The United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al., commonly known as the trial, was the ninth of the twelve "subsequent Nuremberg trials" for war crimes and crimes against humanity after the end of World War II between 1947 and 1948. The accused were 24 former SS leaders who, as commanders of the Einsatzgruppen, were responsible for the mass killing of more than a million victims in the Eastern Front.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 Einsatzgruppen trial was held by United States authorities at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg in the American occupation zone before US military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal. All of the accused were found guilty: fourteen were sentenced to death by hanging and eight received prison sentences ranging from life imprisonment to time served. Two were only convicted of being a member of an illegal organization, one committed suicide before the arraignment, and one was removed from the trial for medical reasons. Otto Ohlendorf, Erich Naumann, Paul Blobel, and Werner Braune were executed in 1951 while the others sentenced to death had their sentences commuted.
The trial marked the first use of the term genocide in legal context, being used by both the prosecution and by the judges in the verdict.
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. 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:
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 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. War crimes for the same reasons, and for wanton destruction and devastation not justified by military necessity. 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 NamePhotoFunctionSentenceOutcome, 1951 amnestyOtto OhlendorfSS-Gruppenführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe DDeath by hangingExecuted on June 7, 1951Heinz JostSS-Brigadeführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe ALife imprisonmentCommuted to 10 years; released in December 1951; died in 1964Erich NaumannSS-Brigadeführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe BDeath by hangingExecuted on June 7, 1951"Five death sentences were confirmed: the sentence against Oswald Pohl, as well as those passed against the leaders of the Mobile Killing Units, Paul Blobel, Werner Braune, Erich Naumann, and Otto Ohrlendorf. . . . In the early morning hours of 7 June, the Nazi criminals were hanged in the Landesburg prison courtyard." Norbert Frei, Adenauer's Germany and the Nazi Past: The Politics of Amnesty and Integration. Columbia University Press, 2002. p. 165 and p. 173Otto RaschSS-Brigadeführer; member of the SD and the Gestapo; commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe CRemoved from the trial on February 5, 1948 for medical reasonsDied on November 1, 1948Erwin SchulzSS-Brigadeführer; member of the Gestapo; commanding officer of Einsatzkommando 5 of Einsatzgruppe C20 yearsCommuted to 15 years; released on January 9, 1954; died in 1981Franz SixSS-Brigadeführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Vorkommando Moskau of Einsatzgruppe B20 yearsCommuted to 10 years; released in October 1952; died in 1975Paul BlobelSS-Standartenführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe CDeath by hangingExecuted on June 7, 1951Walter BlumeSS-Standartenführer; member of the SD and the Gestapo; commanding officer of Sonderkommando 7a of Einsatzgruppe BDeath by hangingCommuted to 25 years; released in March 1955; died in 1974Martin SandbergerSS-Standartenführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Sonderkommando 1a of Einsatzgruppe ADeath by hangingCommuted to life imprisonment; released on May 9, 1958; died in 2010SS-Standartenführer; member of the SD; deputy chief of Einsatzgruppe DDeath by hangingCommuted to 15 years; released on May 14, 1954; died in 1976Eugen SteimleSS-Standartenführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Sonderkommando 7a of Einsatzgruppe B and of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe CDeath by hangingCommuted to 20 years; released in June 1954; died in 1987Ernst BibersteinSS-Obersturmbannführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Einsatzkommando 6 of Einsatzgruppe CDeath by hangingCommuted to life imprisonment; released on May 9, 1958; died in 1986Werner BrauneSS-Obersturmbannführer; member of the SD and the Gestapo; commanding officer of Einsatzkommando 11b of Einsatzgruppe DDeath by hangingExecuted on June 7, 1951SS-Obersturmbannführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Sonderkommando 4b of Einsatzgruppe CDeath by hangingCommuted to 15 years; released in August 1955; died in 1994Gustav Adolf NosskeSS-Obersturmbannführer; member of the Gestapo; commanding officer of Einsatzkommando 12 of Einsatzgruppe DLife imprisonmentCommuted to 10 years; released in December 1951; died in 1986SS-Obersturmbannführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Sonderkommando 7b of Einsatzgruppe BDeath by hangingCommuted to life imprisonment; released on May 9, 1958; died in 1973Eduard StrauchSS-Obersturmbannführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Einsatzkommando 2 of Einsatzgruppe ADeath by hangingHanded over to Belgian authorities and received another death sentence; died prior to execution on 11 September 1955Emil HaussmannSS-Sturmbannführer; member of the SD; officer of Einsatzkommando 12 of Einsatzgruppe DCommitted suicide before the arraignment on July 31, 1947Waldemar KlingelhöferSS-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 FendlerSS-Sturmbannführer; member of the SD; second highest-ranking officer of Sonderkommando 4b of Einsatzgruppe C10 yearsCommuted to 8 years; released in March 1951; died in 1983SS-Sturmbannführer; member of the SD; deputy chief of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C20 yearsReleased; died in 1990SS-Hauptsturmführer; member of the Gestapo; officer of Sonderkommando 10b of Einsatzgruppe D10 yearsReleased; died in 1982Heinz SchubertSS-Obersturmführer; member of the SD; adjutant to Otto Ohlendorf in Einsatzgruppe DDeath by hangingCommuted to 10 years; released in December 1951; died in 1987SS-Untersturmführer; member of the SD; officer in Einsatzkommando 6 of Einsatzgruppe CTime served Notes
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.
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
The Nuremberg Military Tribunal in its judgement stated the following:
Notes
Bibliography
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).
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") Description from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Einsatzgruppen trials. Another description.
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
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