Event History
On September 10, 1947, the U.S. Military Government for Germany created the Military Tribunal II-A (later renamed Tribunal II) to try the Einsatzgruppen Case. The 24 defendants were all leaders of the mobile security and killing units of the SS, the Einsatzgruppen. On July 29, 1947 the defendants were indicted on three counts of criminality: crimes against humanity, war crimes and membership in organizations declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal. Each of the 24 defendants was charged with all three counts, covering the period of their activity from May 1941 to July 1943. Each defendant pleaded "not guilty." Their defense hinged upon the argument that they had acted legally, as soldiers, and had merely been following orders. The defendants were arraigned between September 15 and 22, 1947, and the trial ran from September 29 to February 12, 1948. The prosecution's case took up only two court sessions. The remainder of the time was devoted to the direct testimony of the defendants. While 24 defendants had been indicted, only 22 were tried. Emil Hausmann had committed suicide in July 1947, and Otto Rasch was deemed too ill to stand trial. The Tribunal rendered its judgment on April 8-9, 1948, finding 20 defendants guilty on all three counts and two guilty on count three alone. The sentences were announced on April 10. In all, 14 defendants were sentenced to death, two were sentenced to life terms and five received sentences that ranged from 10 to 20 years. Only Matthias Graf was released with time served. Ultimately, only four of the 14 death sentences were carried out on June 7, 1951. Head of Einsatzkommando II, Eduard Strauch, who received a death sentence, was extradited to Belgium where he received a further death sentence. The remainder of the defendants had their sentences commuted or were paroled. All of the convicted defendants in this case were released from prison in 1958.
Biography
SS-Standartenfuehrer Walter Blume (1906-?) was the commanding officer of Sonderkommando 7a, of Einsatzgruppen B, operating in the vicinity of Moscow. A doctor of law, Blume served in the Prussian Secret State Police until 1935. He joined the NSDAP in 1933 and the SS around 1935. Blume served in various state police agencies, including a brief stint as the head of state police in Berlin, until the outbreak of World War II. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, he was sent to Dueben to take command of Sonderkommando 7a of Einsatzgruppen B, assigned to the Moscow vicinity. Sonderkommando 7a was responsible for the death of 996 Jews before his reassignment to Gestapo headquarters in August or September 1941. For the next few years, Blume was assigned to various locations such as Duesseldorf, Athens, and Bad Blankenburg to carry out tasks for the Reich Main Security Office. He was captured by the Americans in Salzburg at the end of the war, but was released from a POW camp until his re-arrest in 1947. He was put on trial with Otto Ohlendorf in the "Einsatzgruppen Case" in Nuremberg, and convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and having membership in a criminal organization. He received a death sentence, but it was commuted to twenty five years imprisonment.
Sources: Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunal Under Control Law No. 10, 9:529-532, 139-140; War Crimes Trial Records of Case 9 (NARS), p. 208
