3 Jan. 46
and the SD belonged to the SS. But the SS, that is to
say, Himmler, as Reichsführer SS, gave these State offices no
official authority to issue orders.
THE PRESIDENT: I am not sure that I follow altogether what you have
been saying; but is what you have been saying the reason why you are
shown on the chart as concerned with Amt III, which refers, apparently,
only to inside Germany, while, according to your evidence, you were the
head of Einsatz Group D, which was operating outside Germany?
OHLENDORF: The fact that I led an Einsatzgruppe had nothing to do with
my position as Chief of Amt III. I led the Einsatzgruppe as an
individual and not as Chief of Amt III; and in my capacity as leader of
an Einsatzgruppe, I entered into a completely new function and assumed
an office completely separate from my previous one.
THE PRESIDENT: I see. And did it involve that you left Germany and went
into the area invaded in the Soviet Union?
OHLENDORF: Yes.
COL. AMEN: Will you now explain the significance of the dotted blue
lines, as compared with the solid blue lines on the right-hand side of
the chart?
OHLENDORF: The solid lines indicate a direct official channel for
orders, whereas the dotted lines signify that there was, as a rule, no
direct channel.
COL. AMEN: Was the term "SD" ever used to include both the
Sipo and the SD?
OHLENDORF: In the course of years the term "SD" was used more
and more incorrectly. It came to be established as an abbreviation for
Sipo and SD, without actually being suitable for that. "SD"
was originally simply a designation for the fact that someone belonged
to the SS through the SD Main Office. When the SD Main Office was
dissolved and was taken over into the RSHA, the question arose whether
the designation SD, which was also worn as insignia on the sleeve of the
particular SS man, should be replaced by another insignia or a new
abbreviation, e.g., RSHA. That was not done because the camouflage of
the RSHA would thereby have been endangered. But when, for example, I
read in a Führer order that in France people were to be turned over
to the SD, that was a case in point of the false use of the designation
SD, because there were no such offices in France and the SD, insofar as
it functioned in departments, e.g., Amt III, had no executive power but
was purely an intelligence organ.
COL. AMEN: Briefly, what was the relationship between the SS and the
Gestapo?