Einsatzgruppen ( German: ['? a? nzats ???? pn?] , "task force" or "dispatching group") is a Nazi Germany's paramilitary killer team of German Nazis responsible for mass murder, especially with shootings, during World War II (1939-45). The Einsatzgruppen was involved in the killing of most intellectuals, including members of the priesthood, and the elite of Polish culture, and had an integral role in the implementation of the so-called Final Solution for Jewish questions ( Die EndlÃÆ'¶sung der Judenfrage ) in the territory conquered by Nazi Germany. Nearly all the people they killed were civilians, beginning with the intellectuals and rapidly evolving into Soviet, Jewish, and Roman political and actualist or alleged partisans throughout Eastern Europe.
Under the direction of Heinrich Himmler's ReichsfÃÆ'¼hrer-SS Heinrich Himmler and the supervision of SS- ObergruppenfÃÆ'¼hrer Reinhard Heydrich, Einsatzgruppen operated in the territory occupied by the German Army's forces after the invasion Poland in September 1939 and Operation Barbarossa (invasion of the Soviet Union) were launched from occupied Poland in June 1941. The Einsatzgruppen worked hand in hand with the Orpo Police Battalion on the Eastern Front to conduct operations ranging from the killing of several people up to two or more days of operations, such as the massacre at Babi Yar with 33,771 Jews killed in two days, and the Rumbula massacre (with about 25,000 killed in two-day shooting). As commanded by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Wehrmacht worked with Einsatzgruppen and provided logistical support for their operations. Historian Raul Hilberg estimates that between 1941 and 1945, Einsatzgruppen and associated additional forces killed more than two million people, including 1.3 million Jews. The total number of Jews killed during the Holocaust is estimated at 5.5 to 6 million.
After the close of World War II, 24 senior leaders of Einsatzgruppen were tried in the Einsatzgruppen Court in 1947-48, charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes. Fourteen death penalties and two life sentences are given. Four additional Einsatzgruppe leaders were then tried and executed by another country.
Video Einsatzgruppen
Formation and Action T4
The Einsatzgruppen was formed under the direction of SS- ObergruppenfÃÆ'¼hrer Reinhard Heydrich and operated by Schutzstaffel (SS) before and during World War II. The Einsatzgruppen has its origins in ad hoc Einsatzkommando formed by Heydrich to secure government buildings and documents after Anschluss in Austria on March 1938. Initially part of Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police SiPo), two units of Einsatzgruppen were stationed in Sudetenland in October 1938. When military action was not necessary because the Munich Treaty, < i> Einsatzgruppen is assigned to seize government documents and police documents. They also secured government buildings, questioned senior state employees, and arrested as many as 10,000 Czech communists and Germans. From September 1939, Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Main Reich Security Office, RSHA) had the overall command of Einsatzgruppen .
As part of an urge to remove the so-called "undesirable" elements of the German population, from September to December 1939, Einsatzgruppen and others took part in the T4 Action, a systematic murder program perpetrated by the Nazis. regime of people with physical and mental disabilities and mental hospital patients. The T4 action mainly lasted from 1939 to 1941, but the killing continued until the end of the war. Initially the victims were shot by Einsatzgruppen and others, but the gas chamber began to be used in the spring of 1940.
Maps Einsatzgruppen
Polish invasion
In response to Adolf Hitler's plan to invade Poland on September 1, 1939, Heydrich reshaped Einsatzgruppen for traveling after the German army. Membership at this point is taken from SS, Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service, SD), police, and Gestapo. Heydrich placed the Werner Best in command SS- ObergruppenfÃÆ'¼hrer , which commissioned Hans-Joachim Tesmer to select personnel for their task forces and subgroups, called Einsatzkommandos , from among educated people with the military. strong ideological experience and commitment to Nazism. Some have previously been members of paramilitary groups such as Freikorps . Heydrich instructed Wagner at a meeting at the end of July that Einsatzgruppen should conduct their operations in cooperation with Ordnungspolizei (Orpo Police Orpo) and the military commander in the area. Military intelligence always deals with Einsatzgruppen to coordinate their activities with other units.
Originally numbering 2,700 people (and eventually 4,250 in Poland), the mission Einsatzgruppen was to kill members of the Polish leadership most clearly identified with Polish national identity: intellectuals, members of the clerics , teachers, and members of the nobility. As Hitler puts it: "... there can be no Polish leaders, where the Polish leaders exist, they must be killed, no matter how loud the voice is." SS- BrigadefÃÆ'¼hrer Lothar Beutel, commander of Einsatzgruppe IV later testified that Heydrich gave the order for this murder in a series of meetings in mid-August. The Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen - a list of people to be killed - was compiled by the SS as early as May, 1939, using documents collected by SD from 1936 onward. The Einsatzgruppen committed this killing with the support of the Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz , a paramilitary group of Germans living in Poland. SS members, Wehrmacht, and Ordnungspolizei also shot civilians during the Polish campaign. About 65,000 civilians were killed in late 1939. In addition to Polish community leaders, they killed Jews, prostitutes, Romans, and mentally ill people. Psychiatric patients in Poland were initially killed by shooting, but in the spring of 1941, gas cars were widely used.
Seven Einsatzgruppen battalion forces (about 500 people) operate in Poland. Each is divided into five Einsatzkommandos from the strength of the company (about 100 people).
- Einsatzgruppe I, commanded by SS- StandartenfÃÆ'¼hrer Bruno Streckenbach, in action with the 14th Army
- Einsatzgruppe II, SS- ObersturmbannfÃÆ'¼hrer Emanuel SchÃÆ'¤fer, acting with 10 Army
- Einsatzgruppe III, SS- ObersturmbannfÃÆ'¼hrer und Regierungsrat Herbert Fischer, acting with 8th Army
- Einsatzgruppe IV, SS- BrigadefÃÆ'¼hrer Lothar Beutel, acting with the 4th Army
- Einsatzgruppe V, SS- StandartenfÃÆ'¼rer Ernst Damzog, acting with the 3rd Army
- Einsatzgruppe VI, SS- OberfÃÆ'¼hrer Erich Naumann, acting in Wielkopolska
- Einsatzgruppe VII, SS- ObergruppenfÃÆ'¼hrer Udo von Woyrsch and SS- GruppenfÃÆ'¼hrer Otto Rasch, in action at Upper Silesia and Cieszyn Silesia
Although they were officially under the command of the army, Einsatzgruppen received their orders from Heydrich and largely acted independently of the army. Many senior army officers are too happy to abandon these genocide actions to the task force, because the killings violate the rules of war as stipulated in the Geneva Conventions. However, Hitler had decided that the army should tolerate and even offer logistical support to Einsatzgruppen when it was tactically possible to do so. Several army commanders complained about unauthorized shootings, looting, and rape committed by members of Einsatzgruppen and Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz for little effect. For example, when Johannes Blaskowitz sent a complaint to Hitler about cruelty, Hitler dismissed his worries as "childish", and Blaskowitz was released from office in May 1940. He continued to serve in the army but never received a promotion to the marshal field.
The final task of Einsatzgruppen in Poland is to gather the remaining Jews and concentrate them in the ghetto in the big cities with good rail connections. The goal is to eventually move all Jews from Poland, but at this point their final destination has not yet been determined. Together, the Wehrmacht and Einsatzgruppen also encouraged tens of thousands of Jews eastward into Soviet-held territory.
Preparation for Barbarossa Operation
On March 13, 1941, ahead of Operation Barbarossa, the planned invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler dictated "His Guide in the Special Sphere: Directive No. 21 (Operation Barbarossa)". Sub-paragraph B states that Heinrich Himmler's ReichsfÃÆ'¼hrer-SS will be given a "special task" on the direct orders of the FÃÆ'¼hrer, which he will do independently. This directive is intended to prevent friction between Wehrmacht and SS in future attacks. Hitler also mentioned that criminal acts against civilians committed by Wehrmacht members during the upcoming campaign will not be prosecuted in military tribunals, and thus will be left alone.
In his speech to his top generals on March 30, 1941, Hitler described his planned war against the Soviet Union. General Franz Halder, Chief of Staff of the Army, described the speech:
The struggle between two ideologies. Spicy evaluation of Bolshevism, similar to antisocial criminality. Communism is an enormous future danger... It's a fight to the end. If we do not accept this, we will defeat the enemy, but in thirty years we will face the Communist enemy. We are not fighting to preserve our enemy... The struggle against Russia: The extermination of the Bolshevik Command and the Communist intelligence... The commissars and GPU personnel are criminals and should be treated as such. The struggle will be different from that in the west. In the east the violence now means tenderness for the future.
Although General Halder does not record the mention of Jews, German historian Andreas Hillgruber argues that because of Hitler's frequent assertions of an impending war against the annihilation of "Judeo-Bolshevism" his generals would understand Hitler's call for the destruction of the Soviet Union. because it also consists of a call for the destruction of its Jewish population. Genocide is often depicted using euphemisms such as "special tasks" and "executive steps"; Einsatzgruppe victims are often depicted shot while trying to escape. In May 1941, Heydrich orally proceeded to kill Soviet Jews at the SiCo NCO School in Pretzsch, where the reorganization commander Einsatzgruppen was being trained for Operation Barbarossa. In the spring of 1941, Heydrich and First Quartermaster of Wehrmacht Heer, General Eduard Wagner, successfully completed negotiations for the cooperation between Einsatzgruppen and the German Army to enable the implementation of "tasks special". Following Heydrich-Wagner's agreement on 28 April 1941, Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch ordered that when Operation Barbarossa commenced, all commanders of the German Army should immediately identify and register all Jews in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union, and cooperate fully with > Einsatzgruppen .
In a further meeting held in June 1941, Himmler outlined to the SS leaders the regime's desire to reduce the Soviet population by 30 million people, not only through direct killing of those perceived as inferior races, but by seizing leftover food and other needs. life. Organization
starting in 1941
For Operation Barbarossa, originally four Einsatzgruppen were created, each numbering 500-990 people to comprise a total of 3,000 powers. Einsatzgruppen A, B, and C must be attached to the Northern, Central, and Southern Army Groups; Einsatzgruppe D was assigned to the 11th Army. The Einsatzgruppe for Special Purposes operated in eastern Poland began in July 1941. Einsatzgruppen was under the control of RSHA, led by Heydrich and subsequently by his successor, SS- ObergruppenfÃÆ'¼hrer Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Heydrich gave them the mandate to secure Soviet state and state newspapers and the Communist Party; to liquidate all the higher cadres of the Soviet state; and to trigger and encourage pogroms against the Jewish population. People from Einsatzgruppen were recruited from Elementary School, Gestapo, Kriminalpolizei (Kripo), Orpo, and Waffen-SS. Each Einsatzgruppe is under the operational control of the SS High Chief of Police in the area of ​​operations. In May 1941, General Wagner and SS- BrigadefÃÆ'¼hrer Walter Schellenberg agreed that Einsatzgruppen in the frontline operated under the command of the army, while the army provided Einsatzgruppen > with all necessary logistical support. Given that their primary task is to defeat the enemy, the army leaves civilian security to Einsatzgruppen , which offers support and prevents subversion. This does not impede their participation in acts of violence against civilians, as many Wehrmacht members assist Einsatzgruppen in gathering and killing Jews of their own free will.
Heydrich acted on orders from Himmler's ReichsfÃÆ'¼hrer-SS , which supplied the security forces on an "as necessary" basis to the SS and the local Police Chief. Led by elementary, Gestapo, and Kripo officers, Einsatzgruppen included recruits from Orpo, the Security Service and the Waffen-SS, plus uniformed volunteers from additional local police forces. Each Einsatzgruppe is equipped with Orpos and Waffen-SS backup battalions as well as support personnel such as drivers and radio operators. On average, Orpo formations are larger and better armed, with heavy machine gun detachments, allowing them to perform operations beyond the capabilities of the SS. Each death squad follows the group of soldiers assigned as they progress to the Soviet Union. During their operation, the commanders of Einsatzgruppen received assistance from the Wehrmacht. The activities range from the killing of the individual target groups mentioned on a carefully prepared list, for a two-day or more joint operation across town with SS Einsatzgruppen , such as the massacre in Babi Yar, conducted by Orpo Reserve Battalion 45, and in Rumbula, by Battalion 22, strengthened by local Schutzmannschaften (additional police). The SS Brigade, historian Christopher Browning wrote, "is just the spearhead of German units that became involved in political and racial massacres."
Many highly educated leaders of Einsatzgruppe; for example, nine of seventeen leaders of Einsatzgruppe A held a doctorate. Three Einsatzgruppen were ordered by doctorate holders, one of whom (SS- GruppenfÃÆ'¼hrer Otto Rasch) held a double doctorate.
Additional Einsatzgruppen is created as an additional area to be occupied. Einsatzgruppe E is operated in the Independent State of Croatia under three commanders, SS- ObersturmbannfÃÆ'¼hrer Ludwig Teichmann, SS- StandartenfÃÆ'¼hrer GÃÆ'¼nther Herrmann, and the last SS- StandartenfÃÆ'¼hrer Wilhelm Fuchs. The unit is divided into five Einsatzkommandos located in Vinkovci, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Knin, and Zagreb. Einsatzgruppe F works with the Southern Army Group. Einsatzgruppe G is operated in Romania, Hungary, and Ukraine, authorized by SS- StandartenfÃÆ'¼hrer Josef Kreuzer. Einsatzgruppe H is assigned to Slovakia. Einsatzgruppen K and L, under SS- OberfÃÆ'¼hrer Emanuel SchÃÆ'¤fer and SS- StandartenfÃÆ'¼hrer Ludwig Hahn, working with Panzer forces to 5 and 6 during the Ardennes Offensive. Hahn had previously held the command of Einsatzgruppe Griechenland in Greece.
Other Einsatzgruppen and Einsatzkommandos include Einsatzgruppe Iltis (operated in Carinthia, on the border between Slovenia and Austria) under SS- StandartenfÃÆ'¼rer (Yugoslavia) Einsatzkommando Luxemburg (Luxembourg), Einsatzgruppe Norwegen (Norway) is ordered by SS- > Franz Walter Stahlecker, Einsatzgruppe Serbien (Yugoslavia) under SS- StandartenfÃÆ'¼hrer Wilhelm Fuchs and SS- GruppenfÃÆ'¼hrer August Meysner, Einsatzkommando Tilsit (Lithuania, Poland), and Einsatzgruppe Tunis (Tunis), commanded by SS- ObersturmbannfÃÆ'¼hrer Walter Rauff.
Homicide in the Soviet Union
After the Soviet invasion on June 22, 1941, the main task of Einsatzgruppen was to kill civilians, as in Poland, but this time the targets specifically included the Soviet Communist Party commissars and people Jewish. In a letter dated July 2, 1941 Heydrich told the SS Leader and the Police that Einsatzgruppen would execute all the upper and middle-level Comintern officials; all senior and middle members of the Central, provincial, and district committees of the Communist Party; members of the extremist and radical Communist Party; commissioner of the people; and Jews at party and government posts. An open instruction is given to execute "other radical elements (saboteurs, propagandists, snipers, murderers, agitators, etc.)." He instructed that any pogroms spontaneously initiated by residents of occupied territories should be quietly encouraged.
On July 8, Heydrich announced that all Jews should be considered partisan, and gave orders for all Jewish men between the ages of 15 and 45 to be shot. On July 17 Heydrich ordered that Einsatzgruppen kill all the Jewish Red Army prisoners of war, plus all the Red Army captives from Georgia and Central Asia, as they were also probably Jews. Unlike in Germany, where the Nuremberg Act of 1935 is defined as a Jew with at least three Jewish grandparents, Einsatzgruppen is defined as a Jew with at least one Jewish grandfather; in both cases, whether the person practicing the religion is irrelevant or not. This unit is also tasked with wiping out Romans and mentally ill people. It is a common practice for Einsatzgruppen to shoot hostages.
When the invasion began, the German army pursued the fleeing Red Army, leaving a security vacuum. Reports emerged from Soviet guerrilla activity in the area, with local Jews soon suspecting collaboration. Heydrich ordered his officers to incite anti-Jewish pogroms in the newly occupied territories. Pogrom, some of which are governed by Einsatzgruppen , broke out in Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine. In the first few weeks of Operation Barbarossa, 40 pogroms caused the deaths of 10,000 Jews, and by the end of 1941 some 60 pogroms had occurred, claiming as many as 24,000 victims. However, Franz Walter Stahlecker, commander of Einsatzgruppe A, reported to his superiors in mid-October that Kaunas residents did not spontaneously start pogroms, and secret help by Germany was needed. Similar reluctance was recorded by Einsatzgruppe B in Russia and Belarus and in Einsatzgruppe C in Ukraine; further east Einsatzgruppen travels, the less likely the inhabitants will be asked to kill their Jewish neighbors.
The four main Einsatzgruppen took part in the mass shootings of the early days of the war. Initially the target was an adult Jewish man, but in August the net had expanded to include women, children, and parents - the entire Jewish population. Initially there was a legality similarity given to the shootings, with false accusations being read out (arson, sabotage, illicit marketing, or refusal to work, for example) and victims killed by firing squads. As this method proved too slow, Einsatzkommandos began to take their victims out in larger groups and shoot them next to, or even inside, the mass graves that had been prepared. Some Einsatzkommandos started using automatic weapons, with victims killed by gunshots.
When news of the massacre came out, many Jews fled; in Ukraine, 70 to 90 percent of Jews escape. This was seen by the leader of Einsatzkommando VI as beneficial, as it would save the regime of costing the deportation of the victims further east over the Urals. In other areas the invasion was so successful that Einsatzgruppen had insufficient force to immediately kill all Jews in the conquered territories. A situation report from Einsatzgruppe C in September 1941 noted that not all Jews were members of the Bolshevist apparatus, and suggested that the overall elimination of Jews would have a negative impact on the economy and food supply. The Nazis began rounding their victims into concentration camps and ghettos and rural districts for the most part given Judenfrei (free of Jews). Jewish councils were established in major cities and gangs of forced labor were established to exploit the Jews as slave labor until they were completely eliminated, a goal that was postponed until 1942.
The Einsatzgruppen uses general decoration as a terror tactic against the local population. The Einsatzgruppe B report, dated October 9, 1941, illustrates one of them hanging. Due to suspected partisan activity near Demidov, all the male population aged 15 to 55 were placed in a camp to be screened. The screening produced seventeen people identified as "partisan" and "Communist". Five members of the group were hung while 400 locals gathered to watch; the rest were shot.
Babi Yar
The largest mass shootings carried out by Einsatzgruppen occurred on 29 and 30 September 1941 in Babi Yar, the northwestern chasm of Kiev, a city in Ukraine that fell to Germany on September 19. The perpetrators included a Waffen-SS company attached to Einsatzgruppe C under Rasch, member Sonderkommando 4a under SS- ObergruppenfÃÆ'¼hrer Friedrich Jeckeln, and some Police helper Ukraine. The Jews of Kiev were told to report to a certain street corner on 29 September; anyone who is disobedient will be shot. Because words of slaughter in other areas have not reached Kiev and assembly points near the train station, they assume they are deported. People appear at large meeting points, filled with treasures and food for travel.
After marching two miles northwest of the city center, the victims find barbed-wire barrier and many Ukrainian police and German troops. Thirty or forty people were then told to abandon their possessions and be escorted through a narrow alley filled with army clubs. Whoever tried to escape was beaten. Immediately the victims reached the open area, where they were forced to disarm, and then herded down into the abyss. People were forced to lie lined up on the bodies of other victims, and they were shot in the back of the head or neck by members of the execution team.
The killing continued for two days, claiming a total of 33,771 victims. The sand is swept and crushed over the body and the side of the dynamite ravine to lower more material. Anton Heidborn, a member of Sonderkommando 4a, then testified that three days later there were still people living among the corpses. Heidborn spent the next several days helping to smooth the "millions" of paper money taken from the victim's possessions. The clothes were taken, destined to be reused by the Germans. Jeckeln troops shot over 100,000 Jews in late October.
Murder in the Baltic countries
Einsatzgruppe A is operated in the former Soviet-occupied Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. According to his own report for Himmler, Einsatzgruppe A killed nearly 140,000 people within five months of the invasion: 136,421 Jews, 1,064 Communists, 653 people with mental illness, 56 partisans, 44 Poles, five Romans, and one Armenia was reportedly killed between June 22 and November 25, 1941.
Upon entering Kaunas, Lithuania, on June 25, 1941, Einsatzgruppe liberated criminals from local prisons and encouraged them to join the ongoing pogroms. Between 23-27 June 1941, 4,000 Jews were killed on the streets of Kaunas and in open pits and open ditches. Particularly active in Kaunas pogroms is the so-called "Kaunas Death Dealer", a young man who killed the Jews with a crowbar in the Lietukis Garage before a large crowd who cheered every murder with a standing ovation; he stopped occasionally to play the Lithuanian national anthem "Tauti? ka giesm?" on his accordion before continuing the murder.
As Einsatzgruppe A advanced to Lithuania, actively recruited local and antisemitic nationalist groups. In July 1941, members of the Baltaraisciai movement joined the massacre. A pogrom in Riga in early July killed 400 Jews. Latvian nationalist Viktor, Arjs and his supporters carried out an arson campaign against the synagogue. On July 2, Einsatzgruppe A Stahlecker commander named Arjs to lead Arajs Kommando, a Sonderkommando from about 300 men, mostly students. Together, Einsatzgruppe A and Ar? Js Kommando killed 2,300 Jews in Riga on 6-7 July. Within six months, Arjs and his men would kill about half the Latvian Jewish population.
Local officials, Selbstschutz, and Hilfspolizei (Police Aid) played a key role in rounding and slaughtering against Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian Jews. These groups helped Einsatzgruppen and other killer units to identify the Jews quickly. The Hilfspolizei, composed of additional police officers organized by Germany and recruited from a former Latvian Army officer and police officer, former Aizsargi, member of P? Rkonkrusts, and students, assisted in the killing of Latvian Jews. Similar units were created elsewhere, and provided plenty of energy for the Holocaust in Eastern Europe.
With the establishment of units like Ar? Js Kommando and Rollkommando Hamann in Lithuania, the attack changed from spontaneous mass violence from pogroms to a more systematic massacre. With extensive local assistance, Einsatzgruppe A was the first Einsatzgruppe to attempt to systematically wipe out all Jews in its territory. The Latvian historian Modris Eksteins writes:
Of the approximately 83,000 Jews who fell into the hands of the Germans in Latvia, no more than 900 survived; and of the more than 20,000 Western Jews sent to Latvia, only about 800 people lived through deportation until liberation. This is the highest eradication percentage across Europe.
In late 1941, Einsatzkommandos settled at headquarters in Kovno, Riga, and Tallinn. Einsatzgruppe Fewer mobile issues and face problems due to their small size. Germany is increasingly dependent on Ar? Js Kommando and similar groups to commit massacres against Jews.
Extensive collaboration and enthusiasm with Einsatzgruppen has been linked to several factors. Since the Russian Revolution of 1905, Kresy Wschodnie and other border areas have experienced a violent political culture. The period of Soviet power had been extremely traumatic for the inhabitants of the Baltic states and the regions that had been part of Poland until 1939; its inhabitants were persecuted and terrorized by a forced Soviet government, and existing community structures were destroyed.
Historian Erich Haberer notes that many survived and understood the "totalitarian atomization" of society by seeking compatibility with communism. Consequently, at the time of the German invasion in 1941, many came to see conformity with the totalitarian regime as socially acceptable behavior; thus, people simply divert their allegiance to the German regime when it arrives. Some who had worked with the Soviet regime tried to distract themselves from calling Jews a collaborator and killing them.
Rumbula
In November 1941 Himmler was not satisfied with the pace of extermination in Latvia, as he intended to move the Jews from Germany to the area. He commissioned SS- ObergruppenfÃÆ'¼hrer Jeckeln, one of the perpetrators of the Babi Yar massacre, to liquidate the Riga ghetto. Jeckeln chose a site about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) southeast of Riga near the Rumbula railway station, and has 300 Russian war prisoners preparing the place by digging a hole to bury the victims. Jeckeln organized about 1,700 men, including 300 members of Arajs Kommando, 50 German elementary men, and 50 Latvian guards, most of whom have participated in the mass killings of civilians. The troops were equipped by Latvians, including members of the Riga town police, battalion police, and ghetto guards. Around 1,500 able-bodied Jews will be spared from execution so that their forced labor can be exploited; One thousand people were transferred to a fenced area inside the ghetto and 500 women were placed in prison and then moved to a nearby ghetto, where they were forced to repair the uniform.
Although Rumbula is on the tracks, Jeckeln decides that the victims must travel on foot from Riga to the execution site. Trucks and buses are arranged to bring children and parents. The victims were told they were being relocated, and were advised to carry up to 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of belongings. The first day of the execution, November 30, 1941, began with the perpetrators rallying and assembling the victims at 4:00 in the morning. The victims were moved in a thousand-person column to the place of execution. As they walked, several SS men got up and down the line, shooting people who could not keep pace or who tried to escape or rest.
When the columns near the execution site were prepared, the victims were pushed about 270 meters (300 m) from the road to the forest, where unfinished goods were confiscated. Here the victims were divided into groups of fifty and carried deeper into the forest, near the pit, where they were ordered to disarm. The victims were pushed into prepared trenches, made to lie down, and shot in the head or the back of the neck by members of Jeckeln's bodyguards. About 13,000 Jews from Riga died in the pit that day, along with a thousand Jews from Berlin who had just arrived by train. On the second day of operation, December 8, 1941, the remaining 10,000 Jews of Riga died in the same way. About a thousand people died in city streets or on the way to the site, resulting in total deaths for two-day annihilation to 25,000 people. For his part in organizing the massacre, Jeckeln was promoted to Section Leader of the SS, Ostland.
Second sweep
Einsatzgruppe B, C and D did not immediately follow Einsatzgruppe Example A in systematically killing all Jews in their area. The commander of Einsatzgruppe, with the exception of Einsatzgruppe A's Stahlecker, was an opinion in the fall of 1941 that it was impossible to kill the entire Jewish population in the Soviet Union in one sweep, and thought the killings had to stop. The September 17 report of Einsatzgruppe suggests that Germans would be better off using skilled Jews as laborers than firing at them. Also, in some areas the bad weather and lack of transportation caused the slowdown of Jewish deportation from the dots to the west. Thus, the lapse of time passed between the first round of the Einsatzgruppen massacre in summer and autumn, and what the American historian Raul Hilberg calls the second sweep, which began in December 1941 and lasted until the summer of 1942. During the break , living Jews were forced into the ghetto.
Einsatzgruppe A had killed almost all Jews in his territory, so it shifted its operations to Belarus to help Einsatzgruppe B. In Dnepropetrovsk in February 1942, Einsatzgruppe D reduces city Jewish population from 30,000 to 702 for four days. The German Order police and local collaborators provided the extra power required to perform all the shootings. Haberer writes that, as in the Baltic states, Germany can not kill so many Jews so quickly without local help. He pointed out that the ratio of Order Police to auxiliaries is 1 to 10 in Ukraine and Belarus. In rural areas the proportion is 1 to 20. This means that most Ukrainian and Belarusian Jews are killed by Ukrainian and Belarusian counterparts ordered by German officers rather than by Germans.
The second wave of extermination in the Soviet Union met with armed resistance in some areas, although the chances of success were poor. Weapons are usually primitive or homemade. Communication is not possible between ghettos in different cities, so there is no way to create an integrated strategy. There is little in the ghetto leadership that supports resistance for fear of retaliation against the ghetto population. Breakout mobs are sometimes attempted, although survival in the forest is almost impossible due to lack of food and the fact that the runaway is often traced and killed.
Transition to gas suction
After some time, Himmler discovered that the murder methods used by Einsatzgruppen were inefficient: they were expensive, demoralized for troops, and sometimes did not kill the victim fast enough. Many troops found the massacre to be difficult if not impossible. Some actors have physical and mental health problems, and many are switching to drinking. As much as possible, the leaders of Einsatzgruppen militarized the genocide. The Christian historian Ingrao noted the attempts were made to make the shootings as collective action without individual responsibility. Framing the shootings in this way is not sufficiently psychological for each offender to feel freed from guilt. Browning listed three categories of potential actors: those who wanted to participate directly from the beginning, those who participated regardless of moral doubt because they were ordered to do so, and a significant minority who refused to take part. Some people spontaneously become very brutal in their killing methods and their passion for the task. Einsatzgruppe D, SS- GruppenfÃÆ'¼hrer Otto Ohlendorf commander, notably notes this tendency toward the excess, and orders that anyone who is too eager to participate or too brutal may not perform further executions.
During a visit to Minsk in August 1941, Himmler witnessed the mass execution of Einsatzgruppen and concluded that shooting the Jews was too stressful for his men. In November he made arrangements for every SS man who was sick for participating in executions for rest and mental health care. He also decided that a transition should be made to channel the gas to the victims, especially women and children, and order the recruitment of abandoned, alien original persons who could assist in the killing. The van gas, which had been used previously to kill mental patients, began to see service by the four major Einsatzgruppen from 1942. However, gas cars were unpopular with Einsatzkommandos for excluding the corpse of the van and burying it is a terrible ordeal. Prisoners or helpers are often assigned to perform this task to keep SS men traumatized. Some of the initial mass killings in extermination camps used carbon monoxide fumes produced by diesel engines, similar to those used in gas cars, but in early September 1941 trials began at Auschwitz using Zyklon B, a cyanide-based pesticide gas.
Plans for the total eradication of the Jewish population in Europe - eleven million people - were inaugurated at the Wannsee Conference, held on January 20, 1942. Some will be worked to death, and the rest will be killed in the Final Solution implementation of the Jewish question (German: < span lang = "de"> Die EndlÃÆ'¶sung der Judenfrage ). The permanent slaughter centers in Auschwitz, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and other Nazi extermination camps replaced the mobile death squads as the primary method of mass murder. The Einsatzgruppen remained active, however, and was sentenced to work against partisans, particularly in Belarus.
After the fall of Stalingrad in February 1943, Himmler realized that Germany was likely to lose the war, and ordered the formation of a special task force, Sonderkommando 1005, under SS- StandartenfÃÆ'¼rer Paul Blobel. The task of the unit was to visit mass graves along the Eastern Front to dig up corpses and burn them in an attempt to cover up the genocide. The task remained unfinished at the end of the war, and many mass graves remained unmarked and unexcluded.
In 1944, the Red Army began pushing German troops out of Eastern Europe, and Einsatzgruppen retreated with the Wehrmacht. By the end of 1944, most of the Einsatzgruppen personnel had been folded into the Waffen-SS combat unit or transferred to a permanent death camp. Hilberg estimates that between 1941 and 1945, Einsatzgruppen and related agencies killed more than two million people, including 1.3 million Jews. The total number of Jews killed during the war is estimated at 5.5 to 6 million.
Packages for Middle East and the UK
According to research by German historian Klaus-Michael Mallmann and Martin CÃÆ'¼ppers, an Einsatzgruppe was created in 1942 to kill half a million Jews living in the British Mandate in Palestine and 50,000 Jews in Egypt. Einsatzgruppe Egypt, standing in Athens, was ready to go to Palestine after German troops arrived there. SS- ObersturmbannfÃÆ'¼hrer Walter Rauff leads the unit. Given his small staff of only 24 people, Egypt's Einsatzgruppe will need help from locals and from the Corps of Africa to complete their work. Its members are planning to request collaborators from local residents to commit murder under German leadership. Former Iraqi prime minister Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haji Amin al-Husseini played a role, engaged in antisemit radio propaganda, prepared to recruit volunteers, and in raising the Arab-German Battalion which would also follow Einsatzgruppe > Egypt to the Middle East. On July 20, 1942, Walther Rauff, in charge of the unit, was sent to Tobruk to report to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, Commander of the African Korp . However, since Rommel is 500 km away in the First Battle of El Alamein, it seems the two are unable to meet. Plans for Einsatzgruppe Egypt were set aside after the Allied victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein. Historian Jean-Christophe Caron argues that there is no evidence that Rommel knew or would support Rauff's mission.
In the case of Operation Lion, the German plan for the British invasion had been launched, six Einsatzgruppen were scheduled to follow the invading forces to England. They are given a list called die Sonderfahndungsliste, G.B. ("Special Search List, G.B"), known as the Black Book after the war, of 2,300 people to be immediately imprisoned by the Gestapo. This list includes Churchill, a prominent cabinet member, journalist and writer, and a member of the government-in-exile of Czechoslovakia.
JÃÆ'¤ger Report
The Einsatzgruppen keeps an official record of many of their massacres and provides detailed reports to their superiors. The JÃÆ'¤ger Report, filed by Karl JÃÆ'¤ger, Commander of SS-StandartenfÃÆ'¼hrer Karl 1st December 1941, to his superiors, Stahlecker (head of Einsatzgruppe A), covers the activities of < i> Einsatzkommando III in Lithuania for a period of five months from 2 July 1941 to 25 November 1941.
The JÃÆ'¤ger report provides an almost daily amount of liquidation of 137,346 people, most of them Jews. The report documents the exact dates and places of slaughter, the number of victims, and their details into categories (Jews, Communists, criminals, etc.). Women were shot from the beginning, but initially in less than men. Children were first included in the tally starting in mid-August, when 3,207 people were killed in Roki? Acts on August 15-16, 1941. For the most part the report does not provide military justification for murder; people were killed just because they were Jews. Overall, the report contains more than 100 executions in 71 different locations. JÃÆ'¤ger writes: "I can declare today that the goal of solving the Jewish problem in Lithuania has been achieved by Einsatzkommando 3. There are no Jews in Lithuania, apart from working Jews and their families." In the February 1942 addendum to the report, JÃÆ'¤ger increased the toll to 138,272, providing 48,252 male details, 55,556 women, and 34,464 children. Only 1,851 non-Jewish victims.
JÃÆ'¤ger escaped capture by the Allies when the war ended. He lived in Heidelberg under his own name until his report was discovered in March 1959. Arrested and accused, JÃÆ'¤ger committed suicide on June 22, 1959 in Hohenasperg prison while awaiting trial for his crimes.
Engagement Wehrmacht
The killings occurred with the knowledge and support of the German Army in the east. On October 10, 1941, Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau drafted an order to be read to the German Sixth Army on the Eastern Front. Now known as the Severity Order, it is read in part:
The most important objective of this campaign against the Bolshevik-Jewish system is the complete destruction of its sources of power and the destruction of Asian influence in European civilization... In this eastern theater, the army is not only a man who fights according to the rules of art of war but also the standard bearer cruelty of national conception... For this reason, the army must learn fully to appreciate the need for vengeance which is severe but should only be imposed on the sub-human species of the Jewish Group.
Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt of the Southern Army Group declared "full agreement" with the order. He sent a circular to the generals under his command urging them to release their own version and to impress their troops the need to exterminate the Jews. General Erich von Manstein, in an order to his forces on November 20, stated that "the Jewish-Bolshevist system must be destroyed once and for all." Manstein sent a letter to a commanding officer named Ohlendorf who complained that it was unfair that the SS kept all the Jewish watches killed for themselves instead of sharing with the army.
Beyond this trivial complaint, the Army and Einsatzgruppen worked very closely and effectively. On July 6, 1941 Einsatzkommando 4b of Einsatzgruppe C reported that "The armed forces are surprisingly welcoming the enmity against the Jews". Some complaints about the murder had been filed by Wehrmacht officers. On September 8th, Einsatzgruppe D reported that the relationship with the German Army was "very good". In the same month, Stahlecker of Einsatzgruppe A wrote that the Northern Army Group had been an example in collaboration with the extermination and relationship with the 4th Panzer Army, led by General Erich Hoepner, "very close, almost friendly ". In the south, the Romanian Army works closely with Einsatzgruppe D to slaughter the Ukrainian Jews, killing about 26,000 Jews in the Odessa massacre. The German historian Peter Longerich thinks it may be that the Wehrmacht, along with the Ukrainian Nationalist Organization (OUN), instigated the Lviv pogrom, where 8,500 to 9,000 Jews were killed by indigenous peoples and Einsatzgruppe C in July 1941. , most of the people on the front of the house in Germany have some idea of ​​the massacre committed by Einsatzgruppen . The British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper notes that although Himmler has banned photographs of murder, it is common for both men of Einsatzgruppen and for observers to take pictures to be sent to their loved ones, which he feels suggested widespread consent of the massacre.
Officers in the field are well aware of the murder operations conducted by Einsatzgruppen . Wehrmacht tries to justify their considerable involvement in the Einsatzgruppen massacre as an anti-partisan operation rather than a racist attack, but Hillgruber writes that this is just an excuse. He stated that the German generals who claimed that Einsatzgruppen was the necessary anti-partisan response lied, stating that the massacre of some 2.2 million civilians who were helpless for reasons of racist ideology could not be justified.
Einsatzgruppen Trial
After the close of World War II, 24 senior leaders of Einsatzgruppen were tried in the Einsatzgruppen Court in 1947-48, part of the next Nuremberg Trial held under the US military authority. Men are charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, and membership in the SS (which has been declared a criminal organization). Fourteen death penalties and two life sentences are among the scores; only four executions were carried out, on 7 June 1951; the rest is reduced to a lower sentence. Four additional Einsatzgruppe leaders were then tried and executed by another country.
Some leaders of Einsatzgruppen, including Ohlendorf, claimed in court had received orders before Operation Barbarossa required them to kill all Soviet Jews. To date no evidence has been found that such an order has ever been issued. German prosecutor Alfred Streim notes that if such an injunction has been granted, the postwar court will only be able to punish Einsatzgruppen leaders as an accomplice for mass murder. However, if it could be determined that Einsatzgruppen had committed mass killings without orders, they could have been punished as the perpetrator of mass killings, and therefore could receive harsher penalties. , including the death penalty.
Streim postulates that the existence of the initial comprehensive order is fabricated for use in the Ohlendorf defense. This theory is now widely accepted by historians. Longerich notes that most orders received by Einsatzgruppen leaders - especially when they are ordered to commit criminal activities - are unclear, and are written in terms that have special significance for the regime's members. Leaders are given an explanation of the need to be "heavy" and "assertive"; all Jews should be seen as potential enemies to be dealt with cruelly. The British historian Sir Ian Kershaw argues that Hitler's apocalyptic statements before Barbarossa about the need for a merciless war to "annihilate" the power of "Judeo-Bolshevism" were interpreted by the Einsatzgruppen commander as permission and the impetus to engage in extreme anti- , with each of the commanders of Einsatzgruppen to use his own discretion about how far he is ready to go.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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