Bialystok Einstazgruppen killings September 1939

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Jacky Kingsley
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Bialystok Einstazgruppen killings September 1939

#1

Post by Jacky Kingsley » 18 Feb 2004, 00:29

Hi

When the Germans took Bialystok and Grodno areas after the invasion of Poland there were a large number of murders before the sites were handed over to the Russians. Several books mention the murders but not the perpetrators. Was it an Eisengruppe? If so where can I find out about it? Please can someone tell me the name of a book that contains the details.

Thank you

Jacky

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Earldor
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Re: Bialystok Einstazgruppen killings September 1939

#2

Post by Earldor » 18 Feb 2004, 10:53

Jacky Kingsley wrote:Hi

When the Germans took Bialystok and Grodno areas after the invasion of Poland there were a large number of murders before the sites were handed over to the Russians. Several books mention the murders but not the perpetrators. Was it an Eisengruppe? If so where can I find out about it? Please can someone tell me the name of a book that contains the details.
I'll give you the book and a relevant quote. Alexander B. Rossino: "Hitler Strikes Poland; Blitzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity", p. 101-102:

"On or about 18 September, Lothar Beutel's Einsatzgruppe IV appeared in northeastern Poland and began its efforts against the Jews in communities along the demarcation line. Five days earlier, Beutel's men had departed from Bydgoszcz with General Braemer's forces and moved through East Prussia in the direction of Bialystok as part of the Fourth Army's transfer to the northeastern section of the front. [...] Once in Bialystok, Einsatzgruppe IV again joined General Braemer's 580th Rear Army Area (Korück 580) and began policing the new eastern border. Above all, Beutel's responsibilities included expelling Jews, orders that Einsatzgruppe IV received from Gestapo headquarters while en route to the city.
Bialystok was quiet when the Security Police arrived. The populace huddled behind closed doors because German troops passing through the city earlier had killed a number of people by firing randomly into homes. Beutel quartered his men in a school, established an 8:00 P.M. to 5:00 A.M. curfew for the town's inhabitant's, and initiated measures against the Jews. Squads of Security Police swept the city arresting Jewish men between the ages of sixteen and sixty. homes and shops were also searched for weapons and valuables, and "a number of Jewish women were shot for refusing to part with their rings." The action quickly grew from an "official" effort to confiscate Jewish wealth for the Reich into plundering for personal profit, which forced Beutel's deputy, Josef Meisinger, to search the cars of several Einsatzgruppe men for furs that a Jewish woman reported stolen. In what must have been a remarkable scene, Meisinger found the stolen furs and had the woman brought forward to pick the thieves out of a lineup. After identifying the perpetrators, Meisinger immediately placed the eleven policemen under arrest and sent them back to Germany under armed guard. Over the course of the next two days, Beutel's men collected several hundred Jews, marched them out of the city, and forced them at gunpoint to continue in an easterly direction. But before large number of these Jews could be expelled, negotiations between newly arrived Russian officers, the local German commander, and Lothar Beutel made it clear that Bialystok was in the Soviet zone of occupied Poland. As a result, Beutel's men pulled out of the city on 21 September and arrived in Lyck (Elk), East Prussia, shortly thereafter."

http://www.geocities.com/~orion47/SS-PO ... uppen.html

"EINSATZGRUPPE IV

Established: Aug. 1939
Disbanded: 20. Nov. 1939
EG-Führer:
SS-Brigf. Lothar Beutel:
Operational Area:
4.Armee



Einsatzkommando 1/IV

Established: Aug. 1939
Disbanded: 20. Nov. 1939
Kommandoführer:
SS-Stubaf. Dr. Helmut Bischoff:
Operational Area:
4.Armee.
Notes:
Upon disbandment on 20. Nov. 1939, Kommando personnel reassigned to Kdr. der Sipo und des SD Warschau.



Einsatzkommando 2/IV

Established: Aug. 1939
Disbanded: 20. Nov. 1939
Kommandoführer:
SS-Stubaf. Dr. Walter Hammer:
Operational Area:
4.Armee.
Notes:
Upon disbandment on 20. Nov. 1939, Kommando personnel reassigned to Kdr. der Sipo und des SD Warschau."

Another snippet of information http://www.pogranicze.sejny.pl/jedwabne ... ssino.html :

"One day later (2 July) Arthur Nebe traveled to Warsaw from Białystok to meet with the commanders of the new Sonder- and Einsatzkommandos and to orient them on their upcoming duty. It was probably at this point that Nebe informed them about their responsibility for instigating pogroms. Nebe then departed for Białystok early the next day along with Bonifer's and Böhm's groups. Arriving in Białystok in the afternoon on 3 July, Nebe immediately dispatched Böhm's Einsatzkommando to Grodno and Adolf Bonifer's Einsatzkommando to Bielsk. A pogrom then broke out in Grodno two days later. The Sonderkommandos of Engels and Birkner also arrived in Białystok late in the day on 3 July. Engels' group was sent on to Nowogrodek one day later (4 July), while Birkner's command remained in Białystok. Little information exists about Wolfgang Birkner and the men of his Sonderkommando, but the unit was made up of 29 Security Police and Gestapo officers altogether. Birkner and his men coordinated their work with a small group of Security Police from Einsatzgruppe B that Nebe had left behind in Białystok. By way of background, it is interesting to note that Birkner and seven of the other members of his Sonderkommando were veterans of Einsatzgruppe IV, which had occupied Białystok briefly at the end of the Polish Campaign in 1939, before the city was turned over to the Soviets. (my emphasis) According to reports filed by Nebe with the RSHA in Berlin, Birkner's men participated in several shooting actions in and around Białystok, which by 28 August had claimed the lives of 1,800 Jews.

As for evidence concerning the participation of Birkner's Sonderkommando in inciting pogroms, this is very slim. West German prosecutors investigating Birkner in 1960 initially suspected that his men were involved in the murder of Jews in Jedwabne, Radziłow, and Wąsosz. These suspicions were based on the research of Polish historian Szymon Datner, but the investigators turned up little hard evidence directly implicating either Birkner or his men in these events."

I do not know, at the moment, whether there were police units involved. EG IV had been collaborating with police units before its transfer to the Bialystok area.
Thank you
You're welcome.


Jacky Kingsley
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Posts: 323
Joined: 30 Jun 2002, 00:55
Location: West Sussex, England

#3

Post by Jacky Kingsley » 19 Feb 2004, 19:04

That is terrific Earldor.

Many thanks

Jacky

michael mills
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#4

Post by michael mills » 20 Feb 2004, 14:21

As you see, Jacky, there was not "a large number of murders" at Bilaystok before the city was handed over to Soviet forces, just a lot of plundering that was eventually stopped.

Some hundreds of Jews were forced out of the city and compelled to continue marching east, obviously into Soviet-controlled territory. That was part of a pattern adopted by the German occupiers in the last months of 1939, to force as many Jews out of their zone into the Soviet Zone of Occupation.

Apparently the German forces believed that they would remain in occupation of Bialystok, and commenced actions to force the Jews out of the city and into Soviet territory. But within a few days the city was handed over to Soviet control, and the expulsions stopped.

The events show that in September 1939, the German security police was not trying to exterminate the Jews of Poland, but trying to expel them wherever possible. So much for "large numbers of murders".

Jacky Kingsley
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Posts: 323
Joined: 30 Jun 2002, 00:55
Location: West Sussex, England

#5

Post by Jacky Kingsley » 24 Feb 2004, 20:05

Thank you Michael

Jacky

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