Otto Rasch
Otto Rasch | |
---|---|
War crimes Membership in a criminal organization | |
Trial | Einsatzgruppen trial |
Details | |
Victims | 80,000+ |
Span of crimes | 1939–1941 |
Country | Poland and Ukraine |
Military career | |
Allegiance | German Empire Nazi Germany |
Service/ | Imperial German Navy Schutzstaffel |
Rank | Brigadeführer |
Commands held | Einsatzgruppe C |
Other work | Lawyer, Mayor |
Emil Otto Rasch (7 December 1891 – 1 November 1948) was a high-ranking German
Biography
Rasch was born in
Rasch joined the
.In November 1939, as inspector of the SiPo and SD, Rasch was transferred to
Einsatzgruppe
In June 1941, shortly before the
According to the post-war affidavit of Erwin Schulz, commander of Einsatzkommando 5 (part of Einsatzgruppe C):
SS Brigadeführer Dr. Rasch distinguished himself by particular ruthlessness. He ordered the leaders also to participate personally in the shootings.[3]
Rasch made sure that all Einsatzgruppen personnel, including the commanding officers, personally shot Jews, so that all members were culpable.
In August 1941, Hitler is alleged (in post-war interrogations of German prisoners) to have given a Führerbefehl (Leader's Order) for the extermination of entire populations in the Eastern territories.[4][page needed] The commando leaders subordinate to Rasch met with him to discuss this order. Paul Blobel later testified that Rasch basically quoted what had been stated by Friedrich Jeckeln, that "the measures against the Jewish population had to be sharper and that he disapproved of the manner in which they had been carried out until now because it was too mild". In other words, the order was to shoot more Jews. Erwin Schulz confirmed this:
After about two weeks' stay in
SS members and Party members shot. As such measures were being taken on the Russian side, they would also have to be taken on our side. All suspected Jews were, therefore, to be shot. Consideration was to be given only when they were indispensable as workers. Women and children were to be shot also in order not to have any avengers remain. We were horrified, and raised objections, but they were met with a remark that an order which was given had to be obeyed.[5]
Rasch was discharged from his position in October 1941, and at the beginning of 1942, he became the director of Continental Oil, Inc. in Berlin.[6]
Rasch was indicted at the Einsatzgruppen trial at the end of September 1947 but the case against Rasch was discontinued on 5 February 1948, since his physical and mental health were rapidly deteriorating from Parkinson's disease and associated dementia.[7] Rasch was transferred back to an internment camp in the British zone. As his health further deteriorated, he was released on June 1948. He died of his illness at his home in Wehrstedt, Lower Saxony in November 1948.[8]
In fiction
- Rasch appears in Les Bienveillantes. He files a record that the military should concentrate on fighting bolshevismwhich should not be identified with Jews. He also gives the order that Jews should be paraded in public before executions to 'destroy in eyes of Ukrainian peasants the myth of Jewish power'.
References
- ^ Browning 2004, p. 34 .
- ^ Friedlander 1995, p. 139 .
- ^ Rhodes 2002, p. 223 .
- ^ Rhodes
- ^ Rhodes 2002, pp. 124–5 .
- ISBN 0-02-897502-2
- ^ Rhodes 2002, p. 275 .
- ^ "Otto Rasch question - Axis History Forum". forum.axishistory.com. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
Bibliography
- Christopher Browning (2004). The Origins of the Final Solution : The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – March 1942 (With contributions by Jürgen Matthäus), Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press.
- ISBN 0-8078-4675-9
- ISBN 0-375-40900-9
- Zenter, Christian and Bedürftig, Friedemann (1991). ISBN 0-02-897502-2