SS Einsatzgruppen

Nazi Death Squads, 1939–1945

Nonfiction, History, Military, World War II
Cover of the book SS Einsatzgruppen by Gerry van Tonder, Pen and Sword
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Gerry van Tonder ISBN: 9781526729101
Publisher: Pen and Sword Publication: April 30, 2018
Imprint: Pen and Sword Military Language: English
Author: Gerry van Tonder
ISBN: 9781526729101
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Publication: April 30, 2018
Imprint: Pen and Sword Military
Language: English

In June 1941, Adolf Hitler, whose loathing of Slavs and Jewish Bolsheviks knew no bounds, launched Operation Barbarossa, throwing 4 million troops, supported by tanks, artillery and aircraft into the Soviet Union. Operational groups of the German Security Service, SD, followed into the Baltic and the Black Sea areas. Their orders: neutralize elements hostile to Nazi domination. Combined SS and SD headquarters were set up in Riga (northern), Mogilev (middle) and Kiev (southern), each with subordinate units of the SD, the Einsatzgruppen, and lower echelons of Einsatzkommandos.

Communist and Soviet NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs) agents were targeted, and from August 1941 to March 1943, 4,000 Soviet and communist agents were arrested and executed. In addition, far greater numbers of partisans and communists were shot to ensure political and ethnic purity in the occupied territories. Einsatzgruppe A, under Adolf Eichmann, executed 29,000 people – listed as ‘Jews’ or ‘mostly Jews’ – in Latvia and Lithuania in the early stages of the operation. In the Einsatzgruppe C report for September 1941, there is a comment, ‘50,000 executions “foreseen” in Kiev’. In five months in 1941, Einsatzkommando III commander, Karl Jäger, reported killing 138,272 (48,252 men, 55,556 women and 34,464 children).

The Einsatzgruppen were death squads – their tools the rifle, the pistol and the machine gun. It is estimated that the Einsatzgruppen executed more than 2 million people between 1941 and 1945, including 1.3 million Jews.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In June 1941, Adolf Hitler, whose loathing of Slavs and Jewish Bolsheviks knew no bounds, launched Operation Barbarossa, throwing 4 million troops, supported by tanks, artillery and aircraft into the Soviet Union. Operational groups of the German Security Service, SD, followed into the Baltic and the Black Sea areas. Their orders: neutralize elements hostile to Nazi domination. Combined SS and SD headquarters were set up in Riga (northern), Mogilev (middle) and Kiev (southern), each with subordinate units of the SD, the Einsatzgruppen, and lower echelons of Einsatzkommandos.

Communist and Soviet NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs) agents were targeted, and from August 1941 to March 1943, 4,000 Soviet and communist agents were arrested and executed. In addition, far greater numbers of partisans and communists were shot to ensure political and ethnic purity in the occupied territories. Einsatzgruppe A, under Adolf Eichmann, executed 29,000 people – listed as ‘Jews’ or ‘mostly Jews’ – in Latvia and Lithuania in the early stages of the operation. In the Einsatzgruppe C report for September 1941, there is a comment, ‘50,000 executions “foreseen” in Kiev’. In five months in 1941, Einsatzkommando III commander, Karl Jäger, reported killing 138,272 (48,252 men, 55,556 women and 34,464 children).

The Einsatzgruppen were death squads – their tools the rifle, the pistol and the machine gun. It is estimated that the Einsatzgruppen executed more than 2 million people between 1941 and 1945, including 1.3 million Jews.

More books from Pen and Sword

Cover of the book Escaping Hitler by Gerry van Tonder
Cover of the book The Army of the Roman Republic by Gerry van Tonder
Cover of the book With Rommel in the Desert by Gerry van Tonder
Cover of the book Surviving the Nazi Onslaught by Gerry van Tonder
Cover of the book Newcastle at War 1939–45 by Gerry van Tonder
Cover of the book The Fear in the Sky by Gerry van Tonder
Cover of the book Naval Weapons of World War One by Gerry van Tonder
Cover of the book Ten Squadrons of Hurricanes by Gerry van Tonder
Cover of the book The Yompers by Gerry van Tonder
Cover of the book FV430 Series by Gerry van Tonder
Cover of the book British Cruisers by Gerry van Tonder
Cover of the book Sharpshooter in the Crimea by Gerry van Tonder
Cover of the book The First Day of the Somme by Gerry van Tonder
Cover of the book Type 5 Heavy Freight Locomotives by Gerry van Tonder
Cover of the book Flying for Freedom by Gerry van Tonder
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy