The V. Schoeneman Case: Einsatzkommando 8, the Wehrmacht and the Holocaust

In 1964, the trial of Werner Schoenemann, the commander of one of the 6 punitive units of the Einsatzkommando 8, took place in Cologne. The criminal was charged with mass executions of Jews on the territory of Belarus in late June — September 1941. The paper shows how the former Nazi tried to avoid criminal responsibility and what legal assessment by the German justice his atrocities received. V. Schoeneman denied his guilt and sought to shift responsibility for what he had done to the Wehrmacht troops. The defendant argued that the actions of extermination of Jews were carried out on the initiative of the German armed forces and were in the nature of reprisals; they were designed to force the local population to abandon the conduct of guerrilla warfare. Based on the testimony of the accused, law enforcement officers detained three officers of the 354th Infantry Regiment involved in the liquidation of the Jewish community of the town of Krupki (September 18, 1941). During the investigation, it was established that the service members provided support to members of the Einsatzkommando 8 during the execution, but were not the initiators of this atrocity. For complicity in the grave murders of 2,170 Jews in the settlements of Slonim, Borisov, Smolevichi, Krupki and others, V. Schoeneman was sentenced to 6 years in prison. When assigning such a lenient punishment, representatives of the German Themis relied on the dominant approach to assessing the criminal activities of former Nazis in the 1960s. According to the jury, the defendant was only a submissive executor of orders, an impersonal, devoid of his own motives “cog” in the mechanism of the Nazi state. V. Schoeneman did not repent of what he had done. For the former punisher, Jewish victims were still just dry figures in the reports, thanks to which he sought to make a career. Schoeneman’s case proves that Wehrmacht service members took an active part in the Holocaust along with members of the Einsatzkommandos. The genocide, unprecedented in the history of humankind, became possible only because of the broad participation of German citizens representing various social strata and professional groups.

1. Alekseev NS. Zlodeyaniya i vozmezdie: prestupleniya protiv chelovechestva [Atrocities and retribution: crimes against humanity]. Moscow: Yurid. lit.; 1986. (In Russ.)

2. Antikhovich A. Mekhanizm primeneniya kontrmer: reglamentatsiya v proekte statey Komissii mezhdunarodnogo prava OON ob otvetstvennosti gosudarstv [Mechanism of application of countermeasures: Regulation in the draft articles of the UN International Law Commission on State responsibility]. Zhurnal mezhdunarodnogo prava i mezhdunarodnykh otnosheniy [Journal of International Law and International Relations]. 2005;3:13-16. (In Russ.)

3. Boroznyak AI. Zhestokaya pamyat. Natsistskiy reykh v vospriyatii nemtsev vtoroy poloviny XX i nachala XXI veka [Cruel memory. Nazi Reich in the perception of the Germans of the second half of the 20th and early 21st century]. Moscow: Polit. entsiklopediya; 2014. (In Russ.)

4. Grakhotskiy AP. “Amnistiya cherez zadnyuyu dver” dlya natsistskogo prestupnika Otto Bradfisha [“Amnesty through the Back Door” for Nazi Criminal Otto Bradfsch]. Lex russica. 2020;(5):83-96. (In Russ.)

5. Grakhotsky AP. Mesto prestupleniya — derevnya Krucha: pravosudie FRG, «nezapyatnannyy» vermakht i Kholokost [Crime scene: The village of Krucha. Justice of the FRG, the “unblemished” Wehrmacht and the Holocaust]. Zhurnal zarubezhnogo zakonodatelstva i sravnitelnogo pravovedeniya [Journal of Foreign Legislation and Comparative Law]. 2020;2:64-79. (In Russ.)

6. Kauganov EL. “Spor Goldkhagena”: reaktualizatsiya problemy viny v kontekste natsionalnoy identichnosti FRG v 1990-e gody [“Goldhagen Dispute”: Reactualization of the problem of guilt in the context of the national identity of Germany in the 1990s]. Vestnik Permskogo universiteta [Perm University Herald]. 2015;4:188-195. (In Russ.)

7. Ledyakh IA. Natsistskie prestupniki i sudebnaya praktika v FRG [Nazi criminals and judicial practice in Germany]. Moscow: Yuridicheskaya literatura; 1973. (In Russ.)

8. Rulinskiy V. Preodolenie natsistskogo proshlogo v FRG. Fenomen Goldkhagena [Overcoming the Nazi past in Germany. The Goldhagen phenomenon]. Sovremennaya Evropa [Modern Europe]. 2016;5:67-79. (In Russ.)

9. Smilovitskiy L. “Eto bylo…" [“It was…"]. Moye mestechko: proekt “Golosa evreyskikh mestechek. Minskaya oblast” [My place: “The voices of Jewish towns” project. Minsk region” Available from: http://shtetle.com/shtetls_minsk/krupki/krupki_war.html [cited 2021 May 12]. (In Russ.)

10. Arendt H. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the banality of evil. London: Faber and Faber; 1963.

11. Beorn WW. Genocide in a Small Place: Wehrmacht Complicity in Killing the Jews of Krupki, 1941. In: Kühne T, Lawson T, editors. The Holocaust and Local History. Edgware: Vallentine Mitchell; 2011. P. 87–116.

12. Browning ChR. Ganz normale Männer. Das Reserve-Polizeibataillon 101 und die «Endlösung» in Polen. Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag; 2019.

13. Paul G, editor. Die Täter der Shoah: fanatische Nationalsozialisten oder ganz normale Deutsche? Göttingen: Wallstein-Verl.; 2002.

14. Gerlach Ch. Kalkulierte Morde. Die deutsche Wirtschafts- und Vernichtungspolitik in Weißrussland 1941 bis 1944. Hamburg: Hamburger Ed.; 1999.

15. Goldhagen DJ. Hitlers willige Vollstrecker. Ganz gewöhnliche Deutsche und der Holocaust. Berlin: Siedler; 1996.

16. Just-Dahlmann B, Just H. Die Gehilfen: NS-Verbrechen und die Justiz nach 1945. Frankfurt: Athenaeum; 1988.

17. Mallmann K, editor. Karrieren der Gewalt nationalsozialistische Täterbiographien. Darmstadt: Wiss. Buchges; 2004.

18. Kogon E. Der SS-Staat: das System der deutschen Konzentrationslager. Berlin: Verlag des Druckhauses Tempelhof; 1947.

19. Kompisch K. Täterinnen: Frauen im Nationalsozialismus. Köln: Böhlau; 2008.

20. Lower W. Hitlers Helferinnen: deutsche Frauen im Holocaust. München: Hanser; 2014.

21. Mühlenberg J. Das SS-Helferinnenkorps: Ausbildung, Einsatz und Entnazifizierung der weiblichen Angehörigen der Waffen-SS 1942–1949. Hamburg: Hamburger Ed.; 2010.

22. Wrochem O Von, Eckel C, editors. Nationalsozialistische Täterschaften. Nachwirkungen in Gesellschaft und Familie. Berlin: Metropol; 2016.

23. Kramer H, Beischl K, editors. NS-Täter aus interdisziplinärer Perspektive. München: Meidenbauer; 2006.

24. Freudiger K, Perels J, editors. NS-Täter in der deutschen Gesellschaft. Hannover: Offizin-Verl.; 2002.

25. Pahlke NH. Täterinnen im Nationalsozialismus: ein kriminologischer Erklärungsversuch. Baden-Baden: Nomos; 2009.

26. Paul G. Von Psychopathen, Technokraten des Terrors und «ganz gewöhnlichen» Deutschen. In: Paul G, editor. Die Täter der Shoah im Spiegel der Forschung. Die Täter der Shoah: fanatische Nationalsozialisten oder ganz normale Deutsche? Göttingen: Wallstein-Verl.; 2002. P. 13–90.

27. Seliger H. Politische Anwälte? Die Verteidiger der Nürnberger Prozesse. Baden-Baden: Nomos; 2016.

28. Stangneth B. Eichmann vor Jerusalem: das unbehelligte Leben eines Massenmörders. Zürich: Arche; 2011.

29. Ullrich Ch. “Ich fühl’ mich nicht als Mörder”: die Integration von NS-Tätern in die Nachkriegsgesellschaft. Darmstadt: WBG; 2011.