Gustav Adolf Nosske
{{Short description|German Nazi SS general and Holocaust perpetrator (1902–1986)}}
{{for|the German Minister of Defence|Gustav Noske}}
{{Redirect|Nosske|the similar surname|Noske}}
{{Infobox military person
| name = Gustav Nosske
| birth_date = 29 December 1902
| death_date = {{death date and age|1986|08|09|1902|12|29|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Halle, German Empire
| death_place = Düsseldorf, West Germany
{{Infobox criminal
| child = yes
| conviction = Crimes against humanity
War crimes
Membership in a criminal organization
| criminal_penalty = Life imprisonment; commuted to 10 years imprisonment
| criminal_status = Deceased
| trial = Einsatzgruppen trial
}}
| image = Gustav Nosske at the Nuremberg Trials.PNG
| caption = Nosske's mugshot after his indictment for the Nuremberg Military Tribunal (July 1947)
| image_size = 140
| nickname =
| allegiance = {{flag|Nazi Germany}}
| serviceyears = 1933–1945
| rank = SS-Obersturmbannführer
| branch = 23px Schutzstaffel
| commands = Einsatzkommando 12
| unit = Einsatzgruppe D
| battles =
| awards =
| laterwork = Lawyer
}}
Gustav Adolf Nosske (29 December 1902 – 9 August 1986) was a German lawyer and SS-Obersturmbannführer. In 1941–42, he commanded Einsatzkommando 12 within Einsatzgruppe D, under the command of Otto Ohlendorf. Tried in the Einsatzgruppen Trial in 1948, Nosske was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was released early in December 1951.
Career
Gustav Aldolf Nosske was born on 29 December in Halle. After studying law, he became a lawyer in Halle and Aachen.{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedie.bseditions.fr/article.php?pArticleId=133&pChapitreId=36988&pSousChapitreId=37038&pArticleLib=Nosske+Gustav+Adolf+%255BNazisme%25A0%253A+les+Einsatzgruppen+%25282i%25E8me+guerre+mondiale%2529-%253ELes+bourreaux.+Biographies%255D|title=Nosske Gustav Adolf %5BNazisme%A0%3A les Einsatzgruppen %282i%E8me guerre mondiale%29-%3ELes bourreaux. Biographies%5D|website=www.encyclopedie.bseditions.fr|access-date=2019-08-15}} Nosske joined the Nazi Party and the SS in 1933. He became the head of the Gestapo in Aachen in 1935 and then in Frankfurt from September 1936 to June 1941.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fYwsAQAAMAAJ|title=Topography of Terror: Gestapo, SS and Reich Security Main Office on Wilhelm- and Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse : a Documentation|last1=Hesse|first1=Klaus|last2=Kufeke|first2=Kay|last3=Sander|first3=Andreas|date=2010|publisher=Stiftung Topographie des Terrors|pages=392|isbn=9783941772076|language=en}}
As a SS-Obersturmbannführer in rank, he was appointed chief of Einsatzkommando 12 before the invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bDdjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT50|title=SS Einsatzgruppen: Nazi Death Squads, 1939–1945|last=Tonder|first=Gerry van|date=2018-04-30|publisher=Pen and Sword|isbn=9781526729101|language=en}} In the areas of Donetsk and Novocherkassk, his unit committed many atrocities against the civilian population. In mid-August 1941 Otto Ohlendorf ordered Nosske to transport 11,000 Jews from Mohyliv-Podilskyi to Yampil in order to make them cross the Dniester river and place them in the Romanian zone. During this walk, hundreds of Jews were murdered.Ralf Ogorreck. Les Einsatzgruppen ed. Calmann-Lévy 2007 p. 168 {{ISBN|978-2-286-03062-9}} Between 16 and 28 February 1942, Einsatzkommando 12 killed 721 Jews, 271 communists, 74 partisans and 421 Roma.
In April 1942 Nosske joined the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in Berlin concerning the Occupied Eastern Territories.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zXkpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT263|title=SS-Major Horst Kopkow: From the Gestapo to British Intelligence|last=Tyas|first=Stephen|date=2017-06-25|publisher=Fonthill Media|language=en}} In 1943, he was appointed head of the "Foreigners and Enemies of the State" division of the Gestapo. He worked as a liaison officer between the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories and the RSHA. From August 1943 to September 1944 he was head of the state police in Düsseldorf.
During the later Einsatzgruppen Trial held in 1948, Nosske said that in 1944, he had been ordered to collect all German Jews of Düsseldorf married to non-Jews for extermination, but that he had refused to carry this out. The order was ultimately not enforced. The court accepted this as mitigation, but pointed out that this meant Nosske did not have to kill anyone.Nathan Stoltzfus. Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany, Rutgers University Press, 2001, p. 256 {{ISBN|0-8135-2909-3}}
Trial and conviction
Nosske was arrested by the Allies and brought to trial at the Einsatzgruppen Trial in 1948 at Nuremberg. He was the only accused who did not seek clemency from General Lucius D. Clay in the American sector of occupation.{{cite book | author = Richard Rhodes | year = 2002 | title = Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf | location = New York | isbn = 0-375-40900-9 | page = [https://archive.org/details/mastersofdeathss00rhod/page/275 275] | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/mastersofdeathss00rhod/page/275 | author-link = Richard Rhodes }} On 10 April 1948, Nosske was sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes. He was released early, on 15 December 1951.
Details of his later life are largely unknown, other than a court appearance on 26 March 1965, where he testified as a witness at the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, with Düsseldorf as declared place of residence and legal advisor as profession.[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928030241/http://www.fritz-bauer-institut.de/auschwitz-prozess/pdf/auschwitz-prozess.pdf Der 1. Frankfurter Auschwitz-Prozess (pdf)]
He died in Düsseldorf on 9 August 1986.Death register of the Standesamt Düsseldorf, Nr. 5148/1986.
References
{{reflist}}
{{Einsatzgruppen}}
{{Holocaust Ukraine}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nosske, Gustav Adolf}}
Category:People from Halle (Saale)
Category:Lawyers in the Nazi Party
Category:SS-Obersturmbannführer
Category:German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
Category:German police officers convicted of crimes against humanity
Category:Einsatzgruppen personnel
Category:Holocaust perpetrators in Russia
Category:Holocaust perpetrators in Ukraine
Category:Military personnel from Düsseldorf
Category:People sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals