Otto Ohlendorf quotes

Otto Ohlendorf was a German SS general and economist, best known for commanding Einsatzgruppe D during World War II. As a key perpetrator of the Holocaust, he oversaw mass executions of civilians in Eastern Europe. He was convicted of war crimes and executed after the Nuremberg Trials. Here are 11 of his quotes:

Because to me it is inconceivable that a subordinate leader should not carry out orders given by the leaders of the State. (Otto Ohlendorf)
The treatment of the Germans by the Allies was at least as bad as the shooting of those Jews. The bombing of cities with men, women, and children burning with phosphorus - these things were all done by the Allies. View quote
Otto Ohlendorf
I surrendered my moral conscience to the fact that I was a soldier, and therefore a cog in a relatively low position of a great machine. View quote
Otto Ohlendorf
In the child, we see the grown-up. I see the problem differently. View quote
Otto Ohlendorf
There were a large number of Jews who held more favorable positions than they should have, according to their percentage of the population. Germans should have held those positions. View quote
Otto Ohlendorf
Fascism is a purely stately principle. Mussolini said in 1932, 'The first thing is the state - and from the state are derived the rights and fate of the people. Humans come second.' In National Socialism, it was the opposite. People and humans come first, and the state is secondary. View quote
Otto Ohlendorf
Those Jews stood up, were lined up, and were shot in true military fashion. I saw to it that no atrocities or brutalities occurred. View quote
Otto Ohlendorf
The men of my group who are under indictment here were under my military command. If they had not executed the orders which they were given, they would have been ordered by me to execute them. If they had refused to execute the orders they would have had to be called to account for it by me. There could be no doubt about it. Whoever refused anything in the front lines would have met immediate death. If the refusal would have come about in any other way, a court martial of the Higher SS and Police Leader would have brought about the same consequences. View quote
Otto Ohlendorf
There was no distinction made between Gypsies and Jews, the same order applied to both. View quote
Otto Ohlendorf
Most of these handpicked leaders were lawyers, and a few were physicians or educators; most had earned doctoral degrees. Among the more exotic specimens were Otto Ohlendorf, a handsome but argumentative young economist who had fallen into disfavor with Himmler. View quote
Otto Ohlendorf
I always had the feeling that Ohlendorf was spiritually depressed. I mentioned several times to my wife, when we had Ohlendorf to dinner, that he seemed like a man who just could not be happy. Ohlendorf must have been very depressed on account of that experience. He could not laugh heartily - and a man who cannot is either depressed, or sick, or bad. I thought he had something in his soul which bothered him. (Otto Ohlendorf)

Otto Ohlendorf

Otto Ohlendorf - Image
Photo: Wikimedia commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de
Born: February 4, 1907
Died: June 7, 1951
Quotes count: 11
Wikipedia: Otto Ohlendorf

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