Erich Ehrlinger | |
|---|---|
 Erich Ehrlinger (sometime before 1945) | |
| Born | (1910-10-14)October 14, 1910 |
| Died | July 31, 2004(2004-07-31) (aged 93) |
| Other names | Erich Fröscher |
| Motive | Nazism |
| Convictions | Crimes against humanity inLithuania,Latvia,Estonia,Belarus, andRussia. |
| Criminal penalty | Twelve years imprisonment, later partially remitted |
Erich Ehrlinger (14 October 1910 – 31 July 2004) was a member of theNazi Party (number: 541,195) andSS (number: 107,493). As commander of Special Detachment (Sonderkommando, also known asEinsatzkommando or EK) 1b, he was responsible for mass murder in theBaltic states andBelarus.
He was also the commander of theSecurity Police (SiPo) and theSecurity Service (SD) for centralRussia as well as a department chief in theReich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA). He eventually rose to the rank of SS-Oberführer.
Ehrlinger was the son of the mayor of Giengen an der Brenz, a small town in southwestern Germany, in what is now the state ofBaden-Württemberg. In 1928 he completed high school (Abitur) inHeidenheim, then studied law inTübingen,Kiel,Berlin. There in 1931 he joined theSA and continued at Tübingen. The nationalist andxenophobic atmosphere at theUniversity of Tübingen (already by 1931 there were no longer any Jewish professors there) fit in well with his later legal career in the SD, the RSHA, and theEinsatzgruppen.
Ehrlinger was not only active at the university. According to his SA certificate of good conduct, "Ehrlinger was one of the few Tübingen-connected students, who even before the seizure of power put himself regularly where he was needed with the propaganda or other service."
After he completed an SA leadership training course in 1934, Ehrlinger gave up his legal career and became a full-time SA functionary. He was the leader of an SA sport school atRieneck Castle and then a "Training Chief" ("Chef AW" forSA-Ausbildungswesen). In May 1935, Ehrlinger was accepted into the SD. By September 1935, he had been assigned to the main office of the Berlin SD. Ehrlinger was with the SD in 1938 during the Nazi takeover inAustria and in April 1939 inPrague.
Ehrlinger was with the headquarters staff ofEinsatzgruppe IV during theGerman invasion of Poland in September 1939. In August 1940 he went toNorway for the buildup of theWaffen-SS forces there under his later chief,Franz Walter Stahlecker. In April 1941, he took over leadership of Special Commando (Sonderkommando) 1b, which was part ofEinsatzgruppe A, of which Stahlecker was overall commander.
After the beginning of theGerman invasion of the Soviet Union, on 22 June 1941, Ehrlinger's unit, 70 to 80 men strong, followed behindArmy Group North in the Baltic states and the area south ofLeningrad. Ehrlinger led the mass murder of Jews behind the front, in particular in the ghettos ofKovno,Dünaburg andRositten.
For example, on 16 July 1941, the SD enteredDünaburg. Ehrlinger reported that "[a]s of now the EK 1b has killed 1,150 Jews in Dünaburg."[1] Ehrlinger himself oversaw these shootings, euphemistically called "actions", as a "hardened SS perpetrator who stood at the shoot pit and led the killers in the shooting."[2]
In December 1941, after the completion of the work ofEinsatzkommando 1b, Ehrlinger was promoted to commandant of the Security Police and SD (Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD or KdS) for central Russia and Belarus, where under his orders many executions were carried out.
In September 1943 Ehrlinger was promoted to SS-Standartenführer (colonel) and went toMinsk where he succeededCurt von Gottberg asSS and Police Leader forGeneralbezirk Weißruthenien. He became the liaison man of SD chiefErnst Kaltenbrunner to the commanding generals of the security troops ofArmy Group Center, as well as taking over the offices ofEinsatzgruppe B chief and Commander of the Security Police and the SD (Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD or BdS) for central Russia and Belarus. There he was involved with the murder of the remaining Jews of Minsk.
In 1944, Ehrlinger returned to Berlin. On 1 April 1944, he became chief of Department I (Personnel) in theReich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA), replacingBruno Streckenbach. In November 1944 Ehrlinger also became a special delegate from Ernst Kaltenbrunner to SS chiefHeinrich Himmler.
At the end of the war, Ehrlinger disguised himself as a Wehrmacht NCO and gave himself up to the British forces under a false name. After a few weeks as a POW, Ehrlinger was released and made his way to theSchleswig-Holstein area. He made contact with his family, but did not provide his whereabouts. In 1947, his wife discovered him under an assumed identity living with another woman with whom he was about to have a baby. They reached an agreement that Ehrlinger would continue to support the family, which he did until 1952. By then Ehrlinger was using his real identity and making a comfortable living. Ehrlinger decided to reduce the alimony payments, making his wife concerned that he was about to emigrate and prompting her to denounce him to the police. Thus alerted, the authorities still took 6 years to arrest him.[3]
Ehrlinger was finally arrested in December 1958. Ehrlinger was convicted in a 1961 trial in connection with 1,045 cases of murder and was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.[4] The case was appealed and eventually returned to the public prosecutor's office. His sentence was officially remitted in 1969, four years after he was released from prison.[citation needed]
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