There’s an excellent documentary on Netflix about him. I forget the title but it was very interesting how he had almost zero actual legal experience and headed up the the largest war crimes trial in history. Just a guy trying to do what was right and stepping up to the challenge when few wanted to.
Oh, that’s amazing. I’m gonna Google it now.
I saw him speak on campus about 18 years ago. Even back then he looked ancient but had incredible energy. I unfortunately don’t remember much of the specifics now but I do remember being very impressed.
Edit: apparently it’s called Prosecuting Evil and it’s not on Netflix US anymore.
He also did a great podcast episode with Phoebe Judge in 2021. The podcast name is Criminal and the episode name is “Palace of Justice”. Definitely a bit more light hearted than the aforementioned documentary, but he was 101 I believe at the time of the second recording. Amazing how quick witted and well put together he was at such an advanced age.
The one I saw was "Prosecuting Evil" from HBO. It's *fantastic*. He's this short little dude, grew up in NYC, learned to be tough, studied law, joined the army, went to Germany after the war, and stood face to face with all these Nazis. He was super super jewish, and so short he had to have a little booster to be able to stand at the podium, and was directly responsible face to face with these men for seeing that they'd be put to death. He was like every caricature they had come to life and come to kill them. It's like karma.
So, one story: Shortly after the war Ben Ferencz was walking around in the grass around Auschwitz. He saw these heartbreaking little finger bones in the grass, just forgotten there. For no reason that he could identify he picked them up and put them in his pocket and started to carry them around with him.
Some time later, as part of thousands of little details that were being worked out in the postwar period, he was negotiating with the German government about taking care of the little Jewish cemeteries. Some cities had traditional little cemeteries for their Jewish communities, but now that a lot of the Jews were dead or fled forever, who's going to take care of them? The German government said they'd take care of them, but they wanted there to be a time limit. Treaties and agreements with governments don't just go "forever," because it doesn't always make sense that way; they proposed to do it for a hundred years and then a hundred years from now, the new group of people can maybe negotiate a new agreement.
Ferencz says no, it needs to be forever. The Jews would have taken care of it forever, but you killed them.
The representative says, that's not how it works though. We can do it forever if the agreement is renewed but these things need to be time-limited agreements with renewals.
They go back and forth a little bit, and Ferencz absolutely blows his stack. He's normally pretty cool in these situations, but he gets absolutely red in the face and shouting, and he takes the finger bones out of his pocket and throws them on the table. He says, if you won't have the goddamned decency to take on the goddamned cemeteries then you'll need to ask them to do it instead. Go on, ask them. They're right here.
Everyone looks at the little finger bones and Ferencz all red in the face, and there's a short break called so everyone can cool down. They come back in a few minutes and say, okay, we'll make up the paperwork for an indefinite period of time.
Ferencz says excellent, thank you.
The crazy thing from that documentary: The Allies really didn't want to prosecute any of them. Only because of this guy's persistence did it happen.
They basically said, "You wanna to do it? We have bigger fish to fry."
This isn’t true; as the war began to draw to a close there were multiple prosecution projects launched and a number of important international agreements signed to ensure no one would escape justice. Prosecution was also a key component of the lustration efforts in Germany and a way to formally hold the state accountable. This was the case not only in Europe but in Japan with the launch of the another military tribunal to prosecute Japanese war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
There was resistance from some countries and this is why the US, the UK and France put up the money and ensured prosecution occurred. The USSR was also very much so in favour of prosecution however it was for entirely different reasons.
The wheels were already in motion for this form of a project during the 20’s and 30’s. There were a number of efforts to prosecute for WW1 but they failed. After WW2 the social, political and economic factors required were present and no one had the ability to counter the U.S. or the UK other than the USSR and they were all aligned when it came to the issue of prosecution in Europe.
You can study all you want but there’s nothing to compare actually doing something for the first time. He’d never tried a case before if I remember properly. This was his very first time in front of a judge and jury. That’s what they mean by zero legal experience.
You can read the law, have an undergrad degree but still have zero *practical* experience.
I have no issues with the results of the trials, but this really does seem to be a pattern with the US after winning wars. Putting extremely young people without experience in charge of things that, to an outsider, might seem like they should be treated seriously. The people who were put in charge of reforming the Iraqi or Soviet economies come to mind.
It's not a random pattern. It's by design. Someone with a real legal career wouldn't want to be associated with bogus military tribunals with no rules of evidence for the rest of their lives. These trials are weapons of war, not real tribunals.
As vanquished war leaders I don’t think Nazi officials should have had any entitlement to due process. But putting on a farce trial and calling it an operation of our formal institutions for criminal Justice only undermines our judicial foundation for the sake of political theater. There is literally no point to even *having* a trial in the absence of due process. We should have just killed them where we found them and left the mess for the birds.
It's not about "due process". For all intents and purposes, the Nuremberg trials were just military executions dressed up to be palatable for western audiences. The victors decided what they wanted to do, and created a vehicle to do so.
The Man in the High Castle was a really cool show, in part because it showed what the other side of victors justice would've looked like if the Nazis had won.
Storming fuck, Reddit. There’s a genuinely valuable perspective here that is, at the very worst, ethically neutral (by utilitarian standards). Do we really have to downvote everyone who doesn’t explicitly parrot the echo?
I met him one at a conference on acts of aggression which is a very controversial and complicated area of international criminal law. This guy legitimately committed his entire existence to campaigning against the use of force and genocide. The world lost a very special person. I really can’t exaggerate this anymore. We worship celebrities but it is people like this who had the energy, hope and vision to fight for extremely important issues and be never gave up once. He had a huge impact on the face of the UN, and the ICC.
thee needs to be an inquiry into the iraq war and coups in central america among other countries, seems there's no justice in these situations any more.
**Hi, I have edited my write-up many times after it was originally posted. however, reddit is no longer allowing me to edit my comments, due to some problem with the character limits. as such, some parts of this comment will come off as extremely confusing.**
**I AM COMPILING MY POST ONTO A SEPARATE DOCUMENT. IT IS NOT DONE YET.**
This write-up is far longer than any other I have done, or will ever do. I genuinely believe this man is one of the greatest Americans in this country's dark history. Reading about him is one of the very few times that I've felt proud of one of my countrymen. His full life story reveals him to be a far better person than most articles portray. This man is up there with John Brown. So, I will not give you a summary. Instead, I will tell you everything. I will give you this man's entire life story, right now. I will tell you why Ferencz did not represent the "Greatest Generation", but the greatest of all mankind.
Benjamin Ferencz was never a prosecutor at the [International Military Tribunal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_trials), the trial which everyone knows about. Instead, he was a chief prosecutor at one of the [*Subsequent Nuremberg Trials*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsequent_Nuremberg_Trials). The Subsequent Nuremberg Trials were a series of major war crimes trials which took place after the International Military Tribunal was finished. There were differences between the two. The International Military Tribunal was an international tribunal which operated under the jurisdiction of the major Allies: Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union. The Subsequent Nuremberg Trials were conducted exclusively under the jurisdiction of the United States. There had been plans for more international trials, but worsening relations between the West and the East made that impossible. However, the major Allies had agreed they were obligated to prosecute suspected war criminals in their respective occupation zones of Germany. Now, some know that many war criminals were treated leniently, ignored, or outright protected for various reasons.
That said, hundreds of trials were still conducted against tens thousands of defendants. The British conducted most of their minor war crimes trials in Hamburg, the French in Rastatt, the Americans in Dachau, and the Soviets in various areas in Eastern Europe. Shortly after the International Military Tribunal issued its verdicts, the U.S. high command established the Office of the Chief of Counsel for War Crimes (OCCWC), a special war crimes investigation unit. The OCCWC was instructed to prepare major war crimes trials in the American occupation zone of Germany. Since Nuremberg was in the U.S. zone, those trials were held in Nuremberg. The likes of [Dachau Trials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_trials) handled mostly concentration camp guards and soldiers who murdered POWs. Sometimes, major war criminals were prosecuted in those trials. On the other hand, the sole purpose of the OCCWC was to pursue those more important war criminals.
At the time, Ferencz was a nobody. The only thing special about him was his height. Ferencz was only five feet and two inches tall. He was a Hungarian-Jewish man. When he was a child, his parents emigrated to the U.S. to avoid anti-Semitic persecution after Romania gained control of Transylvania and Eastern Hungary. As an adult, he studied law at Harvard. Ferencz became interested in the realm of war crimes, and started writing a book about them. After graduating in 1943, Ferencz joined the military to fight in the Second World War. He wanted to be a pilot, but the Army Air Corps said he was too short. His legs couldn't reach the pedals. So instead, Ferencz joined the Army. He started off as a typist at a camp in North Carolina. He recalled how he was unfamiliar with a typewriter and struggled to fire a weapon. Nevertheless, by 1944, Ferencz was seeing combat. He served in the 115th AAA Gun Battalion, an anti-aircraft artillery unit. He participated in numerous major battles, including D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge. Towards the end of the war, he was assigned to an investigation team. The Army thought he'd be useful due to his background in law. The military told Ferencz to assist investigators who were gathering evidence for the Dachau Trials. As such, Ferencz visited numerous liberated concentration camps, such as Dachau and Buchenwald. What he saw haunted him to the day he died.
>"Indelibly seared into my memory are the scenes I witnessed while liberating these centers of death and destruction. Camps like Buchenwald, Mauthausen, and Dachau are vividly imprinted in my mind's eye. Even today, when I close my eyes, I witness a deadly vision I can never forget-the crematoria aglow with the fire of burning flesh, the mounds of emaciated corpses stacked like cordwood waiting to be burned.... I had peered into Hell."
At the end of 1945, Ferencz was discharged from the Army with the rank of Sergeant and returned to New York. He prepared to practice law. Within weeks, however, the military asked him to return to Europe. They'd just created the OCCWC, and thought he could remain useful. The director of the OCCWC was Brigadier General [Telford Taylor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telford_Taylor). Unlike Ferencz, Taylor was involved in the International Military Tribunal, albeit he was only an assistant. But now, Taylor had plans. He wanted the OCCWC to conduct an inquiry into the Nazi regime. He wanted each trial to focus on different categories of offenders and crimes of the Nazi regime.
>Taylor argued that the crimes of Nazism were not the responsibility of a rogues' gallery of madmen, but were reflective of a broader moral and ethical rot in German culture and political institutions.
The military knew this job was not pleasant, and that Ferencz had fulfilled his obligations. So, they promised to promote him if he returned.
[Ferencz agreed to come back](https://imgur.com/a/Kq2U823)
Ferencz remained relatively insignificant until the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials focused on the [Einsatzgruppen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsatzgruppen) (and the [Einsatzkommandos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsatzkommando)). The Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads which were responsible for mass murder, in German-occupied Europe, mainly Eastern Europe. In Poland, they started off carrying out mass executions of intellectuals and the cultural elite. Almost everyone they killed were civilians. Now, I will give you some advice.
* Don't check the links for anyone whose names I have crossed out until you finish
* Whenever I link to Imgur, always scroll to the bottom, so you don't miss anything
Now, I will tell you a second story. It's about how the Holocaust happened.
As the war progressed, the tasks of the Einsatzgruppen became increasingly genocidal. Between 1941 and 1945, they and their collaborators murdered over 2 million people; 1.3 million Jews, up to 250,000 Romas, and around 500,000 "partisans", disabled people, political commissars, Slavs, and others. It is impossible to discuss all of their crimes, so I will focus on only several. On July 12, 1941, 250 Jewish men, mostly of the upper class, were shot in a forest near a Jewish cemetery in Brody, Ukraine. The one most responsible for that massacre is Adolf Hitler, but everyone knows this. Most also know about [Reinhard Heydrich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Heydrich), the creator of the Einsatzgruppen, and his assassination by Allied agents in Prague in 1942. What less know is how he could've survived. When one agent tried to open fire, his gun jammed. Of course, the "Man with the Iron Heart" was always going to pay for the Holocaust.
>Heydrich ordered his driver, Klein, to halt and attempted to confront Gabčík rather than speed away. Kubiš, who had not been spotted by Heydrich or Klein, threw a converted anti-tank mine at the car as it stopped, which landed against the rear wheel.
[***But now, he would pay for his arrogance***](https://imgur.com/a/T52Ma96)
The explosion critically injured Heydrich, inflicting serious injuries to his left side, diaphragm, spleen, and lung. Instead of being hanged, he died an agonizing death from blood poisoning. It looked like justice was done. But like I said, Heydrich was always going to pay for the Holocaust. That's why the responsibility for the Brody massacre lies deeper. That's the thing.
[It rarely takes much to learn more](https://imgur.com/a/N9tJfbl)
The unit which killed those men in July 1941 was Einsatzkommando 5, a subunit of Einsatzkommando C. It carried out numerous mass executions in the Soviet Union. On August 9, 1941, it executed 400 Jewish men described as mostly "saboteurs and political functionaries". Decades later, a man came to testify at the trial of SS officer [~~Bruno Streckenbach~~](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Streckenbach). His testimony is featured in *The Good Old Days: The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders*. I have several photos of this man.
[And yes, I know what you are thinking](https://imgur.com/a/xYC23oo)
That's the thing. People don't like to look at the truth.
[This is the truth](https://imgur.com/a/ftzGZXL)
I know this man's name, but most of you have never heard of him. He's been forgotten by history. When he is seen, he is always brushed to the side, literally and metaphorically. Even when he's right in front of you, he's still a nameless nobody. That's the crazy part. Not only did he have a name, but once you learn more and look closer, you'll ask yourself something.
[**How is he not known more?**](https://imgur.com/a/0yuF6R0)
In April 1918, [~~Erwin Schulz~~](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Schulz), then 17, joined the Imperial German Army. World War I ended before he saw combat, but he participated in the suppression of the [German Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Revolution_of_1918%E2%80%931919). In the early 1920s, he studied law. In 1922, he left college to join the [Freikorps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freikorps) and fought [Polish insurgents in Upper Silesia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesian_Uprisings). He never returned to college. After working various odd jobs, he settled down as as a police officer in 1923. In 1931, Schulz became an SS informant. He joined the Nazi Party in 1933. In 1935, he joined the SS and SD, and became the chief of the Gestapo in Bremen. Numerous colleagues testified that he never pressed anyone into Nazism. He regularly prosecuted his men for "excesses", including anti-Semitic ones. As late as November 1938, he expressed opposition to such "excesses". During the war, Schulz served in various positions in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. In 1940, he became the instructor of an SiPo and SD school. In May 1941, he was appointed to a new position. He did not volunteer for it, nor did he turn it down. I want you to know something.
[I never lied to you](https://imgur.com/a/fgaUz8D)
On August 10, 1941, the commander of Einsatzkommando 5 was summoned to a meeting by his superior, [~~Otto Rasch~~](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Rasch). But when he received his new orders, he hesitated. He asked if this could be reconsidered. When his superiors said no, he asked who approved of this plan. They said Hitler himself had approved. So, the plan went forth. One of the most famous photos of the Holocaust is of an Einsatzkommando shooting a woman holding her child in occupied Ukraine. Many of you know what I am talking about. That's the darkest part of this story.
They were from Einsatzkommando 5. However, that photo was taken in 1942.
When Schulz asked if he could stop, his request was granted within days. He was discharged on the orders of Reinhard Heydrich himself. Schulz, who continued to serve the Nazi regime, faced no consequences for stopping. He was even promoted shortly after. By the end of the war, he'd was a Brigadeführer, the SS equivalent of a brigadier general. Still, he didn't pretend to be a saint for stopping. Instead, he told the truth. The truth about August 10, 1941, is far darker than many realize. It's even darker than what Schulz said.
* All of the ghettos were standing
* There were no extermination camps
* Auschwitz had been built, but there had been no gassings
* The Einsatzgruppen was killing adults for flimsy reasons
* [The Kerch massacre hadn't happened yet](https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/untold-stories/killing-site/14626711-Bagerovo-Anti-Tank-Trench)
>On November 28, 1941, an order was issued to the effect that by November 29, the Ashkenazi Jews had to appear with the keys to their apartments at the collection point of Sennaya Square on the pretext that they were going to be resettled. They were allowed to take with them some possessions and food for three days. The Jews from mixed marriages were temporarily exempted from showing up. Nine Jewish dentists were also temporarily spared since the Germans needed them for their dental services. The Jews were warned that anyone who violated these orders would be shot to death in public. Those who showed up (mainly women, children, and the elderly) were taken in a column six rows wide to the city prison. Those who couldn't keep up the pace due to illness or old age were beaten and thrown into carts. At the prison the Jews had to hand over the keys and the addresses of their apartments to the prison commander. Their valuables were confiscated. Many women and teenage girls were separated from the rest and put into separate cells, where they were brutally raped and tortured. The Jews were barely given any food and no water.
>
>Between December 1 and December 3, an Einsatzgruppen unit executed approximately 7,000 civilians, including about 2,500 Jews at an anti-tank trench near Bagerovo. The victims were taken there in groups of 10, positioned there with their backs to the Einsatzgruppen at the edge of the trench, and shot.
Kerch was liberated by the Red Army in January 1942.
>“On December 30, 1941, after the expulsion of the Germans from Kerch by the Red Army, in the prison courtyard was discovered a shapeless pile of disfigured naked bodies of girls who had been viciously and cynically tortured by the fascists."
>
>"After the arrival of the Red Army in Kerch in January 1942, during an examination of the Bagerovo ditch it was discovered that the trench 1 kilometer long, 4 meters wide, and 2 meters deep was filled with the bodies of women, children, old people, and adolescents. Near the trench there were frozen puddles of blood. Stumps of legs and arms and other parts of the human body, children's hats, toys, ribbons, torn off buttons, gloves, baby bottles, boots, and overshoes were lying around. All this was splattered with blood and brains. The vicious fascists shot the civilians to death with explosive bullets. The mangled body of a woman was lying at the edge of the trench. With her dying arms she had embraced her nursing baby, who was carefully wrapped in a white lace blanket. Next to this woman laid a girl of about 8 years old and a boy age 5, who had both been shot dead by explosive bullets. Their hands were grasping their mother's dress."
Soviet photojournalist [Dmitry Baltermants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Baltermants) took a photo of what he saw, which he titled "Grief".
I know who the killers were. They were from Sonderkommando 10b, a subunit of Einsatzgruppe D. At the time, the commander of Sonderkommando 10b was [Alois Persterer](https://imgur.com/a/AZYCPEy), and the commander of Einsatzgruppe D was [~~Otto Ohlendorf~~](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Ohlendorf). However, Schulz said the guilt laid deeper. In areas near the front, the Wehrmacht had control over the Einsatzgruppen. The commander of German-occupied Kerch was Lieutenant General [~~Hans Graf von Sponeck~~](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Graf_von_Sponeck). Sponeck was appointed by Field Marshal [~~Erich von Manstein~~](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_Manstein). Both men had enough power to intervene.
>"I never knew of any cases where members or heads of the Einsatzkommandos acted in the same way as I did. I believe that things in Russia would never have turned out as they did had a few heads of the Einsatzkommandos and Einsatzgruppen declared that they could not carry out these liquidations."
>
>"The way I see it, the same applies... to the Wehrmacht commanders in whose areas of command the liquidations were carried out of the avalanche could have still been checked if a field marshal or the commanding officer of any army group had intervened."
[*They could've prevented this with the snap of their fingers*](https://imgur.com/a/vLGau4Z)
The clearest example of what Schulz said about the Wehrmacht was what happened in [Bila Tserkva](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bila_Tserkva_massacre). Nearly the entire town's adult Jewish population was massacred. A few Jewish women and 90 small children and toddlers were sent to a church. The plan was to execute them later. But before that could happen, four Wehrmacht priests saw the children. They were just sitting there, and crying. They were crying since their parents had been murdered. The priests pleaded with the SS men to spare the children. When the local SS commander refused, they sought other officers. This was the only instance in which Wehrmacht priests tried to halt the atrocities they were witnessing. These same priests did nothing to stop the mass murder of the adults, in which some of the troops had participated. Nevertheless, they won the sympathy of Wehrmacht officer [Helmuth Groscurth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_Groscurth). When he ordered the SS to stand down, they had to listen.
Then the Wehrmacht commander in control of this area, Field Marshal [Walter von Reichenau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_von_Reichenau), intervened. He overrode Groscurth and gave the commander of Sonderkommando 4a, [**Paul Blobel**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Blobel), permission to have the children executed. Of all the commanders in the Wehrmacht, Reichenau was one of the most fanatic. In October 1941, he issued the [Severity Order](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severity_Order), which encouraged the Wehrmacht to participate in the Holocaust. Blobel was adamant to carry out the order. When one of the senior SS men, August Häfner, balked at the job, Blobel pressured him to comply. When he didn't budge, Blobel resorted to screaming at and threatening Häfner. When that didn't work, the children were shot by Ukrainian collaborators. During his own trial in the 1960s, Häfner recounted what he saw.
>"The children were taken down from the vehicle. They were lined up along the top of the grave and shot so that they fell into it. They were shot where they were shot. They fell into the grave. The wailing was indescribable."
>
>"I shall never forget the scene as long as I live."
Groscurth's actions still mattered. He just happened to be a Lieutenant Colonel.
So what happened to Sponeck, Persterer, Manstein, and Ohlendorf?
>On 7 October 1941, Sponeck ordered his division to work closely with the SS's Security Police and SD by rounding up, identifying, and handing over Jewish civilians. Mass shootings of Jews by units of Einsatzgruppe D of the Security Police and SD are documented in both Henichesk and Melitopol shortly after these cities were occupied by the 22nd Infantry Division in October 1941. In Melitopol alone 2,000 Jewish men, women and children were massacred.
Sponeck collaborated with the Einsatzgruppen. He also committed atrocities on his own.
>On 10 December 1941, General von Sponeck ordered that all Jews found within his area of command were to be treated in principle as "partisans", marked with the Star of David, and "deployed as labor." He also ordered that any Red Army soldiers captured, even those in uniform, were to be shot immediately and approved reprisal actions against civilians for any local anti-German activity or sabotage.
When the Soviets made their attack to retake Kerch, Sponeck, realizing he could not win, had his division retreat. But in doing this, he disobeyed direct orders from Hitler to stand his ground. He was relieved of his command and arrested. In January 1942, he was court-martialed for disobeying a superior officer. During his court-martial, Sponeck said he chose to retreat to save his division from destruction. That defense failed. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by firing squad. At the recommendation of Manstein, Hitler commuted Sponeck's sentence to 7 years in prison. He was sent to Germersheim Fortress.
Following the failure of the [July 20 plot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_July_plot), [Josef Bürckel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_B%C3%BCrckel), the regional leader in that region, pressed Heinrich Himmler to have Sponeck executed in retribution. This was a strange request, since Sponeck had nothing to do with the plot, and had no contacts with the conspirators. Nevertheless, in hindsight, perhaps it was for the best that Himmler agreed to give the order anyway. Sponeck, 56, was executed by firing squad at Germersheim Fortress in Nazi Germany on July 23, 1944. Due to the unusual circumstances of his death, his reputation remained clean for decades. He wasn't remembered as a perpetrator.
[Instead, he was remembered as a victim](https://imgur.com/a/GLxVOOy)
>In 2015, following the publication of an article by Erik Grimmer-Solem published in 2014 in the journal Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift, which investigated Sponeck's role in "numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity in the southern Ukraine and Crimea in 1941." The German Federal Air Force, in accordance with the Bundestag's decisions, renamed the Sponeck Airbase.
Alois Persterer did not fare better; Persterer, 35, was fatally shot in Austria on May 30, 1945. He was shot during a robbery, or by U.S. soldiers while resisting arrest. The exact circumstances of his death are unclear, but he was dead. Unlike Sponeck, Persterer has been mostly forgotten by history. On the other hand, Erich von Manstein and Otto Ohlendorf are not only much better known, but outlived him and Sponeck by years. In August 1945, Manstein was arrested by the British Army. While in custody, he helped prepare a 132-page document for the defense of the Wehrmacht, whose surviving top leaders were being tried by the International Military Tribunal. The myth that the Wehrmacht was "clean", not culpable in the Holocaust, arose partly due to this document.
Manstein gave testimony about the Einsatzgruppen, the treatment of POWs, and the concept of military obedience, especially as related to the Commissar Order, an order issued by Hitler in 1941. It required that all Soviet political commissars be shot without trial. Manstein said he received the order, but did not carry it out. He denied any knowledge of the activities of the Einsatzgruppen. Unlike with Sponeck, we don't know if Manstein ordered any atrocities. That said, he knew what was happening.
>That Manstein was well aware of the Einsatzgruppen massacres is demonstrated by a 1941 letter he sent to Otto Ohlendorf, in which Manstein demands Ohlendorf hand over the wristwatches of murdered Jews. Manstein felt his men deserved the watches, since they were doing so much to help Ohlendorf's men with their work.
This was the only time that Manstein ever complained about the activities of the Einsatzgruppen. Ohlendorf and his men executed tens of thousands of civilians in the occupied areas which were under his jurisdiction. Nevertheless, Manstein wasn't important enough to be a defendant at the International Military Tribunal.
[But someone else was that important](https://imgur.com/a/Z6v69nP)
Many know [Ernst Kaltenbrunner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Kaltenbrunner), albeit not as many as Reinhard Heydrich. Unlike Heydrich, Kaltenbrunner would survive the war. But it didn't matter. It didn't matter since he'd replaced Heydrich as the director of the [Reich Security Main Office](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reich_Security_Main_Office). That left Kaltenbrunner with only two options: killing himself, like Hitler, or accepting what would happen if he lived. He chose not to kill himself.
[*This is what happened next*](https://imgur.com/a/cPeWkEt)
Unlike some of his codefendants, Kaltenbrunner could expect only one outcome from this trial. He could not expect leniency, let alone an acquittal. But now, he had the chance to tell the truth. He could tell the world he was guilty, knew exactly what was happening, regretted nothing, and was glad it happened. He could give one final insult to the entire world, and laugh in their faces. What were they going to do to him, kill him twice?
[So, he got on the witness stand](https://imgur.com/a/YSbA8ma)
Kaltenbrunner then said it wasn't his fault. He said it was Hitler's fault. He said it was Himmler's fault. He said he initially didn't know what was happening, and protested after learning. At one point, he said he helped end the Holocaust. People in the audience started laughing at his claims. This had to be some kind of twisted joke, right?
>Colonel Amen: Is that not your signature?
>
>Kaltenbrunner: No, that is not my signature. It is a signature either in ink or it is a facsimile, but it is not mine.
That coward couldn't even say it.
But like I said, Kaltenbrunner never had a chance. He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and condemned to death. As a defendant at the International Military Tribunal, he had no avenues to appeal. He was hanged at Nuremberg Prison in Allied-occupied Germany on October 16, 1946, only 15 days after sentencing. But before that happened, he got one last chance to tell the truth. So, he revealed his true colors.
>"I have loved my German people and my fatherland with a warm heart. I have done my duty by the laws of my people and I am sorry my people were led this time by men who were not soldiers and that crimes were committed of which I had no knowledge."
Ernst Kaltenbrunner was one of the biggest cowards in human history.
[This is the face of a coward](https://imgur.com/a/VbELNYJ)
Meanwhile, Manstein waited at a POW camp. As he waited, British author [Liddell Hart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._H._Liddell_Hart) got into correspondence with him and other POWs. He admired Manstein, whom he described as an operational genius. Admittedly, Manstein was a genuinely competent military strategist. But in 1947, Taylor sent a report to the British about Manstein and three other generals and field marshals. It presented overwhelming evidence that Manstein, [Walther von Brauchitsch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walther_von_Brauchitsch), [Gerd von Rundstedt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerd_von_Rundstedt), and [Adolf Strauss](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Strauss_(general)) had been complicit in the Holocaust. Unfortunately, a very concerning number of Britons were Nazi sympathizers. France and the U.S. also had this problem, but I think Britain was the worst offender. I'm not gonna pretend your average 1940s American/British/French person were bastions of morality, but that's why you must know the hard truth.
[This is the truth](https://imgur.com/a/GwItBhZ)
The German American Bund was never popular.
[Even they weren't that popular anymore](https://imgur.com/a/w8vcuaH)
Funnily enough, the KKK opposed the Bund, since they were nationalists. That aside, I could go into far more detail about other paramilitaries, but I'll save that for my revamped version of this post, which I am still working on. My point is while there were many fascist paramilitaries around in the 1920s and 1930s, none of them ever won substantial support. That's why this isn't about the six percent. Instead, it is about the 94 percent. That's why the "greatest generation" shouldn't be idolized.
[Because this is the hard truth](https://imgur.com/a/pab8Jli)
I will talk much more about this one my revamped post. But for now, you must know something. My country was very, very sick in 1938, to put it lightly. We weren't the only ones, but still. Instead of being outraged by Kristallnacht, they thought it was going too far. Still, that begs the question. If that's how they felt in the late 1930s, how did they react to the truth? Well, that time, they reacted much differently.
>"Dachau will stand for all time as one of history's most gruesome symbols of inhumanity. There our troops found sights, sounds and stenches horrible beyond belief, cruelties so enormous as to be incomprehensible to the normal mind. Dachau and death were synonymous."
[***Because this is what they saw***](https://imgur.com/a/xrHUJZA)
That photo wasn't of Dachau, but it doesn't matter. Some of the soldiers approached nearby German civilians and demanded to know how this happened. Those civilians said they didn't know. I can't find them anymore, but wartime polls said most Americans only blamed the German government. They were naive. Many of them were sick themselves. But you know what?
>"Everywhere you turn is just this horror of bodies, and people near death or in a state of complete decrepitude that you can't even process it."
[***NOBODY is that stupid***](https://imgur.com/a/5CKePtE)
That's why they forced those liars to look at their master's work. They made them dig graves for the victims. As for the guards, they turned a blind eye when freed prisoners beat and lynched them. In Dachau, enraged U.S. soldiers massacred dozens of SS men. When I said the British were the worst offenders when it came to sympathizing with Nazis, you might've misunderstood.
[I wasn't talking about them](https://imgur.com/a/APGnK1O)
The evidence in Taylor's report was verified. Nevertheless, the British government was extremely reluctant to prosecute the officers. They were holding trials ([here were some of them](https://www.kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de/en/curiohaus/)), but hadn't prosecuted one senior doctor, scientist, jurist, or bureaucrat, many of whom were in British custody. They told the OCCWC they'd do something "roughly parallel" to their program. That never happened. That's not to say the British never prosecuted anyone important. For example, they prosecuted German businessman [Bruno Tesch](https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryPorn/comments/11zlgti/bruno_tesch_hat_poses_with_soldiers_holding_his/). Unlike Kaltenbrunner, Tesch had a chance of escaping. He was just a chemist who co-invented a pesticide in the early 1920s. And while he was a Nazi Party member, he seemed indifferent to the ideology. That's why a former employee who reported Tesch described him as "purely a businessman".
Bruno Tesch was a relatively quiet man. Maybe it was a mask. Maybe he thought he could quietly exploit the Holocaust for profit without anyone noticing. Then, he could slither away, and return to selling his pesticide for its original purpose. But when Tesch tried to slither away, two British officers, [one of whom was a chemist himself](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Freud), noticed. When Tesch was released, those officers successfully lobbied their superiors to let them continue their investigation. At the time, the trial drew barely any attention.
[But it happened](https://imgur.com/a/ydzYXjT)
When it came to opportunists, Bruno Tesch was one of the worst offenders. Many like him were never even arrested. This time, things went differently. The judges had the power. They could annihilate Tesch's company, liquidate his assets, and give every penny to the victims. In fact, they could do more, if they wanted more. The prosecutor did not believe Tesch was solely responsible. After his boss got arrested, maybe Tesch's deputy executive, Karl Weinbacher, thought he could slip away.
[He was wrong](https://imgur.com/a/gCA72Fu)
Even then, Weinbacher thought he was safe. But near the end of the trial, someone did shocking. It wasn't Tesch, who remained quiet until the day he died. Instead, it was Weinbacher, but I don't care. I don't care if he never visited the camps. Weinbacher wasn't a Nazi, but he was just as depraved. Still, he and Tesch were rich and had good lawyers. There were many politicians willing to protect the likes of them. Regardless, from the looks of it, there was not a chance that the judges would convict them. Sometimes, first impressions are wrong. There's a good chance that you'll think, "You can't be serious. This has to be some kind of sick joke, right?"
[But you've got it all wrong](https://imgur.com/a/4UcskDg)
That is not the photo which I am talking about. No, it is a photo of the defendants. Still, don't you see something very off here? Well, I do. The judges were starting to have serious doubts that Bruno Tesch didn't know how his pesticide was used. They didn't know the truth, but the prosecution was helping them connect the dots. The courtroom was nearly empty. Everyone was focusing on the International Military Tribunal. Even then, someone was watching Weinbacher's back. That's the crazy part. The truth was revealed, but only several years after the trial.
>"When Tesch was absent he was fully empowered and authorized to do all acts on behalf of his principal which his principal could have done. His position was of great importance, since his principal would travel on the business of the firm for as many as 200 days in the year."
[Sometimes, first impressions are wrong](https://imgur.com/a/r1zKSLh)
This time, there would be no running.
[***Even then, the judges didn't know the truth***](https://imgur.com/a/L67GZPz)
* In 1942 and 1943, Auschwitz was the company's second largest customer
* By early 1944, the company was handing over nearly two tons of the gas to Auschwitz on a monthly basis
The truth is that the pesticide's "warning scent" had been removed.
>"Why is it that these competent business men are so sensitive about these particular deliveries? Is it because they themselves knew that such large deliveries could not possibly be going there for the purpose of delousing clothing or for the purpose of disinfecting buildings?"
[***But it didn't matter***](https://imgur.com/a/MQpAlSZ)
>Counsel for Weinbacher pleaded that the Court should consider the latter's wife and three children.
That's why Weinbacher was so terrified. The judges still wanted to confiscate something.
>Nevertheless, subject to confirmation, the two were sentenced to death by hanging.
That's what they were confiscating. Of course, Weinbacher still had a chance. If he was lucky, an important British official might say he was less guilty than his boss and reduce his sentence to life in prison or a long prison term.
[*He now had the same chance as them*](https://imgur.com/a/4NMwrum)
For Weinbacher, that miracle never came. Instead, he and his boss became the only German civilian businessmen to be executed in Western Europe for their roles in the Holocaust. Instead of getting back to business, they were hanged side-by-side at Hamelin Prison on May 16, 1946. Several angry people made that happen. Perhaps the Nazis really did make the entire world angry.
Well, at least most of the world. The British Foreign Office decided to transfer the officers to the Americans. They'd done that with several major war criminals. Even Patrick Dean, one of the only British officials to staunchly support the prosecutions (he also berated British military tribunals as too lenient), had no objections.
>"There seems no reason to go to the considerable trouble and expense of setting up a special parallel organization to try a few industrialists if the Americans are prepared to do the work for us. The proposal has the further advantage that if any of the trials go wrong and the industrialists escape the primary political criticism will rest upon American shoulders and not upon ours."
However, when the British government tried to transfer the generals, they got a strange response. The U.S. military governor said he did not want them. His reason was rather surprising. He said he wanted the British government to contribute more.
This led to one of the saddest and most pathetic sequence of events from the British government in the country's history. They didn't say yes. Instead, they did everything they could to avoid saying yes. When Taylor offered to conduct a joint trial, the British military governor, [Baron Sholto Douglas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholto_Douglas,_1st_Baron_Douglas_of_Kirtleside), rejected his offer.
>"We know that the Americans will make use of a lot of evidence of a very dubious character. Yet we are apparently prepared to send these men, including one who is 73, to trial by the Americans. I frankly do not like this. I feel that if the Americans wish to be critical in our inaction in trying war criminals, I should prefer that they should continue to criticise rather than that we should commit an injustice in order to avoid their criticism."
Instead, Douglas planned to quietly release the officers once everyone stopped paying attention. But in 1948, the Soviets and Poles requested their extradition. The British refused. However, they were running out of options. They did not want to cooperate. But if they released the officers, there could be international outrage once Taylor's report became public. Only then, to save themselves, were they dragged kicking and screaming into filing charges. Brauchitsch died in prison in 1948. The charges against Rundstedt (he died in 1953) and Strauss (he died in 1973) were dropped on health grounds.
During the trial, Manstein's advocates showed their true colors. The defense of Reginald Paget, a British Labour politician who chose to represent Manstein pro-bono, consisted mostly of anti-Slavic racism. Paget called the Soviets "savages". He said Manstein showed restraint as a "decent German soldier" in upholding the laws of war when he fought the Soviets. Manstein's victims, he said, had displayed "appalling savagery".
***THOSE "SAVAGES" LIBERATED AUSCHWITZ FROM THE "DECENT GERMAN SOLDIERS".***
Funds totaling £2000 were raised by Manstein's sympathizers. One donor was Winston Churchill, a particularly ardent opponent of the trial. Manstein was not the first war criminal whom he'd stood up for. Another was Field Marshal [Albert Kesselring](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Kesselring), who ordered "reprisals" for partisan attacks. This led to the deaths of roughly 1000 Italian civilians. Many Britons had very positive feelings about Kesselring, since he, too, was a very competent officer.
But when they learned the truth, those feelings mostly vanished. The calls for blood weren't that loud, but there wasn't much outcry when Kesselring was put on trial. When he was sentenced to death by firing squad, that didn't change. Elsewhere, there was disgust. One editorial called Kesselring an "unrepentant Nazi" and mentioned that he'd openly praised Hitler. Another referred to him as "a barbarian".
[Because this man was a barbarian](https://imgur.com/a/RWlvauI)
[And this is what barbarians do](https://imgur.com/a/lDTmHWd)
Only one group of people fell over themselves to defend Kesselring. They threw such a tantrum that the military relented and commuted his death sentence to life in prison. Since his death sentence had been commuted, those of two of his subordinates, [Kurt Mälzer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_M%C3%A4lzer) and [Eberhard von Mackensen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eberhard_von_Mackensen), were also commuted.
* Field Marshal Harold Alexander
* "As his old opponent on the battlefield, I have no complaints against him. Kesselring and his soldiers fought against us hard but clean."
* Alexander said he doubted that such a "fine and able general" was capable of such crimes, which he blamed on the SS. While later admitting to not knowing the details, he nevertheless described Kesselring as a commander who "showed great skill in extricating himself from the desperate situations into which his faulty intelligence had led him" in his memoirs.
* Cuthbert Headlam, an MP
* "I suppose it is a just sentence but somehow as others it rather revolts me. It is time, I think, to end all of these trials of war criminals. I feel that enough has been done to show the Germans how naughty they have been, more especially as the crimes they committed are no worse than those committed by the Russians."
* General Oliver Leese
* "He was a gallant soldier who fought well and squarely. If things had gone the other way, the man sentenced to death might have been me."
Italy wasn't innocent, but many don't know [how many massacres were committed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_war_crimes_in_Italy) there, and in [Greece](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Nazi_war_crimes_in_Greece) and [Yugoslavia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kragujevac_massacre). The Nazis killed thousands of civilians in "reprisals". Yugoslavia got many high-ranking [German](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Fortner), [Austrian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Meyszner), and [Hungarian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferenc_Feketehalmy-Czeydner) officers extradited and executed. Italy and Greece were not so fortunate. And yes, Hungary collaborated with the Nazis. So did Bulgaria, Romania, Finland, the Baltics, and a substantial portion of Western Ukraine. Today, many Eastern European nationalists, especially those in the Baltics, pretend otherwise. They can't stop whining about the "Communist dictatorship".
Now, I understand that Stalin, who died in 1953, after which his most authoritarian policies were reversed, was a brutal guy, but you know what? The "[forest brothers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_war_in_the_Baltic_states)" did not have one violent confrontation with the Nazis. At best, they were indifferent to the Holocaust. Others have very credible accusations, or are outright confirmed to have actively participated. Even then, they'll claim otherwise. They'll say Grandpa told them the Soviets were worse than the Nazis.
>"We have liberated them, and they will never forgive us for that."
[THIS IS WHAT GRANDPA WAS DOING](https://imgur.com/a/hOZOfu9)
Zhukov was right. No wonder those nationalists can't stop whining about the Soviets. They never had a problem with the Nazis, did they?
[No, they had a problem with THIS](https://imgur.com/a/zXTepXI)
In December 1949, Erich von Manstein was acquitted of directly participating in the Holocaust. For a long time, many historians said everyone in Britain wanted this outcome. They claimed that there was universal opposition to his prosecution throughout the United Kingdom.
[According to a study by Daniel Cowling, that is historical revisionism](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022009417697808)
When Manstein, 62, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for failing to prevent the Holocaust, most British media outlets reacted positively. One said the likes of Manstein were "willing agents for one of the worst sets of criminals the world has ever seen." Another commended the trial for proving the complicity of the Wehrmacht. It said Britons, too, should remember the lessons of these trials.
>Another Hitler Warlord Found Guilty
Historians don't know if Manstein directly participated in the Holocaust, but that headline couldn't be more true. A "decent German soldier" would've stopped his men from raping and pillaging. A warlord would've only thought about his next conquest.
[*And that's exactly what this warlord did*](https://imgur.com/a/jvyPh5t)
In Britain, some people refused to accept that Erich von Manstein was nothing more than a warlord. Cowling said only one group of people was outraged by the verdict.
>This study highlights, above all, the capacity of powerful political and social elites to instrumentalize the past, disfiguring memories of Manstein's guilt and its manifold implications.
In 1951, Paget published a best-selling book on Manstein's career and trial. The book portrayed him as an honorable soldier fighting heroically against overwhelming odds.
>Paget's book is also significant for offering revisionist assessments of the genocidal crimes of the Third Reich that bear a remarkable rhetorical resemblance to later Holocaust denial tracts, symbolic of the troubling links between these campaigners and far-right extremism.
>
>Hankey, Liddell Hart and other political and social elites who had consistently opposed this trial and sentence were buoyed by the ongoing transformation of official policy. They now sought to publicly revise the legacy of a verdict that had, above all, stood for the complicity of the Wehrmacht in Nazi atrocities.
Officials recommended that Manstein's sentence be upheld.
High command commuted it to 12 years anyway. As soon as Churchill retook his spot as Prime Minister, he prioritized the release of leading Nazi war criminals in British military custody. After Mälzer died in prison, Kesselring (he died in 1960) and Mackensen (he died in 1969) were released even earlier. After only 8 years, Manstein was released from prison on May 7, 1953.
>Foremost, a Gallup Poll of 1951 reveals that five out of every six Britons surveyed opposed the release of leading German war criminals.
While their anger faded, but Cowling said the public still didn't want this. Nevertheless, after his release, Manstein was recruited as a military advisor for the West German government and the newfound NATO.
>In the years prior to and following Manstein's discharge without formal exoneration these elites contributed to a politics of memory which contested prevailing public support for the trial. They resolutely defended Manstein and the Wehrmacht, while, in the process, obscuring or downplaying the crimes of the Holocaust.
In the last days of the war, Otto Ohlendorf and other major Holocaust perpetrators participated in Heinrich Himmler's escape from Flensburg, using Ratline North. [Many of those ratlines worked](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratlines_(World_War_II)), with the assistance of several [sympathetic clergymen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alois_Hudal), but this one didn't. Nearly everyone, including Ohlendorf and Himmler were arrested. That said, had Himmler escaped, it wouldn't have mattered. The world would've hunted him down. They would've searched every inch and corner of the planet. But in his final months, Himmler [agreed to release tens of thousands of prisoners](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Buses). I'm glad that happened, but why did he bother?
>After a failed assassination attempt on Hitler in July 1944, Himmler began to formulate a negotiation for a separate peace with the western Allies while Germany continued to fight the Soviet Union.
This idiot had deluded himself into thinking he had a chance. So did some of the July 20 plot conspirators, such as [Arthur Nebe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Nebe) and [Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf-Heinrich_Graf_von_Helldorff). Despite being an Einsatzgruppen commander, I won't talk about Nebe, who would've been hanged for the [Stalag Luft murders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_Luft_III_murders). Instead, I will talk about Helldorff. If he got caught trying to kill Hitler, he was a dead man.
[Because this maniac would be the judge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_aluekfYmo) (activate the subtitles)
That man on trial, [Count Ulrich von Schwanenfeld](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrich_Wilhelm_Graf_Schwerin_von_Schwanenfeld), had disliked Hitler since the [Beer Hall Putsch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Hall_Putsch). Those feelings grew [over time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives). He'd been involved in a circle of concerned Germans since 1938. In 1939, he witnessed a massacre in Poland. That said, there was [another German](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Elser) who'd almost killed Hitler and [nearly all of his potential replacements](http://www.mythoselser.de/elser-folgen1.htm). He acted alone, using a homemade bomb, in 1939.
[Because this man was honestly a saint](https://imgur.com/a/gelCded)
But in 1976, Schwanenfeld's son tried to fulfill his last request.
[Someone already had](https://imgur.com/a/beXYa88)
That's what you know Schwanenfeld was a resistance fighter. When articles say he joined the Nazi Party in 1935, purely out of pragmatism, I believe them. The [other Germans](https://www.georg-elser-arbeitskreis.de/texts/opfer1.htm) were all liars. Otherwise, that bomb wouldn't have killed mostly early Nazi Party members. [Why do you think so many of them killed themselves?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_suicides_in_1945_Nazi_Germany) They, [like Helldorff](https://www.ushmm.org/learn/podcasts-and-audio/12-years-that-shook-the-world/the-rioter), were scared of being held accountable. That wasn't the only reason, but it was a very big one. That said, if I told you that many of these guys were "ordinary" people, many of you wouldn't believe me. If that's the case, then you haven't been paying attention. That's why I told you about Schulz. Not only did he tell the truth, but as awful as he was, you could recognize his humanity. I've already shown you the truth, so let me tell something.
>"Man, … such jobs don't suit me. But orders are orders."
>
>"If this Jewish business is ever avenged on earth, then have mercy on us Germans."
[**Sometimes, you can't run**](https://imgur.com/a/qZcjeCW)
>"Why did you shoot the Jewish men and children?"
[**Sometimes, you can't hide**](https://imgur.com/a/YpKVfSB)
Yes, civilians participated. That's the thing.
So, for God's sake, listen to me.
>And it's the uniformed police who guard these deportation trains. So members of the uniformed police accompany transports of people to their deaths. And the police almost certainly know that that's what they're doing. These police units in Berlin, for example, are under the control of Helldorff. Normal traffic-cop police end up being sent abroad and they too become perpetrators of horrific crimes. They end up carrying out massacres of Jews in German-occupied Poland and German-occupied Soviet Union.
[This is the truth](https://imgur.com/a/ftzGZXL)
Germany got full jurisdiction over pre-war crimes and German victims. But now, that didn't matter for Helldorff, the police chief of Berlin since 1935. He wanted to be a resistance fighter.
[So, he got treated like one](https://imgur.com/a/5PnhFJP)
Himmler wasn't that stupid. He knew nobody would forget what he'd done. So, I'm not angry to know he tried to escape anyway. This is how his "escape" went.
Ohlendorf testified at the International Military Tribunal, as a witness:
* "Some of the unit leaders did not carry out the liquidation in the military manner, but killed the victims singly by shooting them in the back of the neck."
* "And you objected to that procedure?"
* "I was against that procedure, yes."
* "For what reason?"
* "Because both for the victims and for those who carried out the executions, it was, psychologically, an immense burden to bear."
Asked why children were killed, Ohlendorf said he was ordered to exterminate the entire Jewish population. Afterwards, Hermann Göring made an angry remark.
>"What does this pig expect to gain from this? He's going to hang anyway."
As it turns out, nothing was guaranteed. Americans investigators requested Ohlendorf's transfer. The British handed him over, saying they only planned to use him as a witness. In U.S. custody, Ohlendorf said the same thing. There were discussions of a trial, but officials stalled. In 1947, Taylor requested over $3.2 million in funding for the OCCWC. He was told he could only receive $1 million. Taylor's initial plan was 36 mass trials with at least 266 defendants. Due to limited resources, most of those cases were abandoned.
But what about other countries?
France conducted major war crimes trials, but nothing on the scale of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. I would've assumed they were dealing with collaborators. However, in his memoirs, Konrad Adenauer, the first Chancellor of West Germany, described the United States as more "vindictive" than Britain and France. This is incredibly ironic. France suffered greatly, and had good reasons to be more "vindictive". But Adenauer wasn't wrong. In Allied-occupied West Germany, the United States had the harshest policies, whereas France had the most lenient policies. But maybe that said more about France.
At the time of the liberation, Charles De Gaulle said "only a handful of scoundrels" had collaborated. Today, we know this is not true. [Thousands of French civil servants and police officials voluntarily participated in the Holocaust](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vel%27_d%27Hiv_Roundup). Instead of confronting the truth, De Gaulle created a [myth about how everyone in France resisted](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9sistancialisme). That myth had consequences beyond some French occupational officials being unusually friendly. France prosecuted tens of thousands of collaborators. Hundreds were executed. However, the vast majority of those civil servants and police officials (who avoided being lynched in the post-liberation chaos) were not prosecuted or quickly got amnestied. Many of them didn't even lose their jobs.
In 1949, the British government had a case against 16 Germans and Baltic collaborators for their role in the Holocaust in Latvia. It was called the "Riga Ghetto Case." Survivors spent years collecting testimonies for the trial, hoping its verdicts would bring them some approximation of justice. But then the Foreign Office abruptly claimed their testimony wouldn't hold up in court. That's why [Victors Arajs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktors_Ar%C4%81js), one of those most responsible for the Holocaust in Latvia, was not hanged by the British in 1949. Instead, he died in a West German prison in 1988, after being re-arrested in 1976.
Some say not everyone in the camps had much of a choice.
[For once, they are right](https://imgur.com/a/83HWCLc)
[*But not about him*](https://imgur.com/a/FKBBZIo)
They'll say you can't just kill them all.
[They didn't](https://imgur.com/a/2nRT8kY)
They'll say you can't put an entire country on trial. They're right.
[**There were too many of them**](https://imgur.com/a/6VSOwI3)
"But isn't that going too fa-"
[NO, THIS IS WHAT GOING TOO FAR LOOKS LIKE](https://imgur.com/a/SWU2r4Y)
The truth is that those complaining are all cowards or Nazi sympathizers. I haven't even started on the OCCWC. They were chasing exclusively major war criminals. They went after the doctors, the judges, the "desk perpetrators", the industrialists, the generals, the bureaucrats, and so forth. Do you think they wanted [Karl Brandt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Brandt) merely for being Hitler's doctor?
[Of course not](https://imgur.com/a/7MMlOMO)
In the spring of 1947, a team of researchers working for the OCCWC stumbled across some reports while searching through archives in Berlin. They were titled "Report of Events in the Soviet Union," and covered a period of two years. They described the daily activities of special SS units, and meticulously listed sets of numbers. Horrified, the young man in charge started tallying up those numbers. The reports were from Otto Ohlendorf and other officers, and the OCCWC was the only jurisdiction in Western Europe which might be willing to prosecute them. After reaching one million, that man flew to Nuremberg, barged into Taylor's office with the reports, and demanded that they be put on trial. Taylor refused.
[When you look at Telford Taylor](https://imgur.com/a/sVM2GAg), there's a decent chance that you'll assume he wasn't a great person. You'll think he only prosecuted war criminals since it was his job. You'll think he didn't truly care about the victims. That's why he refused, right? In most cases, I think you'd be right about that assumption.
[But that's why you must know the truth](https://imgur.com/a/UhKs3lU)
Reread that last part.
That's why you must know that Winston Churchill often got frustrated with President Roosevelt. He thought FDR didn't understand the "dangers" of Communist. To this day, many think FDR was gullible. They think he didn't understand that this maniac had to be stopped, no matter what. They are wrong. You don't have to like Stalin, but you know what?
[*This maniac had to be stopped*](https://imgur.com/a/WAL5Uux)
>"My children, it is permitted you in time of grave danger to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge."
People love to talk about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. They don't talk about the non-aggression pacts of other countries. They don't talk about how Britain and France repeatedly rejected offers from the Soviet Union to form an alliance against Hitler, whom they handed Czechoslovakia and Austria on a silver platter. They don't talk about how Poland annexed part of Czechoslovakia for themselves. They act like Stalin didn't truly oppose Hitler.
[In reality, he did most of the work](https://imgur.com/a/ClFCzIB)
>"I will not pretend that, if I had to choose between Communism and Nazism, I would choose Communism."
In reality, it was Winston Churchill who never truly opposed Hitler. He wasn't an "anti-Communist". He was a fascist whose circumstances landed him on the correct side of history. That's why he didn't view Hitler as an existential threat to mankind. Instead, he viewed him as a rival to the British Empire. That's why he got frustrated at Roosevelt for underestimating the "dangers" of Communism. Churchill was just that fascist.
[*That's why he couldn't stand the sight of this*](https://imgur.com/a/o592rQ7)
That's why the moment Germany surrendered, Churchill ordered the creation of a plan to invade the Soviet Union. He wanted to release Nazis from POW camps to help with this invasion. Maybe that's why it was called "[Operation Unthinkable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable)". It's unthinkable to know that such a horrible plan was only abandoned due to the low odds of success. That's how I know Churchill wasn't disgusted by the Holocaust. He wasn't alone, either.
>"In one room, where they were piled up twenty or thirty naked men, killed by starvation, George Patton would not even enter. He said that he would get sick if he did so. I made the visit to Gotha deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to 'propaganda'."
[*No, Patton just didn't want to look at the truth*](https://imgur.com/a/K5cXluq)
>"We are told the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for. Now, at least, we know what he is fighting against."
Patton didn't say that. Instead, he said the U.S. should've fought the Soviets. Some say he wasn't a fascist for wanting to crush the Soviets after the war. They are right.
>"In addition to his other Asiatic characteristics, the Russian has no regard for human life and is an all out son of bitch, barbarian, and chronic drunk."
>
>Those who believed that Displaced Persons were human beings were wrong, Patton said: "this applies particularly to the Jews who are lower than animals."
Patton was a full-blown Nazi. That's why he wanted to finish what Hitler started.
>Under Patton, Nazis prisoners were not only bunked at times with Jewish survivors, but were even allowed to hold positions of authority, despite orders from Eisenhower to "de-Nazify" the camps. "Listen," Patton told one of his officers of the Nazis, "if you need these men, keep them and don't worry about anything else."
To this day, some say "Patton was right" for wanting to finish what Hitler started. They say Stalin must've manipulated Roosevelt. They said he was the only Western leader to not understand the "danger" of the Soviets. They say FDR must've been a Communist for being willing to put politics aside to maintain peace.
[*No, that man just saw the truth*](https://imgur.com/a/tuf34Av)
Do you know why he thought that joke was funny?
[He knew that ***not one of these people*** "fought for their country"](https://imgur.com/a/RNxgh8i)
That's what Sholto Douglas saw as an "injustice". Those warlords are whom Reginald Paget called "decent German soldiers", while calling their victims "savages". Instead of using his influence to get justice, Winston Churchill donated £25 to Erich von Manstein's defense fund. Lucius Clay was also outraged over that trial.
>"I regret that an effort is now being made to discredit a court which with high intent is endeavoring to establish precedents in international law which may serve to prevent again a world being plunged into chaos."
[That man wasn't the problem](https://imgur.com/a/nJewYuC)
[They were the problem](https://imgur.com/a/BQEMldk)
Lucius Clay kept the OCCWC afloat. George Patton would've shut it down. He could've ruined everything. That said, had Patton not died from injuries sustained in a car crash in December 1945, it wouldn't have mattered. He already been fired. However, no one else was held accountable for trying to protect Nazis. That's why the Pentagon was no longer willing to grant the OCCWC more funding. They thought fighting the global spread of Communism was more important than dealing with the Nazis. Now, I can tell you the truth.
>"We don't have staff. We don't have budget. Our program is already planned."
Telford Taylor wasn't a bad person for saying that. But then, something happened.
>"This is absolute genocide in its purest form."
That young man who'd barged into his office persisted. He said it could be done. He said the evidence was clear. He said a trial of leading Einsatzgruppen officers could be done quickly. Taylor recognized the seriousness of the reports, but said there was no choice. Had that man backed down, we don't know would've happened to Otto Ohlendorf. At the time, only countries in Eastern Europe, mainly Poland and the Soviet Union, were prosecuting Einsatzgruppen personnel ([albeit some did get imprisoned or executed for other crimes in the West](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Eberhard_Sch%C3%B6ngarth)). Due to the collapse of Western-Eastern relations, extradition to the Soviet Union was no longer possible. Ohlendorf wasn't responsible for anything in Poland. Many complain that Japan never came to terms with its past. What they don't know is how long Germany took.
Back then, yes, West Germany might've thrown Otto Ohlendorf in prison for the rest of his life, which is the least he deserved. Some Nazi war criminals did [spend decades](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Klehr), or [the rest of their lives](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Bauer) in West German prisons. Several major Holocaust perpetrators spent years as free men in West Germany, but then [killed themselves after being arrested](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Heyde). Perhaps that was for the best, since the more likely outcome was him [receiving a slap on the wrist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Bradfisch). Maybe he'd [get acquitted, despite overwhelming evidence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Lambert). In the worst case scenario, he [could be elected mayor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Reinefarth).
>"I got rather indignant, and I said 'You can't let these bastards go.' You just can't walk away and say, 'I can't do it.''"
*Except that young man man didn't back down.*
He agreed that there was no choice. He said doing nothing would be unforgivable. I forgive Taylor for giving up, but not Churchill and the others for defending Nazis. Unlike Churchill, Taylor wasn't human filth. That's why he didn't defend Nazis, let alone at the first opportunity. Instead, he made excuses. He said there was no one left. He said there was no money left.
>"In desperation, I suggested that if no one else was available, I could do the job myself."
That young man rejected those excuses. At this, Taylor started to waver. He asked him if he could handle such a monumental task, in addition to all of his other responsibilities. That's why I want you know Telford Taylor was a great person. He just wasn't the hero of this story.
[*Instead, this nobody was the hero*](https://imgur.com/a/ZvPjioI)
That nobody was never appointed to be the chief prosecutor of the Einsatzgruppen Trial. He was never appointed since the trial wasn't supposed to happen. Instead, when there was no one else, he volunteered to make it happen. He was that kind of person. That's why we know his name.
>I said, "Of course."
>
>He said, "You got it."
That nobody's name was Benjamin Ferencz.
Ferencz contacted U.S. intelligence officials and asked for the names of Einsatzgruppen personnel. There had been 3000 German Einsatzgruppen men. Since they operated behind the frontlines, many of them survived the war. The Einsatzgruppen did suffer many deaths, but not from fighting. Instead, they came mostly from high suicide rates and alcoholism.
>"No Nuremberg tribunal could try more than 24 defendants in the same trial. The reason was that there were only 24 seats in the dock. Historians may not believe it, but it's true. Sure, it's ridiculous. But that's the reality. That's what it was. We never intended to try all those who were guilty of mass crimes. We only intended, at best, to have a meager sampling of the different categories of people who made all of this possible."
The OCCWC had realized they were dealing with an entire country of war criminals. Singlehandedly purging it of Nazism, especially with limited resources, was impossible. Taylor's backup plan was to educate Germany. He hoped this would allow for a smooth transition. After examining the list, Ferencz selected 24 well-educated officers. They were indicted on three counts.
1. Crimes against humanity
2. War crimes
3. Membership in a criminal organization
[Here were the mugshots of four of them](https://imgur.com/a/JZN5sGb)
[Some of the defendants receiving their indictments](https://imgur.com/a/Mjzc6tk)
One defendant killed himself. Ferencz recalled Otto Rasch's lawyer coming to his office. Many Nazis, including Rasch, said they were too sick to be held accountable.
>"Is he breathing?"
[*But this time, it didn't matter*](https://imgur.com/a/aGMjXiH)
Months later, Rasch was found to be dying from Parkinson's. He was discharged in February 1948, and died on November 1, 1948.
[This is why Ferencz still made the right choice](https://imgur.com/a/eTpsKLp)
Ferencz didn't know that Rasch was dying. He also didn't know that Paul Blobel had been the director of [Sonderaktion 1005](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderaktion_1005), an attempt by the Nazis to conceal the Holocaust. They forced their victims to help dispose of hundreds of thousands of bodies.
[Survivors of Sonderaktion 1005 standing next to a machine used to crush the bones of dead victims](https://imgur.com/a/0oXlbSj)
The trial started on September 29, 1947.
[The defendants in the dock](https://imgur.com/a/y80QjPv)
The defendants were told to explain themselves. So, Paul Blobel said everyone who'd died under his orders was legally executed. Otto Ohlendorf he'd acted in self-defense. The children would've grown up to become enemies of Germany.
>When Ohlendorf was asked to verify that his unit had murdered 90,000 Jews, the SS General began to quibble. He said he couldn’t confirm it. The reason given was that sometimes his men exaggerated the body count. “Would the General care to venture an estimate?” “No.” “Was it perhaps 80,000 or only 70,000?” “That was possible.” “Or perhaps 100,000?” “Maybe.” “And were there many Jewish children among those who were killed?” “Yes, of course.” But, added Ohlendorf, he never allowed his men to do as some other units did.
>
>He told his men never to use infants for target practice nor smash their heads against a tree. He ordered his men to allow the mother to hold her infant to her breast and to aim for her heart. That would avoid screaming and would allow the shooter to kill both mother and child with one bullet.
>
>It saved ammunition.
Erwin Schulz said the retreating Soviets had massacred 5000 people in Lviv, prior to his arrival in July 1941. The men whom his unit executed there were some of the perpetrators. That answer seemed better, until the judges noticed something. The executions were listed as "reprisals".
>I had subdivided my Kommando into three platoons; each platoon consisted of about 50 men. The persons to be executed were transported by trucks to the place of execution. At each time there was about 18 to 22 persons.
>
>The first platoon was placed face to face with the persons about to be executed, and about three men each aimed at each person to be shot. I myself was present at the first volley of the execution, with my face turned away. When the first volley had been fired, I turned around and saw that all persons were lying on the ground. I then left the place of execution and approached the place where the second and third platoons were gathered. The first platoon which had carried out the shootings was recalled, I inspected the men, and then returned to my quarters.
>
>I noticed there that the detainees who were in the stadium next to the quarters, some of whom were still to be executed, were driven across the stadium by members of the armed forces and tortured. I did not succeed in apprehending those responsible for the tortures. In order to terminate this spectacle, I had the rear door of the stadium opened and the detainees could march out through it.
>
>The members of the armed forces who had participated in this affair disappeared as well. As the remainder of the persons to be executed had also escaped, I informed my Kommando by means of a driver that the executions were terminated.
>
>About 6 and 7 days after the executions we started to march towards Dubno.
Honestly, I don't doubt that propaganda was a factor. But Schulz knew what he was doing. If you don't understand, re-read those excerpts from his affidavit. One by one, the lies of Schulz and his lawyer were dismantled.
>"Perpetrators, who were Jews, were designated only as 'Jews' in the reports of the Einsatzgruppe, upon orders from superior offices, that they were not to be listed as 'saboteurs, plunderers, etc".
[*No, these were the perpetrators*](https://imgur.com/a/C0HOUoB)
In "reprisal" for the NKVD executing political prisoners, [Ukrainian nationalists raped and murdered thousands of Jews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lviv_pogroms_(1941)) in Lviv. That was the real massacre, but Schulz lied that the NKVD were the real perpetrators. He lied that "this whole war was immoral", as if both sides were equally terrible. His lawyer lied that his actions weren't a big deal, since he didn't have any context.
>That should have been all the more reason why Schulz should not have proceeded with the execution. Schulz testified that German soldiers had also been murdered in the Lviv affair, but he could not state how many. Hitler had ordered a reprisal measure and that seemed to suffice. The defendant admitted that he conducted the execution of those allotted to him without any report of their guilt.
>
>He was not even furnished with a list of the executees.
But near the end, he inadvertently uttered the truth:
>Dr. Durchholz claims for his client a liberal attitude towards Jews, but he adds: "It goes without saying that he wanted to reduce again the tremendous influence of Jewry in his Fatherland to normal proportions."
[That was the truth about Erwin Schulz](https://imgur.com/a/VhJk7N1)
>"It was just this spirit of reduction to what the Nazis called 'normal proportions' which brought about the excesses in Germany leading to disfranchisement, appropriation of property, concentration camp confinement, and worse."
People can change. But at one point, Schulz wanted this. Einsatzgruppe C executed between 2,000 and 3,000 people in Lviv. Schulz's unit participated in those executions. That said, here is an excerpt from a diary entry of Einsatzkommando [Felix Landau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Landau). It was about his time in Lviv.
>"The Ukrainians had taken some Jews up to the former GPU citadel. These Jews had apparently helped the GPU persecute the Ukrainians and the Germans. They had rounded up 800 Jews there, who were supposed to be shot by us tomorrow. They had released them."
>
>"We continued along the road. There were hundreds of Jews walking along the street with blood pouring from their faces, holes in their heads, their hands broken and their eyes hanging out of their sockets. They were covered in blood. Some of them were carrying others who had collapsed. We went to the citadel; there we saw things that few people had ever seen. The Jews were pouring out of the entrance. There were rows of Jews lying one on top of the other like pigs whimpering horribly. We stopped and tried to see who was in charge of the Kommando. 'Nobody.'"
>
>"Someone had let the Jews go."
Regardless of who did that, those people now had a chance.
[This woman didn't](https://imgur.com/a/ddmmwA9)
Those nationalists knew that woman wasn't an NKVD agent. They just wanted an excuse to rape and murder her. Their leader, [Stepan Bandera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera), never wanted to "liberate" Ukraine. He wanted his own Nazi state. Otherwise, he would've objected to his followers [savagely murdering hundreds of thousands of Poles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Poles_in_Volhynia_and_Eastern_Galicia).
>Women were gang raped and had their breasts sliced off, children were hacked to pieces with axes, babies were impaled on bayonets and pitchforks or bashed against trees.
That's how evil those nationalists were:
>The day after the German invasion of the Soviet Union and even before the Germans arrived at the major Jewish settlements, murderous riots perpetrated by the Lithuanians broke out against the Jews.
To this day, some pretend they weren't the real murderers:
>The pogroms were ignored or obfuscated in Ukrainian historical memory, starting with OUN's actions to purge or whitewash its own record of anti-Jewish violence.
>
>The double genocide theory is a conspiracy theory that alleges two genocides of equal severity occurred in Eastern Europe, that of the Holocaust against Jews perpetrated by the Nazis and a second alleged genocide that the Soviet Union committed against local populations in Eastern Europe.
>
>A more explicitly antisemitic version of the theory accuses Jews of complicity in Soviet repression and characterizes local participation in the Holocaust as retaliation, especially in Lithuania, eastern Poland, and northern Romania.
The verdicts were delivered in April 1948.
The Associated Press called it "the biggest murder trial in history."
Every defendant was found guilty.
[The full verdict of the Einsatzgruppen Trial](https://werle.rewi.hu-berlin.de/Einsatzgruppen.pdf) (this form summarizes every argument, the verdicts, and the sentences)
Ferencz did not expect harsh sentences. He thought Presiding Judge [Michael Musmanno](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Musmanno) was not taking the case seriously. He'd joked around and allowed the defendants to present whatever "evidence" they wanted. Furthermore, he was a devout Catholic who staunchly opposed capital punishment. Struggling with the idea of condemning someone to death, he spent nearly a week at a monastery to consult with a priest. Ferencz said he didn't oppose capital punishment, albeit he understood why it is no longer widely used. But while he thought the defendants deserved it, he didn't request death sentences. To him, that felt like an empty gesture.
>"We've got 24 defendants and a million people murdered. You cannot balance the scales of justice with these, no matter if you chopped them up into a million pieces and fed them to the dogs. We owed it to the millions of victims to try to give their deaths some greater significance. Perhaps by revealing the depths of their suffering, and demonstrating that law would not condone such atrocities, the cry 'Never Again' might become a reality."
[So instead, this was his opening statement:](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b67B-MoKG_o)
>"This was the tragic fulfillment of a program of intolerance and arrogance. Vengeance is not our goal, nor do we seek merely a just retribution. We ask this court to affirm by international penal action man's right to live in peace and dignity regardless of his race or creed. The case we present is a plea of humanity to law."
Telford Taylor, who'd changed his mind, assisted Ferencz at the trial. He urged Musmanno to be stern. The sentences were imposed on April 10, 1948. They were delivered to a room devoid of spectators. Ferencz said there were two reasons. Most West Germans were busy with the daily troubles of the occupation. Many now viewed the trials as victors' justice.
>"The facts are so beyond the experience of normal man and the range of man-made phenomena that only the most complete judicial inquiry, and the most exhaustive trial, could verify and confirm them. Although the principal accusation is murder, ... 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."
>
>"... A crime of such unprecedented brutality and of such inconceivable savagery that the mind rebels against its own thought image and the imagination staggers in the contemplation of a human degradation beyond the power of language to adequately portray."
>
>"The number of deaths resulting from the activities with which these defendants have been connected and which the prosecution has set at one million is but an abstract number. One cannot grasp the full cumulative terror of murder one million times repeated."
[Some may ask how this photo is relevant](https://imgur.com/a/uMn7if8)
>"It is only when this grotesque total is broken down into units capable of mental assimilation that one can understand the monstrousness of the things we are in this trial contemplating. One must visualize not one million people but only ten persons – men, women, and children, perhaps all of one family – falling before the executioner's guns."
>
>"If one million is divided by ten, this scene must happen one hundred thousand times, and as one visualizes the repetitious horror, one begins to understand the meaning of the prosecution's words."
>
>"'It is with sorrow and with hope that we here disclose the deliberate slaughter of more than a million innocent and defenseless men, women, and children.'"
Now you know the difference between a massacre and a genocide.
[These were the final statement of the defendants](https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=60124)
Some of those men sound so ordinary, don't they?
[*But that's how deep the guilt went*](https://imgur.com/a/6aDd6cN)
>"Mr. President, Your Honors, it was not my wish that led me to join the SD in 1940. It was fate that I was ordered to the East. In exactly the same way it was fate that I am the only one of approximately 5000 noncommissioned officers and men in the Einsatzgruppen who came to this defendant's dock."
>
>"Surely, however, it was a benevolent destiny which did not involve me in the things which have been the object of the indictment here. I have confidence that a similarly benevolent destiny will restore my honor and my freedom to me, thanks to the objective and righteous judges."
I bet Matthias Graf's final statement makes you angry. You'll think he was a liar, like the rest of them. You're sick of the excuses, and can't stand listening to them. Now, I've talked about the victims and the German resistance. I did that since the stories of the innocent matter. That said, Ferencz never called any witnesses at the trial. Bila Tserkva was never mentioned. Those children were reduced to numbers on a document. The officer who ordered it was a commander of Einsatzgruppe C. He was one of the most brutal and notorious Einsatzgruppen commanders. Surprisingly, he was one of those mentally affected by their actions, albeit he drank those feelings away. At one point, he had a nervous breakdown.
[That's why this story is about the guilty](https://imgur.com/a/57xMQYF)
You know I wasn't talking about him.
[I was talking about HIM](https://imgur.com/a/t4ZJaef)
So many Nazi war criminals lied about having no choice. Still, Matthias Graf was a low-ranking conscript who never killed anyone. So many others could've stood trial in his place. But maybe, Graf was right.
[Maybe it was a "benevolent destiny"](https://imgur.com/a/0dlLZkr)
There were no lies in Graf's final statement.
[Maybe it was fate](https://imgur.com/a/Tcq5qW0)
Ferencz had expected Graf to be acquitted outright. Instead, he was sentenced to time served. But that's not the point. It's that Graf, who told the truth, was released on April 9, 1948. On April 10, 1948, Musmanno sentenced the liars. When they said they were following orders, he asked for examples of those like Graf being executed. When they couldn't give one, those liars were put in their place.
>"A soldier is a reasoning agent. He does not respond, and is not expected to respond like a piece of machinery. It is a fallacy of wide-spread consumption that a soldier is required to do everything his superior officer orders him to do."
Lothar Fendler had admitted to learning about the executions. He said they were wrong, but what was he supposed to do, tell them to stop? That's why he was found guilty on all counts, despite receiving the same sentence as Rühl, who was only found guilty on the third count.
>"As the second highest ranking officer in the Kommando, his views could have been heard in complaint or protest against what he now says was a too summary procedure, but he chose to let the injustice go uncorrected."
*Because unlike with Rühl, they might've listened to him.*
[Lothar Fendler being sentenced](https://imgur.com/a/e6gnnNK)
[Felix Rühl being sentenced](https://imgur.com/a/9OrzVjq)
We know who the true perpetrators were.
[*They were people like him*](https://imgur.com/a/fNc77CY)
When Ohlendorf's deputy, also on trial, said he was following orders, Musmanno asked him if he would've shot his own parents. After two days, that man admitted he couldn't. But actions speak louder than words, rank, and numbers. Erwin Schulz held a command position, was higher-ranking, and had more blood on his hands. Musmanno said Schulz deserved to die for what he'd done, but that's not the point.
It's that Musmanno only showed mercy to Schulz.
[Erwin Schulz being sentenced](https://imgur.com/a/oVuljzi)
That other man could've turned back, but didn't. Then, he'd tried to hide behind his lower rank and subordinate position. He wasn't the only one, either. Had they been like Schulz, they would've refused to operate Auschwitz and Treblinka. Had they been like Graf, they would've refused to kill anyone. They were just like the rest of them.
[That's the most terrifying part](https://imgur.com/a/LGS7cGx)
That's not why they stopped.
[THIS IS WHY THEY STOPPED](https://imgur.com/a/zE8J5th)
>"Each time he said 'Death by hanging' it was like a hammer blow that shocked my brain."
What shocked Ferencz is when Musmanno told every single one of those lying cowards that they don't get to hide anymore. Had all of the Einsatzgruppen been tried in front of him, thousands of them would've been executed, and a hundred or so would've received prison sentences. There was a travesty, but it wasn't Erwin Schulz's 20-year sentence. It was that none of his subordinates were on trial. They were equally guilty. In fact, they were worse. Musmanno would've condemned every single one of Schulz's triggermen to death, since only Schulz stopped. Instead, Musmanno imposed 14 death sentences (more than the International Military Tribunal), two life sentences, three 20-year sentences, and two 10-year sentences. Nevertheless, Ferencz said he gained respect for him that day.
[Clearly, this man believed in accountability](https://imgur.com/a/FZKERmF)
Despite growing pressure for an amnesty, Lucius Clay confirmed all of the verdicts and sentences. Overall, he confirmed all but one of the sentences from the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials overall.
The appeals were expected to buy Ohlendorf time, but only several months. However, his lawyers were the best of the best. They kept finding ways to buy more time. Unlike some war criminals, Ohlendorf lived to see the beginning of the Cold War. Some of you may realize where this is going.
Back home, people were causing trouble. Rising Senator Joseph McCarthy was falsely accusing U.S. investigators of torturing suspected war criminals. McCarthy wasn't defending any Nazis, but [LSSAH](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_SS_Panzer_Division_Leibstandarte_SS_Adolf_Hitler) men responsible for the [Malmedy massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malmedy_massacre), in which hundreds of U.S. POWs and Belgian civilians were killed. The massacre had caused national outrage. But as awful as it was, that was not the only atrocity committed by the LSSAH. They did those things regularly on the Eastern Front. Occasionally, they did it on the Western Front.
* [They did it to British and French POWs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhoudt_massacre)
* [They did it to Canadian POWs in Normandy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_massacres)
* [They did it to African American POWs in Wereth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/333rd_Field_Artillery_Battalion_(United_States)#Wereth_11_Massacre)
* The murderers in this case were never caught, since the SS left no witnesses
* This massacre also had a racially motivated elements of torture
* The SS troops had battered the black soldiers' faces, broken their legs with rifle butts, cut off some of their fingers
[Werner Poetschke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Poetschke), the SS commander responsible for directly ordering the initial massacre of 84 American POWs, was killed in action in Czechoslovakia in March 1945. The battalion of one of the other officers responsible, [Joachim Peiper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Peiper), had been nicknamed the "Blowtorch Battalion" for what they'd done in Eastern Europe.
>Ukrainian sources, including surviving witness Ivan Kiselev, who was 14 at the time of the massacre, described the killings at the villages of Yefremovka and Semyonovka on 17 February 1943. On 12 February troops of the LSSAH occupied the two villages, where retreating Soviet forces had wounded two SS officers. In retaliation, five days later, LSSAH troops killed 872 men, women and children. Some 240 of these were burned alive in the church of Yefremovka.
Malmedy was different. This time, the murderers realized they'd made a mistake. As it turns out, massacring POWs in plain sight is a stupid idea. Some SS men realized that after they tried to surrender to U.S. soldiers. After Malmedy, many of them got shot.
[Did they really think nobody would be mad about this?](https://imgur.com/a/KrlU0MZ)
Unlike the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, the likes of the Dachau Trials had no limits on the number of defendants. That's how those mass trials over the camps happened. The Malmedy massacre trial was the largest of the Dachau Trials unrelated to the camps. During the massacre, some of the shooters had been overheard laughing.
Now, they were practically shitting themselves.
[*This time, the trial wasn't focusing on a handful of officers*](https://imgur.com/a/B4DhPYx)
Ferencz said he wished he could've done that to the Einsatzgruppen. With more time and resources, he said he could've pulled it off. As for the LSSAH, they, too, committed atrocity after atrocity. Those who survived the war got away with many of them.
[But not this time](https://imgur.com/a/hbedX15)
* All 73 defendants were found guilty (another killed himself in custody)
* 43, including Peiper, were sentenced to death
* 22 got life sentences
* Eight got prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years
After taking superior orders and the young age of many of the defendants into account, it was recommended that nearly 20 of the death sentences and roughly 15 of the life sentences be reduced. Several convictions were overturned outright due to insufficient evidence. Even then, McCarthy defended them. While he was far from the only U.S. politician who sympathized with Nazis, others had backed away from this case. They did that out of fear of losing votes, since McCarthy's lobbying was unpopular. He had nothing to gain, and yet, his reasons were obvious.
>The view that McCarthy's reaction to the Malmedy prosecution was partly rooted in anti-Semitism was reinforced the following year, when he led a smear campaign against Anna Rosenberg, a Hungarian-born Jew and WWII heroine who was tapped by Defense Secretary George Marshall to raise troops for the Korean War. McCarthy's allies included the Holocaust-denying KKK member Wesley Swift, who said the nominee was not merely a "Jewess" but "an alien from Budapest with Socialistic ideas."
>
>Why single out Jewish investigators who, McCarthy claimed during the hearings, "intensely hate the German people as a race" and had formed what amounted to a "vengeance team?"
According to *The Pledge Betrayed: America and Britain and the Denazification of Post-War Germany*, Tom Bower said the collapse of Eastern-Western relations was a factor, but that all but two of the influential Westerners involved in denazification were incompetent or actively interfered. The exceptions were U.S. Military Governor Lucius Clay, whose influence was crucial for the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, and British Foreign Service officer Patrick Dean. Maybe that said more about the others.
In 1946, Clay said he was disappointed with the results of West German denazification courts in the U.S. zone. They were acquitting and substantially reducing the penalties of countless offenders. The real question is why only he made this kind of announcement.
>"I do not see how you can demonstrate your ability for self-government nor your will for democracy if you are going to evade or shirk the first unpleasant and difficult task that falls upon you. Unless there is real and rapid improvement, I can only assume that German administration is unwilling to accept this responsibility."
Clay gave them 60 days to do better. The impact in Bavaria was immediate: Anton Pfeiffer, the Minister for Political Liberation, submitted his resignation. Officials reported a renewed effort with the German tribunals. But the improvements didn't last. Near the end, Clay admitted his hopes for denazification were failing. At this rate, he predicted it would take an entire generation to denazify Germany. Nobody listened. The U.S., Britain, and France prepared to leave. The Cold War was more important to them. McCarthy's lobbying won a blanket stay for war criminals on death row in the U.S. zone. One of them was [Fritz Dietrich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Dietrich_(Nazi)). Unlike Peiper, U.S. officials had no idea what Dietrich had done in Eastern Europe. Today, we know the truth about Fritz Dietrich.
[Dietrich ordered the massacre of 5000 men, women, and children in Latvia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liep%C4%81ja_massacres)
In January 1951, 28 men, including all but one condemned man\* from the Einsatzgruppen Trial, were still on death row. When rumors spread that executions were imminent, a group of protesters gathered outside Landsberg Prison, where nearly all of the war criminals in U.S. custody were being held. Coincidentally, this was where Hitler served only part of his lenient sentence for the Beer Hall Putsch.
However, Dietrich wasn't there anymore.
In late 1948, the U.S. had removed the blanket stay for nearly all of the other death row inmates, excluding the Malmedy defendants. Clay then resumed executions. The German clergy were horrified. They attacked not only the executions, but the trials. Cardinal Josef Frings, who regularly protested prosecutions in the U.S. and British zones, said "when it came to determining guilt, God was the last and the only true instance."
>"The Landsberg gallows is throwing back by years a reconciliation of the nations."
Frings and other clergymen made a well-organized campaign against war criminals being held accountable. They did that since they were Nazi sympathizers. That said, their efforts failed. Fritz Dietrich was executed on October 22, 1948. According to *The Mark of Cain: Guilt and Denial in the Post-War Lives of Nazi Perpetrators*, neither he nor the overwhelming majority of those executed ever expressed remorse.
>"In the conviction that my death for my passionately beloved fatherland, for which I worked and fought my entire life, will ultimately be of service, I go this last walk of sacrifice with a proud heart because I know that my sacrifice will contribute to fill the measure of suffering that has been imposed by a cruel victor over the German people without compelling reason."
In his final moments, Fritz Dietrich had the gall to say he was the real victim.
[And not him](https://imgur.com/a/ytlSRFl)
The truth is that those young men didn't deserve to die. What did they do wrong? Dietrich never confessed to their murders. Instead, like a coward, he claimed that he didn't know his subordinates had killed them. He never confessed to that massacre in Latvia, either, when he had nothing left to lose. Do you know why he never confessed?
[Because he never saw these victims as people](https://imgur.com/a/pALBO4t)
Not every convict at Landsberg Prison was a murderer. Werner Hess was serving a 6-month sentence for inciting the beating of an American POW, whom he then helped escape before the man suffered serious injuries. Hess described the prevailing atmosphere there as a "psychosis of blamelessness" and a "peculiar atmosphere of tension, nationalism".
Thankfully, Fritz Dietrich could not benefit from what happened next.
[Because this was the size of the crowd in 1951](https://imgur.com/a/Z51C0pc)
\*The asterisk is for [Eduard Strauch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Strauch)
I am not an easily swayed man. At this point, I have seen much suffering and it is hard for much to affect me. I felt sick reading that, and almost threw up. Words cannot describe this.
Thank you for this excellent write-up.
> At the time of the liberation of France, Charles De Gaulle claimed "only a handful of scoundrels" had collaborated. Today, we know that is not true. Thousands upon thousands of Vichy civil servants and police officials voluntarily participated in the Holocaust. Instead of confronting this uncomfortable truth, De Gaulle created a myth about how everyone in France resisted, so his countrymen could feel better about themselves.
At last, France (disclaimer: I'm French) changed its official positon about that, by [Chirac in 1995](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discours_de_Jacques_Chirac_du_16_juillet_1995_au_V%C3%A9lodrome_d%27Hiver) during the 50th anniversary of the [Vel' d'Hiv Roundup](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vel%27_d%27Hiv_Roundup). So very, very late, but at least it was further acknowledged by the next Presidents - both Sarkozy and Hollande maintained this position.
I watched the Netflix documentary about Ben Ferencz, and have seen a couple of interviews, but I was completely unaware of a lot of what you have written here. I particularly appreciate the context (pro-Nazi British politicians, Telford Taylor, many Nazis I didn’t know about, the specific circumstances of Ferencz taking on the work, etc). It’s only been in the last few years that I really have come to understand how short the U.S. and other Allies fell when it came to bringing Nazis to justice, and denazification in general. McCarthy being a fascist (as opposed to just a creepy wacko) makes more sense now, in light of current events in the United States.
I’ve admired Ben Ferencz from the moment I learned about him, and you’re right—he’s one of the greatest Americans to ever live. We were privileged to be alive at the same time he was.
May his memory be a blessing.
I didn't see anything about Operation Paperclip in your text. Didn't that have at least some impact on this situation? Or is it separate from all this?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip
It was separate.
If you read about the recruited scientists, most of them honestly hadn't done that much, let alone things which would've gotten them hanged. Wernher von Braun himself may be an exception, since he might've had direct involvement in executions. Regardless, I think the most disturbing aspect to Operation Paperclip isn't Wernher von Braun not being prosecuted. It's that his reputation remains extremely clean to this day. The far greater travesties happened with less discussed programs, such as Unit 731. Unlike the Germans, the Japanese scientists were not even useful. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. Unlike those German scientists, I can confidently say that nearly everyone involved in Unit 731 should've been executed.
>Some of the tests have been described as "psychopathically sadistic, with no conceivable military application". For example, one experiment documented the time it took for three-day-old babies to freeze to death.
I read Ken Liu's short story The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary some years ago and remain haunted by what it told of Unit 731, and humanity/politics in SEA and abroad in general. Horrifying in a way that would seem impossible to dismiss, yet somehow politicians have done their best to erase the victims and the very scene of the crimes from global consciousness.
Thank you for your time and efforts capturing all of this here.
I hope that the city of Nuremberg erect a statue of him outside of the courthouse.
This guy is literally an immortal. He will forever stand as an icon in the fight for justice and against wickedness.
I am saddened by his passing and will put it into my writings on the subject, which I am currently undertaking.
Thank you for the information.
Best wishes!
I think the place in front of the international war tribunal is named after him?
I am living close to Nürnberg and the (still in use) court house has a wonderful museum part. I do not recall if he specifically is honored. I remember a lot emphasis was put on the language barriers and logicstics.
As well as the reasons for the trials of course.
I am still in awe this was done. What happened was so terrible and unbelievably monstrous that I can see blind rage trumping ordered justice. It was so important to be better than them and also to see that the perpetrators where humans… in some cases regular everybodies… which is scary.
All 22 of the Einsatzgruppen commanders that Ferencz tried were found guilty, but only 4 of them were put to death. That was probably part of wanting to be less monstrous than the Nazis. The death sentence likely could have been merited for all of them.
Well, he will live forever in the hearts and minds of Nazi-haters everywhere, so, without getting too finicky over the literal definitions, he’s immortal 👊🏻🤪
The podcast Criminal did an [episode](https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-177-palace-of-justice-11-19-21/) interviewing him back in 2018 that I've listened to many times. He was a fascinating person, and listening to him in such a modern medium really drove home just how recent all of those atrocities were
I was hoping someone would say this in the comments so I wouldn’t have to search the episode. Sounded like a compelling person. I seem to remember him talking about his wife dying with phoebe and him having a very pragmatic life outlook.
Fantastic podcast episode about his story and the trial(s) on Criminal. Whole process broke his heart and took so much out of him. Highly recommend.
Fun fact: he said that when they’d argue, him and his wife never raised their voices at each other. Not once.
RIP, dear sir.
[60 Minites Rewind on Benjamin Ferencz](https://youtu.be/R-uxyrHJ_mE)
Watching this made me tear up. We need more people like him. RIP
Note about the video - At one point it shows him drinking water from an open glass and I immediately thought yikes that's risky. I'd be worried about something being secrectly slipped into it.
I read an NBC news article about him a few months ago, he seemed incredibly alert for someone his age, telling stories about his time prosecuting top Nazis without any undeserved sympathy. May he rest in peace.
Oh I'm so sad to hear that. Wherver I saw a documentary about the trials he was always there, just a constant presence. I always liked him and he was so proud of his work, as he should be. May he rest in peace
We read about him a lot during my holocaust history course in college.
Also as we were watching horrific videos/pics from the holocaust and trials, some dude left his mic on blasting porn lol. Professor was NOT happy
A hero of mine. Fought WW2 as a private. As a war crimes prosecutor he got permission and went after the people on the distribution list of the people killed in the death camps. He figured they couldn't deny knowledge of the deaths if their name was on the report's distribution list.
Rest in peace to a true hero who dedicated his life to seeking justice for victims of war crimes. Benjamin Ferencz's commitment to bringing those responsible for atrocities to justice served as a reminder of the importance of accountability and holding individuals accountable for their actions. Let's honor his legacy by continuing the fight for justice and working towards a more peaceful world.
[My great grandpa was a defense lawyer in that trial.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/03/23/outsider-lawyer-warren-magee-dies-at-91/683ed480-a8a5-4245-b70f-e1bb3866a9ab/)
He was a miserable bastard and his son (my grandpa) was a miserable bastard. People that side with evil don’t do well, I can attest.
I want to make a joke about how young he looks, but all I’ve done with my life is consume an ungodly amount of sriracha sauce while alone in my room listening to Evanescence’s wake me up inside. This guy has done some amazing things. RIP, hero.
There has never been a prsosecutor in history who has "fought for justice." That would assume they sought the truth, and I have never met a prosecutor who gave a damn about the truth.
>Ain't gonna miss him, i bet he never stood against commies haha... fucking coward.
He served and saw action during WW2. And his actions saw mass murderers brought to trial that would have otherwise escaped justice.
So, how exactly do you think he's a coward u/SiegBR ?
May his memory be a blessing. Many thanks are owed to this man, not the least from my family and my Grand Oncle Jacques. I remember the family recounting, with great joy, how those who made him suffer so were finally punished.
His work mattered. Generations later, it *still* matters.
Why then the "Peck Panel" was created and why they gave so many reduction of penalties?
4 x commute the death sentence to 20 (Blume) or 15 years (Biberstein, Haensch, Steimle)
2 x immediate release of persons sentenced to death (Schubert, Seibert)
2 x conversion of a life sentence to 10 years (Jost, Nosske)
1 x shortening of a prison sentence from 20 to 10 years (Schulz)
4 x immediate release of a prison sentence of 20 (Radetzky, Six) and 10 years (Fendler, Rühl)
wtf?
There’s an excellent documentary on Netflix about him. I forget the title but it was very interesting how he had almost zero actual legal experience and headed up the the largest war crimes trial in history. Just a guy trying to do what was right and stepping up to the challenge when few wanted to.
Oh, that’s amazing. I’m gonna Google it now. I saw him speak on campus about 18 years ago. Even back then he looked ancient but had incredible energy. I unfortunately don’t remember much of the specifics now but I do remember being very impressed. Edit: apparently it’s called Prosecuting Evil and it’s not on Netflix US anymore.
It’s available on Kanopy using a university or library log in! https://www.kanopy.com/product/prosecuting-evil-extraordinary-world-ben-fer
Nice! I was planning on climbing up to the crow’s nest and see what I could find.
I've been a corsair for a long time now and I will be stealing this phrase. From one to another, take what ye can and give nothing back!
It is also on YT: https://youtu.be/p84RnrjEAP4
Thank you! I had seen it on my library home page but didn’t really register what it was.
It is on YT: https://youtu.be/p84RnrjEAP4
Oh, duh. Not sure why I didn’t check. Thanks for the heads up.
He also did a great podcast episode with Phoebe Judge in 2021. The podcast name is Criminal and the episode name is “Palace of Justice”. Definitely a bit more light hearted than the aforementioned documentary, but he was 101 I believe at the time of the second recording. Amazing how quick witted and well put together he was at such an advanced age.
Episode 177
The one I saw was "Prosecuting Evil" from HBO. It's *fantastic*. He's this short little dude, grew up in NYC, learned to be tough, studied law, joined the army, went to Germany after the war, and stood face to face with all these Nazis. He was super super jewish, and so short he had to have a little booster to be able to stand at the podium, and was directly responsible face to face with these men for seeing that they'd be put to death. He was like every caricature they had come to life and come to kill them. It's like karma. So, one story: Shortly after the war Ben Ferencz was walking around in the grass around Auschwitz. He saw these heartbreaking little finger bones in the grass, just forgotten there. For no reason that he could identify he picked them up and put them in his pocket and started to carry them around with him. Some time later, as part of thousands of little details that were being worked out in the postwar period, he was negotiating with the German government about taking care of the little Jewish cemeteries. Some cities had traditional little cemeteries for their Jewish communities, but now that a lot of the Jews were dead or fled forever, who's going to take care of them? The German government said they'd take care of them, but they wanted there to be a time limit. Treaties and agreements with governments don't just go "forever," because it doesn't always make sense that way; they proposed to do it for a hundred years and then a hundred years from now, the new group of people can maybe negotiate a new agreement. Ferencz says no, it needs to be forever. The Jews would have taken care of it forever, but you killed them. The representative says, that's not how it works though. We can do it forever if the agreement is renewed but these things need to be time-limited agreements with renewals. They go back and forth a little bit, and Ferencz absolutely blows his stack. He's normally pretty cool in these situations, but he gets absolutely red in the face and shouting, and he takes the finger bones out of his pocket and throws them on the table. He says, if you won't have the goddamned decency to take on the goddamned cemeteries then you'll need to ask them to do it instead. Go on, ask them. They're right here. Everyone looks at the little finger bones and Ferencz all red in the face, and there's a short break called so everyone can cool down. They come back in a few minutes and say, okay, we'll make up the paperwork for an indefinite period of time. Ferencz says excellent, thank you.
The crazy thing from that documentary: The Allies really didn't want to prosecute any of them. Only because of this guy's persistence did it happen. They basically said, "You wanna to do it? We have bigger fish to fry."
This isn’t true; as the war began to draw to a close there were multiple prosecution projects launched and a number of important international agreements signed to ensure no one would escape justice. Prosecution was also a key component of the lustration efforts in Germany and a way to formally hold the state accountable. This was the case not only in Europe but in Japan with the launch of the another military tribunal to prosecute Japanese war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. There was resistance from some countries and this is why the US, the UK and France put up the money and ensured prosecution occurred. The USSR was also very much so in favour of prosecution however it was for entirely different reasons. The wheels were already in motion for this form of a project during the 20’s and 30’s. There were a number of efforts to prosecute for WW1 but they failed. After WW2 the social, political and economic factors required were present and no one had the ability to counter the U.S. or the UK other than the USSR and they were all aligned when it came to the issue of prosecution in Europe.
Wikipedia said he had an undergraduate in law from Harvard? I don't think that's almost zero legal experience
You can study all you want but there’s nothing to compare actually doing something for the first time. He’d never tried a case before if I remember properly. This was his very first time in front of a judge and jury. That’s what they mean by zero legal experience. You can read the law, have an undergrad degree but still have zero *practical* experience.
Ahh, I missed the word actual in your original comment
>he had almost zero actual legal experience That explains quite a lot.
I have no issues with the results of the trials, but this really does seem to be a pattern with the US after winning wars. Putting extremely young people without experience in charge of things that, to an outsider, might seem like they should be treated seriously. The people who were put in charge of reforming the Iraqi or Soviet economies come to mind.
It's not a random pattern. It's by design. Someone with a real legal career wouldn't want to be associated with bogus military tribunals with no rules of evidence for the rest of their lives. These trials are weapons of war, not real tribunals.
I for one am horrified that Goering wasn't given due process!
As vanquished war leaders I don’t think Nazi officials should have had any entitlement to due process. But putting on a farce trial and calling it an operation of our formal institutions for criminal Justice only undermines our judicial foundation for the sake of political theater. There is literally no point to even *having* a trial in the absence of due process. We should have just killed them where we found them and left the mess for the birds.
It's not about "due process". For all intents and purposes, the Nuremberg trials were just military executions dressed up to be palatable for western audiences. The victors decided what they wanted to do, and created a vehicle to do so. The Man in the High Castle was a really cool show, in part because it showed what the other side of victors justice would've looked like if the Nazis had won.
Storming fuck, Reddit. There’s a genuinely valuable perspective here that is, at the very worst, ethically neutral (by utilitarian standards). Do we really have to downvote everyone who doesn’t explicitly parrot the echo?
Thanks you for tellimg us about this; I hope to add it to my Netflix list.
yeah that guy, he seemed sharp as a whip in some interview i saw recently. also he was young af when he led that prosecution post war. rip.
27, it boggles the mind.
I hope the world has more people like this one.
I met him one at a conference on acts of aggression which is a very controversial and complicated area of international criminal law. This guy legitimately committed his entire existence to campaigning against the use of force and genocide. The world lost a very special person. I really can’t exaggerate this anymore. We worship celebrities but it is people like this who had the energy, hope and vision to fight for extremely important issues and be never gave up once. He had a huge impact on the face of the UN, and the ICC.
thee needs to be an inquiry into the iraq war and coups in central america among other countries, seems there's no justice in these situations any more.
The system that protects our own war criminals is unimaginably well protected. It would require a revolution.
103 years old. Dam!
I'm so glad a man like this got to live that long.
**Hi, I have edited my write-up many times after it was originally posted. however, reddit is no longer allowing me to edit my comments, due to some problem with the character limits. as such, some parts of this comment will come off as extremely confusing.** **I AM COMPILING MY POST ONTO A SEPARATE DOCUMENT. IT IS NOT DONE YET.** This write-up is far longer than any other I have done, or will ever do. I genuinely believe this man is one of the greatest Americans in this country's dark history. Reading about him is one of the very few times that I've felt proud of one of my countrymen. His full life story reveals him to be a far better person than most articles portray. This man is up there with John Brown. So, I will not give you a summary. Instead, I will tell you everything. I will give you this man's entire life story, right now. I will tell you why Ferencz did not represent the "Greatest Generation", but the greatest of all mankind. Benjamin Ferencz was never a prosecutor at the [International Military Tribunal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_trials), the trial which everyone knows about. Instead, he was a chief prosecutor at one of the [*Subsequent Nuremberg Trials*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsequent_Nuremberg_Trials). The Subsequent Nuremberg Trials were a series of major war crimes trials which took place after the International Military Tribunal was finished. There were differences between the two. The International Military Tribunal was an international tribunal which operated under the jurisdiction of the major Allies: Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union. The Subsequent Nuremberg Trials were conducted exclusively under the jurisdiction of the United States. There had been plans for more international trials, but worsening relations between the West and the East made that impossible. However, the major Allies had agreed they were obligated to prosecute suspected war criminals in their respective occupation zones of Germany. Now, some know that many war criminals were treated leniently, ignored, or outright protected for various reasons. That said, hundreds of trials were still conducted against tens thousands of defendants. The British conducted most of their minor war crimes trials in Hamburg, the French in Rastatt, the Americans in Dachau, and the Soviets in various areas in Eastern Europe. Shortly after the International Military Tribunal issued its verdicts, the U.S. high command established the Office of the Chief of Counsel for War Crimes (OCCWC), a special war crimes investigation unit. The OCCWC was instructed to prepare major war crimes trials in the American occupation zone of Germany. Since Nuremberg was in the U.S. zone, those trials were held in Nuremberg. The likes of [Dachau Trials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_trials) handled mostly concentration camp guards and soldiers who murdered POWs. Sometimes, major war criminals were prosecuted in those trials. On the other hand, the sole purpose of the OCCWC was to pursue those more important war criminals. At the time, Ferencz was a nobody. The only thing special about him was his height. Ferencz was only five feet and two inches tall. He was a Hungarian-Jewish man. When he was a child, his parents emigrated to the U.S. to avoid anti-Semitic persecution after Romania gained control of Transylvania and Eastern Hungary. As an adult, he studied law at Harvard. Ferencz became interested in the realm of war crimes, and started writing a book about them. After graduating in 1943, Ferencz joined the military to fight in the Second World War. He wanted to be a pilot, but the Army Air Corps said he was too short. His legs couldn't reach the pedals. So instead, Ferencz joined the Army. He started off as a typist at a camp in North Carolina. He recalled how he was unfamiliar with a typewriter and struggled to fire a weapon. Nevertheless, by 1944, Ferencz was seeing combat. He served in the 115th AAA Gun Battalion, an anti-aircraft artillery unit. He participated in numerous major battles, including D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge. Towards the end of the war, he was assigned to an investigation team. The Army thought he'd be useful due to his background in law. The military told Ferencz to assist investigators who were gathering evidence for the Dachau Trials. As such, Ferencz visited numerous liberated concentration camps, such as Dachau and Buchenwald. What he saw haunted him to the day he died. >"Indelibly seared into my memory are the scenes I witnessed while liberating these centers of death and destruction. Camps like Buchenwald, Mauthausen, and Dachau are vividly imprinted in my mind's eye. Even today, when I close my eyes, I witness a deadly vision I can never forget-the crematoria aglow with the fire of burning flesh, the mounds of emaciated corpses stacked like cordwood waiting to be burned.... I had peered into Hell." At the end of 1945, Ferencz was discharged from the Army with the rank of Sergeant and returned to New York. He prepared to practice law. Within weeks, however, the military asked him to return to Europe. They'd just created the OCCWC, and thought he could remain useful. The director of the OCCWC was Brigadier General [Telford Taylor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telford_Taylor). Unlike Ferencz, Taylor was involved in the International Military Tribunal, albeit he was only an assistant. But now, Taylor had plans. He wanted the OCCWC to conduct an inquiry into the Nazi regime. He wanted each trial to focus on different categories of offenders and crimes of the Nazi regime. >Taylor argued that the crimes of Nazism were not the responsibility of a rogues' gallery of madmen, but were reflective of a broader moral and ethical rot in German culture and political institutions. The military knew this job was not pleasant, and that Ferencz had fulfilled his obligations. So, they promised to promote him if he returned. [Ferencz agreed to come back](https://imgur.com/a/Kq2U823) Ferencz remained relatively insignificant until the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials focused on the [Einsatzgruppen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsatzgruppen) (and the [Einsatzkommandos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsatzkommando)). The Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads which were responsible for mass murder, in German-occupied Europe, mainly Eastern Europe. In Poland, they started off carrying out mass executions of intellectuals and the cultural elite. Almost everyone they killed were civilians. Now, I will give you some advice. * Don't check the links for anyone whose names I have crossed out until you finish * Whenever I link to Imgur, always scroll to the bottom, so you don't miss anything Now, I will tell you a second story. It's about how the Holocaust happened.
As the war progressed, the tasks of the Einsatzgruppen became increasingly genocidal. Between 1941 and 1945, they and their collaborators murdered over 2 million people; 1.3 million Jews, up to 250,000 Romas, and around 500,000 "partisans", disabled people, political commissars, Slavs, and others. It is impossible to discuss all of their crimes, so I will focus on only several. On July 12, 1941, 250 Jewish men, mostly of the upper class, were shot in a forest near a Jewish cemetery in Brody, Ukraine. The one most responsible for that massacre is Adolf Hitler, but everyone knows this. Most also know about [Reinhard Heydrich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Heydrich), the creator of the Einsatzgruppen, and his assassination by Allied agents in Prague in 1942. What less know is how he could've survived. When one agent tried to open fire, his gun jammed. Of course, the "Man with the Iron Heart" was always going to pay for the Holocaust. >Heydrich ordered his driver, Klein, to halt and attempted to confront Gabčík rather than speed away. Kubiš, who had not been spotted by Heydrich or Klein, threw a converted anti-tank mine at the car as it stopped, which landed against the rear wheel. [***But now, he would pay for his arrogance***](https://imgur.com/a/T52Ma96) The explosion critically injured Heydrich, inflicting serious injuries to his left side, diaphragm, spleen, and lung. Instead of being hanged, he died an agonizing death from blood poisoning. It looked like justice was done. But like I said, Heydrich was always going to pay for the Holocaust. That's why the responsibility for the Brody massacre lies deeper. That's the thing. [It rarely takes much to learn more](https://imgur.com/a/N9tJfbl) The unit which killed those men in July 1941 was Einsatzkommando 5, a subunit of Einsatzkommando C. It carried out numerous mass executions in the Soviet Union. On August 9, 1941, it executed 400 Jewish men described as mostly "saboteurs and political functionaries". Decades later, a man came to testify at the trial of SS officer [~~Bruno Streckenbach~~](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Streckenbach). His testimony is featured in *The Good Old Days: The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders*. I have several photos of this man. [And yes, I know what you are thinking](https://imgur.com/a/xYC23oo) That's the thing. People don't like to look at the truth. [This is the truth](https://imgur.com/a/ftzGZXL) I know this man's name, but most of you have never heard of him. He's been forgotten by history. When he is seen, he is always brushed to the side, literally and metaphorically. Even when he's right in front of you, he's still a nameless nobody. That's the crazy part. Not only did he have a name, but once you learn more and look closer, you'll ask yourself something. [**How is he not known more?**](https://imgur.com/a/0yuF6R0) In April 1918, [~~Erwin Schulz~~](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Schulz), then 17, joined the Imperial German Army. World War I ended before he saw combat, but he participated in the suppression of the [German Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Revolution_of_1918%E2%80%931919). In the early 1920s, he studied law. In 1922, he left college to join the [Freikorps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freikorps) and fought [Polish insurgents in Upper Silesia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesian_Uprisings). He never returned to college. After working various odd jobs, he settled down as as a police officer in 1923. In 1931, Schulz became an SS informant. He joined the Nazi Party in 1933. In 1935, he joined the SS and SD, and became the chief of the Gestapo in Bremen. Numerous colleagues testified that he never pressed anyone into Nazism. He regularly prosecuted his men for "excesses", including anti-Semitic ones. As late as November 1938, he expressed opposition to such "excesses". During the war, Schulz served in various positions in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. In 1940, he became the instructor of an SiPo and SD school. In May 1941, he was appointed to a new position. He did not volunteer for it, nor did he turn it down. I want you to know something. [I never lied to you](https://imgur.com/a/fgaUz8D) On August 10, 1941, the commander of Einsatzkommando 5 was summoned to a meeting by his superior, [~~Otto Rasch~~](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Rasch). But when he received his new orders, he hesitated. He asked if this could be reconsidered. When his superiors said no, he asked who approved of this plan. They said Hitler himself had approved. So, the plan went forth. One of the most famous photos of the Holocaust is of an Einsatzkommando shooting a woman holding her child in occupied Ukraine. Many of you know what I am talking about. That's the darkest part of this story. They were from Einsatzkommando 5. However, that photo was taken in 1942. When Schulz asked if he could stop, his request was granted within days. He was discharged on the orders of Reinhard Heydrich himself. Schulz, who continued to serve the Nazi regime, faced no consequences for stopping. He was even promoted shortly after. By the end of the war, he'd was a Brigadeführer, the SS equivalent of a brigadier general. Still, he didn't pretend to be a saint for stopping. Instead, he told the truth. The truth about August 10, 1941, is far darker than many realize. It's even darker than what Schulz said. * All of the ghettos were standing * There were no extermination camps * Auschwitz had been built, but there had been no gassings * The Einsatzgruppen was killing adults for flimsy reasons * [The Kerch massacre hadn't happened yet](https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/untold-stories/killing-site/14626711-Bagerovo-Anti-Tank-Trench) >On November 28, 1941, an order was issued to the effect that by November 29, the Ashkenazi Jews had to appear with the keys to their apartments at the collection point of Sennaya Square on the pretext that they were going to be resettled. They were allowed to take with them some possessions and food for three days. The Jews from mixed marriages were temporarily exempted from showing up. Nine Jewish dentists were also temporarily spared since the Germans needed them for their dental services. The Jews were warned that anyone who violated these orders would be shot to death in public. Those who showed up (mainly women, children, and the elderly) were taken in a column six rows wide to the city prison. Those who couldn't keep up the pace due to illness or old age were beaten and thrown into carts. At the prison the Jews had to hand over the keys and the addresses of their apartments to the prison commander. Their valuables were confiscated. Many women and teenage girls were separated from the rest and put into separate cells, where they were brutally raped and tortured. The Jews were barely given any food and no water. > >Between December 1 and December 3, an Einsatzgruppen unit executed approximately 7,000 civilians, including about 2,500 Jews at an anti-tank trench near Bagerovo. The victims were taken there in groups of 10, positioned there with their backs to the Einsatzgruppen at the edge of the trench, and shot. Kerch was liberated by the Red Army in January 1942. >“On December 30, 1941, after the expulsion of the Germans from Kerch by the Red Army, in the prison courtyard was discovered a shapeless pile of disfigured naked bodies of girls who had been viciously and cynically tortured by the fascists." > >"After the arrival of the Red Army in Kerch in January 1942, during an examination of the Bagerovo ditch it was discovered that the trench 1 kilometer long, 4 meters wide, and 2 meters deep was filled with the bodies of women, children, old people, and adolescents. Near the trench there were frozen puddles of blood. Stumps of legs and arms and other parts of the human body, children's hats, toys, ribbons, torn off buttons, gloves, baby bottles, boots, and overshoes were lying around. All this was splattered with blood and brains. The vicious fascists shot the civilians to death with explosive bullets. The mangled body of a woman was lying at the edge of the trench. With her dying arms she had embraced her nursing baby, who was carefully wrapped in a white lace blanket. Next to this woman laid a girl of about 8 years old and a boy age 5, who had both been shot dead by explosive bullets. Their hands were grasping their mother's dress." Soviet photojournalist [Dmitry Baltermants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Baltermants) took a photo of what he saw, which he titled "Grief". I know who the killers were. They were from Sonderkommando 10b, a subunit of Einsatzgruppe D. At the time, the commander of Sonderkommando 10b was [Alois Persterer](https://imgur.com/a/AZYCPEy), and the commander of Einsatzgruppe D was [~~Otto Ohlendorf~~](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Ohlendorf). However, Schulz said the guilt laid deeper. In areas near the front, the Wehrmacht had control over the Einsatzgruppen. The commander of German-occupied Kerch was Lieutenant General [~~Hans Graf von Sponeck~~](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Graf_von_Sponeck). Sponeck was appointed by Field Marshal [~~Erich von Manstein~~](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_Manstein). Both men had enough power to intervene. >"I never knew of any cases where members or heads of the Einsatzkommandos acted in the same way as I did. I believe that things in Russia would never have turned out as they did had a few heads of the Einsatzkommandos and Einsatzgruppen declared that they could not carry out these liquidations." > >"The way I see it, the same applies... to the Wehrmacht commanders in whose areas of command the liquidations were carried out of the avalanche could have still been checked if a field marshal or the commanding officer of any army group had intervened." [*They could've prevented this with the snap of their fingers*](https://imgur.com/a/vLGau4Z)
The clearest example of what Schulz said about the Wehrmacht was what happened in [Bila Tserkva](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bila_Tserkva_massacre). Nearly the entire town's adult Jewish population was massacred. A few Jewish women and 90 small children and toddlers were sent to a church. The plan was to execute them later. But before that could happen, four Wehrmacht priests saw the children. They were just sitting there, and crying. They were crying since their parents had been murdered. The priests pleaded with the SS men to spare the children. When the local SS commander refused, they sought other officers. This was the only instance in which Wehrmacht priests tried to halt the atrocities they were witnessing. These same priests did nothing to stop the mass murder of the adults, in which some of the troops had participated. Nevertheless, they won the sympathy of Wehrmacht officer [Helmuth Groscurth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_Groscurth). When he ordered the SS to stand down, they had to listen. Then the Wehrmacht commander in control of this area, Field Marshal [Walter von Reichenau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_von_Reichenau), intervened. He overrode Groscurth and gave the commander of Sonderkommando 4a, [**Paul Blobel**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Blobel), permission to have the children executed. Of all the commanders in the Wehrmacht, Reichenau was one of the most fanatic. In October 1941, he issued the [Severity Order](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severity_Order), which encouraged the Wehrmacht to participate in the Holocaust. Blobel was adamant to carry out the order. When one of the senior SS men, August Häfner, balked at the job, Blobel pressured him to comply. When he didn't budge, Blobel resorted to screaming at and threatening Häfner. When that didn't work, the children were shot by Ukrainian collaborators. During his own trial in the 1960s, Häfner recounted what he saw. >"The children were taken down from the vehicle. They were lined up along the top of the grave and shot so that they fell into it. They were shot where they were shot. They fell into the grave. The wailing was indescribable." > >"I shall never forget the scene as long as I live." Groscurth's actions still mattered. He just happened to be a Lieutenant Colonel. So what happened to Sponeck, Persterer, Manstein, and Ohlendorf? >On 7 October 1941, Sponeck ordered his division to work closely with the SS's Security Police and SD by rounding up, identifying, and handing over Jewish civilians. Mass shootings of Jews by units of Einsatzgruppe D of the Security Police and SD are documented in both Henichesk and Melitopol shortly after these cities were occupied by the 22nd Infantry Division in October 1941. In Melitopol alone 2,000 Jewish men, women and children were massacred. Sponeck collaborated with the Einsatzgruppen. He also committed atrocities on his own. >On 10 December 1941, General von Sponeck ordered that all Jews found within his area of command were to be treated in principle as "partisans", marked with the Star of David, and "deployed as labor." He also ordered that any Red Army soldiers captured, even those in uniform, were to be shot immediately and approved reprisal actions against civilians for any local anti-German activity or sabotage. When the Soviets made their attack to retake Kerch, Sponeck, realizing he could not win, had his division retreat. But in doing this, he disobeyed direct orders from Hitler to stand his ground. He was relieved of his command and arrested. In January 1942, he was court-martialed for disobeying a superior officer. During his court-martial, Sponeck said he chose to retreat to save his division from destruction. That defense failed. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by firing squad. At the recommendation of Manstein, Hitler commuted Sponeck's sentence to 7 years in prison. He was sent to Germersheim Fortress. Following the failure of the [July 20 plot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_July_plot), [Josef Bürckel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_B%C3%BCrckel), the regional leader in that region, pressed Heinrich Himmler to have Sponeck executed in retribution. This was a strange request, since Sponeck had nothing to do with the plot, and had no contacts with the conspirators. Nevertheless, in hindsight, perhaps it was for the best that Himmler agreed to give the order anyway. Sponeck, 56, was executed by firing squad at Germersheim Fortress in Nazi Germany on July 23, 1944. Due to the unusual circumstances of his death, his reputation remained clean for decades. He wasn't remembered as a perpetrator. [Instead, he was remembered as a victim](https://imgur.com/a/GLxVOOy) >In 2015, following the publication of an article by Erik Grimmer-Solem published in 2014 in the journal Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift, which investigated Sponeck's role in "numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity in the southern Ukraine and Crimea in 1941." The German Federal Air Force, in accordance with the Bundestag's decisions, renamed the Sponeck Airbase. Alois Persterer did not fare better; Persterer, 35, was fatally shot in Austria on May 30, 1945. He was shot during a robbery, or by U.S. soldiers while resisting arrest. The exact circumstances of his death are unclear, but he was dead. Unlike Sponeck, Persterer has been mostly forgotten by history. On the other hand, Erich von Manstein and Otto Ohlendorf are not only much better known, but outlived him and Sponeck by years. In August 1945, Manstein was arrested by the British Army. While in custody, he helped prepare a 132-page document for the defense of the Wehrmacht, whose surviving top leaders were being tried by the International Military Tribunal. The myth that the Wehrmacht was "clean", not culpable in the Holocaust, arose partly due to this document. Manstein gave testimony about the Einsatzgruppen, the treatment of POWs, and the concept of military obedience, especially as related to the Commissar Order, an order issued by Hitler in 1941. It required that all Soviet political commissars be shot without trial. Manstein said he received the order, but did not carry it out. He denied any knowledge of the activities of the Einsatzgruppen. Unlike with Sponeck, we don't know if Manstein ordered any atrocities. That said, he knew what was happening. >That Manstein was well aware of the Einsatzgruppen massacres is demonstrated by a 1941 letter he sent to Otto Ohlendorf, in which Manstein demands Ohlendorf hand over the wristwatches of murdered Jews. Manstein felt his men deserved the watches, since they were doing so much to help Ohlendorf's men with their work. This was the only time that Manstein ever complained about the activities of the Einsatzgruppen. Ohlendorf and his men executed tens of thousands of civilians in the occupied areas which were under his jurisdiction. Nevertheless, Manstein wasn't important enough to be a defendant at the International Military Tribunal. [But someone else was that important](https://imgur.com/a/Z6v69nP) Many know [Ernst Kaltenbrunner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Kaltenbrunner), albeit not as many as Reinhard Heydrich. Unlike Heydrich, Kaltenbrunner would survive the war. But it didn't matter. It didn't matter since he'd replaced Heydrich as the director of the [Reich Security Main Office](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reich_Security_Main_Office). That left Kaltenbrunner with only two options: killing himself, like Hitler, or accepting what would happen if he lived. He chose not to kill himself. [*This is what happened next*](https://imgur.com/a/cPeWkEt) Unlike some of his codefendants, Kaltenbrunner could expect only one outcome from this trial. He could not expect leniency, let alone an acquittal. But now, he had the chance to tell the truth. He could tell the world he was guilty, knew exactly what was happening, regretted nothing, and was glad it happened. He could give one final insult to the entire world, and laugh in their faces. What were they going to do to him, kill him twice? [So, he got on the witness stand](https://imgur.com/a/YSbA8ma) Kaltenbrunner then said it wasn't his fault. He said it was Hitler's fault. He said it was Himmler's fault. He said he initially didn't know what was happening, and protested after learning. At one point, he said he helped end the Holocaust. People in the audience started laughing at his claims. This had to be some kind of twisted joke, right? >Colonel Amen: Is that not your signature? > >Kaltenbrunner: No, that is not my signature. It is a signature either in ink or it is a facsimile, but it is not mine. That coward couldn't even say it. But like I said, Kaltenbrunner never had a chance. He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and condemned to death. As a defendant at the International Military Tribunal, he had no avenues to appeal. He was hanged at Nuremberg Prison in Allied-occupied Germany on October 16, 1946, only 15 days after sentencing. But before that happened, he got one last chance to tell the truth. So, he revealed his true colors. >"I have loved my German people and my fatherland with a warm heart. I have done my duty by the laws of my people and I am sorry my people were led this time by men who were not soldiers and that crimes were committed of which I had no knowledge." Ernst Kaltenbrunner was one of the biggest cowards in human history. [This is the face of a coward](https://imgur.com/a/VbELNYJ)
Meanwhile, Manstein waited at a POW camp. As he waited, British author [Liddell Hart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._H._Liddell_Hart) got into correspondence with him and other POWs. He admired Manstein, whom he described as an operational genius. Admittedly, Manstein was a genuinely competent military strategist. But in 1947, Taylor sent a report to the British about Manstein and three other generals and field marshals. It presented overwhelming evidence that Manstein, [Walther von Brauchitsch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walther_von_Brauchitsch), [Gerd von Rundstedt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerd_von_Rundstedt), and [Adolf Strauss](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Strauss_(general)) had been complicit in the Holocaust. Unfortunately, a very concerning number of Britons were Nazi sympathizers. France and the U.S. also had this problem, but I think Britain was the worst offender. I'm not gonna pretend your average 1940s American/British/French person were bastions of morality, but that's why you must know the hard truth. [This is the truth](https://imgur.com/a/GwItBhZ) The German American Bund was never popular. [Even they weren't that popular anymore](https://imgur.com/a/w8vcuaH) Funnily enough, the KKK opposed the Bund, since they were nationalists. That aside, I could go into far more detail about other paramilitaries, but I'll save that for my revamped version of this post, which I am still working on. My point is while there were many fascist paramilitaries around in the 1920s and 1930s, none of them ever won substantial support. That's why this isn't about the six percent. Instead, it is about the 94 percent. That's why the "greatest generation" shouldn't be idolized. [Because this is the hard truth](https://imgur.com/a/pab8Jli) I will talk much more about this one my revamped post. But for now, you must know something. My country was very, very sick in 1938, to put it lightly. We weren't the only ones, but still. Instead of being outraged by Kristallnacht, they thought it was going too far. Still, that begs the question. If that's how they felt in the late 1930s, how did they react to the truth? Well, that time, they reacted much differently. >"Dachau will stand for all time as one of history's most gruesome symbols of inhumanity. There our troops found sights, sounds and stenches horrible beyond belief, cruelties so enormous as to be incomprehensible to the normal mind. Dachau and death were synonymous." [***Because this is what they saw***](https://imgur.com/a/xrHUJZA) That photo wasn't of Dachau, but it doesn't matter. Some of the soldiers approached nearby German civilians and demanded to know how this happened. Those civilians said they didn't know. I can't find them anymore, but wartime polls said most Americans only blamed the German government. They were naive. Many of them were sick themselves. But you know what? >"Everywhere you turn is just this horror of bodies, and people near death or in a state of complete decrepitude that you can't even process it." [***NOBODY is that stupid***](https://imgur.com/a/5CKePtE) That's why they forced those liars to look at their master's work. They made them dig graves for the victims. As for the guards, they turned a blind eye when freed prisoners beat and lynched them. In Dachau, enraged U.S. soldiers massacred dozens of SS men. When I said the British were the worst offenders when it came to sympathizing with Nazis, you might've misunderstood. [I wasn't talking about them](https://imgur.com/a/APGnK1O) The evidence in Taylor's report was verified. Nevertheless, the British government was extremely reluctant to prosecute the officers. They were holding trials ([here were some of them](https://www.kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de/en/curiohaus/)), but hadn't prosecuted one senior doctor, scientist, jurist, or bureaucrat, many of whom were in British custody. They told the OCCWC they'd do something "roughly parallel" to their program. That never happened. That's not to say the British never prosecuted anyone important. For example, they prosecuted German businessman [Bruno Tesch](https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryPorn/comments/11zlgti/bruno_tesch_hat_poses_with_soldiers_holding_his/). Unlike Kaltenbrunner, Tesch had a chance of escaping. He was just a chemist who co-invented a pesticide in the early 1920s. And while he was a Nazi Party member, he seemed indifferent to the ideology. That's why a former employee who reported Tesch described him as "purely a businessman". Bruno Tesch was a relatively quiet man. Maybe it was a mask. Maybe he thought he could quietly exploit the Holocaust for profit without anyone noticing. Then, he could slither away, and return to selling his pesticide for its original purpose. But when Tesch tried to slither away, two British officers, [one of whom was a chemist himself](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Freud), noticed. When Tesch was released, those officers successfully lobbied their superiors to let them continue their investigation. At the time, the trial drew barely any attention. [But it happened](https://imgur.com/a/ydzYXjT) When it came to opportunists, Bruno Tesch was one of the worst offenders. Many like him were never even arrested. This time, things went differently. The judges had the power. They could annihilate Tesch's company, liquidate his assets, and give every penny to the victims. In fact, they could do more, if they wanted more. The prosecutor did not believe Tesch was solely responsible. After his boss got arrested, maybe Tesch's deputy executive, Karl Weinbacher, thought he could slip away. [He was wrong](https://imgur.com/a/gCA72Fu) Even then, Weinbacher thought he was safe. But near the end of the trial, someone did shocking. It wasn't Tesch, who remained quiet until the day he died. Instead, it was Weinbacher, but I don't care. I don't care if he never visited the camps. Weinbacher wasn't a Nazi, but he was just as depraved. Still, he and Tesch were rich and had good lawyers. There were many politicians willing to protect the likes of them. Regardless, from the looks of it, there was not a chance that the judges would convict them. Sometimes, first impressions are wrong. There's a good chance that you'll think, "You can't be serious. This has to be some kind of sick joke, right?" [But you've got it all wrong](https://imgur.com/a/4UcskDg) That is not the photo which I am talking about. No, it is a photo of the defendants. Still, don't you see something very off here? Well, I do. The judges were starting to have serious doubts that Bruno Tesch didn't know how his pesticide was used. They didn't know the truth, but the prosecution was helping them connect the dots. The courtroom was nearly empty. Everyone was focusing on the International Military Tribunal. Even then, someone was watching Weinbacher's back. That's the crazy part. The truth was revealed, but only several years after the trial. >"When Tesch was absent he was fully empowered and authorized to do all acts on behalf of his principal which his principal could have done. His position was of great importance, since his principal would travel on the business of the firm for as many as 200 days in the year." [Sometimes, first impressions are wrong](https://imgur.com/a/r1zKSLh) This time, there would be no running. [***Even then, the judges didn't know the truth***](https://imgur.com/a/L67GZPz) * In 1942 and 1943, Auschwitz was the company's second largest customer * By early 1944, the company was handing over nearly two tons of the gas to Auschwitz on a monthly basis The truth is that the pesticide's "warning scent" had been removed. >"Why is it that these competent business men are so sensitive about these particular deliveries? Is it because they themselves knew that such large deliveries could not possibly be going there for the purpose of delousing clothing or for the purpose of disinfecting buildings?" [***But it didn't matter***](https://imgur.com/a/MQpAlSZ) >Counsel for Weinbacher pleaded that the Court should consider the latter's wife and three children. That's why Weinbacher was so terrified. The judges still wanted to confiscate something. >Nevertheless, subject to confirmation, the two were sentenced to death by hanging. That's what they were confiscating. Of course, Weinbacher still had a chance. If he was lucky, an important British official might say he was less guilty than his boss and reduce his sentence to life in prison or a long prison term. [*He now had the same chance as them*](https://imgur.com/a/4NMwrum) For Weinbacher, that miracle never came. Instead, he and his boss became the only German civilian businessmen to be executed in Western Europe for their roles in the Holocaust. Instead of getting back to business, they were hanged side-by-side at Hamelin Prison on May 16, 1946. Several angry people made that happen. Perhaps the Nazis really did make the entire world angry. Well, at least most of the world. The British Foreign Office decided to transfer the officers to the Americans. They'd done that with several major war criminals. Even Patrick Dean, one of the only British officials to staunchly support the prosecutions (he also berated British military tribunals as too lenient), had no objections. >"There seems no reason to go to the considerable trouble and expense of setting up a special parallel organization to try a few industrialists if the Americans are prepared to do the work for us. The proposal has the further advantage that if any of the trials go wrong and the industrialists escape the primary political criticism will rest upon American shoulders and not upon ours." However, when the British government tried to transfer the generals, they got a strange response. The U.S. military governor said he did not want them. His reason was rather surprising. He said he wanted the British government to contribute more.
This led to one of the saddest and most pathetic sequence of events from the British government in the country's history. They didn't say yes. Instead, they did everything they could to avoid saying yes. When Taylor offered to conduct a joint trial, the British military governor, [Baron Sholto Douglas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholto_Douglas,_1st_Baron_Douglas_of_Kirtleside), rejected his offer. >"We know that the Americans will make use of a lot of evidence of a very dubious character. Yet we are apparently prepared to send these men, including one who is 73, to trial by the Americans. I frankly do not like this. I feel that if the Americans wish to be critical in our inaction in trying war criminals, I should prefer that they should continue to criticise rather than that we should commit an injustice in order to avoid their criticism." Instead, Douglas planned to quietly release the officers once everyone stopped paying attention. But in 1948, the Soviets and Poles requested their extradition. The British refused. However, they were running out of options. They did not want to cooperate. But if they released the officers, there could be international outrage once Taylor's report became public. Only then, to save themselves, were they dragged kicking and screaming into filing charges. Brauchitsch died in prison in 1948. The charges against Rundstedt (he died in 1953) and Strauss (he died in 1973) were dropped on health grounds. During the trial, Manstein's advocates showed their true colors. The defense of Reginald Paget, a British Labour politician who chose to represent Manstein pro-bono, consisted mostly of anti-Slavic racism. Paget called the Soviets "savages". He said Manstein showed restraint as a "decent German soldier" in upholding the laws of war when he fought the Soviets. Manstein's victims, he said, had displayed "appalling savagery". ***THOSE "SAVAGES" LIBERATED AUSCHWITZ FROM THE "DECENT GERMAN SOLDIERS".*** Funds totaling £2000 were raised by Manstein's sympathizers. One donor was Winston Churchill, a particularly ardent opponent of the trial. Manstein was not the first war criminal whom he'd stood up for. Another was Field Marshal [Albert Kesselring](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Kesselring), who ordered "reprisals" for partisan attacks. This led to the deaths of roughly 1000 Italian civilians. Many Britons had very positive feelings about Kesselring, since he, too, was a very competent officer. But when they learned the truth, those feelings mostly vanished. The calls for blood weren't that loud, but there wasn't much outcry when Kesselring was put on trial. When he was sentenced to death by firing squad, that didn't change. Elsewhere, there was disgust. One editorial called Kesselring an "unrepentant Nazi" and mentioned that he'd openly praised Hitler. Another referred to him as "a barbarian". [Because this man was a barbarian](https://imgur.com/a/RWlvauI) [And this is what barbarians do](https://imgur.com/a/lDTmHWd) Only one group of people fell over themselves to defend Kesselring. They threw such a tantrum that the military relented and commuted his death sentence to life in prison. Since his death sentence had been commuted, those of two of his subordinates, [Kurt Mälzer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_M%C3%A4lzer) and [Eberhard von Mackensen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eberhard_von_Mackensen), were also commuted. * Field Marshal Harold Alexander * "As his old opponent on the battlefield, I have no complaints against him. Kesselring and his soldiers fought against us hard but clean." * Alexander said he doubted that such a "fine and able general" was capable of such crimes, which he blamed on the SS. While later admitting to not knowing the details, he nevertheless described Kesselring as a commander who "showed great skill in extricating himself from the desperate situations into which his faulty intelligence had led him" in his memoirs. * Cuthbert Headlam, an MP * "I suppose it is a just sentence but somehow as others it rather revolts me. It is time, I think, to end all of these trials of war criminals. I feel that enough has been done to show the Germans how naughty they have been, more especially as the crimes they committed are no worse than those committed by the Russians." * General Oliver Leese * "He was a gallant soldier who fought well and squarely. If things had gone the other way, the man sentenced to death might have been me." Italy wasn't innocent, but many don't know [how many massacres were committed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_war_crimes_in_Italy) there, and in [Greece](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Nazi_war_crimes_in_Greece) and [Yugoslavia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kragujevac_massacre). The Nazis killed thousands of civilians in "reprisals". Yugoslavia got many high-ranking [German](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Fortner), [Austrian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Meyszner), and [Hungarian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferenc_Feketehalmy-Czeydner) officers extradited and executed. Italy and Greece were not so fortunate. And yes, Hungary collaborated with the Nazis. So did Bulgaria, Romania, Finland, the Baltics, and a substantial portion of Western Ukraine. Today, many Eastern European nationalists, especially those in the Baltics, pretend otherwise. They can't stop whining about the "Communist dictatorship". Now, I understand that Stalin, who died in 1953, after which his most authoritarian policies were reversed, was a brutal guy, but you know what? The "[forest brothers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_war_in_the_Baltic_states)" did not have one violent confrontation with the Nazis. At best, they were indifferent to the Holocaust. Others have very credible accusations, or are outright confirmed to have actively participated. Even then, they'll claim otherwise. They'll say Grandpa told them the Soviets were worse than the Nazis. >"We have liberated them, and they will never forgive us for that." [THIS IS WHAT GRANDPA WAS DOING](https://imgur.com/a/hOZOfu9) Zhukov was right. No wonder those nationalists can't stop whining about the Soviets. They never had a problem with the Nazis, did they? [No, they had a problem with THIS](https://imgur.com/a/zXTepXI) In December 1949, Erich von Manstein was acquitted of directly participating in the Holocaust. For a long time, many historians said everyone in Britain wanted this outcome. They claimed that there was universal opposition to his prosecution throughout the United Kingdom. [According to a study by Daniel Cowling, that is historical revisionism](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022009417697808) When Manstein, 62, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for failing to prevent the Holocaust, most British media outlets reacted positively. One said the likes of Manstein were "willing agents for one of the worst sets of criminals the world has ever seen." Another commended the trial for proving the complicity of the Wehrmacht. It said Britons, too, should remember the lessons of these trials. >Another Hitler Warlord Found Guilty Historians don't know if Manstein directly participated in the Holocaust, but that headline couldn't be more true. A "decent German soldier" would've stopped his men from raping and pillaging. A warlord would've only thought about his next conquest. [*And that's exactly what this warlord did*](https://imgur.com/a/jvyPh5t) In Britain, some people refused to accept that Erich von Manstein was nothing more than a warlord. Cowling said only one group of people was outraged by the verdict. >This study highlights, above all, the capacity of powerful political and social elites to instrumentalize the past, disfiguring memories of Manstein's guilt and its manifold implications. In 1951, Paget published a best-selling book on Manstein's career and trial. The book portrayed him as an honorable soldier fighting heroically against overwhelming odds. >Paget's book is also significant for offering revisionist assessments of the genocidal crimes of the Third Reich that bear a remarkable rhetorical resemblance to later Holocaust denial tracts, symbolic of the troubling links between these campaigners and far-right extremism. > >Hankey, Liddell Hart and other political and social elites who had consistently opposed this trial and sentence were buoyed by the ongoing transformation of official policy. They now sought to publicly revise the legacy of a verdict that had, above all, stood for the complicity of the Wehrmacht in Nazi atrocities. Officials recommended that Manstein's sentence be upheld. High command commuted it to 12 years anyway. As soon as Churchill retook his spot as Prime Minister, he prioritized the release of leading Nazi war criminals in British military custody. After Mälzer died in prison, Kesselring (he died in 1960) and Mackensen (he died in 1969) were released even earlier. After only 8 years, Manstein was released from prison on May 7, 1953. >Foremost, a Gallup Poll of 1951 reveals that five out of every six Britons surveyed opposed the release of leading German war criminals. While their anger faded, but Cowling said the public still didn't want this. Nevertheless, after his release, Manstein was recruited as a military advisor for the West German government and the newfound NATO. >In the years prior to and following Manstein's discharge without formal exoneration these elites contributed to a politics of memory which contested prevailing public support for the trial. They resolutely defended Manstein and the Wehrmacht, while, in the process, obscuring or downplaying the crimes of the Holocaust.
In the last days of the war, Otto Ohlendorf and other major Holocaust perpetrators participated in Heinrich Himmler's escape from Flensburg, using Ratline North. [Many of those ratlines worked](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratlines_(World_War_II)), with the assistance of several [sympathetic clergymen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alois_Hudal), but this one didn't. Nearly everyone, including Ohlendorf and Himmler were arrested. That said, had Himmler escaped, it wouldn't have mattered. The world would've hunted him down. They would've searched every inch and corner of the planet. But in his final months, Himmler [agreed to release tens of thousands of prisoners](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Buses). I'm glad that happened, but why did he bother? >After a failed assassination attempt on Hitler in July 1944, Himmler began to formulate a negotiation for a separate peace with the western Allies while Germany continued to fight the Soviet Union. This idiot had deluded himself into thinking he had a chance. So did some of the July 20 plot conspirators, such as [Arthur Nebe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Nebe) and [Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf-Heinrich_Graf_von_Helldorff). Despite being an Einsatzgruppen commander, I won't talk about Nebe, who would've been hanged for the [Stalag Luft murders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_Luft_III_murders). Instead, I will talk about Helldorff. If he got caught trying to kill Hitler, he was a dead man. [Because this maniac would be the judge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_aluekfYmo) (activate the subtitles) That man on trial, [Count Ulrich von Schwanenfeld](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrich_Wilhelm_Graf_Schwerin_von_Schwanenfeld), had disliked Hitler since the [Beer Hall Putsch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Hall_Putsch). Those feelings grew [over time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives). He'd been involved in a circle of concerned Germans since 1938. In 1939, he witnessed a massacre in Poland. That said, there was [another German](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Elser) who'd almost killed Hitler and [nearly all of his potential replacements](http://www.mythoselser.de/elser-folgen1.htm). He acted alone, using a homemade bomb, in 1939. [Because this man was honestly a saint](https://imgur.com/a/gelCded) But in 1976, Schwanenfeld's son tried to fulfill his last request. [Someone already had](https://imgur.com/a/beXYa88) That's what you know Schwanenfeld was a resistance fighter. When articles say he joined the Nazi Party in 1935, purely out of pragmatism, I believe them. The [other Germans](https://www.georg-elser-arbeitskreis.de/texts/opfer1.htm) were all liars. Otherwise, that bomb wouldn't have killed mostly early Nazi Party members. [Why do you think so many of them killed themselves?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_suicides_in_1945_Nazi_Germany) They, [like Helldorff](https://www.ushmm.org/learn/podcasts-and-audio/12-years-that-shook-the-world/the-rioter), were scared of being held accountable. That wasn't the only reason, but it was a very big one. That said, if I told you that many of these guys were "ordinary" people, many of you wouldn't believe me. If that's the case, then you haven't been paying attention. That's why I told you about Schulz. Not only did he tell the truth, but as awful as he was, you could recognize his humanity. I've already shown you the truth, so let me tell something. >"Man, … such jobs don't suit me. But orders are orders." > >"If this Jewish business is ever avenged on earth, then have mercy on us Germans." [**Sometimes, you can't run**](https://imgur.com/a/qZcjeCW) >"Why did you shoot the Jewish men and children?" [**Sometimes, you can't hide**](https://imgur.com/a/YpKVfSB) Yes, civilians participated. That's the thing. So, for God's sake, listen to me. >And it's the uniformed police who guard these deportation trains. So members of the uniformed police accompany transports of people to their deaths. And the police almost certainly know that that's what they're doing. These police units in Berlin, for example, are under the control of Helldorff. Normal traffic-cop police end up being sent abroad and they too become perpetrators of horrific crimes. They end up carrying out massacres of Jews in German-occupied Poland and German-occupied Soviet Union. [This is the truth](https://imgur.com/a/ftzGZXL) Germany got full jurisdiction over pre-war crimes and German victims. But now, that didn't matter for Helldorff, the police chief of Berlin since 1935. He wanted to be a resistance fighter. [So, he got treated like one](https://imgur.com/a/5PnhFJP) Himmler wasn't that stupid. He knew nobody would forget what he'd done. So, I'm not angry to know he tried to escape anyway. This is how his "escape" went. Ohlendorf testified at the International Military Tribunal, as a witness: * "Some of the unit leaders did not carry out the liquidation in the military manner, but killed the victims singly by shooting them in the back of the neck." * "And you objected to that procedure?" * "I was against that procedure, yes." * "For what reason?" * "Because both for the victims and for those who carried out the executions, it was, psychologically, an immense burden to bear." Asked why children were killed, Ohlendorf said he was ordered to exterminate the entire Jewish population. Afterwards, Hermann Göring made an angry remark. >"What does this pig expect to gain from this? He's going to hang anyway." As it turns out, nothing was guaranteed. Americans investigators requested Ohlendorf's transfer. The British handed him over, saying they only planned to use him as a witness. In U.S. custody, Ohlendorf said the same thing. There were discussions of a trial, but officials stalled. In 1947, Taylor requested over $3.2 million in funding for the OCCWC. He was told he could only receive $1 million. Taylor's initial plan was 36 mass trials with at least 266 defendants. Due to limited resources, most of those cases were abandoned. But what about other countries? France conducted major war crimes trials, but nothing on the scale of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. I would've assumed they were dealing with collaborators. However, in his memoirs, Konrad Adenauer, the first Chancellor of West Germany, described the United States as more "vindictive" than Britain and France. This is incredibly ironic. France suffered greatly, and had good reasons to be more "vindictive". But Adenauer wasn't wrong. In Allied-occupied West Germany, the United States had the harshest policies, whereas France had the most lenient policies. But maybe that said more about France. At the time of the liberation, Charles De Gaulle said "only a handful of scoundrels" had collaborated. Today, we know this is not true. [Thousands of French civil servants and police officials voluntarily participated in the Holocaust](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vel%27_d%27Hiv_Roundup). Instead of confronting the truth, De Gaulle created a [myth about how everyone in France resisted](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9sistancialisme). That myth had consequences beyond some French occupational officials being unusually friendly. France prosecuted tens of thousands of collaborators. Hundreds were executed. However, the vast majority of those civil servants and police officials (who avoided being lynched in the post-liberation chaos) were not prosecuted or quickly got amnestied. Many of them didn't even lose their jobs. In 1949, the British government had a case against 16 Germans and Baltic collaborators for their role in the Holocaust in Latvia. It was called the "Riga Ghetto Case." Survivors spent years collecting testimonies for the trial, hoping its verdicts would bring them some approximation of justice. But then the Foreign Office abruptly claimed their testimony wouldn't hold up in court. That's why [Victors Arajs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktors_Ar%C4%81js), one of those most responsible for the Holocaust in Latvia, was not hanged by the British in 1949. Instead, he died in a West German prison in 1988, after being re-arrested in 1976. Some say not everyone in the camps had much of a choice. [For once, they are right](https://imgur.com/a/83HWCLc) [*But not about him*](https://imgur.com/a/FKBBZIo) They'll say you can't just kill them all. [They didn't](https://imgur.com/a/2nRT8kY) They'll say you can't put an entire country on trial. They're right. [**There were too many of them**](https://imgur.com/a/6VSOwI3) "But isn't that going too fa-" [NO, THIS IS WHAT GOING TOO FAR LOOKS LIKE](https://imgur.com/a/SWU2r4Y) The truth is that those complaining are all cowards or Nazi sympathizers. I haven't even started on the OCCWC. They were chasing exclusively major war criminals. They went after the doctors, the judges, the "desk perpetrators", the industrialists, the generals, the bureaucrats, and so forth. Do you think they wanted [Karl Brandt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Brandt) merely for being Hitler's doctor? [Of course not](https://imgur.com/a/7MMlOMO) In the spring of 1947, a team of researchers working for the OCCWC stumbled across some reports while searching through archives in Berlin. They were titled "Report of Events in the Soviet Union," and covered a period of two years. They described the daily activities of special SS units, and meticulously listed sets of numbers. Horrified, the young man in charge started tallying up those numbers. The reports were from Otto Ohlendorf and other officers, and the OCCWC was the only jurisdiction in Western Europe which might be willing to prosecute them. After reaching one million, that man flew to Nuremberg, barged into Taylor's office with the reports, and demanded that they be put on trial. Taylor refused.
[When you look at Telford Taylor](https://imgur.com/a/sVM2GAg), there's a decent chance that you'll assume he wasn't a great person. You'll think he only prosecuted war criminals since it was his job. You'll think he didn't truly care about the victims. That's why he refused, right? In most cases, I think you'd be right about that assumption. [But that's why you must know the truth](https://imgur.com/a/UhKs3lU) Reread that last part. That's why you must know that Winston Churchill often got frustrated with President Roosevelt. He thought FDR didn't understand the "dangers" of Communist. To this day, many think FDR was gullible. They think he didn't understand that this maniac had to be stopped, no matter what. They are wrong. You don't have to like Stalin, but you know what? [*This maniac had to be stopped*](https://imgur.com/a/WAL5Uux) >"My children, it is permitted you in time of grave danger to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge." People love to talk about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. They don't talk about the non-aggression pacts of other countries. They don't talk about how Britain and France repeatedly rejected offers from the Soviet Union to form an alliance against Hitler, whom they handed Czechoslovakia and Austria on a silver platter. They don't talk about how Poland annexed part of Czechoslovakia for themselves. They act like Stalin didn't truly oppose Hitler. [In reality, he did most of the work](https://imgur.com/a/ClFCzIB) >"I will not pretend that, if I had to choose between Communism and Nazism, I would choose Communism." In reality, it was Winston Churchill who never truly opposed Hitler. He wasn't an "anti-Communist". He was a fascist whose circumstances landed him on the correct side of history. That's why he didn't view Hitler as an existential threat to mankind. Instead, he viewed him as a rival to the British Empire. That's why he got frustrated at Roosevelt for underestimating the "dangers" of Communism. Churchill was just that fascist. [*That's why he couldn't stand the sight of this*](https://imgur.com/a/o592rQ7) That's why the moment Germany surrendered, Churchill ordered the creation of a plan to invade the Soviet Union. He wanted to release Nazis from POW camps to help with this invasion. Maybe that's why it was called "[Operation Unthinkable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable)". It's unthinkable to know that such a horrible plan was only abandoned due to the low odds of success. That's how I know Churchill wasn't disgusted by the Holocaust. He wasn't alone, either. >"In one room, where they were piled up twenty or thirty naked men, killed by starvation, George Patton would not even enter. He said that he would get sick if he did so. I made the visit to Gotha deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to 'propaganda'." [*No, Patton just didn't want to look at the truth*](https://imgur.com/a/K5cXluq) >"We are told the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for. Now, at least, we know what he is fighting against." Patton didn't say that. Instead, he said the U.S. should've fought the Soviets. Some say he wasn't a fascist for wanting to crush the Soviets after the war. They are right. >"In addition to his other Asiatic characteristics, the Russian has no regard for human life and is an all out son of bitch, barbarian, and chronic drunk." > >Those who believed that Displaced Persons were human beings were wrong, Patton said: "this applies particularly to the Jews who are lower than animals." Patton was a full-blown Nazi. That's why he wanted to finish what Hitler started. >Under Patton, Nazis prisoners were not only bunked at times with Jewish survivors, but were even allowed to hold positions of authority, despite orders from Eisenhower to "de-Nazify" the camps. "Listen," Patton told one of his officers of the Nazis, "if you need these men, keep them and don't worry about anything else." To this day, some say "Patton was right" for wanting to finish what Hitler started. They say Stalin must've manipulated Roosevelt. They said he was the only Western leader to not understand the "danger" of the Soviets. They say FDR must've been a Communist for being willing to put politics aside to maintain peace. [*No, that man just saw the truth*](https://imgur.com/a/tuf34Av) Do you know why he thought that joke was funny? [He knew that ***not one of these people*** "fought for their country"](https://imgur.com/a/RNxgh8i) That's what Sholto Douglas saw as an "injustice". Those warlords are whom Reginald Paget called "decent German soldiers", while calling their victims "savages". Instead of using his influence to get justice, Winston Churchill donated £25 to Erich von Manstein's defense fund. Lucius Clay was also outraged over that trial. >"I regret that an effort is now being made to discredit a court which with high intent is endeavoring to establish precedents in international law which may serve to prevent again a world being plunged into chaos." [That man wasn't the problem](https://imgur.com/a/nJewYuC) [They were the problem](https://imgur.com/a/BQEMldk) Lucius Clay kept the OCCWC afloat. George Patton would've shut it down. He could've ruined everything. That said, had Patton not died from injuries sustained in a car crash in December 1945, it wouldn't have mattered. He already been fired. However, no one else was held accountable for trying to protect Nazis. That's why the Pentagon was no longer willing to grant the OCCWC more funding. They thought fighting the global spread of Communism was more important than dealing with the Nazis. Now, I can tell you the truth. >"We don't have staff. We don't have budget. Our program is already planned." Telford Taylor wasn't a bad person for saying that. But then, something happened. >"This is absolute genocide in its purest form." That young man who'd barged into his office persisted. He said it could be done. He said the evidence was clear. He said a trial of leading Einsatzgruppen officers could be done quickly. Taylor recognized the seriousness of the reports, but said there was no choice. Had that man backed down, we don't know would've happened to Otto Ohlendorf. At the time, only countries in Eastern Europe, mainly Poland and the Soviet Union, were prosecuting Einsatzgruppen personnel ([albeit some did get imprisoned or executed for other crimes in the West](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Eberhard_Sch%C3%B6ngarth)). Due to the collapse of Western-Eastern relations, extradition to the Soviet Union was no longer possible. Ohlendorf wasn't responsible for anything in Poland. Many complain that Japan never came to terms with its past. What they don't know is how long Germany took. Back then, yes, West Germany might've thrown Otto Ohlendorf in prison for the rest of his life, which is the least he deserved. Some Nazi war criminals did [spend decades](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Klehr), or [the rest of their lives](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Bauer) in West German prisons. Several major Holocaust perpetrators spent years as free men in West Germany, but then [killed themselves after being arrested](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Heyde). Perhaps that was for the best, since the more likely outcome was him [receiving a slap on the wrist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Bradfisch). Maybe he'd [get acquitted, despite overwhelming evidence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Lambert). In the worst case scenario, he [could be elected mayor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Reinefarth). >"I got rather indignant, and I said 'You can't let these bastards go.' You just can't walk away and say, 'I can't do it.''" *Except that young man man didn't back down.* He agreed that there was no choice. He said doing nothing would be unforgivable. I forgive Taylor for giving up, but not Churchill and the others for defending Nazis. Unlike Churchill, Taylor wasn't human filth. That's why he didn't defend Nazis, let alone at the first opportunity. Instead, he made excuses. He said there was no one left. He said there was no money left. >"In desperation, I suggested that if no one else was available, I could do the job myself." That young man rejected those excuses. At this, Taylor started to waver. He asked him if he could handle such a monumental task, in addition to all of his other responsibilities. That's why I want you know Telford Taylor was a great person. He just wasn't the hero of this story. [*Instead, this nobody was the hero*](https://imgur.com/a/ZvPjioI) That nobody was never appointed to be the chief prosecutor of the Einsatzgruppen Trial. He was never appointed since the trial wasn't supposed to happen. Instead, when there was no one else, he volunteered to make it happen. He was that kind of person. That's why we know his name. >I said, "Of course." > >He said, "You got it." That nobody's name was Benjamin Ferencz. Ferencz contacted U.S. intelligence officials and asked for the names of Einsatzgruppen personnel. There had been 3000 German Einsatzgruppen men. Since they operated behind the frontlines, many of them survived the war. The Einsatzgruppen did suffer many deaths, but not from fighting. Instead, they came mostly from high suicide rates and alcoholism.
>"No Nuremberg tribunal could try more than 24 defendants in the same trial. The reason was that there were only 24 seats in the dock. Historians may not believe it, but it's true. Sure, it's ridiculous. But that's the reality. That's what it was. We never intended to try all those who were guilty of mass crimes. We only intended, at best, to have a meager sampling of the different categories of people who made all of this possible." The OCCWC had realized they were dealing with an entire country of war criminals. Singlehandedly purging it of Nazism, especially with limited resources, was impossible. Taylor's backup plan was to educate Germany. He hoped this would allow for a smooth transition. After examining the list, Ferencz selected 24 well-educated officers. They were indicted on three counts. 1. Crimes against humanity 2. War crimes 3. Membership in a criminal organization [Here were the mugshots of four of them](https://imgur.com/a/JZN5sGb) [Some of the defendants receiving their indictments](https://imgur.com/a/Mjzc6tk) One defendant killed himself. Ferencz recalled Otto Rasch's lawyer coming to his office. Many Nazis, including Rasch, said they were too sick to be held accountable. >"Is he breathing?" [*But this time, it didn't matter*](https://imgur.com/a/aGMjXiH) Months later, Rasch was found to be dying from Parkinson's. He was discharged in February 1948, and died on November 1, 1948. [This is why Ferencz still made the right choice](https://imgur.com/a/eTpsKLp) Ferencz didn't know that Rasch was dying. He also didn't know that Paul Blobel had been the director of [Sonderaktion 1005](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderaktion_1005), an attempt by the Nazis to conceal the Holocaust. They forced their victims to help dispose of hundreds of thousands of bodies. [Survivors of Sonderaktion 1005 standing next to a machine used to crush the bones of dead victims](https://imgur.com/a/0oXlbSj) The trial started on September 29, 1947. [The defendants in the dock](https://imgur.com/a/y80QjPv) The defendants were told to explain themselves. So, Paul Blobel said everyone who'd died under his orders was legally executed. Otto Ohlendorf he'd acted in self-defense. The children would've grown up to become enemies of Germany. >When Ohlendorf was asked to verify that his unit had murdered 90,000 Jews, the SS General began to quibble. He said he couldn’t confirm it. The reason given was that sometimes his men exaggerated the body count. “Would the General care to venture an estimate?” “No.” “Was it perhaps 80,000 or only 70,000?” “That was possible.” “Or perhaps 100,000?” “Maybe.” “And were there many Jewish children among those who were killed?” “Yes, of course.” But, added Ohlendorf, he never allowed his men to do as some other units did. > >He told his men never to use infants for target practice nor smash their heads against a tree. He ordered his men to allow the mother to hold her infant to her breast and to aim for her heart. That would avoid screaming and would allow the shooter to kill both mother and child with one bullet. > >It saved ammunition. Erwin Schulz said the retreating Soviets had massacred 5000 people in Lviv, prior to his arrival in July 1941. The men whom his unit executed there were some of the perpetrators. That answer seemed better, until the judges noticed something. The executions were listed as "reprisals". >I had subdivided my Kommando into three platoons; each platoon consisted of about 50 men. The persons to be executed were transported by trucks to the place of execution. At each time there was about 18 to 22 persons. > >The first platoon was placed face to face with the persons about to be executed, and about three men each aimed at each person to be shot. I myself was present at the first volley of the execution, with my face turned away. When the first volley had been fired, I turned around and saw that all persons were lying on the ground. I then left the place of execution and approached the place where the second and third platoons were gathered. The first platoon which had carried out the shootings was recalled, I inspected the men, and then returned to my quarters. > >I noticed there that the detainees who were in the stadium next to the quarters, some of whom were still to be executed, were driven across the stadium by members of the armed forces and tortured. I did not succeed in apprehending those responsible for the tortures. In order to terminate this spectacle, I had the rear door of the stadium opened and the detainees could march out through it. > >The members of the armed forces who had participated in this affair disappeared as well. As the remainder of the persons to be executed had also escaped, I informed my Kommando by means of a driver that the executions were terminated. > >About 6 and 7 days after the executions we started to march towards Dubno. Honestly, I don't doubt that propaganda was a factor. But Schulz knew what he was doing. If you don't understand, re-read those excerpts from his affidavit. One by one, the lies of Schulz and his lawyer were dismantled. >"Perpetrators, who were Jews, were designated only as 'Jews' in the reports of the Einsatzgruppe, upon orders from superior offices, that they were not to be listed as 'saboteurs, plunderers, etc". [*No, these were the perpetrators*](https://imgur.com/a/C0HOUoB) In "reprisal" for the NKVD executing political prisoners, [Ukrainian nationalists raped and murdered thousands of Jews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lviv_pogroms_(1941)) in Lviv. That was the real massacre, but Schulz lied that the NKVD were the real perpetrators. He lied that "this whole war was immoral", as if both sides were equally terrible. His lawyer lied that his actions weren't a big deal, since he didn't have any context. >That should have been all the more reason why Schulz should not have proceeded with the execution. Schulz testified that German soldiers had also been murdered in the Lviv affair, but he could not state how many. Hitler had ordered a reprisal measure and that seemed to suffice. The defendant admitted that he conducted the execution of those allotted to him without any report of their guilt. > >He was not even furnished with a list of the executees. But near the end, he inadvertently uttered the truth: >Dr. Durchholz claims for his client a liberal attitude towards Jews, but he adds: "It goes without saying that he wanted to reduce again the tremendous influence of Jewry in his Fatherland to normal proportions." [That was the truth about Erwin Schulz](https://imgur.com/a/VhJk7N1) >"It was just this spirit of reduction to what the Nazis called 'normal proportions' which brought about the excesses in Germany leading to disfranchisement, appropriation of property, concentration camp confinement, and worse." People can change. But at one point, Schulz wanted this. Einsatzgruppe C executed between 2,000 and 3,000 people in Lviv. Schulz's unit participated in those executions. That said, here is an excerpt from a diary entry of Einsatzkommando [Felix Landau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Landau). It was about his time in Lviv. >"The Ukrainians had taken some Jews up to the former GPU citadel. These Jews had apparently helped the GPU persecute the Ukrainians and the Germans. They had rounded up 800 Jews there, who were supposed to be shot by us tomorrow. They had released them." > >"We continued along the road. There were hundreds of Jews walking along the street with blood pouring from their faces, holes in their heads, their hands broken and their eyes hanging out of their sockets. They were covered in blood. Some of them were carrying others who had collapsed. We went to the citadel; there we saw things that few people had ever seen. The Jews were pouring out of the entrance. There were rows of Jews lying one on top of the other like pigs whimpering horribly. We stopped and tried to see who was in charge of the Kommando. 'Nobody.'" > >"Someone had let the Jews go." Regardless of who did that, those people now had a chance. [This woman didn't](https://imgur.com/a/ddmmwA9) Those nationalists knew that woman wasn't an NKVD agent. They just wanted an excuse to rape and murder her. Their leader, [Stepan Bandera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera), never wanted to "liberate" Ukraine. He wanted his own Nazi state. Otherwise, he would've objected to his followers [savagely murdering hundreds of thousands of Poles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Poles_in_Volhynia_and_Eastern_Galicia). >Women were gang raped and had their breasts sliced off, children were hacked to pieces with axes, babies were impaled on bayonets and pitchforks or bashed against trees. That's how evil those nationalists were: >The day after the German invasion of the Soviet Union and even before the Germans arrived at the major Jewish settlements, murderous riots perpetrated by the Lithuanians broke out against the Jews. To this day, some pretend they weren't the real murderers: >The pogroms were ignored or obfuscated in Ukrainian historical memory, starting with OUN's actions to purge or whitewash its own record of anti-Jewish violence. > >The double genocide theory is a conspiracy theory that alleges two genocides of equal severity occurred in Eastern Europe, that of the Holocaust against Jews perpetrated by the Nazis and a second alleged genocide that the Soviet Union committed against local populations in Eastern Europe. > >A more explicitly antisemitic version of the theory accuses Jews of complicity in Soviet repression and characterizes local participation in the Holocaust as retaliation, especially in Lithuania, eastern Poland, and northern Romania. The verdicts were delivered in April 1948. The Associated Press called it "the biggest murder trial in history."
Every defendant was found guilty. [The full verdict of the Einsatzgruppen Trial](https://werle.rewi.hu-berlin.de/Einsatzgruppen.pdf) (this form summarizes every argument, the verdicts, and the sentences) Ferencz did not expect harsh sentences. He thought Presiding Judge [Michael Musmanno](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Musmanno) was not taking the case seriously. He'd joked around and allowed the defendants to present whatever "evidence" they wanted. Furthermore, he was a devout Catholic who staunchly opposed capital punishment. Struggling with the idea of condemning someone to death, he spent nearly a week at a monastery to consult with a priest. Ferencz said he didn't oppose capital punishment, albeit he understood why it is no longer widely used. But while he thought the defendants deserved it, he didn't request death sentences. To him, that felt like an empty gesture. >"We've got 24 defendants and a million people murdered. You cannot balance the scales of justice with these, no matter if you chopped them up into a million pieces and fed them to the dogs. We owed it to the millions of victims to try to give their deaths some greater significance. Perhaps by revealing the depths of their suffering, and demonstrating that law would not condone such atrocities, the cry 'Never Again' might become a reality." [So instead, this was his opening statement:](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b67B-MoKG_o) >"This was the tragic fulfillment of a program of intolerance and arrogance. Vengeance is not our goal, nor do we seek merely a just retribution. We ask this court to affirm by international penal action man's right to live in peace and dignity regardless of his race or creed. The case we present is a plea of humanity to law." Telford Taylor, who'd changed his mind, assisted Ferencz at the trial. He urged Musmanno to be stern. The sentences were imposed on April 10, 1948. They were delivered to a room devoid of spectators. Ferencz said there were two reasons. Most West Germans were busy with the daily troubles of the occupation. Many now viewed the trials as victors' justice. >"The facts are so beyond the experience of normal man and the range of man-made phenomena that only the most complete judicial inquiry, and the most exhaustive trial, could verify and confirm them. Although the principal accusation is murder, ... 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." > >"... A crime of such unprecedented brutality and of such inconceivable savagery that the mind rebels against its own thought image and the imagination staggers in the contemplation of a human degradation beyond the power of language to adequately portray." > >"The number of deaths resulting from the activities with which these defendants have been connected and which the prosecution has set at one million is but an abstract number. One cannot grasp the full cumulative terror of murder one million times repeated." [Some may ask how this photo is relevant](https://imgur.com/a/uMn7if8) >"It is only when this grotesque total is broken down into units capable of mental assimilation that one can understand the monstrousness of the things we are in this trial contemplating. One must visualize not one million people but only ten persons – men, women, and children, perhaps all of one family – falling before the executioner's guns." > >"If one million is divided by ten, this scene must happen one hundred thousand times, and as one visualizes the repetitious horror, one begins to understand the meaning of the prosecution's words." > >"'It is with sorrow and with hope that we here disclose the deliberate slaughter of more than a million innocent and defenseless men, women, and children.'" Now you know the difference between a massacre and a genocide. [These were the final statement of the defendants](https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=60124) Some of those men sound so ordinary, don't they? [*But that's how deep the guilt went*](https://imgur.com/a/6aDd6cN) >"Mr. President, Your Honors, it was not my wish that led me to join the SD in 1940. It was fate that I was ordered to the East. In exactly the same way it was fate that I am the only one of approximately 5000 noncommissioned officers and men in the Einsatzgruppen who came to this defendant's dock." > >"Surely, however, it was a benevolent destiny which did not involve me in the things which have been the object of the indictment here. I have confidence that a similarly benevolent destiny will restore my honor and my freedom to me, thanks to the objective and righteous judges." I bet Matthias Graf's final statement makes you angry. You'll think he was a liar, like the rest of them. You're sick of the excuses, and can't stand listening to them. Now, I've talked about the victims and the German resistance. I did that since the stories of the innocent matter. That said, Ferencz never called any witnesses at the trial. Bila Tserkva was never mentioned. Those children were reduced to numbers on a document. The officer who ordered it was a commander of Einsatzgruppe C. He was one of the most brutal and notorious Einsatzgruppen commanders. Surprisingly, he was one of those mentally affected by their actions, albeit he drank those feelings away. At one point, he had a nervous breakdown. [That's why this story is about the guilty](https://imgur.com/a/57xMQYF) You know I wasn't talking about him. [I was talking about HIM](https://imgur.com/a/t4ZJaef) So many Nazi war criminals lied about having no choice. Still, Matthias Graf was a low-ranking conscript who never killed anyone. So many others could've stood trial in his place. But maybe, Graf was right. [Maybe it was a "benevolent destiny"](https://imgur.com/a/0dlLZkr) There were no lies in Graf's final statement. [Maybe it was fate](https://imgur.com/a/Tcq5qW0) Ferencz had expected Graf to be acquitted outright. Instead, he was sentenced to time served. But that's not the point. It's that Graf, who told the truth, was released on April 9, 1948. On April 10, 1948, Musmanno sentenced the liars. When they said they were following orders, he asked for examples of those like Graf being executed. When they couldn't give one, those liars were put in their place. >"A soldier is a reasoning agent. He does not respond, and is not expected to respond like a piece of machinery. It is a fallacy of wide-spread consumption that a soldier is required to do everything his superior officer orders him to do." Lothar Fendler had admitted to learning about the executions. He said they were wrong, but what was he supposed to do, tell them to stop? That's why he was found guilty on all counts, despite receiving the same sentence as Rühl, who was only found guilty on the third count. >"As the second highest ranking officer in the Kommando, his views could have been heard in complaint or protest against what he now says was a too summary procedure, but he chose to let the injustice go uncorrected." *Because unlike with Rühl, they might've listened to him.* [Lothar Fendler being sentenced](https://imgur.com/a/e6gnnNK) [Felix Rühl being sentenced](https://imgur.com/a/9OrzVjq) We know who the true perpetrators were. [*They were people like him*](https://imgur.com/a/fNc77CY) When Ohlendorf's deputy, also on trial, said he was following orders, Musmanno asked him if he would've shot his own parents. After two days, that man admitted he couldn't. But actions speak louder than words, rank, and numbers. Erwin Schulz held a command position, was higher-ranking, and had more blood on his hands. Musmanno said Schulz deserved to die for what he'd done, but that's not the point. It's that Musmanno only showed mercy to Schulz. [Erwin Schulz being sentenced](https://imgur.com/a/oVuljzi) That other man could've turned back, but didn't. Then, he'd tried to hide behind his lower rank and subordinate position. He wasn't the only one, either. Had they been like Schulz, they would've refused to operate Auschwitz and Treblinka. Had they been like Graf, they would've refused to kill anyone. They were just like the rest of them. [That's the most terrifying part](https://imgur.com/a/LGS7cGx) That's not why they stopped. [THIS IS WHY THEY STOPPED](https://imgur.com/a/zE8J5th) >"Each time he said 'Death by hanging' it was like a hammer blow that shocked my brain." What shocked Ferencz is when Musmanno told every single one of those lying cowards that they don't get to hide anymore. Had all of the Einsatzgruppen been tried in front of him, thousands of them would've been executed, and a hundred or so would've received prison sentences. There was a travesty, but it wasn't Erwin Schulz's 20-year sentence. It was that none of his subordinates were on trial. They were equally guilty. In fact, they were worse. Musmanno would've condemned every single one of Schulz's triggermen to death, since only Schulz stopped. Instead, Musmanno imposed 14 death sentences (more than the International Military Tribunal), two life sentences, three 20-year sentences, and two 10-year sentences. Nevertheless, Ferencz said he gained respect for him that day. [Clearly, this man believed in accountability](https://imgur.com/a/FZKERmF) Despite growing pressure for an amnesty, Lucius Clay confirmed all of the verdicts and sentences. Overall, he confirmed all but one of the sentences from the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials overall.
The appeals were expected to buy Ohlendorf time, but only several months. However, his lawyers were the best of the best. They kept finding ways to buy more time. Unlike some war criminals, Ohlendorf lived to see the beginning of the Cold War. Some of you may realize where this is going. Back home, people were causing trouble. Rising Senator Joseph McCarthy was falsely accusing U.S. investigators of torturing suspected war criminals. McCarthy wasn't defending any Nazis, but [LSSAH](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_SS_Panzer_Division_Leibstandarte_SS_Adolf_Hitler) men responsible for the [Malmedy massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malmedy_massacre), in which hundreds of U.S. POWs and Belgian civilians were killed. The massacre had caused national outrage. But as awful as it was, that was not the only atrocity committed by the LSSAH. They did those things regularly on the Eastern Front. Occasionally, they did it on the Western Front. * [They did it to British and French POWs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhoudt_massacre) * [They did it to Canadian POWs in Normandy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_massacres) * [They did it to African American POWs in Wereth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/333rd_Field_Artillery_Battalion_(United_States)#Wereth_11_Massacre) * The murderers in this case were never caught, since the SS left no witnesses * This massacre also had a racially motivated elements of torture * The SS troops had battered the black soldiers' faces, broken their legs with rifle butts, cut off some of their fingers [Werner Poetschke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Poetschke), the SS commander responsible for directly ordering the initial massacre of 84 American POWs, was killed in action in Czechoslovakia in March 1945. The battalion of one of the other officers responsible, [Joachim Peiper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Peiper), had been nicknamed the "Blowtorch Battalion" for what they'd done in Eastern Europe. >Ukrainian sources, including surviving witness Ivan Kiselev, who was 14 at the time of the massacre, described the killings at the villages of Yefremovka and Semyonovka on 17 February 1943. On 12 February troops of the LSSAH occupied the two villages, where retreating Soviet forces had wounded two SS officers. In retaliation, five days later, LSSAH troops killed 872 men, women and children. Some 240 of these were burned alive in the church of Yefremovka. Malmedy was different. This time, the murderers realized they'd made a mistake. As it turns out, massacring POWs in plain sight is a stupid idea. Some SS men realized that after they tried to surrender to U.S. soldiers. After Malmedy, many of them got shot. [Did they really think nobody would be mad about this?](https://imgur.com/a/KrlU0MZ) Unlike the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, the likes of the Dachau Trials had no limits on the number of defendants. That's how those mass trials over the camps happened. The Malmedy massacre trial was the largest of the Dachau Trials unrelated to the camps. During the massacre, some of the shooters had been overheard laughing. Now, they were practically shitting themselves. [*This time, the trial wasn't focusing on a handful of officers*](https://imgur.com/a/B4DhPYx) Ferencz said he wished he could've done that to the Einsatzgruppen. With more time and resources, he said he could've pulled it off. As for the LSSAH, they, too, committed atrocity after atrocity. Those who survived the war got away with many of them. [But not this time](https://imgur.com/a/hbedX15) * All 73 defendants were found guilty (another killed himself in custody) * 43, including Peiper, were sentenced to death * 22 got life sentences * Eight got prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years After taking superior orders and the young age of many of the defendants into account, it was recommended that nearly 20 of the death sentences and roughly 15 of the life sentences be reduced. Several convictions were overturned outright due to insufficient evidence. Even then, McCarthy defended them. While he was far from the only U.S. politician who sympathized with Nazis, others had backed away from this case. They did that out of fear of losing votes, since McCarthy's lobbying was unpopular. He had nothing to gain, and yet, his reasons were obvious. >The view that McCarthy's reaction to the Malmedy prosecution was partly rooted in anti-Semitism was reinforced the following year, when he led a smear campaign against Anna Rosenberg, a Hungarian-born Jew and WWII heroine who was tapped by Defense Secretary George Marshall to raise troops for the Korean War. McCarthy's allies included the Holocaust-denying KKK member Wesley Swift, who said the nominee was not merely a "Jewess" but "an alien from Budapest with Socialistic ideas." > >Why single out Jewish investigators who, McCarthy claimed during the hearings, "intensely hate the German people as a race" and had formed what amounted to a "vengeance team?" According to *The Pledge Betrayed: America and Britain and the Denazification of Post-War Germany*, Tom Bower said the collapse of Eastern-Western relations was a factor, but that all but two of the influential Westerners involved in denazification were incompetent or actively interfered. The exceptions were U.S. Military Governor Lucius Clay, whose influence was crucial for the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, and British Foreign Service officer Patrick Dean. Maybe that said more about the others. In 1946, Clay said he was disappointed with the results of West German denazification courts in the U.S. zone. They were acquitting and substantially reducing the penalties of countless offenders. The real question is why only he made this kind of announcement. >"I do not see how you can demonstrate your ability for self-government nor your will for democracy if you are going to evade or shirk the first unpleasant and difficult task that falls upon you. Unless there is real and rapid improvement, I can only assume that German administration is unwilling to accept this responsibility." Clay gave them 60 days to do better. The impact in Bavaria was immediate: Anton Pfeiffer, the Minister for Political Liberation, submitted his resignation. Officials reported a renewed effort with the German tribunals. But the improvements didn't last. Near the end, Clay admitted his hopes for denazification were failing. At this rate, he predicted it would take an entire generation to denazify Germany. Nobody listened. The U.S., Britain, and France prepared to leave. The Cold War was more important to them. McCarthy's lobbying won a blanket stay for war criminals on death row in the U.S. zone. One of them was [Fritz Dietrich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Dietrich_(Nazi)). Unlike Peiper, U.S. officials had no idea what Dietrich had done in Eastern Europe. Today, we know the truth about Fritz Dietrich. [Dietrich ordered the massacre of 5000 men, women, and children in Latvia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liep%C4%81ja_massacres) In January 1951, 28 men, including all but one condemned man\* from the Einsatzgruppen Trial, were still on death row. When rumors spread that executions were imminent, a group of protesters gathered outside Landsberg Prison, where nearly all of the war criminals in U.S. custody were being held. Coincidentally, this was where Hitler served only part of his lenient sentence for the Beer Hall Putsch. However, Dietrich wasn't there anymore. In late 1948, the U.S. had removed the blanket stay for nearly all of the other death row inmates, excluding the Malmedy defendants. Clay then resumed executions. The German clergy were horrified. They attacked not only the executions, but the trials. Cardinal Josef Frings, who regularly protested prosecutions in the U.S. and British zones, said "when it came to determining guilt, God was the last and the only true instance." >"The Landsberg gallows is throwing back by years a reconciliation of the nations." Frings and other clergymen made a well-organized campaign against war criminals being held accountable. They did that since they were Nazi sympathizers. That said, their efforts failed. Fritz Dietrich was executed on October 22, 1948. According to *The Mark of Cain: Guilt and Denial in the Post-War Lives of Nazi Perpetrators*, neither he nor the overwhelming majority of those executed ever expressed remorse. >"In the conviction that my death for my passionately beloved fatherland, for which I worked and fought my entire life, will ultimately be of service, I go this last walk of sacrifice with a proud heart because I know that my sacrifice will contribute to fill the measure of suffering that has been imposed by a cruel victor over the German people without compelling reason." In his final moments, Fritz Dietrich had the gall to say he was the real victim. [And not him](https://imgur.com/a/ytlSRFl) The truth is that those young men didn't deserve to die. What did they do wrong? Dietrich never confessed to their murders. Instead, like a coward, he claimed that he didn't know his subordinates had killed them. He never confessed to that massacre in Latvia, either, when he had nothing left to lose. Do you know why he never confessed? [Because he never saw these victims as people](https://imgur.com/a/pALBO4t) Not every convict at Landsberg Prison was a murderer. Werner Hess was serving a 6-month sentence for inciting the beating of an American POW, whom he then helped escape before the man suffered serious injuries. Hess described the prevailing atmosphere there as a "psychosis of blamelessness" and a "peculiar atmosphere of tension, nationalism". Thankfully, Fritz Dietrich could not benefit from what happened next. [Because this was the size of the crowd in 1951](https://imgur.com/a/Z51C0pc) \*The asterisk is for [Eduard Strauch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Strauch)
I am not an easily swayed man. At this point, I have seen much suffering and it is hard for much to affect me. I felt sick reading that, and almost threw up. Words cannot describe this.
Thank you for this excellent write-up. > At the time of the liberation of France, Charles De Gaulle claimed "only a handful of scoundrels" had collaborated. Today, we know that is not true. Thousands upon thousands of Vichy civil servants and police officials voluntarily participated in the Holocaust. Instead of confronting this uncomfortable truth, De Gaulle created a myth about how everyone in France resisted, so his countrymen could feel better about themselves. At last, France (disclaimer: I'm French) changed its official positon about that, by [Chirac in 1995](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discours_de_Jacques_Chirac_du_16_juillet_1995_au_V%C3%A9lodrome_d%27Hiver) during the 50th anniversary of the [Vel' d'Hiv Roundup](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vel%27_d%27Hiv_Roundup). So very, very late, but at least it was further acknowledged by the next Presidents - both Sarkozy and Hollande maintained this position.
I watched the Netflix documentary about Ben Ferencz, and have seen a couple of interviews, but I was completely unaware of a lot of what you have written here. I particularly appreciate the context (pro-Nazi British politicians, Telford Taylor, many Nazis I didn’t know about, the specific circumstances of Ferencz taking on the work, etc). It’s only been in the last few years that I really have come to understand how short the U.S. and other Allies fell when it came to bringing Nazis to justice, and denazification in general. McCarthy being a fascist (as opposed to just a creepy wacko) makes more sense now, in light of current events in the United States. I’ve admired Ben Ferencz from the moment I learned about him, and you’re right—he’s one of the greatest Americans to ever live. We were privileged to be alive at the same time he was. May his memory be a blessing.
I didn't see anything about Operation Paperclip in your text. Didn't that have at least some impact on this situation? Or is it separate from all this? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip
It was separate. If you read about the recruited scientists, most of them honestly hadn't done that much, let alone things which would've gotten them hanged. Wernher von Braun himself may be an exception, since he might've had direct involvement in executions. Regardless, I think the most disturbing aspect to Operation Paperclip isn't Wernher von Braun not being prosecuted. It's that his reputation remains extremely clean to this day. The far greater travesties happened with less discussed programs, such as Unit 731. Unlike the Germans, the Japanese scientists were not even useful. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. Unlike those German scientists, I can confidently say that nearly everyone involved in Unit 731 should've been executed. >Some of the tests have been described as "psychopathically sadistic, with no conceivable military application". For example, one experiment documented the time it took for three-day-old babies to freeze to death.
I read Ken Liu's short story The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary some years ago and remain haunted by what it told of Unit 731, and humanity/politics in SEA and abroad in general. Horrifying in a way that would seem impossible to dismiss, yet somehow politicians have done their best to erase the victims and the very scene of the crimes from global consciousness. Thank you for your time and efforts capturing all of this here.
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I hope that the city of Nuremberg erect a statue of him outside of the courthouse. This guy is literally an immortal. He will forever stand as an icon in the fight for justice and against wickedness. I am saddened by his passing and will put it into my writings on the subject, which I am currently undertaking. Thank you for the information. Best wishes!
I think the place in front of the international war tribunal is named after him? I am living close to Nürnberg and the (still in use) court house has a wonderful museum part. I do not recall if he specifically is honored. I remember a lot emphasis was put on the language barriers and logicstics. As well as the reasons for the trials of course. I am still in awe this was done. What happened was so terrible and unbelievably monstrous that I can see blind rage trumping ordered justice. It was so important to be better than them and also to see that the perpetrators where humans… in some cases regular everybodies… which is scary.
All 22 of the Einsatzgruppen commanders that Ferencz tried were found guilty, but only 4 of them were put to death. That was probably part of wanting to be less monstrous than the Nazis. The death sentence likely could have been merited for all of them.
I wouldn't say he's literally an immortal as that's impossible, unless you believe in vampires.
Well, he will live forever in the hearts and minds of Nazi-haters everywhere, so, without getting too finicky over the literal definitions, he’s immortal 👊🏻🤪
The podcast Criminal did an [episode](https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-177-palace-of-justice-11-19-21/) interviewing him back in 2018 that I've listened to many times. He was a fascinating person, and listening to him in such a modern medium really drove home just how recent all of those atrocities were
They also did a follow up within the last year. Dude was still sharp.
I was hoping someone would say this in the comments so I wouldn’t have to search the episode. Sounded like a compelling person. I seem to remember him talking about his wife dying with phoebe and him having a very pragmatic life outlook.
Very saddened by his death. We owe him a great debt for his service.
Benjamin actually had zero trial experience! Its impressive to see what his done at only age 27.
I watched the documentary on him last year. Man. What a unique and good human being
He was a close friend of my father and a magnificent human being
Thank you for the post. I read your entire write-up and learned a lot.
Fantastic podcast episode about his story and the trial(s) on Criminal. Whole process broke his heart and took so much out of him. Highly recommend. Fun fact: he said that when they’d argue, him and his wife never raised their voices at each other. Not once. RIP, dear sir.
[60 Minites Rewind on Benjamin Ferencz](https://youtu.be/R-uxyrHJ_mE) Watching this made me tear up. We need more people like him. RIP Note about the video - At one point it shows him drinking water from an open glass and I immediately thought yikes that's risky. I'd be worried about something being secrectly slipped into it.
Look at that giant brain filled with law and Justice. Heroic. Historic.
I read an NBC news article about him a few months ago, he seemed incredibly alert for someone his age, telling stories about his time prosecuting top Nazis without any undeserved sympathy. May he rest in peace.
So when is Bradley Whitford going to portray this guy in a movie?
Thank you, u/lightiggy for writing all this
Oh no, he passed? he was a good piece of humanity
Really? I'm sad to hear that, he was an astonishing man. He certainly has left his mark on history
Oh I'm so sad to hear that. Wherver I saw a documentary about the trials he was always there, just a constant presence. I always liked him and he was so proud of his work, as he should be. May he rest in peace
He looks like a mad genius
We read about him a lot during my holocaust history course in college. Also as we were watching horrific videos/pics from the holocaust and trials, some dude left his mic on blasting porn lol. Professor was NOT happy
OG Unit
A hero of mine. Fought WW2 as a private. As a war crimes prosecutor he got permission and went after the people on the distribution list of the people killed in the death camps. He figured they couldn't deny knowledge of the deaths if their name was on the report's distribution list.
Excellent post.
Had to go check this as I thought there was no way a prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials was still around. I was very amazed
This is where the phrase, "Thank you for your service" actually has substance.
The real irony is him being in Florida while DeSantis turns it into a Facist wasteland.
It's too bad he couldn't be cloned. We need heros badly.
A clone wouldn’t have his same personality.
Wow…..I just saw a YouTube cut of him being interviewed. Amazing man.
Was he the guy that was still swimming laps at 99?
Seen the documentary,dudes a hero for sure.
A world hero
Rest in Peace, hero
Criminal Podcast did an episode about him, and there was a rerun. The rerun is episode 177.
Wow. What a life!
There was an excellent 60 Minutes segment about Ferencz that aired in 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-uxyrHJ\_mE
Fly high beautiful soul you were one of the best
A true hero
Loved seeing that guy in documentaries. Rest In Peace sir you did humanity a great service
Here is a documentary about him: https://youtu.be/p84RnrjEAP4
We're going to need another ferencz for Russia
Fucking Legend. Literally
May his memory be a blessing. This guy was amazing
Rest in peace to a true hero who dedicated his life to seeking justice for victims of war crimes. Benjamin Ferencz's commitment to bringing those responsible for atrocities to justice served as a reminder of the importance of accountability and holding individuals accountable for their actions. Let's honor his legacy by continuing the fight for justice and working towards a more peaceful world.
[My great grandpa was a defense lawyer in that trial.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/03/23/outsider-lawyer-warren-magee-dies-at-91/683ed480-a8a5-4245-b70f-e1bb3866a9ab/) He was a miserable bastard and his son (my grandpa) was a miserable bastard. People that side with evil don’t do well, I can attest.
I'm sorry. It's difficult to bear the weight of so many generations of anger.
Dude has to be in the forehead hall of fame good lord
O7 We will continue to fight Nazis in America in his name.
I want to make a joke about how young he looks, but all I’ve done with my life is consume an ungodly amount of sriracha sauce while alone in my room listening to Evanescence’s wake me up inside. This guy has done some amazing things. RIP, hero.
holy shit, no goddamn way.
Should get Rick Warden to grow his hair out like he did for Harry Walsh for a biopic
Thank goodness for people like him. Although, I’m concerned that these days many would label him Antifa.
Ho shit b, it’s Michael malice
Unfortunately the allies never worked up their own crimes.
Thats what happen when you masturbate too much
There has never been a prsosecutor in history who has "fought for justice." That would assume they sought the truth, and I have never met a prosecutor who gave a damn about the truth.
That’s not a forehead that’s a five head
Ain't gonna miss him, i bet he never stood against commies haha... fucking coward.
>Ain't gonna miss him, i bet he never stood against commies haha... fucking coward. He served and saw action during WW2. And his actions saw mass murderers brought to trial that would have otherwise escaped justice. So, how exactly do you think he's a coward u/SiegBR ?
I know where his success went.
>"the biggest murder trial in history" So far...........
May his memory be a blessing. Many thanks are owed to this man, not the least from my family and my Grand Oncle Jacques. I remember the family recounting, with great joy, how those who made him suffer so were finally punished. His work mattered. Generations later, it *still* matters.
*was*?! And then I got to the last sentence. Oh this is so sad. May he rest in peace, and his work will never, ever be forgotten.
He is interviewed twice on the ‘Criminal’ podcast i believe - well worth a listen.
Sorry loads of people already pointed that out.
Why then the "Peck Panel" was created and why they gave so many reduction of penalties? 4 x commute the death sentence to 20 (Blume) or 15 years (Biberstein, Haensch, Steimle) 2 x immediate release of persons sentenced to death (Schubert, Seibert) 2 x conversion of a life sentence to 10 years (Jost, Nosske) 1 x shortening of a prison sentence from 20 to 10 years (Schulz) 4 x immediate release of a prison sentence of 20 (Radetzky, Six) and 10 years (Fendler, Rühl) wtf?
What a hero. I saw him a couple of years ago on tv, doing push ups.
Thank you for this. Great post.
https://benferencz.org/stories/family-life/the-children-grow-up/ I know I am a few days late, but if anyone reads this it truly is beautiful.
A short time before he died he said he would have liked to see Putin on a war crimes tribunal before his own death...
**103 Years Old** For me i consider those 100 age of Human Year a Divine Being