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I surrendered my moral conscience to the fact that I was a soldier, and therefore a cog in a relatively low position of a great machine.

— Otto Ohlendorf

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More quotes by Otto Ohlendorf

Because to me it is inconceivable that a subordinate leader should not carry out orders given by the leaders of the State.

Those Jews stood up, were lined up, and were shot in true military fashion. I saw to it that no atrocities or brutalities occurred.

There was no distinction made between Gypsies and Jews, the same order applied to both.

In the child, we see the grown-up. I see the problem differently.

There were a large number of Jews who held more favorable positions than they should have, according to their percentage of the population. Germans should have held those positions.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Otto Ohlendorf (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.