials were conducted by quadripartite tribunals at Nuremberg in 1946 and 1947.

Betmgm Withdrawal Issues, Wharton Undergraduate Real Estate Club, Articles O