Otto von Erdmannsdorff
Otto von Erdmannsdorff (22 October 1888 – 30 December 1978) was a German diplomat who served as
war crimes in the Ministries Trial
.
A member of the
John F. Montgomery, mentioned that von Erdmannsdorff "almost resigned at one time because he didn't want to cope with the Nazis",[2] and Hungarian regent Miklós Horthy described him as "the last of the professional German diplomats".[3] He nonetheless became a nominal member of the party in 1937.[4] He was replaced as ambassador in July 1941 by Dietrich von Jagow,[1] a party member rather than professional diplomat.[3]
Thereafter, he served as Deputy to
German Foreign Office.[4] Although the Political Division was staffed mainly by civil servants who were either nominal members of the Nazi Party or not members at all, it was nonetheless involved in implementing the Final Solution.[4] This led to von Erdmannsdorff's being charged with war crimes in the Ministries Trial after the war; however, he was acquitted as a result of a determination that he lacked sufficient power and influence to have been able to prevent the crimes.[5]
His memoirs are unpublished, and contain among other things a number of quotations from Horthy recorded during von Erdmannsdorff's four years representing Germany in Hungary.[3]
Notes
References
- Frank, Tibor (2003). Discussing Hitler: Advisers of U.S. Diplomacy in Central Europe, 1934-1941. Central European University Press. ISBN 963-9241-56-3.
- Friedman, Jonathan (2008). "Law and Politics in the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, 1946–1949". In Patricia Heberer & ISBN 978-0-8032-1084-4.
- Hilberg, Raul (2003). The Destruction of the European Jews. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09557-0.
- ISBN 0-9665734-3-9.
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