Einsatzgruppen.pdf

Einsatzgruppen, German for "action-groups," referred to Nazi police intelligence units and later mobile SS killing units that traveled with German forces invading the Soviet Union in 1941. Initially, they followed the German army into Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, serving as portable offices of the Nazis' Security Service and Security Police, locating and imprisoning opponents of the Nazis.

In preparation for the invasion of Poland, Einsatzgruppen were ordered to combat hostile elements, resulting in the murder of thousands of Jews and Polish upper-class members. They arrested and transferred Jews to ghettos and set up Jewish Councils.

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, special Einsatzgruppen units were formed to accompany the military, searching for and executing opponents, including Communists and Jews. Four units, A, B, C, and D, were established, each assigned to liquidate Jews in their region. By spring 1943, the Einsatzgruppen had exterminated 1.25 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Soviets.

Victims were gathered in ravines, mines, or pits, forced to hand over possessions and remove clothing, and then shot. The constant contact with murder had a destructive effect on Einsatzgruppen members, leading the Nazis to use gas vans as an alternative execution method. After the war, Einsatzgruppen leaders were tried at Nuremberg, with 14 sentenced to death, but only four executed.