By E.Kingbury (Director of Holocaust Curriculum and Learning)

June 1941- The Brutality of Einsatzgruppen Killing Units  

The skies were blue on June 22,1941 when Hitler ordered the launch of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. It allowed the Nazis to fully unleash a "racial war," resulting in mass shootings of Jews, Soviet prisoners and Polish and Romani civilians. These massacres were primarily organized by the SS under the Einsatzgruppen death squads, who swept across Poland and other Eastern European territories during the early years of World War II with appalling brutality. Historians have estimated that between one and two million people were murdered by these organized killing squads, making up a significant number of deaths in what historians have termed “the Holocaust by Bullets.”

Within days of the Nazi invasion of Soviet lands, Einsatzgruppen squads began carrying out systematic mass shootings of Jews and Soviet officials in the newly occupied region. The squads consisted of SS officers, police units and local collaborators/volunteers. Their stated mission was to eliminate people the Nazis considered enemies, including Jews, Roma, Communist officials, disabled people and political opponents.

Unlike extermination camps such as Auschwitz, the Einsatzgruppen murdered victims face-to-face, often near their homes. Jews were rounded up from their ancestral towns and villages, forced to dig pits or stand beside ravines and then shot in large groups, not before being forced to hand over valuables and remove their clothing .

One of the most infamous massacres took place in September 1941 at Babi Yar, a ravine near Kyiv, Ukraine, where over two days, more than 33,000 Jewish men, women and children were murdered .

The emotional and psychological impact on victims (and even perpetrators) was enormous. Survivors described unimaginable terror, grief and loss, culminating in the destruction of entire communities; hundreds of years of family, history and community destroyed within days or even hours.  

After the World War II ended in 1945, some Einsatzgruppen leaders were prosecuted during the Nuremberg Trials. Several were convicted of crimes against humanity and executed, though the majority escaped punishment. The extent of post-war prosecutions may appear underwhelming to some students. Even so, the pursuit of justice for victims of Eisatzgruppen death squads arguably continues every time teachers share this important knowledge in their classroom. When appropriate, lessons about the crimes of Einsatzgruppen units will your help students understand the progression of the Nazi “Final Solution” during World War II and the collaboration of non-Germans in the genocidal process.

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