Several "Einsatzgruppen" leaders, including Ohlendorf, claimed at the trial to have received an order before Operation Barbarossa requiring them to murder all Soviet Jews. To date no evidence has been found that such an order was ever issued. German prosecutor Alfred Streim noted that if such an order had been given, post-war courts would only have been able to convict the "Einsatzgruppen" leaders as "accomplices" to mass murder. However, if it could be established that the "Einsatzgruppen" had committed mass murder without orders, then they could have been convicted as "perpetrators" of mass murder, and hence could have received stiffer sentences, including capital punishment.