Einsatzgruppen

Travis M. __**History**__ //[|Members of an Einsatzkommando (mobile killing squad) before shooting a Jewish youth. The boy's murdered family lies in front of him; the men to the left are ethnic Germans aiding the squad. Slarow, Soviet Union, July 4, 1941.]//
 * Einsatzgruppen**
 * Reinhard Heydrich created special task forces called [|Einsatzgruppen]
 * Charged w/ liquidating all political enemies of the Reich
 * Approx. 1.4 million Jews were murdered by wars end in spring of 1943
 * Activities escalated during invasion of Poland
 * Task was to eliminate political opponents & Jews
 * Executed 200+ daily
 * Origin can be traced back to [|Einsatzkommando]
 * Used to secure gov. bldgs. & documents
 * Founded on Oct. 1st, 1938
 * Traveled in wake of German armies, securing gov. papers & offices
 * Ad hoc units recruited from ranks of SS, SD, Ordnungspolizei, Gendarmerie, Kripo, & Gestapo
 * Given several week's or month's training before sent into action
 * Disbanded once military campaign ended
 * Hitler decided to invade Poland and Ein. re-formed
 * //Operation Sealion// was German plan for invasion of UK (United Kingdom)
 * Was under command of Reinhard Heydrich
 * The gun was the main weapon
 * Eliminated communists, political dissidents, Polish gov. officials, & Jews
 * Most brutal mass extermination was at Babi Yar near Kiev
 * Kiev contained 175,000 Jews & in 2 days 34,000 brought to Babi Yar
 * Babi Yar most appalling massacre of the war
 * Lithuanian, Jews, Jewesses, Jewish children, Russians, Communists, & Partisans were killed
 * __Method of killing__**
 * 1941 began to commit large-scale massacres mainly in Russian territories
 * 34,000 machine-gunned in 2 days at Babi Yar
 * Camps opened specifically for killing Jews
 * Tortured, dehumanized, and humiliated Jews
 * Hunted down those who refused deportation
 * Graves were dug, shallow pits, or even deep ravines
 * Killed w/ machine guns or pistol shots to the head
 * Covered victims' grave & buried them using hand shovels or bulldozers
 * Victims often injured, not dead & some survived after finding a hiding place
 * Local anti-Semites & collaborators helped w/ killing
 * __After the war__**
 * SS & Police Leaders oversaw all Ein. activities & reports in given area
 * After WWII a number of SS & PL disappeared, executed for war crimes, or committed suicide before capture
 * Large # of lower ranked were killed in combat, by inmates, captured and executed, or imprisoned & died in Russian camps
 * Lesser ranked returned to Germany or other countries
 * Were not charged (due to large #'s of them)
 * Senior leaders of Ein. put before U.S. occupation courts charged w/ membership in SS
 * Became known as Einsatzgruppen Trial of the Nuremburg Trials

Josh Boyer-Background of the Einzatzgruppen
 * The nazis needed a way to kill their there victims, as part of the final solution, they killed them by shooting them with machine guns and pistols.
 * They had different ways to kill there victims,one was gas chambers.
 * Gas chambers had were disquised as showers, and the prisoners were lead into it, an operator would close and lock an airtight door.
 * Then they would drop pellots down a vent that slowly soffocated them.
 * The victims were forced to dig a shallow grave and sit or stand at the edge of the hole and be shot, and then they would fall into the hole.
 * At first they killed only men, but later they killed women and children also, and the other victims, not just the jewish anymore.
 * They killed jews, poles,slavs, homosexuels, gypsies, russian P.O.Ws, and others
 * There were about 3000 men in the einsatzgruppen.
 * When the germans conquered a jewish town,the einsatzgruppen would round up all the jews and others and take them to the outskirts of the town to murder them.
 * tThe people with mental disabilitys were killed by lethal injection, and the nazis made up fake death certificates and sent them to their familys.
 * Even though most of the people killed in the holocost were jews, about 200,000 were mentally disabled people.
 * The einsatzgruppe killed about 3 million people in the holocost.
 * The einsatzgruppen members were drawn from the SS, and the order police.

Richard Snyder- HISTORY
 * Eisatzgruppen were operated by the [|SS] (Schutstaffel "Protective Squadron")
 * their main job in WW II was the annihilation of all Jews
 * the einsatzgruppen was formed by the [|Gestapo] (German Secret Police) and the SS
 * even though WW II started in 1933 the Einsatzgruppen wasn't founded until 1938 by the Einsaztkommando and its leader [|Reinhard Heydrich]
 * Einsatzgruppen were under command from German security police and security service officers
 * Einsatzgruppen got their orders from high ranked German government officials and the [|Reich Security Main Office] (RSHA)