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Volume IV · Page 512
| The Tribunal accordingly finds Otto Ohlendorf
guilty under counts one and two of the indictment. It has been argued by Dr. Aschenauer that Ohlendorf was not a member of a criminal organization as determined by the International Military Tribunal decision and Control Council Law No. 10. In support of this argument, it is asserted that Ohlendorf was ordered to Russia as an employee of the Reich Group Commerce. It is impossible that Ohlendorf, as the leader of Einsatzgruppe D, should have been functioning as a member of the Reich Group Commerce. He headed office III of RSHA before he went to Russia, and he headed it when he returned. The Tribunal finds that the defendant was a member of the criminal organizations SS and SD under the conditions defined by the judgment of the International Military Tribunal and is, therefore, guilty under count three of the indictment. |
| HEINZ JOST |
| SS Brigadier General and Major General of
Police Heinz Jost specialized in law and economics when he studied at the
universities of Giessen and Munich. He later worked in the district court at
Darmstadt. He joined the Nazi Party in February 1928 and subsequently became a
member of the SA, the SS, and SD. He served as an SS officer in the Polish
campaign. He headed Einsatzgruppe A in the Russian campaign. His attorney
devoted many pages in his final plea to arguments on self-defense, necessity,
and national emergency, confirming and emphasizing what was said at great
length by Dr. Aschenauer on these subjects. In the latter part of the plea,
defense counsel insisted that his client in no way participated in the
execution of the Fuehrer Order. If, as a matter of fact, the defendant
committed or approved of no act which could be interpreted either as a war
crime or crime against humanity, the argument of self-defense and necessity is
entirely superfluous. The record clearly demonstrates, however, that as Chief of Einsatzgruppe A, the defendant was aware of the criminal purpose to which that organization was put, and, as its commander, cannot escape responsibility for its acts. Jost outlined his activities outside of Germany in the following language: |
"During my activity as Chief of the Einsatzgruppe A, I was also Commander in Chief of the Security Police and SD in East land (BdS Ostland). Headquarters for the Einsatzgruppe A was located in Krasnogvardeisk, while headquarters for the Commander in Chief for the Security Police and SD Eastland was located in Riga. On the whole, the duties of a Commander in Chief of the Security Police and SD were the same as those of a Chief of an Einsatzgruppe, and the duties of a Commander of |
