Einsatzgruppen

First attempt to form Einsatzgruppe was made in 1938, before invasion into Czhechoslovakia. Reinhard Heydrich ordered Walter Schellenberg to create Einsatzgruppe to prevent any resistance from civilian side. Squads were formed according to pre-arranged plan between RSHA and OKW (Oberkommando des Wehrmacht).

Einsatzgruppen (Special Action Squads) - specially trained, battalion-sized, mobile killing units of the Security Police and SS Security Service that followed the German armies into the Soviet Union in June 1941. Officers of Einsatzgruppen had been briefed on June 17, five days before the German attack on the Soviet Union. The briefing was at the Berlin headquarters of Reinhard Eugen Tristan Heydrich, head of the RSHA. The officers were instructed on their mission and assignments, chief among them liquidating all Jews.

As mentioned, their orders were to seek out and to execute on the spot all Communists, Jews and Gypsies. These special squads were supported by units of uniformed German Order Police (Ordungspolizei) and auxiliares of volunteers from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine (Schutzmannschaft Battalions). Their victims, primarily Jews, were executed by shooting and were buried in mass graves.

It is estimated that by the end of 1942, Einsatzgruppen killed more than 1.000.000 Soviet Jews. These victims were shot ar loaded into enclosed so-called Trucks-Z modified for the introduction of carbon monoxide (named Zyklon-B - Cyanide gas) to asphyxiate its victims. An additional 400.000 were killed by other SS units, anti-Semitic native civilians, police units and the Wehrmacht.

There were 4 Einsatzgruppen which were subdivited into company-sized Einsatzkommandos.

BASIC STRUCTURE OF EINSATZGRUPPE: 350 SS-Manns and Officers, 100 Gestapo Officers, 80 men from Schutzmannschaft Battalions, 130 Ordungspolizei Officers, 40-50 Kriminalpolizei Officers, 30-35 SD Officers, 150 drivers and other technical stuff.

EINSATZGRUPPE A
Head: SS Brigadefuhrer Stalekker
Acting Area: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia
Sub-regiments: Einsatzkommandos 3 and ?
Sonderkommandos 1-a and 1-b

EINSATZGRUPPE B
Head: SS Brigadefuhrer Artur Nebe
Acting Area: Byelourussia
Sub-regiments: Einsatzkommandos 8 and 9
Sonderkommandos 7-a and 7-b

EINSATZGRUPPE C
Head: SS Oberfuhrer Dr. Rasch
Acting Area: North and South Ukraine
Sub-regiments: Einsatzkommandos 5 and 6
Sonderkommandos 4-a and 4-b

EINSATZGRUPPE D
Head: SS Gruppenfuhrer Otto Ohlendorf
Acting Area: Besarabia, Caucasus, the Crimea
Sub-regiments: Einsatzkommandos 11-a, 11-b and 12, Sonderkommandos 10-a and 10-b

Einsatzgruppe in action. Mass shooting of the Jews.