Payton Miesner-McClaflin

Mr. Hawkins
Modern World History- P, 6th Period
8 April 2016
Einsatzgruppen; German Mobile Killing Squad
In World War 2, there was the Schutzstaffel (SS), and they had a branch of soldiers
called the Einsatzgruppen, also meaning the special action squad; they were in later called the
mobile killing squad. They were all men, who had normal lives and were ordered to kill the Jews
and many other innocent people. The Einsatzgruppen were responsible for killing about 2 million
people, and 1.3 million of that were all Jewish people. They were vicious killers, who were
forced to kill many people throughout the Soviet Union, and other places, they used guns and gas
vans to execute many people efficiently.
The Einsatzgruppen were mainly police personnel and security force, and few were apart
of the German military. The executioners were ordinary men who followed the orders of
their commanding officers. Many of the killers had wives and children back in Germany
(Website 3). The men that killed millions of people had normal lives, and they also had families.
However they turned out to be murders of innocent peoples lives because they were forced
themselves, and scared for their lives if they refused. The 4 thousand men had to deal with the
fact that they killed people. A lot of them drank heavily to dull their thoughts and feelings
(Website 3). The men tried to numb themselves and make themselves feel better for what they
were doing, because they knew deep down they were becoming murderers, because they were
ordered too. In addition to the drinking, when they described their actions they used code
words like "special treatment" and "special action" instead of "killing" or "murder" to

distance themselves from their terrible crimes. (Website 3). The men apart of the
Einsatzgruppen know what they were doing, but were forced to do it.
The Einsatzgruppen men were responsible for killing 2 million people, and they did it by
masses of people. These victims included Jews, Roma (Gypsies), and officials of the Soviet
state and the Soviet Communist party. The Einsatzgruppen also murdered thousands of
residents of institutions for the mentally and physically disabled. (Website 1). The men
were know for the killings of Jews, but there were also a lot of other victims. The killed people
who were in mental and physical disability institutions. Those men were given orders to kill
every Jew they came in contact with, and that was because the Nazi party wanted to diminish all
of the European Jews. The Einsatzgruppen, often drawing on local civilian and police
support, carried out mass-murder operations. In contrast to the methods later instituted of
deporting Jews from their own towns and cities or from ghetto settings to killing centers,
Einsatzgruppen came directly to the home communities of Jews and massacred them.
(Website 1). The Einsatzgruppen would make the Jewish people give up their valuables then
they were often transported by truck to the execution site, where trenches had been
prepared... After the victims had handed over their valuables and undressed, men, women,
and children were shot, either standing before the open trench, or lying face down in the
prepared pit. (Website 1). The Einsatzgruppen were very harsh and strict to the way they
killed their victims, but that was because they were set to a certain standard or they were killed.
The Einsatzgruppen were all men but they were apart of the Nazi party's SS, and they had
to follow the orders from the SS to protect themselves from punishment. The Schutzstaffel, better
known as the SS, was under the orders of Hitler, the SS owed its loyalties to Hitler alone and
was neither conceived as, nor permitted to become a mass movement. (Website 2). Hitler

ordered the men to carry out orders of mass killings of people, and he ordered it all the the
Mobile Killing Squads. They all obeyed their orders, and killed the people like they were ordered
to.
The Einsatzgruppen were all men part of the SS, and followed the orders of Hitler. He
ordered them to kill many people that he felt weren't good enough Germans; many of those
people included Gypsies, Jews, and the disabled. They were all ordinary men with families, that
followed their orders in fear of their own lives. They killed more than