Einsatzgruppen

Einsatzgruppen report no. 88 dated September 19, 1941
Perpetrator

1941-09-19 / Einsatzgruppen Event Report USSR No. 88: “Total number of executions amounts to 85,000”

Einsatzgruppen Report No. 88, dated 19 September 1941, constitutes contemporaneous evidence of systematic Nazi mass murder in the occuopied Soviet Union. Under the heading “liquidations,” Einsatzgruppe A reported that “districts are now free of Jews,” and that “the number of persons liquidated by Einsatzkommando 3 together with Lithuanian partisans has risen to 46,692. The total number of executions amounts to approximately 85,000.” It further mentions that “544 mentally ill patients from the asylum in Aglona were liquidated with the assistance of Latvian self-defense units.” Einsatzgruppe B similarly documented mass shootings. It reported that Sonderkommando 4a “shot 1,107 adult Jews, and the Ukrainian militia shot 561 juvenile Jews. Thus, Sonderkommando 4a has, up to 6 September 1941, dealt with a total of 11,328 Jews.” Furthermore, the report states that “a unit of the Higher SS and Police Leader executed 1,303 Jews, including 876 Jewish women over the age of 12.”

Contemporary Source

1941-08-26 / Telex from HSSPF South: 1269 Jews Shot by SS and Police Units

Telex from the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) Russia South, Friedrich Jeckeln, to the Kommando Stab RF-SS, dated 26 August 1941. The situation report records that the 1st SS Brigade reported “82 Jews shot,” Police Regiment South reported “549 Jews shot,” Police Battalion 314 recorded “69 Jews shot,” and the staff company of the HSSPF reported “546 Jews shot.” Taken together, the figures in the telex amount to the reported shooting of 1,269 Jews.

Jeckeln radio report Police Battalion 320 Kamenenz Podolskij 1941
Contemporary Source

1941-08-28 / Radio Message from HSSPF South: “5,000 Jews were shot” in Kamenets-Podolsky

Radio message from the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) Russia South, Friedrich Jeckeln, to the Kommando Stab RF-SS, dated 28 August 1941. The situation report records that Police Regiment South reported “369 Jews shot,” while Police Battalion 320 stated that, “approximately 5,000 Jews were shot” during the “special action” in Kamenets-Podolsky (Kamianets-Podilskyi).

Wehrmacht Report dated November 10, 1941 on complete elimination of Jews
Contemporary Source

1941-11-10 / “The Complete Elimination of This Alien Element Is Being Carried Out”: A Wehrmacht Report From Minsk on The Jews

Cover letter dated 13 November 1941 and situation report dated 10 November 1941 from the Wehrmacht Commander in White Ruthenia concerning the political and military situation in the occupied territory. The report states with regard to the Jews that “since they continue to make common cause with the Communists and partisans, the complete elimination of this alien element is being carried out,” and that these actions had so far taken place “in the eastern part of the area, in the former Soviet–Russian border region and along the Minsk–Brest Litovsk railway line.” Attached to the situation report was the supplementary report on “special incidents” describing such a “cleansing action” in the Sluzk–Kleck area: “5,900 Jews were shot by Reserve Police Battalion 11”.

Contemporary Source

1941-08-07 / Radio Message from HSSPF Mitte: Executions Exceed 30,000

Radio message (copy) from the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) Mitte, Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, to the Kommando Stab RF-SS, dated 7 August 1941. The situation report states that “by today at noon a further 3,600 have been executed” by the SS Cavalry Brigade, “so that the total number executed by the Cavalry Brigade to date amounts to 7,819.” The report concludes that “thus the figure of 30,000 in my area has been exceeded.”

Report dated December 7, 1941 on execution of Jews in Kerch Crimea
Contemporary Source

1941-12-07 / Wehrmacht Local HQ in Kerch, Crimea: “The execution of about 2,500 Jews was carried out”

A report submitted by the Wehrmacht’s Local Headquarters in Kerch, Crimea on 7 December 1941 recorded the extermination of the city’s Jewish population. It mentions that the “execution of about 2,500 Jews was carried out on 1, 2, and 3 December [1941]”. In the document, the word “execution” is crossed out in pencil and replaced with “resettlement,” the euphemism the Nazis used to conceal the murder of Jews. The report also noted that “additional executions are to be expected, since part of the Jewish population fled, went into hiding, and must first be apprehended”.

Detachment order of August 1, 1942 by Himmler to SS cavalry regiment
Contemporary Source

1941-08-01 / Disseminating Himmler’s Order to the SS Cavalry Regiment: “No male Jew is to remain alive, no remnant family is to remain in the localities”

This detachment order from SS Cavalry Regiment 1, issued on 1 August 1942, illustrates how Himmler’s earlier order that “all Jews must be shot. Jewish women are to be driven into the swamps” was integrated into daily field operations. The document notes that Himmler’s instruction “regarding the shooting of Jews is not to be taken as a reprimand, since up to now there have been no Jews” in the area. It underscores the directive to patrol leaders: “no male Jew is to remain alive; no remnant family is to remain in the localities.”

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