Einsatzgruppen

• 1. Origins And Formation

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  In March 1938, Reinhard Heydrich formed an ad hoc unit to secure government buildings and documents following the German annexation of Austria. This group operated under the Security Police before evolving into the Einsatzgruppen that would later murder millions. By October 1938, two units were stationed in the Sudetenland after military action became unnecessary due to the Munich Agreement. These early teams confiscated government papers and arrested as many as 10,000 Czech communists and German citizens. From September 1939, the Reich Security Main Office took overall command of these task forces. The organization drew members from the SS, the Security Service, the police, and the Gestapo. Heydrich assigned Werner Best to lead the re-formed units for the invasion of Poland. They selected personnel with military experience and strong ideological commitment to Nazism. Some recruits had previously belonged to paramilitary groups like the Sturmabteilung. The initial force numbered 2,700 men and eventually grew to 4,250 in Poland.

• 2. Polish Campaign Genocide

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  On the 1st of September 1939, Adolf Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland, prompting Heydrich to re-form the Einsatzgruppen to follow the German armies. Their mission was to murder Polish leadership identified with national identity, including clergy, teachers, and nobility. Lists of people to be murdered had been drawn up by the SS as early as May 1939 using dossiers collected since 1936. Lothar Beutel later testified that Heydrich gave orders for these murders at meetings in mid-August. Approximately 65,000 civilians were murdered by the end of 1939 during this campaign. The task forces worked alongside the Order Police and Army intelligence to coordinate activities. Seven battalions operated in Poland, each subdivided into five companies of about 100 men. Bruno Streckenbach commanded one unit while acting with the 14th Army. Emanuel Schäfer led another group attached to the 10th Army. Herbert Fischer directed operations with the 8th Army. Erich Naumann operated in Wielkopolska under the command of the 4th Army. Udo von Woyrsch and Otto Rasch acted in Upper Silesia and Cieszyn Silesia. Although formally under army command, they received orders directly from Heydrich.

• 3. Soviet Invasion Massacres

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  On the 22nd of June 1941, German forces invaded the Soviet Union, marking the start of Operation Barbarossa. Einsatzgruppen A, B, C, and D followed the advancing armies with a mandate to kill civilians including Communist commissars and Jews. Heydrich communicated on the 2nd of July 1941 that all senior Comintern officials and Jewish party members must be executed. By the 8th of July, he ordered the shooting of all male Jews between ages 15 and 45. The units also targeted Romani people and the mentally ill. Franz Walter Stahlecker reported to superiors in mid-October that residents of Kaunas were not spontaneously starting pogroms. Secret assistance by Germans was required to incite violence. Within the first few weeks, 10,000 Jews had been murdered in 40 pogroms. By the end of 1941, some 60 pogroms took place claiming as many as 24,000 victims. Einsatzgruppe A murdered almost 140,000 people in five months following the invasion. This included 136,421 Jews, 1,064 Communists, and 653 people with mental illnesses.

• 4. Notable Atrocities

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  The largest mass shooting occurred at Babi Yar on 29 and the 30th of September 1941 northwest of Kiev city center. Victims were told to report to a street corner near the train station under the guise of deportation. Thirty or forty people at a time were forced through a narrow passageway lined with soldiers brandishing clubs. They were then herded down into the ravine where they were shot in the back of the head or neck. The murders continued for two days claiming a total of 33,771 victims. Sand was shovelled over bodies while sides of the ravine were dynamited. Anton Heidborn testified that three days later there were still people alive among the corpses. Another major massacre happened at Rumbula near Riga starting the 30th of November 1941. SS- Friedrich Jeckeln organized around 1,700 men including members of the Order Police and Latvian guards. Around 13,000 Jews from Riga were murdered on the first day along with a thousand Jews from Berlin who arrived by train. On the second day, the 8th of December 1941, the remaining 10,000 Jews of Riga were murdered bringing the total to 25,000 people.

• 5. Evolution Of Killing Methods

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  Himmler found shooting methods inefficient and demoralizing for troops after witnessing an execution in Minsk during August 1941. Many perpetrators suffered physical and mental health problems and turned to drink as a coping mechanism. By November 1941, Himmler decided to transition to gassing victims especially women and children. Gas vans began service by all four main Einsatzgruppen from 1942. These vehicles used carbon monoxide fumes produced by diesel engines similar to methods tested at Auschwitz using Zyklon B gas. Plans for total eradication of eleven million European Jews were formalized at the Wannsee Conference held on the 20th of January 1942. Permanent killing centers like Auschwitz Belzec Chelmno Majdanek Sobibor and Treblinka replaced mobile death squads as primary murder sites. Sonderaktion 1005 was formed under SS- Paul Blobel to exhume bodies and burn them along the Eastern Front. This task remained unfinished when the war ended leaving many mass graves unmarked and unexcavated.

• 6. Wehrmacht Collaboration

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  Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau drafted an order known as the Severity Order to be read to the German Sixth Army on the 10th of October 1941. The document stated that the Jewish-Bolshevist system must be exterminated once and for all. Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt expressed complete agreement with this directive and sent circulars urging generals to release their own versions. General Erich von Manstein complained in a letter to Ohlendorf that it was unfair the SS kept murdered Jews' wristwatches instead of sharing with the Army. Relations between the Wehrmacht and Einsatzgruppen were described as excellent by D unit commanders in September 1941. Stahlecker wrote that Army Group North had been exemplary in cooperating with exterminations. In the south, the Romanian Army worked closely with Einsatzgruppe D to massacre Ukrainian Jews murdering around 26,000 people in the Odessa massacre. British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper noted that although Himmler forbade photographs, men often took pictures to send to loved ones suggesting widespread approval.

• 7. Postwar Trials And Justice

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  After World War II ended, 24 senior leaders of the Einsatzgruppen were prosecuted in the Einsatzgruppen trial held from 1947 to 1948 under United States military authority. Fourteen death sentences and two life sentences were among judgments rendered during these proceedings. Only four executions were carried out on the 7th of June 1951 while the rest were reduced to lesser sentences. Four additional leaders were later tried and executed by other nations. Karl Jäger escaped capture when the war ended but lived in Heidelberg until his report was discovered in March 1959. He committed suicide on the 22nd of June 1959 in Hohenasperg Fortress while awaiting trial for his crimes. The Ulm Einsatzkommando trial in 1958 brought ten former members to justice accused of murdering around 5,500 Jewish men women and children. Most surviving perpetrators returned unremarked to civilian life without ever being charged. West German government only charged about 100 former members with war crimes over time. Funding for trials became inadequate as witnesses grew older and less able to offer valuable testimony.