Editing Heinz Jost (section)

== War crimes trial ==
Otto Ohlendorf, in foreground, and Heinz Jost, in back, as defendants in the Einsatzgruppen Trial.

In April 1945, Jost was arrested in Gardelegen, in Saxony-Anhalt. He was charged with murders committed by ''Einsatzgruppe A''. Jost tried to avoid responsibility for these crimes by claiming that the [[murder]]s, or at least some of them, occurred before he came into the command of the unit:

This defense was rejected by the tribunal:

Jost also claimed, through his attorney, that whatever he had done was justified by "self-defense, necessity, and national emergency". He claimed further that he had had nothing to do with carrying out the Fuehrer Order (''Führerbefehl'') for the extermination of entire populations. These claims were rejected by the tribunal as being inconsistent with each other: "If, as a matter of fact, the defendant committed or approved of no act which could be interpreted either as a war crime or crime against humanity, the argument of self-defense and necessity is entirely superfluous."<sup>[4]</sup>

Jost did testify that when in May 1942 he received an order from Heydrich to surrender Jews under 16 and over 32 for liquidation, he placed the order in his safe and declined to transmit it. The tribunal found that the evidence contradicted him. According to ''Einsatzgruppen'' status report number 193, dated 17 April 1942, there was an execution in Kovno [Kaunas], on 7 April 1942, of 22 persons "among them 14 Jews who had spread [[Communist]] propaganda".

In addition, the tribunal found, that on 15 June 1942, one of Jost's subordinates wrote to the RSHA, requesting shipment of a gas van (used by the ''Einsatzgruppen'' for executions by means of carbon monoxide asphixiation) and gas hoses for three gas vans on hand. Jost denied any knowledge of this letter but admitted that the subordinate in question had the authority to order equipment.<sup>[4]</sup>