The Einsatzgruppen
4/5
()
About this ebook
They murdered more than a million people, sometimes in massive killing orgies that saw tens of thousands dead in only two days.
Consisting mostly of SS and police units, they were under the control of Heinrich Himmler and his deputies, Reinhard Heydrich and Ernst Kaltenbrunner.
They were the first Nazi units to commence the large-scale killing of Jews and other "undesirables" on an organized level... and they committed unspeakable crimes all over Eastern Europe.
Find out more about the Einsatzgruppen in this thrilling book!
Bonus: features an English translation of the infamous Jäger report!
Related to The Einsatzgruppen
Related ebooks
SS Einsatzgruppen: Nazi Death Squads, 1939–1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The SS on Trial: Evidence from Nuremberg Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler's Executioner: Roland Freisler, President of the Nazi People's Court Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nazi Concentration Camp Commandants, 1933–1945 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Gestapo on Trial: Evidence from Nuremberg Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPeople in Auschwitz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ghettos of Nazi-Occupied Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5SS: Hitler's Foreign Divisions: Foreign Volunteers in the Waffen-SS 1940-45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nazi Concentration Camp Overseers: Sonderkommandos, Kapos & Trawniki - Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Adrian Weale's Army of Evil Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNazi Medical Experiments Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5German Railroads, Jewish Souls: The Reichsbahn, Bureaucracy, and the Final Solution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler's Last Witness: The Memoirs of Hitler's Bodyguard Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5SS: A History 1919-45 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Auschwitz: The Nazi Solution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5SS-Totenkopf: The History of the 'Death's Head' Division 1940–46 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guarding Hitler: The Secret World of the Führer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Waffen-SS in Combat Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hitler Conspirator: The Story of Kurt Freiherr von Plettenberg and Stauffenberg's Valkyrie Plot to Kill the Führer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHimmler's Death Squad: Einsatzgruppen in Action, 1939–1944 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Countdown to Valkyrie: The July Plot to Assasinate Hitler Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5SS Grenadiers on The Russian Front Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hitler’s Death Camps in Occupied Poland: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dragonslayer: The Legend of Erich Ludendorff in the Weimar Republic and Third Reich Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBerlin 1945: The Final Reckoning Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gestapo: The Story Behind Hitler's Machine of Terror Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists between Authenticity and Performance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWaffen-SS Dutch & Belgian Volunteers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler's Headquarters, 1939–1945 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5
Wars & Military For You
Art of War: The Definitive Interpretation of Sun Tzu's Classic Book of Strategy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Doctors From Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wager Disaster: Mayem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unacknowledged: An Expose of the World's Greatest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself--While the Rest of Us Die Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer - The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Einsatzgruppen
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
The Einsatzgruppen - Rudolf Schlossberg
The Einsatzgruppen
by Rudolf Schlossberg
Copyright 2012 Rudolf Schlossberg
Smashwords Edition
Introduction
During World War II, the Einsatzgruppen were SS killing squads. Operating throughout Europe, these men were the first to kill Jews and other people the Nazis considered undesirable
in an organized manner. Their operations ranged from small-scale local shootings of a few people to huge mass shootings that went on for days. They are responsible for the deaths of roughly 1 million people.
Creation
The Einsatzgruppen (Task Forces, but also referred to as Mobile Killing squads by many historians) were formed by SS chief Heinrich Himmler’s deputy, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich in 1938. Originally founded to secure government buildings after the annexation by Germany of Austria in 1938, their role quickly evolved into that of a dedicated death squad with the beginning of the war.
They were under the direct command of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), after September 1939. According to SS General Erich von dem Bach, in testimony at the post-war Nuremberg tribunal, their task was the liquidation of Jews, Gypsies, and Soviet political commissars. As such, the Einsatzgruppen played a key role in the implementation of the Nazi Final Solution
.
Each Einsatzgruppe was led by members of the SD (SS intelligence), Gestapo (secret police), and Kripo (criminal police). The ranks were filled by members of the Orpo (police), Waffen-SS, and even local milita men. Volunteers from occupied territories were also sometimes used to provide additional security during operations. Each Einsatzgruppe was attached to a German Army group, which it followed in the field. The Einsatzgruppen commanders received logistical and personnel support from the Wehrmacht upon request.
Operational History
Czechoslovakia
In the summer of 1938, Germany was preparing for a war with Czechoslovakia. The Einsatzgruppen were to take part in this invasion, traveling behind the army and securing important government buildings and documents. Unlike the units used in Austria, they were to have been armed and authorized to use lethal force when deemed necessary. The war never happened, due to the Munich Agreement of of 1938, but germany occupied a part of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland, as a result of this. The Einsatzgruppen performed their tasks there, and moved onto the main Czechoslovak territory in March 1939, when Germany occupied the rest of the country. Afterwards, the units were disbanded.
Poland
Heydrich soon reformed the units, to help with the invasion of Poland in Spetember 1939. Once again, the units were