The Einsatzgruppen
Who are they? Mobile Killing units Mostly SS and police personnel Received assistance from German and Axis soldiers, locals, and other SS unites Einsatzgruppen (German for "task forces", "deployment groups"; singular Einsatzgruppe; official full name Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD) were Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass killings, primarily by shooting, during World War Many scholars believe they were the first step of the “Final solution” Members drawn from SS, Waffen SS, SD, etc.
Tasks: Murdering political and racial enemies found behind German combat lines in Eastern Europe Started with killing just Jewish men first but grew to be indiscriminate Einsatzgruppe A-D Victims include Jews, Roma , Soviet officials, Soviet communists Residents of institutions for the mentally and phsyically disablied In contrast to methods instituted by deporting Jews from their own towns and cities to ghettos or killing centers, they went directly to the home communities and massacred them
Characteristics of events Used local informants and interpreters to assemble victims at collection points Groups then transported to execution site All undress and hand over valuables Shot Execution site often had trneches prepared , sometimes the victims dug their own graves Shot standing before open trench or lying face down in the prepared pit
By fall 1941, gas vans were developed as an alternative method A mobile gas chamber surmounted on the chassis of a cargo truck which employed carbon monoxide from the truck’s exhause to kill its victims Created after Himmler acknowledged the psychological burden the mass shootings produced on his men; and it seemed more convenient Started to be used along with shooting
By the Spring of 1943… Over 1 million Soviet Jews were killed Tens of thousands of Soviet political members, partisans, Roman, and disabled were killed Just by the Einsatzgruppen
Most famous event took place around Kiev, Ukraine at Babi Yar ravine: 33,771 Jews killed in 2 days Thousands more were added in the months ahead = 100,000 people in total murdered at Babi Yar September of 1941 Kiev was capital of Ukraine when Germans invated 160,000 Jews resided in Kiev in June 1941---100,000 fled in advance of German occupation During the first couple days of the German occupation, 2 major sabotage explosions took place (set off by soviet engineers), destroying the German headquarters and part of the city center) This was the pretext for the murder of the Jews At the time, there were about 60,000 Jews in the city (most who remained were women, children, elderly, and the sick who had been unable to flee) September 29th-30th, 1941, SS and German police units and auxiliaries (Einsatzgruppe C) murdered the Jewish population of Kieve at a ravine northwest of the city