Einsatzgruppen

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Einsatzgruppen (a German military term meaning "mission groups", loosely translated as "Task Force") were semi-military groups formed of Gestapo, Kripo and SD officers from the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in Nazi Germany before and during World War II. These death squads belonged to the SS and followed the Wehrmacht in their attacks first on Poland and then the Soviet Union. Their principal task, in the words of SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski at the Nuremberg Trial "was the annihilation of the Jews, gypsies, and political commissars." According to their own records, they killed over 1 million people, almost exclusively civilians, without judicial review and later without semblance of legality (no reading of sentences of martial or administrative law), starting with the Polish intelligentsia and quickly progressing by 1941 to target primarily the Jews of Eastern Europe. The historian Raul Hilberg estimates that the Einsatzgruppen killed over 1.4 million Jews in open air shootings between 1941 and 1945.

Contents 1 The Jäger Report 2 After the war 3 Organization 4 See also 5 Secondary sources 6 External links

The Jäger Report

Image:Coffinmap.jpg The Einsatzgruppen kept track of many of their massacres, and one of the most famous of these officials records is the Jager Report, covering the operation of a Einsatzkommando 3 over five months in Lithuania. Written by the commander of Einsatzkommando 3, Karl Jäger, it includes a detailed list summarizing each massacre, totaling 137,346 victims, and states "…I can confirm today that Einsatzkommando 3 has achieved the goal of solving the Jewish problem in Lithuania. There are no more Jews in Lithuania, apart from working Jews and their families." After the war, despite these records, Jäger lived in West Germany under his own name until arrested for war crimes in 1959, when he committed suicide.

After the war

At the conclusion of World War II, senior leaders of the Einsatzgruppen were put before United States occupation courts, variably charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, and membership in the SS (which had been declared a criminal organization), in what became known as the Einsatzgruppen Trial of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. Fourteen death sentences and five life sentences were among the judgments, although only four executions were carried out, on June 7, 1951, and the rest of these sentences were commuted.

Organization

• Einsatzgruppe A for the Baltic Republics with

Sonderkommandos 1 a and 1 b (German for special forces, not to be confused with the Sonderkommandos in the concentration camps)

Einsatzkommandos 2 and 3. Attached to Army Group North.

• Einsatzgruppe B for Belarus with

Sonderkommandos 7 a and 7 b, the

Einsatzkommandos 8 and 9, and also

a "special force" in case Moscow was captured. Attached to Army Group Centre.

• Einsatzgruppe C for the Northern and central Ukraine

Sonderkommandos 4 a and 4 b and

Einsatzkommandos 5 and 6. Attached to Army Group South.

• Einsatzgruppe D for Bessarabia, the Southern Ukraine, the Crimea and (eventually) the Caucasus with

Sonderkommandos 10 a and 10 b and

Einsatzkommandos 11 a, 11 b and 12.

Both attached to Army Group South.

Einsatzgruppen leaders

• Group A: SS-Brigadeführer Dr.Franz Walter Stahlecker (until 23 March 1942)
• Group B: SS-Brigadeführer Artur Nebe (until Oct. 1941)
• Group C: SS-Gruppenführer Dr. Otto Rasch (until Oct. 1941)
• Group D: SS-Gruppenführer Prof. Otto Ohlendorf (until June 1942)

See also

• Babi Yar
• Rumbula
• Generalplan Ost
• Holocaust
• Odessa Massacre
• Operation Barbarossa
• Operation Tannenberg
• World War II atrocities in Poland
• The Black Book
• Essays and Stories About the Holocaust by Walter S. Zapotoczny

Secondary sources

• The Origins of the Final Solution, Christopher Browning, 2004
• Masters of Death, Richard Rhodes, 2002

External links

• Indepth article on the Einsatzgruppen
• The Einsatzgruppen
• The Einsatzgruppen
• Einsatzgruppen at the Holocaust Encyclopedia.
• Einsatzgruppen - Mobile Killing Units
• The Motivation and Actions of the Einsatzgruppende:Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD

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