Otto Rasch manner of death natural causes
After about two weeks' stay in Berdichev the commando leaders were ordered to report to Zhitomir, where the staff of Dr. Rasch was quartered. Here Dr. Rasch informed us that Obergruppenführer Jeckeln had been there, and had reported that the Reichsführer-SS had ordered us to take strict measures against the Jews. It had been determined without doubt that the Russian side had ordered to have the 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.
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.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. 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.
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