Einsatzgruppen trial

Einsatzgruppen trial
Otto Ohlendorf and Heinz Jost
at the Military Tribunal
Ohlendorf testifying on his own behalf
Paul Blobel is sentenced to death

The Einsatzgruppen trial (officially, The United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al.) was the ninth of the twelve trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity that the US authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. These twelve trials were all held before US military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal. They took place in the same rooms at the Palace of Justice. The twelve US trials are collectively known as the "Subsequent Nuremberg trials" or, more formally, as the "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" (NMT).

The accused were 24 former SS leaders who, as commanders of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD, bore responsibility for the crimes committed by the Einsatzgruppen in the occupied Soviet Union. The indictment was based on the Einsatzgruppen reports of more than a million victims.[1]

The trial marked the first use of the term "genocide" in legal context. The term was used by both the prosecution and by the judges in the verdict.[2]

  1. ^ Benjamin Ferencz: Opening Statement of the Prosecution, vorgetragen am 29. September 1947. In: Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10. Vol. 4. District of Columbia 1950, S. 30.
  2. ^ "Ben Ferencz recalls his work on the Einsatzgruppen Trial". judicature.duke.edu. 2021-12-28. Retrieved 2023-10-20.

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