Einsatzgruppen Trials

After the war, the Einsatzgruppen leaders were tried at the subsequent Nürnberg proceedings, in the 9th trial, conducted by the Nürnberg Military Tribunals. The trial 'The United States of America v. Otto Ohlendorf, et al.' was presided over by Judge Michael A. Musmanno. It began on 3 July 1947, and ended on 10 April 1948. There were 24 defendants. 14 of them were sentenced to death, seven to periods of imprisonment, ranging from 10 years to life, and one to the time already served. 2 were not tried or sentenced. 4 of the defendants were actually executed, and 16 had their sentences commuted or reduced to periods extending from the time already served to life imprisonment. One defendant was released, one died of natural causes, one committed suicide, and the execution of one was stayed because of the defendant's insanity.
Additional post-war trials: Following the establishment of the 'Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen' (Central Office of the Judicial Administrations of the Lander) at Ludwigsburg (West Germany), over 100 more indictments were handed down against Einsatzkommando commanders, officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates. In the ensuing trials no death sentences were passed, since the Federal Republic of Germany had abolished capital punishment.

Imprisoned

Blobel

ERNST BIBERSTEIN - Obersturmbannführer (It. colonel) in the SS; member of the SD; Commanding Officer of Einsatzkommando 6 of Einsatzgruppe C - death by hanging (commuted to life imprisonment)
PAUL BLOBEL - Standartenführer (colonel) in the SS; member of the SD; Commanding Officer of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C - death by hanging (executed 7 June 1951)
WALTER BLUME - Standartenführer (colonel) in the SS; member of the SD; member of the Gestapo; Commanding Officer of Sonderkommando 7a of Einsatzgruppe B - death by hanging (commuted to life imprisonment)
WERNER BRAUNE - Obersturmbannführer (It. colonel) in the SS; member of the SD; member of the Gestapo; Commanding Officer of Sonderkommando llb of Einsatzgruppe D - death by hanging (executed 7 June 1951)
LOTHAR FENDLER - Sturmbannführer (major) in the SS; member of the SD; Deputy Chief of Sonderkommando 4b of Einsatzgruppe C - 10 years imprisonment (commuted to 8 years imprisonment)
MATHIAS GRAF - Untersturmführer (2nd lieutenant) in the SS; member of the SS; officer of Einsatzkommando 6 of Einsatzgruppe C (?) - 15 years imprisonment
WALTER HÄNSCH - Obersturmbannführer (It. colonel) in the SS; member of the SD; Commanding Officer of Sonderkommando 4b of Einsatzgruppe C - death by hanging (commuted to 15 years imprisonment)
EMIL HAUSSMANN - Sturmbannführer (major) in the SS; member of the SD; officer of Einsatzkommando 12 of Einsatzgruppe D - committed suicide after being arraigned (?)
HEINZ JOST - Brigadeführer (brigadier general) in the SS; member of the SD; Commanding Officer of Einsatzgruppe A - life imprisonment (commuted to 10 years imprisonment - released in 1951)
WALDEMAR KLINGELHOEFER - Sturmbannführer (major) in the SS; member of the SD; member of Sonderkommando 7b of Einsatzgruppe B; Commanding Officer of Vorkommando Moskau - death by hanging (commuted to 15 years imprisonment – released 1956)
ERICH NAUMANN - Brigadeführer (brigadier general) in the SS; member of the SD; Commanding Officer of Einsatzgruppe B - death by hanging (executed 7 June 1951)
GUSTAV NOSSKE - Obersturmbannführer (It. colonel) in the SS; member of the Gestapo; Commanding Officer of Einsatzkommando 12 of Einsatzgruppe D - life imprisonment (commuted to 10 years imprisonment - released in 1951)

Ohlendorf

OTTO OHLENDORF - Gruppenführer (major general) in the Schutzstaffeln der Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei (commonly known as the "SS"); member of the Reichssicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers SS (commonly known as the "SD"); Commanding Officer of Einsatzgruppe D - death by hanging (executed 7 June 1951)
ADOLF OTT - Obersturmbannführer (It. colonel) in the SS; member of the SD; Commanding Officer of Sonderkommando 7b of Einsatzgruppe B - death by hanging (commuted to life imprisonment – released 1958)
WALDEMAR VON RADETZKY - Sturmbannführer (major) in the SS; member of the SD; Deputy Chief of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C - 20 years imprisonment (reduced to time served - released 1951)
OTTO RASCH - Brigadeführer (brigadier general) in the SS; member of the SD; member of the Gestapo; Commanding Officer of Einsatzgruppe C – (proceeding suspended due to ill health)
FELIX RÜHL - Hauptsturmführer (captain) in the SS; member of the Gestapo; officer of Sonderkommando 10b of Einsatzgruppe D - 10 years imprisonment (sentence reduced to time served)
MARTIN SANDBERGER - Standartenführer (colonel) in the SS; member of the SD; Commanding Officer of Einsatzkommando la of Einsatzgruppe A - death by hanging (commuted to life imprisonment – released 1953)
HEINZ SCHÜBERT - Obersturmführer (1st lieutenant) in the SS; member of the SD; officer of Einsatzgruppe D - death by hanging (commuted to 10 years imprisonment - released in 1951)
ERWIN SCHULZ - Brigadeführer (brigadier general) in the SS; member of the Gestapo; Commanding Officer of Einsatzkommando 5 of Einsatzgruppe C - 20 years imprisonment (commuted to 15 years imprisonment – released 1954)
WILLY SEIBERT - Standartenführer (colonel) in the SS; member of the SD; Deputy Chief of Einsatzgruppe D - death by hanging (commuted to 15 years imprisonment)
FRANZ SIX - Brigadeführer (brigadier general) in the SS; member of the SD; Commanding Officer of Vorkommando Moskau of Einsatzgruppe B - 20 years imprisonment (commuted to 10 years imprisonment – released 1952)
EUGEN STEIMLE - Standartenführer (colonel) in the SS; member of the SD; Commanding Officer of Sonderkommando 7a of Einsatzgruppe B; Commanding Officer of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C - death by hanging (commuted to 20 years imprisonment – released 1954)
EDUARD STRAUCH - Obersturmbannführer (lt. colonel) in the SS; member of the SD; Commanding Officer of Einsatzkommando 2 of Einsatzgruppe A - death by hanging (extradited to Belgium and condemned to death again – execution stayed because of insanity)

In an attempt to placate German public opinion amidst the rising tensions of the Cold War, all war criminals still imprisoned in U.S. war crimes trials had been released from custody by 1958. Those imprisoned by the British were released even earlier, in 1957. Benjamin Ferencz, who had led the prosecution in the Einsatzgruppen trial, wrote in December 1951 to John J. McCloy, the U.S. High Commissioner in Germany, and the man responsible for the decision to release some of those convicted by the Americans, as follows:
"I notice in this morning’s paper that a group of our Landsberg friends have been given their freedom as a Christmas present. These include ... three Einsatzgruppen boys, Schubert, Jost and Nosske. Schubert confessed to personally supervising the execution of about 800 Jews in a humane manner to avoid the moral strain on the execution squad. You may recall that the deadline for cleaning up Simferopol was Christmas 1941 and that Schubert managed to kill all the Jews by then. So for Christmas ten years later he goes Scot free. Who says there is no Santa Klaus? Nosske was the one whom the other defendants called the biggest bloodhound of all the day after the sentences were imposed and (he) only received twenty years [actually life imprisonment, commuted to 10 years imprisonment]. Now Nosske is free to join former General Jost whose command ordered a fourth gas van when the three in operation executing women and children were insufficient to do the job properly. Noel, Noel, what the hell.”

Telford Taylor, who had been deputy leader of the American prosecution team at the IMT trial and chief prosecutor in subsequent U.S. war crimes trials at Nürnberg, wrote that the widespread review of the sentences imposed at the latter proceedings were “the embodiment of political expediency…(dealing) a blow to the principles of international law and concepts of humanity for which we fought the war.

Proceedings were commenced by the West German Central Prosecution Office of Nazi War Criminals against more than 100 former Einsatzgruppen members. Some selected results of these trials:

OTTO BRADFISCH – Commanding Officer of Einsatzkommando 8 of Einsatzgruppe B – 13 years imprisonment, commuted to 6 years imprisonment
ERNST EHLERS - Einsatzgruppe B – committed suicide whilst awaiting trial, in 1980
ERICH EHRLINGER - Einsatzgruppe A – 12 years imprisonment, discontinued on appeal because of permanent disability
ALFRED KARL WILHELM FILBERT - Commanding Officer of Einsatzkommando 9 of Einsatzgruppe B – life imprisonment
AUGUST HÄFNER - Einsatzkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C – 8 years imprisonment
AUGUST HERING - Einsatzkommando 3 of Einsatzgruppe A – life imprisonment
KARL JÄGER – Commanding Officer of Einsatzkommando 3 of Einsatzgruppe A – committed suicide whilst awaiting trial, on 22 June 1959
ALBERT RAPP - Commanding Officer of Einsatzkommando 7a of Einsatzgruppe B – life imprisonment
MARTIN WEISS - Einsatzkommando 3 of Einsatzgruppe A – life imprisonment
PAUL JOHANNES ZAPP - Commanding Officer of Einsatzkommando 11a of Einsatzgruppe D – life imprisonment

Some selected proceedings in East Germany:

ADOLF BLASCHKE - Einsatzkommando 4b of Einsatzgruppe C – life imprisonment
JOSEF BLÖSCHE - Einsatzkommando 8 of Einsatzgruppe B – sentenced to death
HERBERT MAX DRABANT - Einsatzkommando 12 of Einsatzgruppe D – life imprisonment
GEORG FRENTZEL - Einsatzkommando 8 of Einsatzgruppe B – life imprisonment
KURT OTTO GOERCKE - Einsatzkommando 4b of Einsatzgruppe C – sentenced to death
JOHANNES ERNST KINDER - Einsatzkommando 10a of Einsatzgruppe D – sentenced to death
HUBERT SCHWERHOFF – Einsatzgruppe 1 (Poland) – sentenced to death

Other individuals:

JOACHIM HAMANN - Einsatzkommando 3 of Einsatzgruppe A – died on 13 July 1945
RUDOLF LANGE - Commanding Officer of Einsatzkommando 2 of Einsatzkommando A – believed killed in action, in 1945
FRANZ WALTER STAHLECKER – Commanding Officer of Einsatzkommando A – died of wounds on 23 March 1942
MAX THOMAS - Commanding Officer of Einsatzkommando C – believed killed in action, in 1944

SOURCES:
Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2003
Richard Rhodes. Masters of Death – The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2002
Bloxham, Donald. Genocide on Trial – War Crimes Trials and the Formation of Holocaust History and Memory, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001.
www1.jur.uva.nljunsv/index.htm

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