His comprehensive reports—Meldungen aus dem Reich—started to
appear shortly thereafter.
With the invasion of the Soviet Union, Heydrich appointed him
leader of one of the Einsatzgruppen, Task Force D, presumably
to eliminate any potential opposition on his part and make him
complicit to the mass extermination in the east (Heinrich Himmler
once referred to him as “a product of too much education”). From
June 1941 to July 1942, convinced of the historical necessity of this
policy, Ohlendorf strove to deploy his unit as effectively as possible,
thereby killing more than 90,000 Jews, gypsies, communists, and
other persecuted groups in southern Ukraine and Crimea. Follow-
ing his return to Berlin, he focused on the public opinion research
conducted by his office and also received a position in the Ministry
of Economics. Despite strong criticism from Joseph Goebbels and
Martin Bormann, Ohlendorf’s office continued to function until the
spring of 1945. Besides drawing up plans for Germany’s postwar
economy, he also proposed a new domestic intelligence service under
his direction to the successor government of Karl Dönitz.
After surrendering to the Allies on 23 May, Ohlendorf became a
leading defendant in the Einsatzgruppen Trials in Nuremberg. As-
tonished to hear this accomplished lawyer and economist give such
an unapologetic account of the atrocities committed under his com-
mand, the presiding judge described him as a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde” figure. After being held in detention for more than three years,
Ohlendorf was hanged on 8 June 1951 at Landsberg (Bavaria).OHNESORGE, BERND (1944–1987). An agent of the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) who committed suicide in Bulgarian
captivity, Bernd Ohnesorge was trained as an animal laboratory
technician in Hamburg. Financial difficulties, however, led him to
immigrate to the German Democratic Republic in 1966, where he
was recruited by the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS) and
dispatched to report on U.S. forces based at Tempelhof Airport in
West Berlin. Although his largely fictitious submissions resulted
in his dismissal by the MfS shortly afterward, Ohnesorge managed
to find a position with the CIA and underwent training at Langley,
Virginia, in spring 1983. Yet his plan to recruit a high official in the
Bulgarian Defense Ministry through an affair with his wife proved
OHNESORGE, BERND • 329