Einsatzkommando operations in Lithuania 1941-1942

[David Thompson]

Reports from the Occupied Eastern Territories, No. 8 June 19, 1942

The Jews in Lithuania

According to a census taken in 1923, the number of Jews living in Lithuania was 153, 743, i.e., 7.58% of the population at that time.

While the influence of the Jews had originally been limited mainly to economic matters, after the Soviet Union's occupation of Lithuania in 1940, they soon gained influence on every aspect of public life. It is characteristic that, above all, the Jews were active in the NKVD.

Because of their influence, 40,000 Lithuanians were deported to Siberia.

Although the Lithuanian population expressed its hatred of the Jews in various pogroms, the Jewish problem as such had to be solved by the Security Police and the Security Service.

Those Jews who had not left Lithuania together with the retreating Bolshevik Army were interned in ghettos. As a first stage, prisons were combed in order to ferret out Jews.

At present, ghettos exist only in Kaunas, Vilnius and Siauliai. The distribution of the population in the ghettos is as follows:

Kaunas about 15,000 Jews
Vilnius about 15,000 Jews
Siauliai about 4,000 Jews

At present, these Jews are being used as skilled laborers, mainly for work essential to the army. Some of them work in three shifts. Apart from these Jews, Lithuania is now free of Jews.

[David Thompson]

Reports from the Occupied Eastern Territories, No. 15 August 7, 1942

Lithuania

In the vast forest areas of the northern part of the Kedainiai district and the adjoining areas of the districts Panevezys and Siauliai, bands numbering up to 100 men were reported, [partisan units] which, lately, had upset the population with acts of terror, constantly attacking smaller groups of police and civilians. The major part of these bands consisted of escaped Soviet Russian prisoners-of-war, and of Jews who had evaded being placed into ghettos ...

[David Thompson]

Readers interested in other documentation on the Einsatzgruppen operations in Lithuania may find these links helpful:

Comprehensive Report of Combat Group A up to 10/15/1941
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=60197
Draft Report on Einsatzgruppe A operations through Dec 1941
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=61055
The Jaeger report
http://www.holocaust-history.org/works/ ... tro000.htm

See also a note Jäger wrote for a telex to the Einsatzgruppe A headquarter in Riga, at:

http://www.thirdreichforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=16152