Original subtitles

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: On September 1, 1939, 1.8 million German troops

invaded Poland, initiating the beginning

of World War II in Europe.

Two German army groups, consisting

of 35 standard infantry divisions, four

motorized infantry divisions, five Panzer divisions, four

light infantry divisions, and three mountain divisions,

were formed to attack Poland from three fronts.

In addition to the traditional army divisions,

there were three obscure military formations

listed as part of the Wehrmacht order of battle.

They were the SS regiments Deutschland, Germania, and

the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler.

These formations, together not equaling an entire division,

would receive their baptism of fire in Poland,

overcome the harsh criticism of the German army leadership,

and emerge as an organization that

would eventually grow into the fourth branch of the Wehrmacht,

the Waffen-SS.

The contributions of the SS regiments

during the Polish campaign were minimal

compared to those of the army but not inconsequential.

Army commanders, such as General Walther von Brauchitsch,

the Wehrmacht commander in chief,

commented that the Leibstandarte, for example,

was untrained for battle and had no knowledge of strategy

and had to pay the price for being policemen

dressed up in army uniforms.

Despite the negative views of the generals of the German high

command, or OKW, Hitler authorized

an expansion of the Waffen-SS.

This resulted in the establishment of three divisions

by the end of November 1939, which included the Verfügungs

division, Totenkopf Division, Polizei

Division, and an expanded Leibstandarte

into a motorized rifle regiment.

By the time the 1940 campaign began, the Waffen-SS' strength

had increased to 125,000 men.

The leadership within the Waffen-SS

used the time between the end of hostilities in Poland

and the beginning of the war in the West

to train new recruits within its expanded ranks

and acquire the arms and machinery necessary to equip

elite motorized forces.

Equipment shortfalls plagued the Waffen-SS units

throughout the winter, as they conducted

training for the upcoming campaign in the West.

It was not until April 1940 that the SS Totenkopf received

its full allocation of heavy field artillery

and prime movers, along with German equipment

to replace that of Czech manufacturer.

Operation Fall Gelb, the invasion

of France and the Low Countries, began on 10 May 1940.

Three army groups, consisting of 136 divisions,

were deployed for this offensive.

At a time when only 7 of the 157 divisions in the German army

were motorized, the OKW had little choice

but to deploy the fully motorized Waffen-SS divisions.

The SS Leibstandarte and the SS Verfügungs Division

were both deployed as part of Army Group

B, whose mission was to break through Dutch defenses

and occupy Holland.

Although the SS Totenkopf and the Polizei divisions

were initially deployed as part of the reserve,

both were eventually engaged in the battles for France.

The 1940 campaign marked the first time

that SS units fought under the command of their own officers.

The German blitzkrieg through May and June 1940

was an astounding success.

The new Panzer divisions moved rapidly through the countryside,

splitting the Allied armies in two.

The motorized SS units, able to keep up with the Panzer

divisions, were quickly ordered to engage the enemy

at critical points, such as defending

against the British counterattack near Arras.

In spite of the action at Arras, throughout the campaign

through the Low Countries and France,

the Waffen-SS divisions displayed

a reckless aggressiveness, which resulted in great success,

along with a high casualty rate, especially among officers.

The courage and success of these formations,

however, was overshadowed by the actions of the SS Leibstandarte

at Wormhoudt and the SS Totenkopf

at Le Paradis, where members of these SS formations

executed Allied prisoners of war.

The Western campaign of 1940 demonstrated the hallmarks

of Waffen-SS behavior--

reckless aggressiveness in the assault, fanatical defense

against enemy attacks, and a reputation for committing

savage atrocities.

In comparison with the Wehrmacht units,

the presence of the fledgling Waffen-SS units

had a very limited impact on the overall success

of either the Polish or the Western campaigns.

The differences between regular German army units

and Waffen-SS units in regard to leadership, training, personnel,

morale, and equipment became significant throughout

the further expansion and development

of the Waffen-SS formations during the Second World War.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

At dawn on 22nd June 1941, German aircraft

and artillery began the opening bombardment

of Operation Barbarossa.

From the Baltic to the Black Sea,

more than 3 million German troops

attacked, taking 5 million Red Army

soldiers largely by surprise.

The Waffen-SS motorized divisions and brigades,

poised to attack Russia, were some of the most powerful

units available to Hitler.

Unlike the ordinary army infantry divisions

whose soldiers marched everywhere,

Waffen-SS motorized units were provided

with trucks to carry their troops onto the battlefield.

Unlike army infantry units whose guns were pulled by horses,

trucks also towed all their artillery pieces.

SS motorized infantry units were all lavishly armed with

automatic machine pistols and bipod or tripod-mounted MG 34

machine guns as well as 80-millimeter

and 120-millimeter mortars.

Waffen-SS troops were also some of the most highly motivated

on the German side.

They had all been thoroughly indoctrinated

with Nazi racial superiority theories.

To the members of the Waffen-SS, their Russian enemies

were racial inferiors, to be treated as subhumans.

The SS men were told by their officers to execute immediately

any Communist Party officials they captured to break

the back of any resistance.

This also applied to political officers or commissars

serving with Red Army units.

The civilian population or captured Russian soldiers

had no rights under laws of war, because the Soviets had not

signed the Geneva Convention.

They were to be exploited to help the German war

effort as forced laborers, and anyone who offered resistance

was to be executed immediately.

Any Jews who were caught by the Waffen-SS

were also to be liquidated.

This brutal imperial policy soon alienated

most of the civilian population in areas under German control,

even in regions that had been anti-Soviet

before the occupation.

Everything about the war on the Eastern Front

was on a titanic scale--

the distances, the number of troops involved,

the intensity of the fighting, and the horrific extent

of the casualties.

The initial lineup of forces was of a scale

that had never been seen before in the history of warfare.

On the German side were 153 divisions,

including 21 Panzer and 14 motorized divisions

with over 3,000 tanks.

In the air, the Luftwaffe had almost 3,800 fighters,

bombers, and transport aircraft available.

On top of this force were added the contingents from Finland,

Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, and Romania

that mustered several hundred thousand

troops to help the Wehrmacht.

Opposing Hitler's invasion force was the Red Army,

which appeared on paper to be a formidable force of some 180

divisions with some 20,000 tanks and air support

from 10,000 combat aircraft.

However, the Red Army was a hollow shell,

after many of its best officers had been

executed in the purges that Stalin had

unleashed in the late 1930s.

Fewer than 2,000 of its tanks were modern T-34s that

could take on the latest German Panzer

IIIs or IVs on equal terms.

Most of the Red Army soldiers were from rural peasant stock

or were ill-educated factory workers.

Many had received only rudimentary training

to fire their rifles and had little experience

operating sophisticated artillery,

tanks, or heavy weapons.

Although Stalin loved to show off his military might

in parades through Red Square or in showcase field exercises,

the bulk of the Red Army rarely participated

in large-scale maneuvers or rehearsals of defensive plans.

Discipline was brutal to ensure the Red Army remained

under Communist Party control.

Food and other provisions were in short supply.

Its battle-hardened opponents in the Wehrmacht

hopelessly outclassed the Red Army division for division.

The colossal war in the East is often divided

into three distinct phases.

The first phase consists of the initial German blitzkrieg

in the summer of 1941 that ended with the assault

on Moscow, the subsequent Soviet winter

counteroffensives, and the German defensive operations.

During this period, the Waffen-SS divisions

continued to serve as separate divisions

under the command of different army groups.

The Totenkopf Division attacked as part of Army Group North.

Das Reich served as part of Army Group Center.

The Leibstandarte and the Wiking divisions

were part of the Army Group South,

while the Polizei Division was kept in reserve.

As part of Army Group North, the Totenkopf Division

fought desperate engagements south of Leningrad.

Trapped in the Demyansk Pocket from January to October 1942,

the Totenkopf Division was the nucleus of a mixed force

of surrounded army and Waffen-SS formations

that hung on to the Valdai Hills.

This prevented a major Russian breakthrough

and stabilized the weakened right flank of Army Group North.

When they pulled out in October 1942,

they had the combat strength of a battalion.

The Das Reich Division began the war in the East,

driving with Army Group Center toward Moscow.

During the bitter fighting outside

of Moscow against the Soviet counteroffensive,

the Das Reich was virtually destroyed.

During a meeting between a regimental commander of Das

Reich and General Model, Model asked, "What is your regimental

strength at the moment?"

The commander replied, "General, my entire

regiment is paraded outside."

There in the snow stood 35 men.

They were the remnant of a regiment

which had gone into battle more than 2,000 strong.

The Leibstandarte and the Wiking divisions

fared little better as part of Army Group South.

The net result of the first year of fighting in Russia

was twofold.

First, the heavy casualties among veterans

meant that replacements had to be found.

"Often these replacements," according to Theodor Eiche,

"were markedly inferior soldiers to those

whose places they filled."

This had dramatic effects on the recruiting

efforts within the Waffen-SS organization.

A shortage of manpower within the Reich

forced the Waffen-SS to relax the once stringent selection

process and recruit from Volksdeutsche, people

of German heritage living within the greater Reich,

and eventually from non-Germanic races.

A second outcome of these difficult battles of attrition

was the added prestige and confidence

that senior army officers, such as General Manstein,

bestowed upon the Waffen-SS for their excellent performance

in combat.

The Waffen-SS divisions had indeed achieved

the goals set by their führer.

They had proven themselves in combat

and gained the prestige and confidence of the German army.

In view of this, the Leibstandarte, the Totenkopf

Division, Wiking, and the Das Reich

were reorganized into Panzergrenadier divisions,

complete with tank battalions.

Hitler also authorized the creation of more SS divisions

and the SS Panzer Corps.

As the tide began to turn against Hitler with the fall

of Stalingrad and the loss of North Africa,

he placed a greater demand upon the men of the SS,

who were an extraordinary body of men devoted

to an idea loyal unto death.

In March 1943, the first SS Panzer Corps

did not let their führer down.

Spearheading an operation to recapture the city of Kharkov,

the SS divisions Leibstandarte, Totenkopf, and Das Reich

achieved one of the most spectacular victories of the war

by recapturing this key city and bringing

the Soviet offensive to a halt.

With his faith in his SS formations now vindicated,

Hitler ensured that the SS divisions, which included

the newly formed SS Hohenstaufen, Frundsberg,

and Hitlerjugend divisions, no longer had to fight

the German army for resources.

They also received a priority of both men and materials, which

included the recently developed heavy tanks

and the latest equipment.

The second half of 1943 did not go well

for the elite SS divisions.

Despite the Stalingrad victory, the Soviets,

in the summer of 1943, went on the strategic defensive

in anticipation of a German attack

against the Kursk salient.

The SS divisions were asked to spearhead

another offensive again.

The senior German leadership hoped that a summer offensive

would break the Soviets' offensive capabilities

and provide the führer with a much

needed victory in the face of defeats in Africa and Sicily.

The results of Operation Citadel were

a disaster for the Wehrmacht and the SS divisions taking part.

Between the 5th and the 18th of July,

the divisions of the SS Panzer corps Leibstandarte, Das Reich,

and Totenkopf made substantial gains in terms of the distance

of their advance but lost over 50% of their personnel

and equipment.

This included many of their tanks

at the Battle of Prokhorovka.

Hitler's last chance to win a limited strategic victory

in 1943 was lost.

With the German defeat at Kursk, the Soviets

gained the strategic initiative for good.

The subsequent Soviet offensive during the summer of 1943

proved devastating for the Wehrmacht.

During the retreat, the SS formations became

the fire brigades in the East.

As motorized divisions, they were routinely rushed

to the critical points on the front

to seal a breach in the German lines

or slow down the Soviet onslaught long enough

for other formations to escape.

"They had," in the words of General Wohler,

commander of the Eighth Army, "stood like a rock in the army,

while the enemy broke through in neighboring sectors."

By the end of 1943, the SS formations

were a shadow of their former strength and confidence.

By 10 December 1943, for example,

the battalions of the Das Reich had almost been bled to death.

The SS soldiers had fought from Kharkov in the spring

through the summer offensive at Kursk

and into the fighting retreat of autumn and early winter.

They had been in action almost without pause

or let up, committed to unceasing murderous battle

for nearly 10 months.

The elite veterans who survived these trying times were few.

Replacements, including a large number of draftees,

continued to fill the ranks, but their level of training

and experience was negligible.

On paper, the Waffen-SS was more robust than ever,

possessing 7 of the 30 Panzer divisions

and 6 of the 17 Panzergrenadier divisions in the Wehrmacht.

The total personnel strength of the Waffen-SS

had doubled since the beginning of the year.

The total number of SS divisions had risen to 38.

Six of the elite SS Panzer divisions

were transferred to France in 1944

in order to receive replacements, new equipment,

and prepare for the Allied invasion of France.

As these divisions fought the Allies through Normandy,

Holland, and Belgium, the other divisions, such as the Totenkopf

and Wiking divisions, remained in the east,

fighting a brutal war of attrition

with an enemy that had grown vastly superior in terms

of both manpower and equipment.

On 22 June, 1944, it was the Soviets

who went on the offensive, launching Operation Bagration.

This surprise offensive completely destroyed Army Group

Center and erased 350,000 men and 28 German divisions from

the Wehrmacht order of battle.

It was through this inferno and the great retreat which followed

that the SS divisions that remained on the Eastern Front

waged a war to slow the Soviet juggernaut.

It wasn't until the early months of 1945

that the SS formations would finally cease

to exist as combat formations.

The last battles of the elite SS divisions

occurred not in the fatherland but on the plains of Hungary.

The final offensives on the Eastern Front conducted

by the SS divisions occurred during operations

to relieve the siege of Budapest and protect

the Reich's last fuel reserves, the Hungarian oil fields.

The reconstituted elite SS divisions, consisting primarily

of draftees, combined with untrained

and inexperienced former Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine

personnel, were completely destroyed and ceased to exist

as effective combat formations.

The survivors were captured by the Soviets

or fought their way through vengeful partisan groups

to reach American lines in order to surrender.

The war in the east was very different from that in the west.

The Soviet soldiers displayed comparable suicidal

aggressiveness, fanatical defense and courage

to that of the soldiers of the Waffen-SS.

Against this enemy, the Waffen-SS formations earned

their legendary reputation.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

On June 6, 1944, Allied forces began Operation Overlord,

the invasion of France, and opened

the long-awaited second front against Germany

in Western Europe.

Facing the overwhelming military might and the complete air

superiority of the Allies, Hitler, once again,

relied on his trusted and powerful Waffen-SS divisions

to defeat the Allied armies, first,

in the brutal fighting in Normandy

and then in the dense forests of the Ardennes.

During these decisive battles, the soldiers of the Waffen-SS

repeatedly demonstrated their elite esprit de corps

and aggressive fighting spirit but, in the end,

were unable to win the victories Hitler desired.

Hitler directed that six Waffen-SS Panzer divisions

be sent to France to thwart the expected Allied invasion

against his Atlantic Wall.

These included the divisions Leibstandarte, Das Reich,

Hitlerjugend, Hohenstaufen, Frundsberg,

and Götz von Berlichingen.

In terms of equipment, personnel strength,

and veteran leadership, they were among the most powerful

divisions in the German army at the time

and constituted 50% of the Panzer formations in France.

For the Waffen-SS formations, the days

of having to compete with the Wehrmacht for the latest

equipment were gone.

A führer order, dated 3 May, ensured

the requisition of weapons for his favored Leibstandarte

Division.

The equipment being sent to the elite Waffen-SS Panzer divisions

was the best available.

The German soldier was well equipped with excellent Panzers,

such as the much feared Tiger and Panther tanks.

They also possessed what may be considered

the best machine gun produced at the time, the MG 42.

What the grenadiers of the Waffen-SS lacked

was protection against the Allied air forces

and a method to counter the overwhelming Allied advantages

in artillery and naval gunfire support.

The training proficiency of the SS

grenadiers in Normandy varied within each division.

The Leibstandarte and Das Reich divisions needed more time

to train new replacements.

The Hitlerjugend, along with the Frundsberg and Hohenstaufen

divisions, were newer formations which had received more time

to train together but lacked the combat experience

of the older SS divisions.

All of the Waffen-SS divisions would

have to rely heavily on their battle-hardened veteran NCOs.

Many of whom had been fighting since 1939.

Among these veterans, the old arrogance

and recklessness remained.

These charismatic leaders instilled

in the new replacements and young volunteers

the same confidence representative

of a soldier of the Waffen-SS.

The bitter fighting in Normandy was

very different for the Waffen-SS divisions

compared to what many had experienced

on the Eastern Front.

They faced many new challenges, such

as the complete and overwhelming air superiority of the Allies.

Formations were forced to move as much as possible

during the hours of darkness in order to avoid constant attack

from Allied fighter bombers.

Air attacks caused many delays and frustrating losses

in both men and equipment.

Unable to move quickly and maintain unit cohesion,

the SS divisions were forced to counterattack the Allies

before they could properly consolidate all of their combat

forces, resulting in piecemeal attacks and heavy casualties

among the SS formations.

The bitter battles that took place in the Normandy

countryside, much of which was crisscrossed with hedges,

fields, and sunken roads, forced fighting

to occur over short distances with limited visibility.

This reduced the German advantages in combined infantry

and armor maneuver warfare.

Large-scale combined arms maneuver operations

were replaced by small unit actions of infantry

and individual Panzers.

Throughout these bitter battles, Waffen-SS formations

were called upon to spearhead offensive operations

and to fanatically defend against Allied offensives.

The Waffen-SS divisions were always the lead elements

during the critical battles in Normandy, such as those

around the city of Caen, the German counterattack

toward Avranches, to close the Allied breakout

of Operation Cobra and the struggle

to hold open the Falaise gap.

The Waffen-SS divisions were, once again, nearly bled white

during these terrible battles.

They were unable to stop the advancing

tide of the Allies' overwhelming personnel

and material superiority.

What they did accomplish was to significantly

delay the Allied advance.

It is doubtful that the German defenses in France

would have held as long as they did without the courage,

determination, and overall combat power

of the Waffen-SS divisions.

General Eisenhower remarked that while the SS elements, as usual,

fought to annihilation, the ordinary German infantry

gave themselves up in ever-increasing numbers.

This reckless fanaticism in the face of defeat

was exactly what Hitler needed from the troops

who were to execute his planned counteroffensive in the West.

Codenamed Operation Wacht am Rhein the planned offensive was

for three German armies to conduct

a surprise offensive through the rugged heavily

forested Ardennes region.

The SS Leibstandarte, Das Reich, Hitlerjugend,

and Hohenstaufen divisions were organized

into the Sixth SS Panzer Army in order

to spearhead this operation.

This formation, commanded by SS Veteran Obergruppenführer

Sepp Dietrich, was the most powerful

German army in the West.

The reconstitution of the Waffen-SS formations,

following their near-complete annihilation in Normandy,

was nothing short of a miracle.

The loss of both men and material had been enormous.

By September, for example, the combat

strength of the Hitlerjugend consisted

of only 600 men and no tanks.

Replacements were sent to bring the divisions back

up to strength, but they consisted

mostly of untrained naval and Luftwaffe personnel.

There was no time to train them as true elites.

To illustrate, the Das Reich pulled out

of the line in late October, received new replacements,

and by 11 November was on the move

to take part in Wacht am Rhein.

The SS divisions had received new replacements of both men

and weapons, including tanks and guns,

but were severely lacking in motor transportation

and most importantly fuel.

The Ardennes offensive began successfully,

with the German formations achieving complete surprise.

The Waffen-SS divisions made good progress

initially but were unable to achieve a breakthrough.

They were soon stalled by the difficult terrain, massed Allied

artillery, and rearguard elements left behind

to defend key road junctions.

Unable to mass their forces and move forward,

the SS formations were soon caught

in long bottlenecks along the narrow Ardennes roads.

Supply shortages, combined with the deadly appearance

of Allied air power, destroyed any possible chance of success

for the German formations.

Wacht am Rhein was a failure.

The Sixth Panzer Army was unable to meet any of its rather

optimistic objectives.

The achievements of the Wehrmacht's Fifth Panzer Army

were greater.

It was the Second Panzer Division, not

the Waffen-SS, that penetrated furthest

into the Allied defenses.

Hitler's elite, Sepp Dietrich and his Waffen-SS divisions,

had failed him, proving that in 1945, a triumph of the will

was not possible against the superior military might

of the Allies.

By April 1945, the German front in Hungary

was shattered wide open by the Soviet offensive.

It was never re-established.

Dietrich's army started to fall back to Austria

in the hope of defending the capital Vienna.

The Waffen-SS divisions were now constantly

retreating, though every so often

a handful of tanks and Panzergrenadiers

would turn to form a rearguard.

However, they were soon outflanked,

and the retreat would begin again.

When news reached Hitler's bunker

about the retreat of the Waffen-SS,

the führer flew into a rage.

He sent a signal to Sepp Dietrich,

ordering the soldiers of the Sixth SS Panzer Army

to remove their honorific Nazi armbands.

In his eyes, they were no longer fit to wear the führer's

name on their uniforms.

The effect on the morale of the Waffen-SS divisions in Austria

was catastrophic.

Senior commanders ripped off their medals in disgust,

and ordinary grenadiers started to desert in large numbers.

The men of Dietrich's army could see that the war was lost.

They tried to stage a rearguard action to defend Vienna,

but it was futile.

Soon, they were heading westward again.

Once back on German soil, many of the conscripts,

now serving in the ranks of the Waffen-SS, began to drift away.

The hardcore officers started to concentrate

on getting themselves and their remaining men

away from the vengeful Soviets.

Fighting the führer's war was no longer their priority.

In Austria, what was left of the Hitlerjugend Division

surrendered en masse to the Americans

under the watchful eye of a Russian tank column.

At the last minute, the remaining 6,000 Hitlerjugend

troops stampeded past an American checkpoint rather than

risk capture by the Russians.

The Hohenstaufen Division was able to surrender peacefully

to the Americans, while Wiking just broke up into small groups

and disappeared into Austrian and Bavarian villages.

Many of the staff officers of the various Waffen-SS

Panzer Corps and the Sixth SS Panzer Army

also took to the hills.

American, British, and French patrols

soon arrested hundreds of Waffen-SS men

as they tried to reach their hometowns

or flee to Switzerland.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

With the start of the Second World War,

the Totenkopfverbande began a large expansion

to administer the growing concentration camps.

By 1944, there were three divisions of the SS-TV.

These were the staffs of the concentration camps in Germany

and Austria, the labor camp system in occupied territories,

and the guards and staffs of the extermination camps in Poland

that were involved in the Holocaust.

By 1944, with the concentration camps fully integrated

with the Waffen-SS, a standard practice

developed to rotate SS members in and out of the camps

based on manpower needs.

This also gave easier assignments to wounded Waffen-SS

officers and soldiers who could no longer serve

in frontline combat duties.

This rotation of personnel is the main argument

that nearly the entire SS knew of the concentration camps

and what actions were committed in them.

This made the entire organization

liable for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The SS also formed Einsatzgruppen

or intervention groups.

These were paramilitary groups operated by the SS.

"Their principal task," in the words of SS General Erich von

dem Bach-Zelewski at the Nuremberg trial,

"was the annihilation of the Jews, Gypsies,

and political commissars."

Formed from police forces of the Gestapo, Kripo, SD,

and Waffen-SS officers, these death squads

followed the Wehrmacht as it advanced eastward into Eastern

Europe and the Soviet Union.

On occupied territories, the Einsatzgruppen

utilized local populations to provide additional security

and manpower when needed.

The activities of the Einsatzgruppen

were spread throughout a large pool of personnel

from different branches of the SS and German state.

According to their own records, the Einsatzgruppen operatives

were responsible for killing over 1 million people, almost

exclusively civilians, without judicial review

and later without semblance of legality.

There is no reading of sentences of

martial or administrative law.

This started with the Polish intelligentsia

and quickly progressed by 1941 to target, primarily,

the Jews of Eastern Europe.

In 1945, after the surrender of Germany,

the SS was declared an illegal criminal organization

by the Allies.

SS doctors, in particular, were marked as war criminals

due to the wide range of human medical experimentation

which had been conducted during the Second World War.

The SS doctors also played a significant role

in the gas chamber selections of the Holocaust.

Relatively few SS doctors were ever brought to justice.

Figures such as Josef Mengele escaped to Argentina.

Other SS doctors returned to civilian practice in Germany

under assumed names or, in some cases,

even their original identities.

After the war, the Einsatzgruppen leaders

were tried at the subsequent Nuremberg proceedings.

In the ninth trial, there were 24 defendants.

14 of them were sentenced to death, 7 to periods

of imprisonment ranging from 10 years to life,

and one to the time already served.

Two were not tried or sentenced.

Four of the defendants were actually executed,

and 16 had their sentences commuted or reduced

to periods extending from the time already

served to life imprisonment.

One defendant was released.

One died of natural causes.

One committed suicide, and the execution of one

was stayed because of the defendant's insanity.

Following the establishment of the Central Office

of the Judicial Administrations of the Land

at Ludwigsburg in West Germany, over 100

more indictments were handed down.

These were against Einsatzkommando

commanders, officers, noncommissioned officers,

and privates.

In the ensuing trials, no death sentences

were passed since the Federal Republic of Germany

had abolished capital punishment.

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