Einsatzgruppen

The Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD, abbreviated EGr) were ideologically trained and partly mobile, partly stationary "special units", which the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler set up and deployed by order of Adolf Hitler for mass murders in the invasion of Poland in 1939, in the Balkan campaign in 1941 and above all in the war against the Soviet Union in 1941-1945. The Einsatzgruppen served the gradual implementation of Nazi racial ideology and genocidal policy and, together with other groups of perpetrators, were instrumental in the Holocaust (Shoah) and the Porajmos, the genocide of the European Roma during the Nazi era. They were divided into 16 so-called Einsatzkommandos and comprised a total of up to 3000 men.

In Poland, on Hitler's orders and with the knowledge of the Wehrmacht, the Einsatzgruppen murdered at least 60,000 members of the state elite, including about 7,000 Jews, as well as thousands of mentally ill people from September 1939 onwards. In the Soviet Union and in the Balkans, in cooperation with the Wehrmacht, they murdered Jews, Roma (then called "Gypsies"), Communists, real and alleged partisans, "asocials" as well as mentally ill, mentally or physically handicapped people from 1941 on. The main perpetrators were members of the Security Police (Sipo) - consisting of the Secret State Police (Gestapo) and Criminal Police (Kripo) -, the Security Service (SD), the Order Police (Orpo) and the Waffen-SS.

Einsatzgruppen before the Second World War

Since his appointment as "Reichsführer SS" (1929), Himmler had begun to develop the SS, a sub-organization of the NSDAP, into an armed, paramilitary elite force. To this end, Reinhard Heydrich had founded the "Security Service of the Reichsführer SS" (SD) since 1931, which was given a central, Germany-wide organization in the spring of 1933. After the Röhm putsch in 1934, Himmler also became head of the political police, and in 1936 also of the other German police. Together with Heydrich he aimed at a close connection of SS, SD and police. For special tasks prior to almost any territorial expansion, Himmler had special "Einsatzkommandos", also called "Sonder-" or "Spezialeinheiten", set up from the ranks of the organizations under his command since 1938. Until 1940, SS-Obergruppenführer Werner Best was responsible for their formation. These groups were to take over the "fight against the enemies of the Reich" immediately after the respective invasion of German troops into a new territory, mainly by investigations and arrests. Until September 1939, they had no orders to kill, but they had considerable room for maneuver in carrying out their orders. Their deployment marked the transition to a systematic persecution of all actual and perceived opponents of the Nazi regime in these areas.

When Austria was annexed by the German Reich, the Einsatzkommando Österreich, founded in 1938, was deployed. It consisted of SD members and was led by SS-Standartenführer Franz Six. Its task was the arrest of opponents of the Anschluss with prepared wanted lists.

During the incorporation of the Sudetenland in September 1938, the term Einsatzgruppe appeared for the first time in Nazi administrative language: It referred to Einsatzgruppe Dresden, which consisted of five Einsatzkommandos under SS-Standartenführer Heinz Jost, and Einsatzgruppe Wien, with two Einsatzkommandos under SS-Standartenführer Walter Stahlecker. Both were set up and dispatched by the Gestapo, which claimed jurisdiction because the Sudeten Germans were defined as Reich citizens. The commandos were to carry out relatively independently all Gestapo tasks in their area in a "special operation", i.e. to arrest "Reich-enemy" persons by means of a "special wanted list" and reports from Sudeten Germans, to confiscate their documents, to dissolve their establishments, to occupy Czechoslovak police stations and to monitor postal and telephone traffic. They were strictly forbidden to mistreat and kill arrested persons and to harass uninvolved persons, because this prohibition seemed necessary. They arrested about 10,000 people and, together with Sudeten German organizations, expelled numerous Czechs from their residential areas.

Einsatzgruppe I Prague and Einsatzgruppe II Brno were set up for the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia (the "rest of Czechia") in March 1939. They were in turn divided into several Einsatzkommandos: Budweis, Prague, Kolin, Pardubitz, Brno, Olmütz, Zlin, Einsatzkommando 9 Mies under SS-Hauptsturmführer Gustav vom Felde and Sonderkommando Pilsen. They too arrested about 10,000 people.

Balkan

Serbia

In connection with the planning for "Operation Barbarossa" (the invasion of the Soviet Union planned since July 1940 for May/June 1941), the Balkan campaign was planned at relatively short notice and carried out in April 1941. In addition to the Einsatzgruppen for the Russian war, the Einsatzgruppe Serbien with two Einsatzkommandos was set up and trained in March 1941. Its leader from April 1941 to January 1942 was SS-Oberführer and police colonel Wilhelm Fuchs. He was followed by SS-Oberführer Emanuel Schäfer in January 1942. Their tasks and subordination were regulated between the Army High Command and the Chief of the Security Police and SD: They were to fight "emigrants, saboteurs, terrorists", but above all "communists and Jews". In January 1942, the Einsatzgruppe was disbanded and the police tasks were transferred to the HSSPF SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of Police August Meyszner.

Croatia

In Croatia (NDH), Einsatzgruppe E became active from 2 August 1941: until 24 April 1943 under SS-Obersturmbannführer Ludwig Teichmann, until October 1944 under SS-Standartenführer Günther Herrmann, from November 1944 under SS-Oberführer and Oberst der Polizei Wilhelm Fuchs. Other groups active there were:

• Einsatzkommando 10b (Vinkovci or later Esseg) under SS-Obersturmbannführer and Oberregierungsrat Joachim Deumling (15 March 1943 to 27 January 1945), then SS-Sturmbannführer Franz Sprinz (27 January 1945 to 8 May 1945)
• Einsatzkommando 11a (Sarajevo) under SS-Sturmbannführer and Regierungsrat Rudolf Korndörfer (15 May 1943 to 9 September 1943), then SS-Obersturmbannführer Anton Fest (9 September 1943 to 1945)
• Einsatzkommando 15 (Banja Luka) under SS-Hauptsturmführer Willi Wolter (12 June 1943 to September 1944)
• Task force 16 (Knin)
• SS-Obersturmbannführer and Oberregierungsrat Johannes Thümmler (3 July 1943 to 11 September 1943)
• SS-Obersturmbannführer Joachim Freitag (11 September 1943 to 28 October 1944)
• Zagreb task force
• SS-Sturmbannführer and Regierungsrat Rudolf Korndörfer (from 9 September 1943)