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Emil Otto Rasch (7 December 1891 – 1 November 1948) was a high-ranking German Nazism official and Holocaust perpetrator, who commanded Einsatzgruppe C in northern and central Ukraine until October 1941. After World War II, Rasch was indicted for war crimes at the Einsatzgruppen trial, but the case was discontinued for medical reasons in February 1948. He died a few months later.
After the war Rasch joined Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund in 1919 first and then Nazi Party on 1 October 1931 (membership № 620,976), he also joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) in 1933 and the Schutzstaffel (SS) on 10 March 1933 (membership № 107,100). Beginning in 1936, Rasch was employed full-time by the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). On 1 October 1937, as commissioner, Rasch assumed leadership of the State Police (Stapo) in Frankfurt am Main. In March 1938, again as commissioner, Rasch became director of security (based in Linz) for Upper Austria. In June 1938, Rasch was assigned various responsibilities within the RSHA and was appointed chief of the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police, SiPo) and SD in Prague.
In November 1939, as inspector of the SiPo and SD, Rasch was transferred to Königsberg. Rasch suggested and oversaw the liquidation of Polish political prisoners (intelligentsia) who had been arrested by the Einsatzgruppen. Rasch himself checked which prisoners were to be killed. Though the killings took place in forests,. in an attempt to cause panic, news of the executions was still known. With the approval of Reinhard Heydrich, Rasch organised and founded the Soldau concentration camp in the winter of 1939/40 as a Durchgangslager ( Dulag), or transit camp, for deportations to the General Government, where Polish intelligentsia could be secretly executed..
According to the post-war affidavit of Erwin Schulz, commander of Einsatzkommando 5 (part of Einsatzgruppe C):
Rasch made sure that all Einsatzgruppen personnel, including the commanding officers, personally shot Jews, so that all members were culpable.
In August 1941, Adolf Hitler is alleged (in post-war interrogations of German prisoners) to have given a Führerbefehl (Leader's Order) for the extermination of entire populations in the Eastern territories.Rhodes The commando leaders subordinate to Rasch met with him to discuss this order. Paul Blobel later testified that Rasch basically quoted what had been stated by Friedrich Jeckeln, that "the measures against the Jewish population had to be sharper and that he disapproved of the manner in which they had been carried out until now because it was too mild". In other words, the order was to shoot more Jews. Erwin Schulz confirmed this:
Rasch was discharged from his position in October 1941, and at the beginning of 1942, he became the director of Continental Oil, Inc. in Berlin.Zenter, Christian and Bedürftig, Friedemann (1991). Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, New York: Macmillan, p. 754.
Rasch was indicted at the Einsatzgruppen trial at the end of September 1947. However, the case against Rasch was discontinued on 5 February 1948, since his physical and mental health were rapidly deteriorating from Parkinson's disease and associated dementia.. Rasch was transferred back to an internment camp in the British zone. As his health further deteriorated, he was released in June 1948. He died of his illness at his home in Bad Salzdetfurth, Lower Saxony in November 1948.
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