Otto Ohlendorf: biography, activities, achievements, awards and interesting facts

He was a tall brown-haired man with noble facial features, bottomless gray-blue eyes, well-groomed hands and a pleasant voice. With such external data, the favorite of women Otto Ohlendorf could easily become a star of the cinema, but he had to like a different occupation. During the Second World War, he led the third administration of the RSHA, and also served as chief of the Einsatzgruppen D, popularly known as the death squadron. During his time in office, the Nazi leader ordered the destruction of 1 million civilians, most of whom were Jews, Gypsies and Communists.

Young years, joining the NSDAP

Olendorf 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 graduating, he entered Göttingen, where he studied law.

Otto was very interested in politics since his early youth. In 1925, as a schoolboy, he became a member of the National Socialist Workers Party of Germany (NSDAP) and its assault detachments SA. A year later, the 19-year-old Ohlendorf was enrolled in the paramilitary SS squad. In the Nazi Party he headed the party cell, served as the organizer of rallies and treasurer. Ohlendorf did a lot at meetings, but preferred to remain an ordinary National Socialist and stay away from the top of the party.

Attitude to fascism

1931 Otto Ohlendorf went to study for an exchange on the Apennine peninsula. Being in Italy, he learned from his own experience fascist ideology. Ohlendorf was her ardent opponent. He did not like the fact that the supporters of Italian fascism regarded man as an instrument for achieving the goal, not taking into account his personal qualities. The National Socialist society, according to Otto, was the absolute opposite of the fascist. In it, each individual was given the opportunity to develop his best qualities in order to subsequently serve for the welfare of the state. Returning after studying in Germany, Ohlendorf repeatedly spoke at party meetings criticizing fascism, emphasizing his danger to National Socialism.

Career in the 30's

After coming to power in Germany, the leader of the NSDAP, Adolf Hitler, Otto's career begins to skyrocket. In 1933, Olendorf was appointed deputy director of the Kiel Institute of World Economy. The following year, he heads a large department at the Berlin Institute for Economic Research. In 1936, the National Socialist was enlisted in the security services of the SD, where he collected information about the moods 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 the head of the third administration of the RSHA, under whose control was the public life of Germany. In parallel, he worked in the Ministry of Economics.

Activities as head of the Einsatzgruppen

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Olendorf, despite his disagreement, was appointed head of the Einsatzgruppen D and sent to the southern regions of the Soviet Union (the south of Ukraine and the Crimea). Fulfilling the orders of his superiors, during 1941-1942 he issued orders for the destruction of civilians in the territory occupied by the Germans. Everyone in the south of Ukraine knew about who Olendorf Otto was. His death squadron mercilessly shot everyone who the Nazi ideology considered unworthy of life. Only about a thousand Jews were killed by the order of Olendorf. In addition to them, the Einsatzgruppen's forces have killed hundreds of thousands of Communists and Gypsies.

In the summer of 1942, Ohlendorf, on the orders of Himmler, returned to Berlin and was engaged in civil affairs. In the autumn of 1943, he began to work out a plan for the restoration of the German economy in the post-war period.

Awards

For the faithful service of Nazi Germany, Otto Ohlendorf was generously rewarded. The biography, the awards in which occupy a significant place, indicates that the head of the Einsatzgruppen D leadership highly appreciated. For his services to the state of Ohlendorf was awarded Chevron the old fighter, the ring "The Dead Head", the Golden Badge of the Nazi Party, the Crosses of Military Merit of the 1st and 2nd degree. In addition, the collection of his awards was the saber of the Reichsfuehrer SS, which was only given to the most loyal citizens of Nazi Germany.

Postwar biography: Otto Ohlendorf and the court

In 1946, at the Nuremberg trial, Ohlendorf was recognized as a war criminal. Two years later, for 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 did not admit guilt, insisting that he was following the orders of the top leadership. He did not repent of the murders committed, considering the extermination of the Jewish people and the Gypsies as a necessary and historically grounded process. After the announcement of the verdict, Olendorf filed a petition for clemency, hoping to mitigate the punishment. He claimed that he was not involved in the small proportion of those murders that he was charged with.

Popularity among women, execution

To the defendant Otto Ohlendorf, who was in the dock, the eyes of thousands of young women were fixed all the time. The blue-gray eyes and the charming smile of the war criminal were so immersed in the hearts of the fairer sex that they sent him bunches of flowers directly to the camera. Young beauties did not mind either that Ohlendorf was married and had five children, nor that he was accused of killing one million people. Despite the popularity, the prisoner failed to obtain a pardon. June 7, 1951 44-year-old Ohlendorf was hanged in Landsberg jail.

A man, by order of which hundreds of thousands of innocent people were killed, for three years tried to prove to others that he has the right to life. However, like other war criminals of Nazi Germany, he suffered a well-deserved punishment for the atrocities committed.