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In the
Spring of 1941 four Einsatzgruppen were organised who together
numbered some 3000 people. They were mobile units of the SD and the
Security Police who were disposed after the combat forces to take
control of the areas that the army had occupied. Each unit advanced
in a predetermined direction toward a pre-assigned sector. The
Einstazgruppen engaged in “special tasks”, ie: mass murder on an
unprecedented scale.Their orders were spelled out in a letter given
to them on July 2 by Heydrich:
The
following is the gist of the highly important orders that I have
issued to the Einsatzkommandos... Executions: The following
categories are to be executed: Comintern officials (as well as all
professional Communist politicians); party officials of all levels;
and members of the central, provincial, and district committees;
people’s commissars; Jews in the party and state apparatus; and
other extremist elements (saboteurs, propagandists, snipers,
assassins, agitators, etc.).
In Nazi
eyes, all Jews were Bolsheviks, extremists, and dangerous. Hence
practically speaking, the order encompassed all Jews.
We know
that these Einsatzgruppen were helped by other units who
participated in the murder, such as Polish Battalions, other SS
units, the Wermacht, and other local militias.
By the
Spring of 1943, when the Germans began their retreat from Soviet
Territory, the Einsatzgruppen had murdered approximately 1.25
million Jews and hundreds of thousands of other Soviet nationals
including Prisoners of War. |
