"the cold-blooded, premeditated killing of one million human
beings...Musmanno"
SHOAH EDUCATION PROJECT-WEB
The Exacting of Genocide
Various methods of killing the most people possible in the shortest
time were experimented with by the Nazis. Early in the reign of the Third
Reich, Hitler's men experimented in the T-4 programs with various
ways to kill the mentally-ill and mentally retarded: injections, gassings and
other types of poisonings were used in what was euphemistically called
"Euthanasia" or Mercy Killing programs, but there was nothing merciful about
the killings. (See First White Rose
Pamphlets)
In the first "Aktions" [pronounced 'actions'] local police were often
enlisted as well as townspeople to enter the communities they lived in and
begin killing mostly Jewish males. Over time, there were no Jewish persons of
any age or infirmity which were left out. While the first "aktions" were often
voluntary, those who participated found they still had human limits: they
sickened of their own cruelty at the killing of innocents quickly.; One such
aktion was described near the time of Krystallnacht: a
local police department with Nazi supervision, rounded up locals, many of whom
were WWI veterans. They had orders to kill all Jewish males over 14 and
deport women and children.
Efficient ways of killing were discussed early in the Reich beginning with
the T-4 Programs early in the 1930s. While we usually think only of the Jews
as victims of the Nazis, the Nazi definition of who should be "Euthanized" was
much broader and included mental 'defectives', the drunk, the chronically
unemployed, gypsies, 'Bolsheviks', or communists, and political and religious
'degenerates' as well as those with sexual perversions. As mention, the first
victims were killed by experiments with gassings, carbon-monoxide poisonings
and lethal injections, and while other methods were explored, it was
determined early that gassings were most effective.
Before gassings became the preferred method though, the early Aktions of
the Nazis against the Jews, was often shootings. From Krystallnacht on, many
of the early mass aktions/murders were by shootings. Firing squads would line
up Jewish citizens during aktions, often taping mouths shut to muffle screams.
Communique between Himmler, Heydrich and
other officials discussed the need for an efficient paramilitary organization
to go in in conjunction with the Wehrmacht to
deal with local Jewish Civilian "problems". This usually translated into mass
graves. The solution, was the EINSATZGRUPPEN,a carefully trained, organized
group, an elite group of killers operating especially in German conquered
Soviet territories [esp. the Ukraine]; and aided by police and civilians in
the mass extermination of civilian Jews.
The Para-Military Einsatzgruppen
The Einsatzgruppen forces were not technically part of the
Wermacht, or German Army, although their efforts were carefully coordinated.
This was not unlike the rather schizoid relationship of the Nazis to the the
Military: the Nazi Party was a philosophical political party which took over
Germany; they hoped to see Germany and Nazi become one entity, but even into
the war, this was not the case. One had to be a member of the Nazi Party in
order to be in the German Military, but not all of the Military had Nazi, or
National Socialist views. In the end this schism cracked the foundation of the
despotism that held Germany, and became wider till the end of the war. The
established German Military at the beginning of Hitler's Reign found it had to
'move over' in certain areas for strictly Nazi Organizations to take over. The
SS Death Headers, elite
Nazi soldiers were not traditional military but operated within the military.
Likewise, Hitler
quickly moved into place his own Secret Police and Military Intelligence
Organizations, often displacing the traditional Abwehr, or
German Military Intelligence organization. This preface is to paint the
ongoing juxtaposition of a strictly Nazi organization and concept of the
Einsatzgruppen corp with traditional Army, which while working together
nevertheless had a undercurrent of separateness.
The Einsatzgruppen was headed by Himmler at the topmost rank, run from
Berlin, but more pragmatically by Heydrich who took orders from Himmler.
Heydrich was a self-hating obsessed, officer of stoic demeanor: he focused
ardently on perfect physical conditioning of his men. [and Germany at large.]
Known for his calculating, cruelty without conscience, his leadership of the
Einsatzgruppen aktions won him the title of the "Butcher of Prague", as the
tallies of innocent Jewish Civilian deaths in Czechoslavakia, the Ukraine and
other Soviet territories climbed to 1.5 million. The problem, Heydrich noted, with the
Einsatzgruppen was not genocide in his opinion, but the 'morale' problem of
his men, some family men who had to attend to so many killings of women and
children. It was this "problem" and not genocide, which led Heydrich and Himmler to greatly favor gassings instead of mass shootings.
The Organization of the Einsatzgruppen
Following the headship of Himmler and Heydrich, there were 4 main
units of the Einsatzgruppen special forces. The Units were denoted as:
Unit #A
Unit #B
Unit #C
Unit #D
Associated with each of these units of specially and rigorously
trained assasins, were support persons attached to each company. Within each
Unit, there were subdivisions of "Einsatzkommandos" or 'sub-troops' which were
given tactical assignments towards the goals of the Unit. The principle of "Befehlnotstand" and
"Fuhrerprinzip" was seen most clearly in the Einsatzgruppen: no matter how
distasteful the task of murder, individual responsibility was completely
removed from the singular soldier, it lay completely with leadership. This
mesmerization of the ability to carry on personal atrocities without
conscience would continue until the end of the war, and the madness of virtual
glee at constant killings is seen clearly from the photographic evidence of
the time.
Himmler & Heydrich: The Butcher(s) of Prague
From directives written during the war, it is very clear that the
orders for mass killings by the Einsatzgruppen came directly from Berlin.
Himmler gave the directives, Heydrich made sure they were accomplished. The
sheer physical feat of destroying 1.5 million persons in approximately 2.5
years, is overwhelming; the fact that it was done with such wanton violence
and lack of conscience equally overwhelmed. The dynamic leadership of Heydrich
was probably responsible for the efficiency of the genocide in that area.
Heydrich was visciously anti-Semitic, but he also had terrible troublings,
that he might have Jewish lineage as well: this was questioned at one point
due to his grandparents Suss. He was career military, although he had been
court martialed regarding his treatment of a young woman he had promised to
marry. He was also deeply committed to the cause of Nazism. Heydrich became so
central to the mass genocide in the Ukraine and Slavic states, that it was
determined by the British that he should be taken down, assasinated, in order
to greatly hamper those efforts. Only after hundreds of thousands of deaths
had occurred did this finally happen, as two men were able to hit his vehicle
in Prague with a grenade. Heydrich died several days later of complications
from wounds. His assassins were found and executed, and the town of Lidice was murdered
and then burned in retailiation for their alleged help in the incident---the
children of the village sent to Chelmno. The iron leadership of Himmler and
Heydrich left no room for flexibility---while the
aktionsof the Einsatzgruppen will go down in history as one of the cruelest
mass murders, it was also one of the utmost military efficiency, carried out
from the top down with utter precision.
The Rottweilers of the Third Reich
The men who made up the ranks of the Einsatzgruppen were trained
to kill without conscience. At times, in observation of the aktions, both Eichmann and
Himmler made remarks as to this, one even wondering what kind of men Germany
was preparing. (see Eyewitness
Testimony:Eichmann) Those comprising the Einsatzgruppen ranks were not all
career-military. Einsatzgruppen troops came from the ranks of Waffen SS, the Gestapo, the SD, the
"Ordungpolizei" (order police) and the Kripo. While the Army took and
controlled the front, once there, the Einsatzgruppen acted independently. In
the Ukraine especially, the Einsatzgruppen would often engage local
organizations such as the police, 'auxiliary' police (volunteers, of which
there was no dearth), other members of the Waffen SS and higher ranking
officers (non-Einsatzgruppen). The men were trained literally as 'attack dogs'
of the third Reich: the business of killing was perfunctory as they moved into
town and village repetitively in the same pattern, rounding up, moving, and
shooting Jewish Civilians. They wrote of it as a 'clean-up effort' for the
Wehrmacht. Alcohol abuse was rampant among the members. Both Eichmann and
Himmler expressed thoughts at later times after witnessing the aktions, or a
mass burial, about how the young soldiers would ever be normal again: even
they felt they were training irreversible killers. 3
The Aktions
The order of the killings was almost always the same and was
handled with precision. The website "Einsatzgruppen Archives" describes the
Stages of the Aktions:
I. Invasion:
Large numbers of troop would descend like a black cloud on a small
quiet community. Their descent was anything but quiet.
II. Round-up of Victims
This almost always took place with violence and assault. What few
will mention in historical accounts is that this violent assault was
accompanied with brutality, rape of women and children, and ridicule and
mocking. In most cases, the victims were loaded on trucks or marched to the
location of the killing. Attempted escapes resulted in shootings on the spot,
and could endanger others as well. Not all were aware of their impending fate:
some thought they were being relocated. In at least one circumstance, a change
in an area of Russia was made from killings by gassings to roundups, marches
and shootings: the reasoning was that the former handling of the bodies was
labor-intensive for the soldiers, but when the victims were marched to and
even made to dig their own graves and then shot, there was no 'carrying' of
bodies. Genocide was handled as an efficient business.
III. March to the City Limit
The Third step mentioned, was a March to the outskirts of the
city. This was done both to veil the event from too many eyes, and for
logistical purposes, as above: there would be no transport of corpses. In some
instances, victims either knew or had a pretty good idea that they were
marching to their death, in other instances, the shock of the brutal entry of
the Einsatzgruppen in conjunction with the desire 'not to believe' led many
victims to simply follow orders because there was not a choice.
IV.The Shootings.
Many of the shootings were done in firing squad fashion, on the
edge of town near a ravine or forest. Victims, men, women and children were
forced to disrobe and were lined up on the edge of large deep rectangular
graves, and the bodies fell into the grave. As bodies filled the ground floor
of the grave, a thin layer of dirt was covered over, and the next 'layer' of
bodies were killed and added to the graves, and so forth until the grave was
filled. Thousands of shootings took place at a time, in front of the horrified
victims looking on knowing they would be next. Because of the sheer number of
victims and the time involved [in Babiyar, e.g. the
shootings were done in 2 days]; a few victims remained alive buried among the
corpses. As the Nazis left, they crawled to the surface, badly wounded and
some escaped to the forests or wooded areas and were able to carry news of the
mass executions. They were not always believed. If a victim refused to disrobe
[most were Orthodox Jews, and this was a shaming]; they were beaten and
molested, sometimes raped and then disrobed, and then killed. The
Einsatzgruppen were so methodical in their killing, and so successful, that
their own reports of numbers were at first questioned. The meticulous Nazi
record keeping occurred here as well: the Einsatzgruppen documented close to
1.5 million deaths. The only reason the shootings and aktions ceased was
because of a turn in favor of the killing centers
such as Auschwitz,
Sobibor, Chelmno and Belzec.
The Places
Most who know vaguely of the Einsatzgruppen aktions, know they
operated on Soviet territory. The aktions were particularly heavy in the
Ukraine, Baltic area, Latvia, Estonia, Kaunas and other slavic areas. The
famous killings at Babiyar, were in a ravine/forest near Kiev: close to 34,000
deaths in 2 days by Unit C. While those whom history counts as the
"Einsatzgruppen" operated in this area under Heydrich, there were troops which
acted in the same way, earlier in the invasion of Poland.3 They
were usually near the front in these areas, sometimes moving in before the
Wehrmacht, and sometimes following closely.
The Purposes
The purposes according to the Nazis, ostensibly were that these
special forces were clearing out partisans, and political dissidents and
pockets of resistance. This allowed the forces to kill every Jewish citizen
possible, of all ages. The true purpose, was both Endlosung, or in part
the "Final Solution" or extermination of the Jews, along with confiscation of
property. As soon as the Jews of a community were dead, their property could
be easily confiscated by the Nazis. 2 Often this 'looting' served
as a means of paying the Einsatzgruppen soldiers. Along with real property,
everything from watches and coats to homes and bank accounts were confiscated.
This was presumably for the war effort, but much spoil was divided. The
question of whether these were merely war deaths and purposes and efforts to
flush out resistance members, is discussed in "All Jews are Partisans" below.
There were plans to continue the Einsatzgruppen aktions beyond the area, but
these were never accomplished.
The Victims
The Victims were virtually all the visible Jewish inhabitants of
the areas. This included men, women and children, even infants, none were
spared. The reasoning behind the killing of children by the Nazis was that
they would grow up and avenge their parent's deaths. The Nazis also
misrepresented who they were killing at the time: 'bolsheviks' or communists,
political leaders and dissidents, Gypsies and Academics were targeted, and
while these were also killed, arrested and deported, by far the greater
numbers were Jewish. Unit 'D' headed by Ohlendorf, was responsible by itself
for over 900,000 deaths3 Ohlendorf was executed in a later,
post-war trial for his part in the killings. The sheer number of children
killed was staggering: there remains photographic evidence of the killings,
and in at least one report children comprised almost 50% of one of the
aktions. Children were seen as mentioned before, as future 'avengers' to steel
Nazi consciences. The Einsatzgruppen though did kill others such as those who
aided the Jews or interfered with the aktions, and political dissidents. The
definition of a political dissident was open to broad interpretation.
All Jews are Partisans
The Revisionists and Nazis have both tried to excuse the genocide
of the Jews of Europe as the killing of enemies in a war, and nothing more. As
such, All Jews became 'partisan's'. Children became avengers, and the innocent
bore a look of potential danger. In Ohlendorf's trial after the war, though,
it was brought out, that special forces were not often used in combating
partisans, that was left to the order police and SS. In Nazi lists of victims,
partisans and Jews are listed separately in statistics. Many Nazi
'justifications' for violence against the Jews were proposed early in the war:
as the war and Anti-Semitism progressed, aktions did not need to be
justified.
Orders from the Top
The killing of the Jews in the Einsatzgruppen was not only known
by the top, orders for the killing came directly from Himmler, and Himmler's
actions were completely cleared and known by Hitler. Had Himmler operated
clandestinely on such an important decision, he would have been killed---there
was no tolerance for dissension. Documents from the time, though veiled
referred to the slavic genocide as an essential undertaking. In one meeting a
directive was given for the murder of the Jews, referring to the area as a
"hotbed for intellectual Bolshevism"2 which the Nazis always
equated with Jewish Intellectuals. In other meetings, Heydrich and Himmler
issue directives to kill the Jews. Olendorf said the following at his trial:
"In late summer of 1941, Himmler was in Nikolaiev.
He assembled the leaders and the men of the Einsatzkommandos, repeated to them
the liquidation order and men who were taking part in the liquidation bore no
responsibility for the execution of this order. The responsibility was his
alone and the Fuhrer's"note
There is no question of the knowledge of the killing of these 1.5 million
Jews at the highest levels of command.
.
Not Even an Eye for an Eye
The most troubling aspect for
many regarding the Einsatzgruppen killings, is that those tried for war crimes
who were central to the killings, received far less than expected in just
punishment. Dr. Michael Musmanno presided over the trial, an American Judge from
the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Twenty-four leaders were tried. Ohlendorf,
the head of Unit D, responsible for close to 900,000 deaths, received a death
penalty and was hung in 1952. The trials were from September 27, 1947 to April
9, 1948. While 14 initially were given the death penalty [those directly
responsible for the deaths and orders to kill], only 3, including Ohlendorf were
executed. Six had sentences commuted to life imprisonment, and others received
15 years or less for the mass murder of innocent Jews in the area. The judge was
noted for his fairness in the courtroom by both sides. Little was accomplished
in even justice.
Various methods of killing the most people possible in the shortest
time were experimented with by the Nazis. Early in the reign of the Third
Reich, Hitler's men experimented in the T-4 programs with various
ways to kill the mentally-ill and mentally retarded: injections, gassings and
other types of poisonings were used in what was euphemistically called
"Euthanasia" or Mercy Killing programs, but there was nothing merciful about
the killings. (See First White Rose
Pamphlets)