Einsatzgruppen

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Werner
Unregistered User
(11/25/99 6:29:59 pm)
Reply Einsatzgruppen
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I'm looking for information on the Einsatzgruppen.

Who decieded where they were "used"?
Where did the men come from (which organizations)?
How large where the units?
How where they organized?

Marcus Wendel
Unregistered User
(11/29/99 1:18:33 pm)
Reply Re: Einsatzgruppen
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The officers were mainly from Gestapo, SD or Kripo but the "ordinary" men were mainly from Ordnungspolizei and Waffen-SS.

/W

Wolfgang
Unregistered User
(12/19/99 10:35:25 pm)
Reply Einsatzgruppen...
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Who decieded where they were "used"? -

Himmler's deputy Heydrich formed four task forces, designated with the letters A through D.

Where did the men come from (which organizations)? -

Most officers were veteran SD, Gestapo, and Criminal Police agents selected for their ruthlessness. Much of the rank and file consisted of ordinary police officers and disciplinary cases from the Waffen-SS, some of whom volunteered for the job in order to escape punishment for infractions such as falling asleep on duty.

How large where the units? -

They totaled about 3,000 men amd a few women.

How where they organized? -

The forces underwent three weeks of special training that included lectures on the inferiority of their "sub-human" targets, who were to be principally communist political commissars, gypsies, and Jews.

The Einsatzgruppen followed the Wehrmacht(many officers disliked them!) into Russiaon a front a thousand miles wide. They found their quarry everywhere-in urban ghettos, temp. POW camps, and peaceful villages. Each unit developed its own killing style:

* Poisoning the prisoners in sealed trucks by using CO.

*Lining up the prisoners and execute them.

*Kneeling or standing by the huge ditch and shoot them.