Martin Sandberger
Encyclopedia
Martin Sandberger was an SS Standartenführer
(Colonel) and commander of Sonderkommando 1a of the Einsatzgruppe
, as well as commander of the Sicherheitspolizei
and SD
in Estonia
. He played an important role in the mass murder of the Jews in the Baltic states. He was also responsible for the arrest of Jews in Italy and their deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp
. Sandberger was the second-highest official of Einsatzgruppe A
to be tried and convicted.
as a son of a director of IG Farben
. Sandberger studied law at the Universities of München, Köln
, Freiburg
and Tübingen.
At the age of 20 he joined the NSDAP and the SA
. From 1932 - 1933 Sandberger was a Nazi student activist and student leader in Tübingen. On 8 March 1933 Sandberger and fellow student Erich Ehrlinger
raised the Nazi flag in front of the main building at the University of Tübingen. (Like Sandberger, Ehrlinger would take charge of an Einsatzkommando in 1941, and in so doing, commit thousands of murders.)
By 1935 he had obtained his doctorate degree. As a functionary of the Nazi student League
he eventually became a university inspector. In 1936 he became an enlisted member of the SS
and under the command of Gustav Adolf Scheel
for the SD
in Württemberg.
He began a career with the SD
and by 1938 he had risen to the rank of SS Sturmbannführer
(major). Sandberger worked as an assistant judge in the Interior Administration of Württemberg and became a government councillor in 1937.
embarked on a program, known as Heim ins Reich
(approximate translation: Return to the Nation) which involved driving out the native population in areas of Poland and replacing them with ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche
) from various countries, such as the Baltic states
and Soviet-occupied eastern Poland. On 13 October 1939 Heinrich Himmler
appointed Sandberger the boss of the Northeast Central Immigration Office (Einwandererzentralstelle Nord-Ost) and tasked with the "racial valuation" (rassische Bewertung) of the various Volksdeutsche immigrants.
In June 1941 Sandberger was appointed chief of Sonderkommando 1a
of Einsatzgruppe A
. During the first two weeks of the German invasion of the Soviet Union
, which began on June 22, 1941, Sandberger traveled with Franz Walter Stahlecker
, the commander of Einsatzgruppe A. Sandberger was involved since March 1941 in the distribution of a business plan for the RSHA
and a director of the curriculum organization of the schools (Lehrplangestaltung der Schulen).
in the Baltic states
was the Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst
), generally referred to by its initials SD. The SD, which organized the Einsatzgruppen
, conducted itself in accordance with the understanding that a fundamental order, sometimes called the Führer Order (Führerbefehl) existed to kill the Jews. Sandberger received his knowledge of the Führer order from Bruno Streckenbach
, an official with Department IV of the German National Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, or RSHA). According to Sandberger's testimony as an accused in the Einsatzgruppen trial
after the war, Streckenbach gave a speech (at the Gestapo
headquarters in Berlin on Prince Albertstrasse) about the Führer order, which Sandburger attended. Streckenbach also gave Sandberger explicit instructions in a personal conversation:
with Einsatzkommando 1a and 2. These organizations then engaged in
destruction of synagogues
, the liquidation of 400 Jews, and the setting up of groups for the purpose of fomenting pogroms. After the war, when on trial for war crimes, Sandberger's effort to evade responsibility was rejected by the tribunal: "Although it has been demonstrated that not only he was in Riga at the time they occurred, but he actually had a conversation about them with the Einsatzgruppe Chief Stahlecker before he left Riga."
In early July, 1941, Sandberger was sent to Estonia on the orders of Stahlecker. According to Sandberger's later testimony, Stahlecker made it clear that Sandberger was being sent to Estonia to carry out the Führer order in that country. A variety of shooting actions of Jews, Gypsies, Communists and the mentally-ill began once Sandberger and his kommando entered Estonia. A report dated 15 October 1941 on executions in Ostland during Sandberger's tenure included one item under Estonia of 474 Jews and 684 Communists.
Others were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Report No. 17, dated 9 July 1941 carried the item —
On 10 September 1941, Sandberger promulgated a general order for the internment of Jews which resulted in the internment of 450 Jews in a concentration camp at Pskov, Russia
. The Jews were later executed.
Sandburger was highly recommended for promotion in the SS:
On 3 December 1941 he became commander of the Security Police
and SD for Estonia.
. In this capacity he was involved in arresting the Jews of Northern Italy and organizing their transportation to Auschwitz concentration camp
.
. He kept the domestic and foreign accounts and financial records of the organization. As the first assistant to Schellenberg, Sandberger acted as his liaison man with Heinrich Himmler
.
With all the access he had had to highly secret information, after the war, under British interrogation, Sandberger tried to delay or avoid prosecution by disclosing what he knew. Until internal reports of the Einsatzgruppen were discovered, Sandberger was able to convince the British interpreters that his account of his activities in Tallinn
as the Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei (or KdS) had involved "'no evidence of any particular criminal actions on his part.'"
, Sandberger was charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, and membership in a criminal organization, that is, the SS. At his trial, Sandberger denied responsibility for the killings described in the October 15 report, and sought to blame on the German field police and Estonian home guard. This was rejected by the tribunal, which found that the Estonian home guard was under Sandberger's jurisdiction and control for specific operations, as shown by the same report. Similarly, Sandberger claimed he had arrested the Jews sent to Pskov to protect them, hoping that during the internment the Führer order might be revoked or meliorated. and he was not in general responsible for their execution at the Pskov detention camp. Sandberger said he was responsible for "only a fraction" of the killings. Sandberger placed this "fraction" at 300 to 350 persons.
Sandberger claimed the execution of the Jews at Pskov happened in his absence and without his knowledge. The tribunal found that Sandberger's own testimony convicted him:
Sandberger testified that he had protested against the inhumanity of the Führer order, but his account was not accepted by the Nuremberg Military Tribunal which was conducting the trial: "Despite the defendant's protestations from the witness stand, it is evident from the documentary evidence and his own testimony, that he went along willingly with the execution of the Fuehrer Order."
Judge Michael Musmanno
pronounced the tribunal's sentence:
Despite political pressures, General Lucius D. Clay
confirmed Sandberger's death sentence in 1949. In 1951, Sandberger's sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment by a clemency board acting under the authority of John J. McCloy
, the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany. McCloy had received political pressure to grant the reprieve from William Langer
, U.S. Senator from North Dakota
. Many of Langer's constituents were of German descent, and Langer felt that trial of anyone other than the highest Nazis was contrary to American legal tradition and helped Communism
.
Sandberger's father, a retired production director of IG Farben
, used his connections with West German president Theodor Heuss
. Heuss in turn contacted the US Ambassador at that time James B. Conant with the request for pardon. Numerous pleas for leniency from influential individuals including Minister of Justice Wolfgang Haußmann and Landesbischof
(bishop) Martin Haug were made. The renowned lawyer and vice-president of the West German German parliament Carlo Schmid
worried about Sandberger's conditions in Landsberg prison and spoke out in favor of a commutation. Over time these and other well-connected people lobbied for Sandberger's early release. By late 1957, there were only four war criminals held in prison in West Germany. One of them was Sandberger, who, on January 9, 1958, was himself released from Landsberg prison
. Sandberger died March 30, 2010, at the age of 98.
Standartenführer
Standartenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in the so-called Nazi combat-organisations: SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK...
(Colonel) and commander of Sonderkommando 1a of the Einsatzgruppe
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
, as well as commander of the Sicherheitspolizei
Sicherheitspolizei
The Sicherheitspolizei , often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Nazi Germany to describe the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of the Gestapo and the Kripo between 1936 and 1939...
and SD
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
in Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
. He played an important role in the mass murder of the Jews in the Baltic states. He was also responsible for the arrest of Jews in Italy and their deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
. Sandberger was the second-highest official of Einsatzgruppe A
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
to be tried and convicted.
Background and early career
Martin Sandberger was born in Charlottenburg, BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
as a son of a director of IG Farben
IG Farben
I.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG . The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I...
. Sandberger studied law at the Universities of München, Köln
University of Cologne
The University of Cologne is one of the oldest universities in Europe and, with over 44,000 students, one of the largest universities in Germany. The university is part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, an association of Germany's leading research universities...
, Freiburg
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburg dynasty as the...
and Tübingen.
At the age of 20 he joined the NSDAP and the SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
. From 1932 - 1933 Sandberger was a Nazi student activist and student leader in Tübingen. On 8 March 1933 Sandberger and fellow student Erich Ehrlinger
Erich Ehrlinger
Erich Ehrlinger was a member of the Nazi SS who, as commander of Special Detachment 1b, was responsible for mass murder in the Baltic states and Belarus.He was also the commander of the Security Police and the...
raised the Nazi flag in front of the main building at the University of Tübingen. (Like Sandberger, Ehrlinger would take charge of an Einsatzkommando in 1941, and in so doing, commit thousands of murders.)
By 1935 he had obtained his doctorate degree. As a functionary of the Nazi student League
National Socialist German Students' League
The National Socialist German Students' League was founded in 1926 as a division of the NSDAP with the mission of integrating University-level education and academic life within the framework of the National Socialist worldview...
he eventually became a university inspector. In 1936 he became an enlisted member of the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
and under the command of Gustav Adolf Scheel
Gustav Adolf Scheel
Gustav Adolf Scheel was a German physician and "multifunctionary" in the time of the Third Reich...
for the SD
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
in Württemberg.
He began a career with the SD
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
and by 1938 he had risen to the rank of SS Sturmbannführer
Sturmbannführer
Sturmbannführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party equivalent to major, used both in the Sturmabteilung and the Schutzstaffel...
(major). Sandberger worked as an assistant judge in the Interior Administration of Württemberg and became a government councillor in 1937.
Activities during the Second World War
Following the German invasion and occupation of Poland in September 1939, Heinrich HimmlerHeinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
embarked on a program, known as Heim ins Reich
Heim ins Reich
The Heim ins Reich initiative was a policy pursued by Adolf Hitler starting in 1938 and was one of the factors leading to World War II. The initiative attempted to convince people of German descent living outside of the German Reich that they should strive to bring these regions "home" into a...
(approximate translation: Return to the Nation) which involved driving out the native population in areas of Poland and replacing them with ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...
) from various countries, such as the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
and Soviet-occupied eastern Poland. On 13 October 1939 Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
appointed Sandberger the boss of the Northeast Central Immigration Office (Einwandererzentralstelle Nord-Ost) and tasked with the "racial valuation" (rassische Bewertung) of the various Volksdeutsche immigrants.
In June 1941 Sandberger was appointed chief of Sonderkommando 1a
Einsatzkommando
During World War II, the Nazi German Einsatzkommandos were a sub-group of five Einsatzgruppen mobile killing squads—up to 3,000 men each—usually composed of 500-1,000 functionaries of the SS and Gestapo, whose mission was to kill Jews, Romani, communists and the NKVD collaborators in the captured...
of Einsatzgruppe A
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
. During the first two weeks of the German invasion of the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, which began on June 22, 1941, Sandberger traveled with Franz Walter Stahlecker
Franz Walter Stahlecker
Franz Walter Stahlecker was Commander of the Sicherheitspolizei and the Sicherheitsdienst for the Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1941/42...
, the commander of Einsatzgruppe A. Sandberger was involved since March 1941 in the distribution of a business plan for the RSHA
RSHA
The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt was an organization subordinate to Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacities as Chef der Deutschen Polizei and Reichsführer-SS...
and a director of the curriculum organization of the schools (Lehrplangestaltung der Schulen).
Knowledge of the Führer Order
The Nazi organization most responsible for carrying out The HolocaustThe Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
in the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
was the Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
), generally referred to by its initials SD. The SD, which organized the Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
, conducted itself in accordance with the understanding that a fundamental order, sometimes called the Führer Order (Führerbefehl) existed to kill the Jews. Sandberger received his knowledge of the Führer order from Bruno Streckenbach
Bruno Streckenbach
Bruno Heinrich Streckenbach held the rank of SS-Brigadeführer , when he was the head of Amt I : Administration and Personnel of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt , but eventually achieved the rank of SS-Gruppenführer both in Allgemeine-SS and Waffen-SS...
, an official with Department IV of the German National Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, or RSHA). According to Sandberger's testimony as an accused in the Einsatzgruppen trial
Einsatzgruppen Trial
The Einsatzgruppen Trial was the ninth of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. These twelve trials were all held before U.S...
after the war, Streckenbach gave a speech (at the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
headquarters in Berlin on Prince Albertstrasse) about the Führer order, which Sandburger attended. Streckenbach also gave Sandberger explicit instructions in a personal conversation:
Transfer to Estonia
Sandberger entered RigaRiga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
with Einsatzkommando 1a and 2. These organizations then engaged in
destruction of synagogues
Burning of the Riga synagogues
The burning of the Riga synagogues occurred in the first days of the German occupation of the city of Riga, the capital and largest city in the country of Latvia...
, the liquidation of 400 Jews, and the setting up of groups for the purpose of fomenting pogroms. After the war, when on trial for war crimes, Sandberger's effort to evade responsibility was rejected by the tribunal: "Although it has been demonstrated that not only he was in Riga at the time they occurred, but he actually had a conversation about them with the Einsatzgruppe Chief Stahlecker before he left Riga."
In early July, 1941, Sandberger was sent to Estonia on the orders of Stahlecker. According to Sandberger's later testimony, Stahlecker made it clear that Sandberger was being sent to Estonia to carry out the Führer order in that country. A variety of shooting actions of Jews, Gypsies, Communists and the mentally-ill began once Sandberger and his kommando entered Estonia. A report dated 15 October 1941 on executions in Ostland during Sandberger's tenure included one item under Estonia of 474 Jews and 684 Communists.
Others were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Report No. 17, dated 9 July 1941 carried the item —
On 10 September 1941, Sandberger promulgated a general order for the internment of Jews which resulted in the internment of 450 Jews in a concentration camp at Pskov, Russia
Pskov
Pskov is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: -Early history:...
. The Jews were later executed.
Sandburger was highly recommended for promotion in the SS:
On 3 December 1941 he became commander of the Security Police
Sicherheitspolizei
The Sicherheitspolizei , often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Nazi Germany to describe the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of the Gestapo and the Kripo between 1936 and 1939...
and SD for Estonia.
Actions in Italy
Sandberger returned to Germany in September 1943. In the fall of 1943, Sandberger was appointed the Gestapo chief for the Italian city of VeronaVerona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
. In this capacity he was involved in arresting the Jews of Northern Italy and organizing their transportation to Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
.
Espionage activity
In January 1944 Sandberger became head of the Foreign Intelligence service (Organisation des Auslandsnachrichtendienstes), division A of Department VI of the RSHA. In this position he reported directly to Walter SchellenbergWalter Schellenberg
Walther Friedrich Schellenberg was a German SS-Brigadeführer who rose through the ranks of the SS to become the head of foreign intelligence following the abolition of the Abwehr in 1944.-Biography:...
. He kept the domestic and foreign accounts and financial records of the organization. As the first assistant to Schellenberg, Sandberger acted as his liaison man with Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
.
With all the access he had had to highly secret information, after the war, under British interrogation, Sandberger tried to delay or avoid prosecution by disclosing what he knew. Until internal reports of the Einsatzgruppen were discovered, Sandberger was able to convince the British interpreters that his account of his activities in Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
as the Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei (or KdS) had involved "'no evidence of any particular criminal actions on his part.'"
Trial
In the Einsatzgruppen trialEinsatzgruppen Trial
The Einsatzgruppen Trial was the ninth of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. These twelve trials were all held before U.S...
, Sandberger was charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, and membership in a criminal organization, that is, the SS. At his trial, Sandberger denied responsibility for the killings described in the October 15 report, and sought to blame on the German field police and Estonian home guard. This was rejected by the tribunal, which found that the Estonian home guard was under Sandberger's jurisdiction and control for specific operations, as shown by the same report. Similarly, Sandberger claimed he had arrested the Jews sent to Pskov to protect them, hoping that during the internment the Führer order might be revoked or meliorated. and he was not in general responsible for their execution at the Pskov detention camp. Sandberger said he was responsible for "only a fraction" of the killings. Sandberger placed this "fraction" at 300 to 350 persons.
Sandberger claimed the execution of the Jews at Pskov happened in his absence and without his knowledge. The tribunal found that Sandberger's own testimony convicted him:
Sandberger testified that he had protested against the inhumanity of the Führer order, but his account was not accepted by the Nuremberg Military Tribunal which was conducting the trial: "Despite the defendant's protestations from the witness stand, it is evident from the documentary evidence and his own testimony, that he went along willingly with the execution of the Fuehrer Order."
Death sentence and reprieve
Sandberger was found guilty on all counts. In September 1947,Judge Michael Musmanno
Michael Musmanno
Michael Angelo Musmanno was an American jurist, politician, and naval officer of Italian heritage.Musmanno was born in Stowe Township, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, an industrial neighborhood a few miles west of Pittsburgh.Musmanno rose to the rank of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy...
pronounced the tribunal's sentence:
Despite political pressures, General Lucius D. Clay
Lucius D. Clay
General Lucius Dubignon Clay was an American officer and military governor of the United States Army known for his administration of Germany immediately after World War II. Clay was deputy to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1945; deputy military governor, Germany 1946; commander in chief, U.S....
confirmed Sandberger's death sentence in 1949. In 1951, Sandberger's sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment by a clemency board acting under the authority of John J. McCloy
John J. McCloy
John Jay McCloy was a lawyer and banker who served as Assistant Secretary of War during World War II, president of the World Bank and U.S. High Commissioner for Germany...
, the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany. McCloy had received political pressure to grant the reprieve from William Langer
William Langer
William "Wild Bill" Langer was a prominent US politician from North Dakota. Langer is one of the most colorful characters in North Dakota history, most famously bouncing back from a scandal that forced him out of the governor's office and into prison. He served as the 17th and 21st Governor of...
, U.S. Senator from North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
. Many of Langer's constituents were of German descent, and Langer felt that trial of anyone other than the highest Nazis was contrary to American legal tradition and helped Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
.
Sandberger's father, a retired production director of IG Farben
IG Farben
I.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG . The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I...
, used his connections with West German president Theodor Heuss
Theodor Heuss
Theodor Heuss was a liberal German politician who served as the first President of the Federal Republic of Germany after World War II from 1949 to 1959...
. Heuss in turn contacted the US Ambassador at that time James B. Conant with the request for pardon. Numerous pleas for leniency from influential individuals including Minister of Justice Wolfgang Haußmann and Landesbischof
Landesbischof
A Landesbischof is the head of some Protestant Landeskirche in Germany. Based on the principle of the summepiscopat, the Lutheran princes assumed the position of Head of Church in their territory after the Reformation...
(bishop) Martin Haug were made. The renowned lawyer and vice-president of the West German German parliament Carlo Schmid
Carlo Schmid (German politician)
Carlo Schmid was a German academic and politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany .Schmid is one of the most important authors of both the German Basic Law and the Godesberg Program of the SPD...
worried about Sandberger's conditions in Landsberg prison and spoke out in favor of a commutation. Over time these and other well-connected people lobbied for Sandberger's early release. By late 1957, there were only four war criminals held in prison in West Germany. One of them was Sandberger, who, on January 9, 1958, was himself released from Landsberg prison
Landsberg Prison
Landsberg Prison is a penal facility located in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about west of Munich and south of Augsburg....
. Sandberger died March 30, 2010, at the age of 98.
Historiographical
Birn, Ruth Bettina: Die Sicherheitspolizei in Estland 1941-1944. Eine Studie zur Kollaboration im Osten. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, ISBN 978-3-506-75614-5.- Breitman, Richard, and Goda, Norman, U.S. intelligence and the Nazis, Cambridge University Press 2005 ISBN 0521852684
- Conclusions of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity
- Ezergailis, AndrewAndrew EzergailisAndrew Ezergailis is a retired Professor of History, Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York, USA, known for his research into the 20th-century history of Latvia, particularly of the 1917 Revolution and the Holocaust in Latvia....
, The Holocaust in Latvia 1941-1944—The Missing Center, Historical Institute of Latvia (in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) Riga 1996 ISBN 9984-9054-3-8 Frei, Norbert: "Vergangenheitspolitik. Die Anfänge der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und die NS-Vergangenheit", München 1996, ISBN 3-406-42557-7 - Kahn, David, Hitler's spies Klee, ErnstErnst KleeErnst Klee is a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he is best known for his exposure and documentation of the medical crimes of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, much of which is concerned with the Action T4 forced euthanasia program.-Life and work:Klee was first trained as...
: „Martin Sandberger“ Eintrag in ders.: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Aktualisierte Ausgabe. Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0, S. 43 Ruck, Michael: Korpsgeist und Staatsbewußtsein. Beamte im deutschen Südwesten 1928 bis 1972. Oldenbourg, München 1996, ISBN 978-3-486-56197-5 - Smelser, Ronald M., and Davies, Edward J., The Myth of the Eastern Front, Cambridge University Press 2007 ISBN 0521712319 Wildt, Michael Wildt: Generation der Unbedingten – Das Führungskorps des Reichssicherheitshauptamtes. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-930908-87-5.
War crimes trials and evidence
- Stahlecker, Franz W.Franz Walter StahleckerFranz Walter Stahlecker was Commander of the Sicherheitspolizei and the Sicherheitsdienst for the Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1941/42...
, "Comprehensive Report of Einsatzgruppe A Operations up to 15 October 1941", Exhibit L-180, translated in part and reprinted in Office of the United States Chief of Counsel For Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume VII, pages 978-995, USGPO, Washington DC 1946 ("Red Series") - Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, Nuernberg, October 1946 - April 1949, Volume IV, ("Green Series) (the "Einsatzgruppen case") also available at Mazel library (well indexed HTML version)
External links
- "The Quiet Death of a Nazi." ABC NewsABC NewsABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
. 4-15-2010. Biography and image of Sandberger Jost Nolte von, "Das Lächeln der SS: Der Fall des Lektors Hans Rößner und andere Fälle: Wie Täter mit gutem Benehmen nach 1945 durchs Netz schlüpften", June 2002 (English: "The Smiling SS: The cases of lecturer Hans Rossner and others: How Perpetrators Slipped through the Net on good behavior") Vorlesung von Prof. Michael Wildt über die Tübinger Exekutoren der Endlösung (Sandberger u.a.) Videoaufzeichnung