Otto Ohlendorf Otto Ohlendorf ( 4 February 1907 – 7 June 1951 ) was a German SS - Gruppenführer and head of the Inland - SD ( responsible for intelligence and security within Germany ) , a section of the SD . Ohlendorf was the commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe D , which was accused of conducting mass murder in Moldova , south Ukraine , the Crimea , and , during 1942 , the north Caucasus . As such , Otto Ohlendorf was a Holocaust perpetrator and mass murderer . He was convicted of and executed for war crime s committed during World War II . Biography . Early life . Born in Hoheneggelsen ( part of Söhlde ; then in the Kingdom of Prussia ) , the son of farm owners , he joined the Nazi Party in 1925 ( member 6631 ) and the SS ( member # 880 ) in 1926 . Ohlendorf studied economics and law at the University of Leipzig and the University of Göttingen , and by 1930 was already giving lectures at several economic institutions . He studied at the University of Pavia , where he gained his doctor ' s degree in jurisprudence ; and as a career man he had successfully worked himself up to a research directorship in the Kiel Institute for the World Economy ( at that time " Institut für Weltwirtschaft und Seeverkehr " - Institute for World Economy and Maritime Transport ) . By 1938 he was also Hauptgeschäftsführer in the Reichsgruppe Handel , the German trade organization . While Ohlendorf had joined the party in 1925 , the SS in 1926 , and the SD in 1936 , he regarded his party activities , and even his position as chief of SD - Inland , as a sideline of his career . Actually , he devoted only four years ( 1939 – 43 ) to full - time activity in the RSHA , for in 1943 he became a Ministerialdirektor and deputy to the " Staatssekretär " ( state secretary ) in the Reichswirtschaftsministerium ( Reich ministry of economic affairs ) . Third Reich . In early 1936 , he became an economic consultant to the SD , attached to the SS with the rank of SS - Hauptsturmführer . In May 1936 , he was promoted to SS - Sturmbannführer and took a senior post . In 1939 , he was once again promoted to SS - Standartenführer and appointed as head of Amt III Inland - SD , of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt , a position he kept until 1945 . In addition , from 1943 onwards , Ohlendorf was appointed as deputy director general of the Reich Ministry of Economic Affairs , and promoted once more in 1944 to Gruppenführer . In June 1941 , Reinhard Heydrich appointed Ohlendorf to be commander of Einsatzgruppe D which operated in southern Ukraine and Crimea . Ohlendorf ' s Einsatzgruppe would be responsible for the 13 December 1941 massacre at Simferopol where at least 14 , 300 people , mostly Jews , were killed . Over 90 , 000 murders are attributed to Ohlendorf ' s command , who testified to this effect during his trial at Nuremberg . At the end of 1943 , Ohlendorf , in addition to his other jobs , became deputy secretary of state in the " Reichsministerium für Wirtschaft " ( Reich s - Ministry for Economics ) . He coordinated plans to rebuild the German economy after the war , a war he and others believed to be lost . Such planning for the post - war time was strictly forbidden , on one side . On the other side , Heinrich Himmler , who detested the state interventionist regime of Albert Speer as " totally bolshevik " and was himself hoping for a career in a militarily defeated Germany , protected the working group around Ohlendorf and Ludwig Erhard and other experts , who planned how to introduce the new German currency Deutsche Mark , among other things . Ohlendorf himself spoke out for " active and courageous entrepreneurship ( " aktives und wagemutiges Unternehmertum " ) " , which was intended to replace bureaucratic state planning of the economy after the war . Because of Ohlendorf ' s work in this field , many petitions for leniency were filed after he was sentenced to death by hanging . These , however , were turned down by the Allies . Nuremberg War Trials . Ohlendorf took part into Himmler ' s flight from Flensburg and was arrested with him near Lüneburg , where Himmler committed suicide . During the trial against Einsatzgruppen leaders , Ohlendorf was the chief defendant , and was also a key witness in the prosecution of many other indicted war criminals . Ohlendorf ' s frank , apparently reliable testimony was attributed to his distaste for the corruption that was rampant in Nazi Germany and a stubborn commitment to duty . He expressed no remorse for his actions , telling prosecutor Benjamin B . Ferencz at the trial that the Jews of America would suffer for what the prosecutor had done , and seemed to have been more concerned about the moral strain on those carrying out the executions than those actually being executed . Otto Ohlendorf was sentenced to death and hanged at the Landsberg Prison in Bavaria shortly after midnight on 8 June 1951 . Notes . http : / / www . law . umkc . edu / faculty / projects / ftrials / nuremberg / Ohlentestimony . html