Karl Jager: "There are no Jews in Lithuania anymore

Caldric · Post by **Caldric** » 29 May 2003 08:14

Karl Jager’s notorious report on the murderous work of Einsatzkommando 3, issued from Kaunas on December 1, 1941, cumulates to a total of 137,346 deaths in five months in the area assigned to one Einsatzkommando alone. “I can state today,” Jager writes in summary, “that the goal of solving the Jewish problem in Lithuania has been reached by Einsatzkommando 3. There are no Jews in Lithuania anymore except for the work Jews and their families.

Masters of Death, Richard Rhodes pp.215

Anyone have any information that could lead me to these Jager Reports? Richard Rhoades covers them well, but I would really like to see one even if it is not translated.

Hans · Post by **Hans** » 29 May 2003 08:30

Caldric wrote:
Karl Jager’s notorious report on the murderous work of Einsatzkommando 3, issued from Kaunas on December 1, 1941, cumulates to a total of 137,346 deaths in five months in the area assigned to one Einsatzkommando alone. “I can state today,” Jager writes in summary, “that the goal of solving the Jewish problem in Lithuania has been reached by Einsatzkommando 3. There are no Jews in Lithuania anymore except for the work Jews and their families.

Masters of Death, Richard Rhodes pp.215
Anyone have any information that could lead me to these Jager Reports? Richard Rhoades covers them well, but I would really like to see one even if it is not translated.

Hi Caldric,

you can find an english translation of the report here:

http://www.holocaust-history.org/works/ ... tro000.htm

In addition, you might be interested in a note Jäger wrote for a telex to the Einsatzgruppe A headquarter in Riga:

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

David Thompson · Post by **David Thompson** » 29 May 2003 16:16

Caldric -- The Jaeger Report (both photostats of the original and translation) is also available at:

http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/jager.html

This site has extensive source documents on the activities of the Einsatzgruppen. Its home page is at:

http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/index.html

Caldric · Post by **Caldric** » 29 May 2003 16:48

Thanks to both of you. Until I read this book I never knew of this guy, he must have been one of the most efficent at the extermination. Rhodes in his book makes the comment that he is one of the few Einsatzkommando that was not a lawyer and did not make excuses for the executions, such as the victims were "bandits" or "partisans" etc.

David Thompson · Post by **David Thompson** » 29 May 2003 17:39

Jaeger (Jäger), Karl (20.9.1888-22.5.1959) [SS-Standartenführer] -- NSDAP: 359269; SS: 62823; commander, 3rd Action Command (Einsatzkommando 3) Jun 1941-1943; service, Reich Security Main Office (RSHA); service, German Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst – SD) Münster; commander, German Security Police and Security Service (Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolzei und des Sicherheitsdienstes – Sipo/SD) (BdS) Lithuania {arrested by West German police Apr 1959; suicide by hanging himself with radio wire 22 May 1959 at Karlsruhe while awaiting trial; death announced 15 Sept 1959 by West German authorities (NYT 16 Sept 1959:21:4). (Encyclopedia of the Third Reich pps. 467-8; Field Men p. 75; Dienstaltersliste der Schutzstaffel der NSDAP [9 Nov 1944]).}

Caldric · Post by **Caldric** » 29 May 2003 20:58

The reports are simply amazing, the man speaks as though he was harvesting fruit or something. Continued at large until 1959 is even more amazing.

How does one get radio wire while in jail anyway? Not that I care much if he was killed or killed himself. Maybe they just were not paying attention and he picked some up, maybe someone helped him to save Germany more embarrassment of another trail.

Hasso · Post by **Hasso** » 31 May 2003 03:54

Read furtehr on the Einsatzgruppen website and you'll see all the Einsatzgruppe reports that were found. Makes for some chilling reading. Add to that Juergen Stroops daily reports from the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, top it off with the Wannsee Conference protocols, and it paints a grisly picture in bureaucratic-ese.

michael mills · Post by **michael mills** » 01 Jun 2003 05:56

Karl Jaeger was the commander of Einsatzkommando 3, which operated in Lithuania.

His second-in-command was Joachim Hamann, a younger man, who was notorious for his command of a flying squad, a "Rollkommando" consisting of Lithuanian anti-Communist partisans, largely university students, commanded by a few German members of EK3. The Hamann Rollkommando toured the Lithuanian countryside in the late summer and early autumn of 1941, executing the Jews in the smallr towns and rural settlements.

Both Jaeger and Hamann were men with pasts to live down. Jaeger had had many convictions for drunken and dangerous driving, Hamann had been dishonourably discharged from the paratroops for abusing the men under his command. Both men were eager to rehabilitate themselves by their efficiency and zeal in carrying out their duties.

EK3 killed more Jews than other single Kommando of the Einsatzgruppen, despite the fact that the Jewish population of Lithuania was much smaller than those of other occupied areas, such as Belorussia or Ukraine. It was also the first unit to start killing women and children routinely in large numbers.

There may have been special factors that caused such a high rate of extermination in Lithuania. These factors are canvassed in a chapter on Lithunania in the book "The Final Solution; Origins and Implementation", edited by David Cesarani. That chapter posits that the Lithuanians had a particular score to settle with the Jews in their midst, due to the latters' collaboration with the Soviet occupiers in 1940, and that they provided the emotional motivation for the extermination, while the Germans provided the organisation. It also suggests that it was the Lithuanian auxiliaries who initiated the killing of women and children and accustomed their German commanders to it.

I can no longer remember the author of that chapter, and will have to look it up again. But in any case, I can thoroughly recommend the book.

michael mills · Post by **michael mills** » 01 Jun 2003 05:58

Caldric wrote:

The reports are simply amazing, the man speaks as though he was harvesting fruit or something.

Yes, he was weeding out the "bad apples" and disposing of them.

chalutzim · Post by **chalutzim** » 29 Sep 2004 13:33

Those "bad apples" included thousands of defenseless children and women.

cansouth · Post by **cansouth** » 29 Sep 2004 14:02

http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/index.html
On this page there is a photo which is only half of the whole picture.

The whole photo:

http://www.miff.no/porten/viewtopic.php?t=805

xcalibur · Post by **xcalibur** » 29 Sep 2004 15:08

And the point of this is?

WalterS · Post by **WalterS** » 29 Sep 2004 16:50

Mr Mills has outdone even himself in this thread, sinking to a new low, even for him, in obfuscation and misrepresentation.

There may have been special factors that caused such a high rate of extermination in Lithuania.

Mr Mills, of course, fails to mention the single most important factor, which was the intent of the German government to murder Jews. Somehow that always escapes him.

Mr Mills truly outdoes himself, and lays bare for all to see his Holocaust denial and Nazi apoligia with this statement:

It also suggests that it was the Lithuanian auxiliaries who initiated the killing of women and children and accustomed their German commanders to it.

So now Mr Mills wants us to believe that a bunch of Lithuanians taught the Germans how to murder women and children? And that the Germans liked it so much they expanded on it? Once again Mr Mills distorts and obfuscates in his never ending quest to exonerate the Nazi government of any wrongdoing.

Of all of Mr Mills's obfuscations, distortions and deceptions, and this forum is full of them, I'd have to say that this one tops them all. All readers should be alerted, finally, to the fact that Mr Mills will obfuscate any fact, distort any testimony and misrepresent any document in his efforts pursue Holocaust denial and the rehabilitaion of National Socialism.

The source that Mr Mills refers to, but doesn't quote, is "The Final Solution; Origins and Implementation", edited by David Cesarani. I must admit I have not read that work, but I am familiar with some of Mr Cesarani's writings. He is a strident critic of David Irving. Irving's website referred to him as a "ratface." Dr Cesarani also described Eichman as "rotten from the inside out," [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/bio ... 64,00.html] and that "Eichmann decided at some point that Jews had no intrinsic claim to life." [http://www.edinburghfestivals.co.uk/rev ... =906812004] These last two quotes are taken from reviews of Dr Cesarani's work but they accurately reflect the scope and focus of his writings. Thus Mr Mills's use of him in an effort to put forth the notion that the Germans had to learn from Lithuanians how to murder the innocent is somewhat suspect.

Finally, there's this from Mr Mills:

Caldric wrote:

Quote:
The reports are simply amazing, the man speaks as though he was harvesting fruit or something.

Yes, he was weeding out the "bad apples" and disposing of them

So, all of the Jews of Lithuania were "bad apples" who had to be weeded out? Once again, My Mills's penchant for Orwellian doublespeak and obfuscation is breathtaking.

David Thompson · Post by **David Thompson** » 29 Sep 2004 17:07

cansouth -- That set of photographs has been previously posted and discussed in this section of the forum. Start using the search engine to avoid duplicative posts.

Michael Miller · Post by **Michael Miller** » 29 Sep 2004 18:30

Yes, he was weeding out the "bad apples" and disposing of them.

Mr. Mills, are you just presenting your understanding of the mindset of Jäger or is this your own personal assessment of the activities of the man and his Einsatzkommando? I certainly hope the latter is not the case. As mentioned by another poster, the "bad apples" included at least tens of thousands of totally innocent human beings, including an enormous number of children and the elderly.

~ Mike Miller

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