DECLARATION UNDER OATH . I, Otto Ohlendorf, being first duly sworn, declare :
I was chief of the Security Service (SD), Amt III in the main office of the chief of the security police and of the SD (RSHA) from 1939 to 1943.
In 1941, shortly after the start of the campaign against Russia, an agreement was entered into between the chief of the Security Police and of the SD and the OKW (supreme command of the armed forces) and OKH (supreme command of the army) to the effect that operative detachments [Einsatzkommando] of the Security Police and SD were to go to the prisoner of war camps on the Eastern front to screen the prisoners of war. All Jews and communist functionaries were to be removed from the prisoner of war camps by the operative detachments and were to be executed outside of the camps. To my knowledge, this action was carried out throughout the entire Russian campaign.
In the other occupied territories and in the Reich—to my knowledge—the Gestapo had been made responsible for this program in the Russian prisoner of war camps. This action was, to my knowledge, carried on throughout the greater part of the war.
Affidavit concerning the security police operation to screen POWs for Jews and communist officials, who were removed from the POW camps and executed
Authors
Otto Ohlendorf (commander of Einstazgruppe D; Chief of the Security Service (SD); SS)
Otto Ohlendorf
German SS-General
- Born: 1907-02-04 (Hoheneggelsen) (country: German Empire)
- Died: 1951-06-07 (Landsberg Prison)
- Country of citizenship: German Empire; Nazi Germany; Weimar Republic
- Occupation: economist; jurist
- Member of political party: Nazi Party
- Member of: Schutzstaffel; Sicherheitsdienst (since: 1936-01-01); Sturmabteilung (since: 1925-01-01)
- Participant in: Einsatzgruppen Trial (role: defendant); Judges' Trial (date: 1947-03-23; role: affiant); Pohl Trial (date: 1945-11-05, 1946-01-03; role: affiant, witness)
- Significant person: Günther Joël
Date: 05 November 1945
Literal Title: Declaration under Oath
Total Pages: 1
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-2622
HLSL Item No.: 451626
Notes:This document was apparently not entered as evidence.