Walter Blume (SS officer) participant of Einsatzgruppen Trial
Walter Blume (23 July 1906 – 13 November 1974) was a mid-ranking SS commander and leader of Sonderkommando 7a, part of the extermination commando group Einsatzgruppe B. The unit perpetrated the killings of thousands of Jews in Belarus and Russia. Blume was also responsible for helping organize the deportation of over 46,000 Greek Jews to Auschwitz. Although imprisoned in 1945 and sentenced to death for war crimes in 1948, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1951 by the "Peck Panel" and he was released in 1955.Nuremberg conviction
In 1945, Blume was captured in Salzburg by the Americans and brought to Landsberg Prison. He was tried at the Einsatzgruppen Trial for his crimes, including crimes against humanity, war crimes and membership of three criminal organizations, the SS, SD and Gestapo. The indictment specified Blume's direct responsibility for the murder of 996 people between June and August 1941.Concerning his motivation for helping to perpetrate the Holocaust, Blume said that he admired, adored, and worshipped Hitler because Hitler was successful not only in the domestic rehabilitation of Germany, as Blume interpreted it, but successful in defeating Poland, France, Belgium, Belarus, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Norway, Yugoslavia, Greece, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Russia, and other countries. To Blume these successes were evidence of great virtue in Hitler. Blume believed that Adolf Hitler "had a great mission for the German people."
Dr. Günther Lummert, Blume's lawyer, collected affidavits on Blume's character describing Blume's honesty, good nature, kindness, tolerance, and sense of justness. The Tribunal expressed "regret that a person of such excellent moral qualities should have fallen under the influence of Adolf Hitler."On 10 April 1948, Blume was sentenced to death by hanging, but his sentence was commuted to 25 years in a 1951 amnesty hearing, based on the "Peck Panel" recommendation. Blume was released from prison in 1955 after serving only ten years of his sentence.