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The Einsatzgruppen Reports: Selections from the Dispatches of the Nazi Death Squads

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By using the term "Selections", it is obvious that not everything from every Einsatzgruppe report is included here, but enough is provided so that the reader can understand the mission of the Einsatzgruppen in the Soviet Union. There are hundreds of Einsatzgruppen reports, from the Jaeger Report, which talks of murders (of Jews and Communists) in Lithuania, from those of Wilhelm Stahlecker, the head of Einsatzgruppe A. The Latvian archives has a map showing the number of Jews killed in each of the Baltic states, and Estonia has "judenfrei" written on it, showing that it was now "free of Jews". The Jewish population of Minsk was also completely eradicated, and a quarter or so of that city's population was Jewish. Einsatzgruppe B killed approximately 45,000 Jews, as reported by Arthur Nebe, who later became an opponent of Hitler and the Nazi regime. Einsatzgruppe C and D also killed tens of thousands of Jews. In the case of the latter, numbers were given by Otto Ohlendorff, the head of Einsatzgruppe D, at his trial. You can contest the authenticity of this book's contents, but, based upon what I have seen, and the research I have done, these reports are accurate, and you could always find copies of them yourself in Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Belarussian, or even Ukrainian archives. The National Archives here in America has a whole series of operational reports from the Einsatzgruppen, including one that lists the numbers of Jews murdered at Babi Yar. With evidence like this, denying Nazi atrocities becomes difficult.

The reports in this book is often referred to when you read other books about the Holocaust.Here you must think for yourself when you are confronted with the metaphorical rhetoric that the Germans used in their reports that they sent back to Berlin.I have read many books about this subject and that is of big help if you can put these reports into context.That you can do by reading for example Martin Gilberts The Holocaust.Then this book will be of greater value because reading it unprepared will be tedious.I like this book because it gives me a unique chance to look into documents that is doubtless evidence of what really happened during the nazi era.

It is chilling and eye-opening to read these reports written from the Eastern front. The violent work of the special death squads is chronicled in such a casual manner that the authors might just as well have been sending to Berlin a litany of materiel needs or a laundry list. The report from Kiev in late summer 1941, listing the tens of thousands killed at Babi Yar, remind one how casually these Nazi "supermen" seemed to go about their grisly business, at least at the outset of the mass killings. It also reminds one of how efficient the Germans were in keeping records--even of some of their worst genocidal atrocities. Good thing too, because these documents were instrumental in convicting a good number of these ordinary men who in the end persuaded themselves to commit extraordinarily horrific acts.

Most of the Jews of the Ukraine and Byelorussia did not die in the gas chambers of death camps, but were the victims of mass shootings carried out by the Einsatzgruppen and similar German formations. By some estimates, up to 2 million Jews (and many non-Jews) were murdered this way, and their bodies were buried in mass graves throughout the region. This book is much more than a compilation of some of the reports of these killings. It also provides a geography lesson of this area.

In the much-publicized Jedwabne massacre, local Poles were accused of killing the Jews of that town even though the preponderance of evidence points to the Germans as the chief killers, with a relatively small number of Poles taking part, consensually and/or not. Although this book does not mention the Jedwabne massacre, it does provide some context for this tragedy.

A major source of conflict between the Jews and non-Jews of the entire region in question had recognizably been the gross overpopulation of mostly Russian-speaking Jews (e. g., the Litvaks) in this poverty-stricken region (deliberately caused by the 19th century policies of Tsarist Russia). One report alludes to the Pale of Jewish settlement: "More than half of world Jewry lives on a relatively narrow strip of east-central Europe along the Riga-Bucharest line...The zone that was open to the Jews in tsarist Russia included the districts of Kaunas, Grodno, Vilnius, Volhynia, Podolia, Minsk, Vitebsk, Mogilev..."(p. 47). Also: "The deeper reason for the Ukrainians' hatred of the Jews comes from the fact that the Jews were settled in tsarist times by a special order of the Tsar who wanted to weaken their strong [Ukrainian] national feelings by equalizing the population groups in Russia. At the time of the revolution, particularly in the year 1919, the Ukrainians took revenge on the Jews instigating veritable pogroms which killed thousands. The deep, insurmountable conflict between the Ukrainians and Jews found its expression in this action."(p. 73). Much the same situation inflamed Polish-Jewish relations around the times of WWI and WWII, as at Jedwabne, but with very much smaller anti-Jewish consequences.

Owing to the fact that a very disproportionate share of the local Jews had recently sided with the Soviets, the Germans tried to take advantage of local anti-Communist and anti-Soviet feelings. In time, the genocide of Jews was subsumed under, and disguised as, an anti-Bolshevik crusade. The actual scale of Jewish Communism (the Zydokomuna) in the highest levels of Soviet government is described as follows: "...in Lenin's time, the Jews, though constituting 1.77% of the entire population, were represented in the Communist party with 5.2%, in the party's Central Committee with 25.7% and in the Politburo with 36.8%. At the end of the Lenin period their participation in the Politburo was up to 42.9%. In the area of high Jewish density, as in Byelorussia, the participation was accordingly higher."(p. 49). One report summarizes recent Jewish-Soviet collaboration: "Again and again, mainly in the towns, the Jews were named as the actual Soviet rulers, exploiting the people with indescribable brutality and delivering them to the NKVD...the Jews especially worked for the Soviets, if not in responsible positions, then as agents or informants."(p. 216).

Written on the heels of the invading German Army, numerous reports describe the local Jews becoming responsible for such things as major robberies (e. g., p. 66, 79, 100), prostitution (e. g., p. 68), sabotage (e. g., p. 181), arsons (e. g., p. 59), and killings of locals (p. 30). It is impossible for the reader to ascertain which of these accounts is propaganda or hearsay and which are factual.

I found only two mentions of a Polish auxiliary unit serving (or being forced to serve) the Germans. It consisted of members of the prewar Polish criminal police (p. 23, 83). On the other hand, many times the reports make reference to non-Polish units serving the Germans, specifically in the killing of Jews. This includes the Ukrainian militia, "Ukrainian Gestapo", etc. (e. g., p. 12, 26, 92, 128, 131, 140, 174). As for the self-directed killing of Jews, the Lithuanians are singled out in this regard: "It was very easy to convince the Lithuanian circles of the need for self-purging actions to achieve a complete elimination of the Jews from public life. Spontaneous pogroms occurred in all the towns."(p. 61; see also p. 17). For all of the media hullabaloo surrounding the Jedwabne massacre, the fact that these reports nowhere mention Poles actually killing Jews, with or without the Germans, at least suggests that this was a very marginal phenomenon.

One of the reports describes the Polish reaction to the Germans, who had just driven out the Soviets from eastern Poland: "According to previous reports, the Polish part of the population is very friendly towards the Germans. This can be explained by the fact that they suffered more than anyone else under the Soviet regime." (pp. 67-68). In his recently-published book FEAR, Jan Thomas Gross has also cited this Polish reaction, using it disingenuously as a counterbalance to the much more widespread Jewish jubilation over the invasion of eastern Poland by the Soviet Union back in September 1939. Contrary to common claims, the Jews did not react in this way out of fear of the Germans, as the eventual German intentions against Jews were not generally believed at that time. In fact, quite a few Jews had positive opinions of Germans derived from WWI experiences with Germans just 25 years earlier.

Interestingly, Poles were required to wear identification armbands just as the Jews (p. 92). Polish underground action against the Germans is mentioned in numerous reports (e. g., p. 2, 15, 23, 44, 67, 127, 272, 314). Consider this report, dated September 9, 1941, in particular: "The Polish resistance movement has become more evident in the area of Brest where there is strong propaganda for General Sikorski"(p. 127).

Most of the Jews of the Ukraine and Byelorussia did not die in the gas chambers of death camps, but were the victims of mass shootings carried out by the Einsatzgruppen and similar German formations. By some estimates, up to 2 million Jews (and many non-Jews) were murdered this way, and their bodies were buried in mass graves throughout the region. This book is much more than a compilation of some of the reports of these killings. It also provides a geography lesson of this area.

In the much-publicized Jedwabne massacre, local Poles were accused of killing the Jews of that town even though the preponderance of evidence points to the Germans as the chief killers, with a relatively small number of Poles taking part, consensually and/or not. Although this book does not mention the Jedwabne massacre, it does provide some context for this tragedy.

A major source of conflict between the Jews and non-Jews of the entire region in question had recognizably been the gross overpopulation of mostly Russian-speaking Jews (e. g., the Litvaks) in this poverty-stricken region (deliberately caused by the 19th century policies of Tsarist Russia). One report alludes to the Pale of Jewish settlement: "More than half of world Jewry lives on a relatively narrow strip of east-central Europe along the Riga-Bucharest line...The zone that was open to the Jews in tsarist Russia included the districts of Kaunas, Grodno, Vilnius, Volhynia, Podolia, Minsk, Vitebsk, Mogilev..."(p. 47). Also: "The deeper reason for the Ukrainians' hatred of the Jews comes from the fact that the Jews were settled in tsarist times by a special order of the Tsar who wanted to weaken their strong [Ukrainian] national feelings by equalizing the population groups in Russia. At the time of the revolution, particularly in the year 1919, the Ukrainians took revenge on the Jews instigating veritable pogroms which killed thousands. The deep, insurmountable conflict between the Ukrainians and Jews found its expression in this action."(p. 73). Much the same situation inflamed Polish-Jewish relations around the times of WWI and WWII, as at Jedwabne, but with very much smaller anti-Jewish consequences.

Owing to the fact that a very disproportionate share of the local Jews had recently sided with the Soviets, the Germans tried to take advantage of local anti-Communist and anti-Soviet feelings. In time, the genocide of Jews was subsumed under, and disguised as, an anti-Bolshevik crusade. The actual scale of Jewish Communism (the Zydokomuna) in the highest levels of Soviet government is described as follows: "...in Lenin's time, the Jews, though constituting 1.77% of the entire population, were represented in the Communist party with 5.2%, in the party's Central Committee with 25.7% and in the Politburo with 36.8%. At the end of the Lenin period their participation in the Politburo was up to 42.9%. In the area of high Jewish density, as in Byelorussia, the participation was accordingly higher."(p. 49). One report summarizes recent Jewish-Soviet collaboration: "Again and again, mainly in the towns, the Jews were named as the actual Soviet rulers, exploiting the people with indescribable brutality and delivering them to the NKVD...the Jews especially worked for the Soviets, if not in responsible positions, then as agents or informants."(p. 216).

Written on the heels of the invading German Army, numerous reports describe the local Jews becoming responsible for such things as major robberies (e. g., p. 66, 79, 100), prostitution (e. g., p. 68), sabotage (e. g., p. 181), arsons (e. g., p. 59), and killings of locals (p. 30). It is impossible for the reader to ascertain which of these accounts is propaganda or hearsay and which are factual.

I found only two mentions of a Polish auxiliary unit serving (or being forced to serve) the Germans. It consisted of members of the prewar Polish criminal police (p. 23, 83). On the other hand, many times the reports make reference to non-Polish units serving the Germans, specifically in the killing of Jews. This includes the Ukrainian militia, "Ukrainian Gestapo", etc. (e. g., p. 12, 26, 92, 128, 131, 140, 174). As for the self-directed killing of Jews, the Lithuanians are singled out in this regard: "It was very easy to convince the Lithuanian circles of the need for self-purging actions to achieve a complete elimination of the Jews from public life. Spontaneous pogroms occurred in all the towns."(p. 61; see also p. 17). For all of the media hullabaloo surrounding the Jedwabne massacre, the fact that these reports nowhere mention Poles actually killing Jews, with or without the Germans, at least suggests that this was a very marginal phenomenon.

One of the reports describes the Polish reaction to the Germans, who had just driven out the Soviets from eastern Poland: "According to previous reports, the Polish part of the population is very friendly towards the Germans. This can be explained by the fact that they suffered more than anyone else under the Soviet regime." (pp. 67-68). In his recently-published book FEAR, Jan Thomas Gross has also cited this Polish reaction, using it disingenuously as a counterbalance to the much more widespread Jewish jubilation over the invasion of eastern Poland by the Soviet Union back in September 1939. Contrary to common claims, the Jews did not react in this way out of fear of the Germans, as the eventual German intentions against Jews were not generally believed at that time. In fact, quite a few Jews had positive opinions of Germans derived from WWI experiences with Germans just 25 years earlier.

Interestingly, Poles were required to wear identification armbands just as the Jews (p. 92). Polish underground action against the Germans is mentioned in numerous reports (e. g., p. 2, 15, 23, 44, 67, 127, 272, 314). Consider this report, dated September 9, 1941, in particular: "The Polish resistance movement has become more evident in the area of Brest where there is strong propaganda for General Sikorski"(p. 127).

First off, please disregard the price! Something is wrong in Amazon land if they are listing this at over $80.00. Look around, I bought the paperback for $12.50.

Second, this is a good, no excellent book, but it is very limited. If you are looking for dates, deaths, and very limited background then this is an excellent book. Please be aware that most of the town names have changed. If you looking for more than that you will need to look elsewhere. Never the less this is chilling book and should be required reading for any Holocaust revisionist.

This is not a book for anyone interested in history, unless you happen to be a student of Mr Arad. He tells only those portions of the tale that meet his prejudices. In Canada he was exposed for being a rather partial "expert witness" in so-called war crimes hearings. Best not to inflate his ego, or pocketbook, by buying this book.