Einsatzgruppen trial

Template:Short description Template:Italic title Template:Expand German {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template other The United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al., commonly known as the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 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.<ref>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.</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The caseEdit

The {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 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.Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The 24 defendants in this trial were all commanders of these {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} units and faced charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The tribunal stated in its judgment:

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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.

IndictmentEdit

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.

DefendantsEdit

Name	Photo	Function	Sentence	Outcome, 1951 amnesty
Otto Ohlendorf	File:Otto Ohlendorf at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG	SS-Gruppenführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe D	Death by hanging	Executed on June 7, 1951<ref name="adenauer" />
Heinz Jost	File:Heinz Jost 09936.jpg	SS-Brigadeführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe A	Life imprisonment	Commuted to 10 years; released in December 1951; died in 1964
Erich Naumann	File:Erich Naumann at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG	SS-Brigadeführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe B	Death by hanging	Executed on June 7, 1951<ref name="adenauer">"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. 173</ref>
Otto Rasch	File:Otto Rasch at the Nuremberg Trials.jpg	SS-Brigadeführer; member of the SD and the Gestapo; commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe C	{{{2}}}\|[1]}}	Died on November 1, 1948
Erwin Schulz	File:Erwin Schulz at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG	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 1981
Franz Six	File:Six-franz-nuremberg.jpg	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 1975
Paul Blobel	File:Paul-Blobel.jpg	SS-Standartenführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C	Death by hanging	Executed on June 7, 1951<ref name="adenauer" />
Walter Blume	File:Walter Blume at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG	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 1974
Martin Sandberger	File:Martin Sandberger 09924.jpg	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 2010
Template:Interlanguage link	File:Willi Seibert at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG	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 1976
Eugen Steimle	File:Eugen Steimle at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG	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 1987
Ernst Biberstein	File:Ernst Biberstein at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG	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 1986
Werner Braune	File:Braune Werner.jpg	SS-Obersturmbannführer; member of the SD and the Gestapo; commanding officer of Einsatzkommando 11b of Einsatzgruppe D	Death by hanging	Executed on June 7, 1951<ref name="adenauer" />
Template:Interlanguage link	File:Walter Haensch at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG	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 1994
Gustav Adolf Nosske	File:Gustav Nosske at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG	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 1986
Template:Interlanguage link	File:Adolf Ott at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG	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 1973
Eduard Strauch	File:Eduard Strauch.jpg	SS-Obersturmbannführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Einsatzkommando 2 of Einsatzgruppe A	{{{2}}}\|[2]}}; handed over to Belgian authorities and received another death sentence; died prior to execution on 11 September 1955
Emil Haussmann	File:Emil Haussmann at the Nuremberg Trials.jpg	SS-Sturmbannführer; member of the SD; officer of Einsatzkommando 12 of Einsatzgruppe D	Committed suicide before the arraignment on July 31, 1947
Waldemar Klingelhöfer	File:Waldemar Klingelhöfer at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG	SS-Sturmbannführer; member of the SD; commanding officer of Vorkommando Moskau of Einsatzgruppe B	Death by hanging	Commuted to life imprisonment; released in December 1956; died in 1977
Lothar Fendler	File:Lothar Fendler at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG	SS-Sturmbannführer; member of the SD; second highest-ranking officer of Sonderkommando 4b of Einsatzgruppe C	10 years^{{{#if:\|{{{2}}}\|[3]}}}	Commuted to 8 years; released in March 1951; died in 1983
Template:Interlanguage link	File:Waldemar von Radetzky at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG	SS-Sturmbannführer; member of the SD; deputy chief of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C	20 years	Released; died in 1990
Template:Interlanguage link	File:Felix Ruehl at the Nuremberg Trials.jpg	SS-Hauptsturmführer; member of the Gestapo; officer of Sonderkommando 10b of Einsatzgruppe D	10 years^{{{#if:\|{{{2}}}\|[4]}}}	Released; died in 1982
Heinz Schubert	File:Heinz Schubert2.jpg	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
Template:Interlanguage link	File:Mathias Graf at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG	SS-Untersturmführer; member of the SD; officer in Einsatzkommando 6 of Einsatzgruppe C	Time served^{{{#if:\|{{{2}}}\|[5]}}}
NotesTemplate:Plainlist

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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 judgmentEdit

File:The last Jew in Vinnitsa, 1941.jpg

The Last Jew in Vinnitsa. A member of Einsatzgruppe D shoots a person kneeling before a filled mass grave.

The Nuremberg Military Tribunal in its judgement stated the following:

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