Einsatzgruppen Trial

The 1947–1948 U.S. military trial in Nuremberg of 24 leaders and officers of German mobile killing units responsible for mass murder in occupied Eastern Europe.

Einsatzgruppen: German SS and police mobile killing units that murdered Jews, Roma, Soviet officials, and others in occupied Eastern Europe. Their mass shootings formed the central crimes prosecuted at the trial.
Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, launched on 22 June 1941. The invasion created the occupied territory where Einsatzgruppen carried out much of their killing.
Erwin Schulz: A German police general and defendant who commanded Einsatzkommando 5 for part of 1941. His unit’s operations and his role as commander were examined in the case.
Nuremberg principles: Principles of international law affirming individual responsibility for crimes under international law. The trial applied individual criminal responsibility to mass murder committed under state authority.
Genocide Convention: The 1948 international treaty requiring states to prevent and punish genocide. Genocide was not a charge in the trial, prompting comparison with later international law.
Nuremberg Military Tribunal: A U.S. military court that tried German officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity after World War II. It was the court that heard this case, officially United States v. Otto Ohlendorf et al.
Holocaust by bullets: The mass murder of Jews by shooting, especially in Eastern Europe before and alongside the killing centers. Many crimes at issue belonged to this phase of the Holocaust.
Heinz Jost: A German SS officer who commanded Einsatzgruppe A and was a defendant at Nuremberg. His command history connected senior SS leadership to field operations.
Superior orders: The claim that obedience to a superior excuses conduct that would otherwise be criminal. The tribunal rejected superior orders as a complete defense while considering them in sentencing.
Retroactive criminal law: The application of criminal rules to conduct that occurred before those rules were established. The case raised questions about applying international criminal law to wartime conduct.

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