Ernst Wilhelm Bohle
Ernst Wilhelm Bohle | |
|---|---|
State Secretary in the Reichsministry of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 21 December 1937 – 8 May 1945 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 July 1903 Bradford, England |
| Died | 9 November 1960 (aged 57) Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany |
| Political party | Nazi Party |
| Occupation | Business manager |
Ernst Wilhelm Bohle (28 July 1903 – 9 November 1960) was the
Early life
Bohle was born in
Nazi career
Bohle joined the Nazi Party on 1 March 1932 (membership number 999,185) and on 13 September 1936 he joined the
In early 1932 he became adjutant to
From 12 November 1933 till the end of
Trial and conviction
Bohle surrendered to US forces on 23 May 1945 at Falkenau and was interned in Camp Ashcan with other high ranking Nazi officials.[5] Bohle appeared on 25 March 1946 as a defense witness at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. Subsequently, Bohle was tried as a defendant in the "Ministries Trial" ("Wilhelmstraßen-Prozeß"), one of the Nuremberg follow-up trials. Although he was acquitted of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the tribunal ruled that Bohle and his department did persuade German business firms to fire Jewish employees working for them abroad.
"Bohle's acts and those of his department in persuading German business firms to discharge Jewish employees working for them abroad, while reprehensible from a moral standpoint, do not come within the scope of either count five of the indictment or of the crimes defined by the London Charter and Control Council Law No. 10."
Bohle, in an unusual move, became the only defendant in the Subsequent Nuremberg trials to plead guilty to any charge. Bohle pleaded guilty to having been a member of the SS and assisted the prosecution in their case against the other defendants. Before entering his guilty plea, Bohle read a formal statement:
"I think it should be the solemn pledge and foremost duty of every German who held a leading position during the National Socialist regime, to do all in his power to remove from the name of Germany the blot which the deeds of criminal brains have cast upon it. We know that a low estimate of human life and carelessness to human misery is not and never has been a trait of the German character, and for that very reason I think that we should frankly admit the atrocities that have been committed and that have defiled the German name in the world. I do not think that we should attempt to vindicate our own national honor solely by referring to crimes and misdeeds committed by others, some of which are undoubtedly on a par with what national socialism is accused of. I think we should be too proud for that. And I think – it is my firm conviction that the world will regain its belief in our national honesty only if we ourselves are honest and straightforward in our confessions and thereafter also in our will to make amends. I think we leading men have this responsibility, not only to the victims of these crimes but just as much to the German people, as such, who, with or without our participation, were misled and misguided and are today, without any fault of their own, outlawed in the world. That is what I understand by responsibility beyond that of my own work."[6]
Bohle was sentenced to five years in prison on 11 April 1949. Due to his cooperation and guilty plea, Bohle was an extremely unpopular inmate at Landsberg Prison, which the U.S. military was using to house Nazi war criminals. Facing constant threats from other members of the SS, Bohle had to be placed in solitary confinement. He was eventually given slightly more freedom, but received hard labour tasks. Bohle was released from prison on 21 December 1949, several months before his full sentence expired. After his release, he worked as a merchant in Hamburg.
In the immediate aftermath of his release, Bohle remarked that many West German youths still believed in Nazism and were refusing to believe what West German and Allied officials said. However, due to his close ties to Hitler, Bohle said these youths were willing to believe what he said. Bohle said Hitler had become insane in the final few months before the war ended, and possibly went mad as early as 1943. He also said that in a way, Hitler was insane before the war.[7]
Bohle also advocated for the reformation of an organization for the development of German South-African interstate commerce. He died in Düsseldorf. Robert Kempner dedicated a short obituary to Bohle, whom he'd met while visiting Landsberg Prison. He remarked that out of hundreds of inmates there, Bohle was one of the few who seemed genuinely remorseful and had asked for forgiveness for his complicity in the Nazi regime.[8]
See also
- List of SS-Obergruppenführer
References
Notes
- ^ a b Miller & Schulz 2012, p. 58.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2012, pp. 59–60.
- ^ "Reported Hitler's Choice As Gauleiter for Britain". New York Times. 29 January 1940. p. 3.
- ISBN 0-87338-209-9.
- ^ Miller & Schulz 2012, p. 69.
- ^ Tribunal, International Military (1949). Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10, Nuernberg, October 1946-April 1949. U.S. Government Printing Office.
- ^ "Bohle". The Daily Mail. 1950-03-01. p. 4. Retrieved 2022-10-10.
- ISBN 978-0-19-165286-8.
Bibliography
- Literature by Ernst Wilhelm Bohle in the catalogue of the "Deutsche Bibliothek" (the German National Library in Frankfurt on the river Main and Leipzig)[permanent dead link]
- Ehrich, Emil: Die Auslands-Organisation der NSDAP. - Berlin: Junker u. Dünnhaupt, 1937. - 32 pp. - (Schriften der Deutschen Hochschule für Politik : 2, Der organisatorische Aufbau des Dritten Reiches; 13)
- Grams, Grant W.(2021). Return Migration of German Nationals from the United States and Canada, 1933–1941, Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland Publications.
- Jong, Louis de: The German fifth column in the Second World War / translated from the Dutch by C.M. Geyl. - Rev. ed. - London : Routledge, 1956. - 308 p. : maps. - (Translation of: De duitse vijfde colonne in de tweede wereldoorlog)
- McKale, Donald M.: The swastika outside Germany. - Kent, Ohio : Kent State Univ. Press, 1977. - xvi, 288 p. - ISBN 0-87338-209-9
- Miller, Michael D.; Schulz, Andreas (2012). Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925-1945. Vol. I (Herbert Albrecht – H. Wilhelm Huttmann). R. James Bender Publishing. ISBN 978-1-932970-21-0.
- Müller, Jürgen: Nationalsozialismus in Lateinamerika : die Auslandsorganisation der NSDAP in Argentinien, Brasilien, Chile und Mexiko, 1931 - 1945. - Stuttgart : Akademischer Verlag Heinz, 1997. - 566 p. : ill. - (Historamericana ; 3). - ISBN 3-88099-672-5. - (Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral) - Heidelberg, 1994/95). - EUR 34,50
External links
- Nuremberg Trial Proceedings, 90th day, Monday, 25 March 1946, testimony of Ernst Wilhelm Bohle (search for "bohle") Archived 19 March 2005 at the Wayback Machine
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