He was a tall brown-haired man with noble features, bottomless gray-blue eyes, well-groomed hands and a pleasant voice. With such external data, the favorite of women, Otto Ohlendorf, could well become a movie star, but he had another occupation to his liking. During the Second World War, he led the third department of the RSHA, and also served as head of the Einsatzgruppe D, popularly referred to as the death squadron. During his last tenure, the Nazi leader ordered the destruction of 1 million civilians, most of whom were Jews, gypsies and communists.
Young years, joining the NSDAP
Ohlendorf Otto was born in 1907 in Hoheneggelsen, located in Lower Saxony (Germany). His parents were highly educated peasants. From 1917 to 1928 he studied at the gymnasium located in Andreanum. After graduation, he entered Göttingen, where he studied law.
Otto was passionately interested in politics from an early age. In 1925, as a high school student, he became a member of the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany.(NSDAP) and its SA assault detachments. A year later, 19-year-old Ohlendorf was enlisted in the paramilitary SS. In the NSDAP, he led the party cell, served as the organizer of rallies and treasurer. Ohlendorf spoke at meetings a lot, but preferred to remain an ordinary National Socialist and stay away from the top of the party.
Attitude towards fascism
1931 Otto Ohlendorf went to study as an exchange student on the Apennine Peninsula. While in Italy, he became acquainted with fascist ideology through personal experience. Ohlendorf was her ardent opponent. He did not like that the supporters of Italian fascism considered a person as a tool to achieve a goal, without taking into account his personal qualities. The National Socialist society, according to Otto, was the absolute opposite of the fascist. In it, each individual had the opportunity to develop his best qualities in order to subsequently serve for the good of the state. After returning to Germany after studying, Ohlendorf repeatedly spoke at party meetings with criticism of fascism, emphasizing its danger to National Socialism.
Career in the 30s
After the NSDAP leader Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, Otto's career began to skyrocket. In 1933, Ohlendorf was appointed deputy director of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The following year, he heads a major department at the Berlin Institute for Economic Research. In 1936, the National Socialist was enrolled in the ranks of the SD security service, where hecollected information about sentiments within the Third Reich. Thanks to this work, he was able to communicate directly with the leadership of the state.
Throughout the Second World War (1939-1945) Ohlendorf served as head of the third department of the RSHA, which controlled the social life of Germany. At the same time, he worked at the Ministry of Economy.
Activities as Chief of the Einsatzgruppen
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Ohlendorf, despite his disagreement, was appointed head of Einsatzgruppe D and sent to the southern regions of the Soviet Union (southern Ukraine and Crimea). Fulfilling orders from higher authorities, during 1941-1942 he gave orders to exterminate the civilian population in the territory occupied by the Germans. Every resident of the south of Ukraine knew who Ohlendorf Otto was. His death squad ruthlessly shot anyone whom the Nazi ideology considered unworthy of life. About 90,000 Jews alone were exterminated on Ohlendorf's orders. In addition to them, the Einsatzgruppen killed hundreds of thousands of Communists and Gypsies.
In the summer of 1942, Ohlendorf, on Himmler's orders, returned to Berlin and engaged in civil affairs. In the autumn of 1943, he begins to develop a plan to restore the German economy in the post-war period.
Awards
Otto Ohlendorf was generously rewarded for his faithful service to Nazi Germany. Biography, in which the awards are occupieda significant place, indicates that the head of the Einsatzgruppe D was highly valued by the leadership. For his services to the state, Ohlendorf was awarded the Chevron of the old fighter, the "Dead Head" ring, the Gold Badge of the NSDAP, the Military Merit Crosses of I and II degrees. In addition, in the collection of his awards was the saber of the Reichsführer SS, which was bestowed only on the most loyal citizens of Nazi Germany.
Post-war biography: Otto Ohlendorf and the court
In 1946, at the Nuremberg trials, Ohlendorf was recognized as a war criminal. Two years later, for the massacres committed in the Soviet territories during the Great Patriotic War, he was sentenced to death by hanging. He was charged with the destruction of 1 million civilians. The former head of the Einsatzgruppen pleaded not guilty, insisting that he was following orders from senior leadership. He did not repent of the murders committed, considering the extermination of the Jewish people and the Gypsies a necessary and historically justified process. After the verdict was announced, Ohlendorf filed a petition for clemency, hoping for a mitigation of the sentence. He claimed that he was not involved in a small proportion of the murders that he is charged with.
Popularity among women, execution
The eyes of thousands of young women were riveted to Otto Ohlendorf, who was in the dock. The gray-blue eyes and the charming smile of a war criminal so sunk into the hearts of the fairer sex that thosesent him bouquets of flowers directly to the camera. Young beauties were not embarrassed either by the fact that Ohlendorf was married and had five children, or by the fact that he was accused of killing one million people. Despite his popularity, the prisoner failed to obtain a pardon. On June 7, 1951, 44-year-old Ohlendorf was hanged in Landsberg Prison.
The man, on whose orders hundreds of thousands of innocent people were destroyed, for three years tried to prove to others that he had the right to life. However, he, like other war criminals of Nazi Germany, suffered a well-deserved punishment for the atrocities committed.
