1. Hitler’s Roving Executioners: The SS Einsatzgruppen

2. Einsatzgruppen Basic Facts
In September 1939, Heinrich Himmler united the Secret Service and Security Police (including Gestapo) into the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), RSHA
Director Reinhard Heydrich created SS Einsatzgruppen units to carry out SS tasks in occupied territories.
They first appear in the invasion of Poland.
In May1941 Heydrich re-organized and expanded the Einsatzgruppen into A,B,C & D Kommandos for the June invasion of the USSR.
They answered to Heydrich, and after him, Himmler and Hitler.
The Einsatzgruppen cooperated extensively with the Wehrmacht.

3. “Masters of Death”: Men of the Einsatzgruppen
The Einsatzgruppen recruited from SS, SD, Gestapo and Kripo.
Each Kommando had approximately soldiers Many
Einsatzgruppen officers were highly educated SS men, many having obtained PhDs and law degrees.
Einsatzgruppen and auxiliary forces in the field suffered from intense psychological trauma, many had to be briefly hospitalized in sanitariums.
To refuse to shoot was interpreted as a sign of weakness, but scholars find no evidence that the few who refused to kill were punished.
Otto Ohlendorf
Head of Einsatzgruppen D
90,000 Victims
Studied Economics & Law
PhD in Law
Deputy Director General of the Reich Ministry of Economic Affairs

4. “History’s Worst Killers”-American Nuremberg Reporter 1947
In June 1941, SS Einsatzgruppen units followed Wehrmacht forces into the Soviet Union.
The SS tasked the Einsatzgruppen with securing, pacifying and “cleansing” newly occupied territory.
Targeted Jews, Communists, Soviet POWs, partisans and criminals. They killed through encouraging pogroms, shooting victims into pits or ravines and using gas vans.

5. Einsatzgruppen Killing Fields

6. “The Devil’s Work Began:” Einsatzgruppen Pogroms
June/July 1941: Soviets Depart, Nazis March in, native and Einsatzgruppen-instigated pogroms of Jewish citizens begin. The Einsatzgruppen largely used local nationalist militias and criminals to carry out attacks.
Overall, participants in these pogroms murdered 19,655-20,000 Jewish people.
Einsatzgruppen used these attacks for propaganda and intelligence gathering.

7. Killing Fields
The Einsatzgruppen killed most of their victims with bullets. They would gather Jewish communities together for the purpose of “resettlement” and take them to a secluded place. The Einsatzgruppen then had the victims undress and line up in front of a ditch or lie on top of previous victims. They then shot them in the head or neck.

8. Death Vans
The Einsatzgruppen began experimenting with killing their victims in vans using gas from the exhaust pipes.
Despite the SS’ hope that these vans would be more secretive and less psychologically taxing, the trucks soon became known as “death vans” by the locals and unloading the twisted corpses proved traumatic for the troops.

9. Road to Auschwitz
Unleashed in June 1941 and reined in by the end of 1942, the Einsatzgruppen and their accomplices had murdered almost 1.5 million men, women and children. For Hitler and his accomplices, this was not fast enough. After the infamous Wannsee Conference in January 1942, which noted the contributions of the Einsatzgruppen, the Nazis began to rely on “death camps” like Auschwitz II-Birkenau (Operational March 1942), Treblinka (July 1942), Sobibor (May 1942) and others.

10. Anti-Partisan WarfareEG
Ghettos
SS/Gestapo/
Wehermacht
Collaboration
Final Solution
Anti-Partisan Warfare
Connections

11. Einsatzgruppen Trial (The United States of America vs
Einsatzgruppen Trial (The United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al)
The U.S Nuremberg Military Tribunal (NMT) Einsatzgruppen Trial, September 29, 1947 until April 10, 1948, charged 24 defendants with crimes against humanity, war crimes and membership in a criminal organization. All were found guilty of at least one count, four were hanged.
Operational Situation Report USSR No. 129
Berlin,
November 5, 1941
55 copies
51st copy Einsatzgruppe D Location: Nikolayev
During the last two weeks, the activity of the Kommandos and Einsatzgruppen consisted mainly in searches and in finishing off partisan groups. Besides, more places were freed of Jews, and inquiries were made concerning Bandera followers.
During the time under report, 11,037 Jews and 31 Communist officials and saboteurs were executed. In all: 31, 767.