Einsatzgruppen demographics and Paul Blobel

kellysartin · Post by **kellysartin** » 25 Mar 2002 08:19

I'm looking for demographic info on rank and file einsatzgruppe personnel. such as what were their ages? what sort of background? former occupations? ss members? what part of the ss?married? single?formerly sipo, kripo, s.d., or elsewhere? where the heck were they trained? how were they trained? how were they recruited? do you just walk up to somebody and say, " how would you like to go shoot thousands of unarmed jews and communists in Russia? " i do know of at least one criteria by which death camp personnel were identified and then recruited or selected; most of them had participated in T4 , had some sort of connection to Bouhler's office in the fuhrer chancellory, and most were alter kampfer from Austria. was there some common thread linking einsatzgruppe members?has anyone done a thick book on einsatzgruppen or amassed any great detail on them? for it to have recieved so much attention , actual raw data seems very sparse. am also looking for biographical information on Paul Blobel. so far i have found only a paragraph on him. does anyone know where i can get a transcript of his trail?

Roberto · Post by **Roberto** » 25 Mar 2002 13:42

This site, hosted by one of our moderators, may be of assistance:

http://www.geocities.com/~orion47/

michael mills · Post by **michael mills** » 25 Mar 2002 14:22

Kellysartin wrote:

has anyone done a thick book on einsatzgruppen or amassed any great detail on them?

Indeed they have. The thick book (and it is very thick) is "Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges", by Krausnick and Wilhelm. It contains very detailed information on the classes of people recruited into the Einsatzgruppen. For example, the trainee Security Police and Criminal Police officers who had just completed their courses were incorporated en masse into the Einsatzgruppen. Most of the Einsatzgruppe and Einsatzkommando comanders were "desk warriors" from the RSHA who were sent East by Heydrich to "get their hands dirty".

Marcus · Post by **Marcus** » 25 Mar 2002 18:53

For info on the officers, try "The Field Men: The SS Officers Who Led the Einsatzkommandos-the Nazi Mobile Killing Units" by French L. MacLean.

/Marcus

MICHAELM82 · Post by **MICHAELM82** » 26 Mar 2002 03:50

Hi,
Marcus listed a good book on the subject.In that book in Chapter 3 "The Einsatzkommando Officers:An Analysis" Maclean list the Age, Birthplace, Education, Languege, Occupation, WW1 service, Awards and Decorations, Nazi Party Service, Marital status, religon, W-SS service, etc.his book should answer your questions on the officer of a Einsatzgruppen.
Cheers,
Rttf.

Helly Angel · Post by **Helly Angel** » 26 Mar 2002 04:37

The Einsatzgruppen Reports : Selections from the Dispatches of the Nazi Death Squads' Campaign against the Jews July 1941-January 1943
Yitzhak Arad Shmuel Krakowski Shmuel Spector (Editor).

Great book!!

In this link you can found extracts of the book:

http://www.pgonline.com/electriczen/einsatz.html

Helly Angel · Post by **Helly Angel** » 26 Mar 2002 04:43

Defendant Paul Blobel at the Einsatzgruppen Trial. [Photograph #09921]

SS-Standartenfuehrer Paul Blobel (1894-1951) joined the SA, SS, and NSDAP on December 1, 1931 after his career in architecture stalled due to the depression. He later joined the SD and was particularly active in the Oberabschnitt West (Western Division). Early in the Russian campaign he was given command of Sonderkommando 4a assigned to Einsatzgruppen C, which was responsible for the execution of 60, 000 victims, primarily Jews in the Ukraine. Most notably, Blobel participated in the massacres at Babi Yar and Kharkov. In January 1942, he was relieved of duty for health reasons related to his excessive drinking. Blobel was placed in charge of Aktion 1005, the exhumation operation to destroy evidence of atrocities committed in the East. He was captured by the Americans and sentenced to death in Nuremburg on April 10, 1948 for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and belonging to a criminal organization. His sentence was carried out in 1951.
Sources: Encyc. of Thrd Reich (Zentner) 1:90; E. H. 1:219-220

On September 10, 1947, the U.S. Military Government for Germany created the Military Tribunal II-A (later renamed Tribunal II) to try the Einsatzgruppen Case. The 24 defendants were all leaders of the mobile security and killing units of the SS, the Einsatzgruppen. On July 29, 1947 the defendants were indicted on three counts of criminality: crimes against humanity, war crimes and membership in organizations declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal. Each of the 24 defendants was charged with all three counts, covering the period of their activity from May 1941 to July 1943. Each defendant pleaded "not guilty." Their defense hinged upon the argument that they had acted legally, as soldiers, and had merely been following orders. The defendants were arraigned between September 15 and 22, 1947, and the trial ran from September 29 to February 12, 1948. The prosecution's case took up only two court sessions. The remainder of the time was devoted to the direct testimony of the defendants. While 24 defendants had been indicted, only 22 were tried. Emil Hausmann had committed suicide in July 1947, and Otto Rasch was deemed too ill to stand trial. The Tribunal rendered its judgment on April 8-9, 1948, finding 20 defendants guilty on all three counts and two guilty on count three alone. The sentences were announced on April 10. In all, 14 defendants were sentenced to death, two were sentenced to life terms and five received sentences that ranged from 10 to 20 years. Only Matthias Graf was released with time served. Ultimately, only four of the 14 death sentences were carried out on June 7, 1951. The remainder of the defendants had their sentences commuted or were paroled. All of the convicted defendants in this case were released from prison in 1958.

Date: Jul 29, 1947 - Jul 31, 1947
Locale: Nuremberg, [Bavaria] Germany
Credit: Benjamin Ferencz, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives
Copyright: USHMM

kellysartin · Post by **kellysartin** » 29 Mar 2002 06:14

thanks everyone for all the help! now, to start saving my money for these books!

Tchort · Post by **Tchort** » 30 Mar 2002 15:46

"The Eichmann Kommandos" by Musmanno (judge at the Einsatzgruppen Nurnburg trials) it gives a breif history and backround for all Einsatzgruppen commanders, as well as detailed descriptions of their actions.

Angelo · Post by **Angelo** » 01 Apr 2002 16:50

Thanks Helly for your piece of history!

And LOL, what a marvellous "stereotyped Jew", did Blombel look like in that picture. Large outward bound ears, eagle nose, almond eyelids and that beard...

And there's still a few around who claim the Allies were way too harsh in their issueing death sentences as if they were carloads of spaghetti flowing out of a food chain factory...

Angelo