During World War II, the Nazi German were a sub-group of the (mobile killing squads) – up to 3,000 men total – usually composed of 500–1,000 functionaries of the SS and Gestapo, whose mission was to exterminate Jews, Polish intellectuals, Romani, and communists in the captured territories often far behind the advancing German front.Thomas Urban, reporter of the Süddeutsche Zeitung; Polish text in Rzeczpospolita, Sept 1–2, 2001 Einsatzkommandos, along with Sonderkommandos, were responsible for the systematic murder of Jews during the aftermath of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. After the war, several commanders were tried in the Einsatzgruppen trial, convicted, and executed.
Organization of the Einsatzgruppen Einsatzgruppen () were paramilitary groups originally formed in 1938 under the direction of Reinhard Heydrich – Chief of the SD, and Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police; SiPo). They were operated by the Schutzstaffel (SS). The first Einsatzgruppen of World War II were formed in the course of the 1939 invasion of Poland. Then following a Hitler-Himmler directive, the Einsatzgruppen were re-formed in anticipation of the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. The Einsatzgruppen were once again under the control of Reinhard Heydrich as Chief of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA); and after his assassination, under the control of his successor, Ernst Kaltenbrunner.
Hitler ordered the SD and the Security Police to suppress the threat of native resistance behind the Wehrmacht's fighting front. Heydrich met with General Eduard Wagner representing Wilhelm Keitel, who agreed to the activation, commitment, command, and jurisdiction of Security Police and SD units in the Wehrmacht's table of operations and equipment (TOE); in the rear operational areas, the Einsatzgruppen were to function in administrative sub-ordination to the field armies in order to effect the tasks assigned them by Heydrich. Their principal task (during the war), according to SS General Erich von dem Bach, at the Nuremberg Trials: "was the annihilation of the Jews, Gypsies, and Soviet political commissars". They were a key component in the implementation of the "Final Solution of the Jewish question" (German: Die Endlösung der Judenfrage) in the conquered territories. These killing units should be viewed in conjunction with the Holocaust.
The military commanders knew the task of the Einsatzgruppen. The Einsatzgruppen depended upon their sponsoring army commander for billet, food, and transportation. Relations between the regular army and the SiPo and the SD were close. Einsatzgruppen commanders reported that the understanding by Wehrmacht commanders of Einsatzgruppen tasks made their operations considerably easier.
For Operation Barbarossa (June 1941), initially four Einsatzgruppen were created, each numbering 500–990 men to comprise a total force of 3,000. Each unit was attached to an army group: Einsatzgruppe A to Army Group North; Einsatzgruppe B to Army Group Center, Einsatzgruppe C to Army Group South, and Einsatzgruppe D to the 11th German Army. Led by SD, Gestapo, and Criminal Police (Kripo) officers, Einsatzgruppen included recruits from the regular police (Orpo), SD and Waffen-SS, augmented by uniformed volunteers from the local auxiliary police force. When occasion demanded, German Army commanders bolstered the strength of the Einsatzgruppen with their own regular-army troops who assisted in rounding up and murdering Jews of their own accord.
Earliest Einsatzgruppen in occupied Poland
The first eight Einsatzgruppen of World War II were formed in 1939 for the invasion of Poland. They were composed of the Gestapo, Kripo and SD functionaries, and deployed during the classified Operation Tannenberg (codename for murder of Polish civilians) and the Intelligenzaktion lasting till the spring of 1940; followed by the German AB-Aktion which ended in late 1940. Long before the attack on Poland, the Nazis prepared a detailed list identifying more than 61,000 Polish targets by name,Digital version of the Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen (Special Prosecution Book-Poland) , at the Silesian Digital Library (Śląska Biblioteka Cyfrowa), Poland. Retrieved May 9, 2012. with the help of the German minority living in the Second Polish Republic. The list was printed as a called Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen (Special Prosecution Book–Poland), and composed only of names and birthdates. It included politicians, scholars, actors, intelligentsia, doctors, lawyers, nobility, priests, officers and numerous others – as the means at the disposal of the SS paramilitary death squads aided by Selbstschutz executioners. By the end of 1939 already, they summarily murdered around 50,000 Poles and Jews in the annexed territories, including over 1,000 POWs.Richard Rhodes, Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust, Bellona 2008Jochen Bohler, Jürgen Matthäus, Klaus-Michael Mallmann, Einsatzgruppen in Polen, Wissenschaftl. Buchgesell 2008.AB-Aktion, Shoah Resource Center, International Institute for Holocaust Research. Washington, DC.
The SS operational groups were assigned Roman numerals for the first time on 4 September 1939. Before that, their names were derived from the names of their places of origin in the German language.
Einsatzgruppe I or EG I–Wien (under the command of SS-Standartenführer Bruno Streckenbach), deployed with the 14th Army Einsatzkommando 1/I: SS-Sturmbannführer Ludwig Hahn Einsatzkommando 2/I: SS-Sturmbannführer Bruno Müller Einsatzkommando 3/I: SS-Sturmbannführer Alfred Hasselberg Einsatzkommando 4/I: SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Brunner Einsatzgruppe II or EG II–Oppeln (under SS-Obersturmbannführer Emanuel Schäfer), deployed with the 10th Army Einsatzkommando 1/II: SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Sens Einsatzkommando 2/II: SS-Sturmbannführer Karl-Heinz Rux Einsatzgruppe III or EG III–Breslau (under SS-Obersturmbannführer und Regierungsrat Hans Fischer), deployed with the 8th Army Einsatzkommando 1/III: SS-Sturmbannführer Wilhelm Scharpwinkel Einsatzkommando 2/III: SS-Sturmbannführer Fritz Liphardt
Einsatzgruppe IV or EG IV–Dramburg (under SS-Brigadeführer Lothar Beutel, replaced by Josef Albert Meisinger in October 1939) deployed with the 4th Army in Pomorze (see also EG-V) Einsatzkommando 1/IV: SS-Sturmbannführer und Regierungsrat Helmut Bischoff Einsatzkommando 2/IV: SS-Sturmbannführer und Regierungsrat Walter Hammer Einsatzgruppe V or EG V–Allenstein (under SS-Standartenfürer Ernst Damzog), deployed with the 3rd Army Einsatzkommando 1/V: SS-Sturmbannführer und Regierungsrat Heinz Gräfe Einsatzkommando 2/V: SS-Sturmbannführer und Regierungsrat Robert Schefe Einsatzkommando 3/V: SS-Sturmbannführer und Regierungsrat Walter Albath Einsatzgruppe VI (under SS-Oberführer Erich Naumann), deployed in Wielkopolska area Einsatzkommando 1/VI: SS-Sturmbannführer Franz Sommer Einsatzkommando 2/VI: SS-Sturmbannführer Gerhard Flesch Einsatzgruppe z. b. V.z. b. V. = zur besonderen Verwendung – "for special use". (under SS-Obergruppenführer Udo von Woyrsch and SS-Oberfürer Otto Rasch), deployed in Upper Silesia and Cieszyn Silesia Einsatzkommando 16 or EK–16 Danzig (under SS-Sturmbannführer Rudolf Tröger), deployed in Pomerania () after the withdrawal of EG-IV and EG-V. The Commando was involved in the massacres in Piaśnica known as "Pommern Katyń" between the fall of 1939 and spring of 1940 conducted in Piasnica Wielka (pictured). The civilian shooters belonged to Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz aiding EK–16. During that period approximately 12,000 to 16,000 Poles, Jews, Czechs, and Germans were murdered. Not to be confused with Einsatzkommando 16 of Einsatzgruppe E deployed in Croatia (see below)
Einsatzgruppe A Einsatzgruppe A, attached to the Army Group North, was formed in Gumbinnen in East Prussia on 23 June 1941. Stahlecker – its first commander – deployed the unit toward the Lithuanian border. His group consisted of 340 men from the Waffen-SS, 89 from the Gestapo, 35 from the SD, 133 from the Orpo, and 41 from the Kripo. Soviet troops withdrew from the Lithuanian temporary capital Kaunas (Kovno) the day before, and the city was taken over by Lithuanians during the anti-Soviet uprising. On 25 June, the Einsatzgruppe A entered Kaunas with the forward units of the German army.
Commanders SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei Dr. Franz Walter Stahlecker (22 June 1941–23 March 1942) SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei Heinz Jost (29 March–2 September 1942) SS-Oberführer und Oberst der Polizei Dr. Humbert Achamer-Pifrader (10 September 1942–4 September 1943) SS-Oberführer Friedrich Panzinger (5 September 1943–6 May 1944) SS-Oberführer und Oberst der Polizei Dr. Wilhelm Fuchs (6 May–10 October 1944)
Sonderkommando 1a SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. Martin Sandberger (June 1941–1943) SS-Obersturmbannführer Bernhard Baatz (1 August 1943–15 October 1944)
Sonderkommando 1b SS-Oberführer und Oberst der Polizei Erich Ehrlinger (June–November 1941) SS-Sturmbannführer Walter Hoffmann (As Deputy) – (January–March 1942) SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. Eduard Strauch (March–August 1942) SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Erich Isselhorst (30 June–1 October 1943)
Einsatzkommando 1a SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. Martin Sandberger (June 1942–1942) SS-Obersturmbannführer Karl Tschierschky (1942) SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Erich Isselhorst (November 1942 – June 1943) SS-Obersturmbannführer Bernhard Baatz (June–August 1943)
Einsatzkommando 1b SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Hermann Hubig (June–October 1942) SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Manfred Pechau (October–November 1942)
Einsatzkommando 1c SS-Sturmbannführer Kurt Graaf (1 August-28 November 1942)
Einsatzkommando 2 SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Batz (June–4 November 1941) SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. Eduard Strauch (4 November–2 December 1941) SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Rudolf Lange (3 December 1941–1944) SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Manfred Pechau (October 1942) SS-Sturmbannführer Reinhard Breder (26 March 1943 – July 1943) SS-Obersturmbannführer Oswald Poche (30 July 1943–2 March 1944)
Einsatzkommando 3 SS-Standartenführer Karl Jäger (June 1941–1 August 1943) SS-Oberführer und Oberst der Polizei Dr. Wilhelm Fuchs (15 September 1943–27 May 1944) SS-Sturmbannführer Hans-Joachim Böhme (11 May–July 1944)
Jäger Report
The Jäger Report is the most precise surviving chronicle of the activities of one Einsatzkommando. It is a tally sheet of the actions of Einsatzkommando 3—a running total of their killings of 136,421 Jews (46,403 men, 55,556 women, 34,464 children), 1,064 Communists, 653 persons with mental disabilities, and 134 others, from 2 July to 1 December 1941. A second, major sweep occurred in 1942, before death camp murders replaced Einsatzkommando open-pit executions. Einsatzkommando 3 operated in the Kovno (Kaunas) district, west of Vilna (Vilnius) in contemporary Lithuania. (See also Rollkommando Hamann)
Einsatzgruppe B The operational command of Einsatzgruppe B, attached to the Army Group Center, was established under the command of Arthur Nebe a few days after the German attack on the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Einsatzgruppe B departed from the occupied city of Poznań (Posen) on 24 June 1941, with 655 men from the Security Police, Gestapo, Kripo, SD, Waffen-SS and the 2nd Company of Reserve Police Battalion 9. On 30 June 1941 Himmler visited the newly formed Bezirk Bialystok district and pronounced that more forces were needed in the area, due to potential risks of partisan warfare. The chase after the Red Army's rapid retreat left behind a security vacuum, which required urgent deployment of additional personnel.