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Erwin Schulz
Erwin Schulz | |
|---|---|
 Schulz's mugshot after his indictment for the Nuremberg Military Tribunal (July 1947) | |
| Born | Erwin Wilhelm Schulz 27 November 1900 |
| Died | 11 November 1981 (aged 80) |
| Criminal status | Deceased |
| Motive | Nazism |
| Conviction(s) | Crimes against humanity War crimes Membership in a criminal organization |
| Trial | Einsatzgruppen trial |
| Criminal penalty | 20 years imprisonment; commuted to 15 years imprisonment |
| Details | |
| Victims | Hundreds |
Span of crimes | July – August 1941 |
| Country | Ukraine and Russia |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  German Empire Weimar Republic Nazi Germany |
| Service |  Imperial German Army Schutzstaffel |
| Years of service | 1918–1919 1935–1945 |
| Rank | SS-Brigadeführer |
| Unit | Einsatzgruppe C |
| Commands | Einsatzkommando 5 |
| Battles / wars | World War I Spartacist uprising Silesian Uprisings World War II |
Erwin Wilhelm Schulz (27 November 1900 – 11 November 1981) was a German member of the Gestapo and the SS in Nazi Germany. He was the leader of Einsatzkommando 5, part of Einsatzgruppe C, which was attached to the Army Group South during the planned invasion of Soviet Union in 1941, and operated in the occupied territories of south-eastern Poland and Ukrainian SSR committing mass killings of civilian population, mostly men of Jewish ethnicity, under the command of SS-Brigadeführer Otto Rasch.[1]
Schulz is notable for demonstrating that service in the Einsatzgruppen was voluntary. He did not volunteer for the job, nor did he turn it down. Previously, he'd expressed opposition to the mass shootings of Jews. Under orders, Schulz would participate in the mass executions of Jewish men despite "serious misgivings" about his actions.[2] After being ordered to kill Jewish women and children, however, he protested. When he was unable to get the order retracted, he asked if he could stop. The request was granted within days, with Schulz being discharged on the orders of Reinhard Heydrich himself. Schulz not only faced no consequences for stopping, but was promoted shortly after. By the end of the war, he'd reached the rank of Brigadeführer, the SS equivalent of a brigadier general.[3][4]
- ^ N.M.T. (1945). "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals" (PDF direct download). Volume IV : "The Einsatzgruppen Case" complete, 1210 pages. Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10. pp. 542–543 in PDF (518–519 in original document). Retrieved 1 March 2015.
With N.M.T. commentary to testimony of Erwin Schulz (pp. 165–167 in PDF).
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:3was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Klee, Ernst; Dressen, Willi; Riess, Volker (1991). 'The Good Old Days': The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders. Free Press. pp. 85–86. ISBN 978-0-02-917425-8.
- ^ "Tonbandmitschnitt des 1. Frankfurter Auschwitz-Prozesses". www.auschwitz-prozess.de. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
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