Brennen Liddicoet

Mr. Hawkins
Modern World History-P, Period 2
6 March 2016
Einsatzgruppen
From 1939-1945 the Einsatzgruppen or mobile death squads was 4 groups of Nazi
soldiers who would go around to different countries and eliminate anyone they saw as a threat to
the German people and all Jewish people they could find. These groups are responsible for a
major amount of people killed in World War 2, but later in the war were lessened because of the
death camps that took priority over them. These groups operated in many countries like Poland,
the Soviet Union, and many other Slavic nations.
There were many casualties and problems created by the Einsatzgruppen in Poland. An
example of this is In the first weeks of the Polish campaign the Einsatzgruppen carried out
more than 10,000 arrests (Evidence pg2). This shows how major of an impact they made as
soon as they came into the country after Germany invaded Poland. It also shows that if they
accomplished that much in so little time they werent going to stop there, they wanted Poland to
be pure more or less. Another example of their impact is that By 10 September, 340 - 540
Polish civilians had been shot in the town. In other incidents, Jewish victims became
increasingly prominent. (Evidence pg2) From this they still arent finished in Poland they
want to get more people especially the Jewish. A main goal of the Einsatzgruppen is to eradicate
all Jewish people from Europe, and they believe if you one person in your heritage that is Jewish

you are a Jew no matter what religion you practice. Another example of their strong presence in
Poland is that Members of the SS, the Wehrmacht, and the Ordnungspolizei (Order Police;
Orpo) also shot civilians during the Polish campaign. Approximately 65,000 civilians were
killed by the end of 1939. In addition to leaders of Polish society, they killed Jews,
prostitutes, Romani people, and the mentally ill. Psychiatric patients in Poland were
initially killed by shooting. (Evidence pg 3) This statistic only shows the killings of 1939 and
the Germans occupied Poland for a few more years so the expected amount killed in Poland is a
lot more than only 65,000 people which by itself is a large amount of people. This is how they
operated and decided what they wanted to do you with and pretty much all of the time the people
they got would be killed. Along with Poland being a target for Einsatzgruppen they also hit the
Soviet Union.
When the German military invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 all four of the
Einsatzgruppen divisions invaded afterwards to cover more ground. When the killing squads
entered the Soviet Union they were given these orders "All the following are to be executed:
Officials of the Comintern (together with professional Communist politicians in general;
top and medium-level officials and radical lower-level officials of the Party, Central
Committee, and district and sub-district committees; People's Commissars; Jews in Party
and State employment, and other radical elements (saboteurs, propagandists, snipers,
assassins, inciters, (Evidence pg 2) These were all targets to the Einsatzgruppen and the
German military, but along with all of these targets their ultimate goal was to kill the Soviet
Jews. From past facts with the Einsatzgruppen one can infer that they got to a very high
percentage of their targets and killed them with no mercy. Another example of the
Einsatzgruppens presence in the Soviet Union is that Local auxiliaries

in Selbstschutz battalions were recruited; they numbered 33,000 by the end of 1941, 165,000
by June 1942, and 300,000 by January 1943. If the task of killing Soviet Jewry with the
3,000 men of the Einsatzgruppen had been impossible, by the end of July 1941, the
manpower had become available for the execution of the task. By the end of 1941 between
500,000 and 800,000 Jews had been murdered an average of 2,700 - 4,200 per day.
(Evidence pg 2) These numbers show that even though over six million people were killed
during the holocaust these numbers are no joke especially on how effective the killing squads
were and how many people on average they could kill in one day. These numbers also show how
pro-nationalism is in Germany at this time how they were able were able to quintuple their
number of battalions in only six months. Some evidence that shows how little they cared about
the people they killed are There they were shot and buried in anti-tank ditches, quarries,
gorges and other similar sites. The killers mercilessly murdered men, women and children.
The Einsatzgruppen and their assistants ultimately killed more than 1.2 million individuals.
There were very few survivors of these massacres. Many of the killing squad members
drank vast quantities of alcohol to withstand the physical and psychological stress caused
by their inhuman and bestial duties. (Evidence pg 2) This evidence shows how inhuman
they were when it came to bury the people they killed. It also shows that they were human and
had souls that they did everything they could try to forget what they had done each night having
to sleep with those duties they carried in their head. As well as invading the Soviets the
Einsatzgruppen invaded many other nations.
The Einsatzgruppen invaded many other countries to eliminate the Jewish people and
other enemies in their lands. Some evidence of this is during the eve of the Jewish New Year, a
mobile killing squad entered Ejszyszki, a small town in what is now Lithuania. The killing

squad members herded 4,000 Jews from the town and the surrounding region into three
synagogues, where they were held for two days without food or water. (Evidence pg 1) This
is all in just one night what the Einsatzgruppen did to the Jewish in Lithuania. Now because of
this night and other killings of the Jewish in Lithuania there are no more Jewish people in this
town. During their time at Babi Yar the killing squads did a lot of damage as well, German
killing squads and Ukrainian auxiliary units shoot them. The massacre continues for two
days. About 34,000 Jewsmen, women, and childrenare killed in this
operation.(Evidence pg 1) This is an astounding number of people killed in only two days by a
group of the Einsatzgruppen. These stats show how deadly the killing squads were but also how
persuasive they were to get other countries militaries to help them, this an average of seventeen
thousand people per day. Some more damage the Einsatzgruppen cause on countries are the
Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. According to its own reports to
Himmler, Einsatzgruppe A killed almost 140,000 people in the five months following the
invasion: 136,421 Jews, 1,064 Communists, 653 people with mental illnesses, 56 partisans,
44 Poles, five Gypsies, and one Armenian were reported killed between 22 June and 25
November 1941.(Evidence pg 3) This evidence shows the how many different types of people
they killed between all countries. Their ultimate goal was of course the Jewish, but had no
problem eliminating some other groups they didnt agree with on the side.