Einsatzgruppen Trial Was Highly Imperfect

The Einsatzgruppen Trial (officially, The United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al.) was the ninth of the twelve trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity that the US authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. It was held in 1947-48.

These twelve trials were all held before US military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) as the “main” Nuremberg Trial (although they took place in the same rooms at the Palace of Justice). The twelve US trials are collectively known as the “Subsequent Nuremberg trials” or, more formally, as the “Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals” (NMT).

The Einsatzgruppen Trial was highly imperfect (to put it mildly). First, the defendants were charged only with crimes committed in the occupied Soviet Union (crimes committed in Poland where Einsatzgruppen murdered upwards of 100,000 Poles were ignored).

Second, no attempt was made to check the validity of so-called “Einsatzgruppen reports” which claimed that in 1941-43 Einsatzgruppen murdered around 2 million “enemies of the Reich”. In reality, death toll was roughly one-third of that (you must apply the “Nebe adjustment”) or about 700,000. Which does not change the essence and the nature of their crimes, obviously.

Third, although “genocide” was used by both the prosecution and by the judges in the verdict (the first time in legal context), genocide of the Jews was not mentioned specifically – the defendants were accused of genocide of “Soviet citizens”.

In reality, the only genocide committed by Einsatzgruppen in the Soviet Union was serial mass murder of Jews and of the Romani (the latter is still debatable). All other mass murders were “reprisals” to activities of Soviet guerillas (“partisans”).

All defendants were charged on all counts. All defendants pleaded “not guilty”. The tribunal found all of them guilty on all counts, except two, who were found guilty only in “membership in criminal organizations” (SS, SD or Gestapo). Of which SD – domestic intelligence service – was by no means criminal.

Fourteen defendants were sentenced to death. However, only four of them were executed (nine sentences were commuted – which was a miscarriage of justice, to put it mildly). One defendant – Otto Rasch, commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe C – was removed from the trial for medical reasons. He allegedly died on November 1, 1948 in his bed… however, his real fate appears to be VERY different.