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Einsatzgrϋppen


 

Einsatzgruppen Operational Situational Reports 

[ OSR's #8 - #195 ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Operational Situation Report USSR No. 67

 

 

 

 

The Chief of the Security Police and the SD, Berlin,
August, 29 1941

48 Copies
-------------------
(36th copy)


Einsatzgruppe for Special Duties


Reports: Activity report in the former Polish-Russian areas.

 

During the period of this report, 2,739 persons were liquidated, and approximately 2,800 persons were arrested. The illegal work of the Communists continues.

 

It is expressed in horror propaganda, distribution of pamphlets, and acts of sabotage. In the area of Einsatzkommando Lutsk, army guards were repeatedly shot at by such elements. Adequate retaliation measures were carried out. Communist propaganda by pamphlet continues and is enhanced by propaganda material that is dropped from Russian aircraft (particularly in Volhynia).

The Polish resistance movement is again evident (Rovno, Lutsk). In Kostopol, district Lutsk, illegal organizations, "Bund der Schutzen" and "Kampflegion des Todes,"1 were uncovered. The officials and members whose names were ascertained were liquidated. The behavior of the Jews is hostile and partly impertinent. They are the main source of anti-German propaganda.

Einsatzgruppe A

Location: Pesje

 

Einsatzgruppe B

 

Location: Smolensk

 

Fight against partisan groups The current actions against partisan groups are continuing success- fully. Members of the Gruppe H.Q. had to liquidate 26 Jews in Monastyrshchina, about 70 km south of Smolensk, who were cooperating with the partisans, terrorizing the loyal population and sabotaging the economic measures ordered by the military headquarters in Smolensk.

 

With the help of the anti-Bolshevik section of the pop- ulation, the members of the Gruppe H.Q. located a group of partisans near Monastyrshchina numbering 150-200 with a large ammunition store. In cooperation with the Army, their destruction is proceeding. At the request of the intelligence officer of the H.Q. of 2nd Army the Sonderkommando 7b joined in the fight against the partisans ' According to information, former armed members of the Red Army are in hiding in a village near Sokhanova. They terrorize that part of the population that is willing to work. A special unit ofEK 7b established that the village in question was Sharjevshtina.

 

The special unit surrounded the village, made a surprise entry and caught six partisans who were liquidated. Loaded Russian military rifles and pistols were taken. By the way, all of the partisans were members of the CF. Einsatzkommando 9 which is stationed in Vitebsk has accomplished four major actions against the partisans. The broad woodlands made matters particularly difficult. Anyhow, it was possible to surprise and destroy a larger number of partisans.

 

Sonderkommando 8 discovered among other things a Jew in Cherven who had been a school supervisor until [the outbreak of] the war. He had joined a partisan group that roamed the forests of Cherven under the leadership of a Russian lieutenant. Informed Army personnel have successfully combed the area in question. The mayor ofRzhev and his house manager were liquidated because of the same activities. In the Rzhev area a Kommando of the EK 8 has arrested and finished off 51 men because they had been active as partisans. Most of them were Red Army members wearing civilian clothes who had disposed of their identification papers.

 

Two Platoons of the police were attacked by a Red Army unit the size of a battalion. Because of their great number, the police had to retreat losing 12 dead and two injured. A retaliatory action by the 262nd Division is in progress. According to information received in Slutsk, strong Bed forces are on their way there. The defense of the town was prepared^ The entire German force was alerted as well as the sub unit of EK 8 which was on the spot.

 

Since the last report this sub-unit has executed 77 men who had been connected with the partisans and had been convicted of acts of sabotage. Lately the Vorkommando Moscow received in Smolensk more and more information about partisan activities in the surrounding villages.


Actions against officials, agents, Jews saboteurs and looters. Seizure of material.

In Smolensk some quarters of the town were systematically searched for officials, agents, criminals, Jewish intelligentsia, etc. During this action 74 persons were arrested and liquidated. Among these were persons who had contact with partisans, as well as a mem- ber of the NKGB, who had been involved in continuous shootings in the cellar of the NKVD building and is now a leader of looting bands. The screening of the remaining parts of the town continues However, it should be taken into consideration that Smolensk still houses only a small fraction of its former population The building-up of a network of confidential agents was energetically promoted.

The fact that only a few inhabitants remained, and that a series of sabotage acts have occurred lately proves the existence of active Bolsheviks. Thus, great care is necessary in the recruitment of confidential agents In spite of these difficulties, it was possible to procure a large number of reliable confidential agents. Members of the appointed town administration were also included in the network of confidential in Mogilev, the raids seeking Communist officials were continued. Apart from the ones already liquidated, 80 more Jews were executed Among these there was, apart from a number of arsonists, an informer of the NKGB, who had denounced numerous ethnic Germans to the Russian authorities.

In Orsha, 43 Jews were found, some of whom were actively spreading atrocity stories, while others acted as snipers. Among these were two party officials. One of them was the Communist party propaganda distributed in Orsha. Moreover, a Pole was shot for looting. Eleven Jews were executed in the villages of Shuchari and Yasna. Some of these had been active as snipers, others carried on Communist agitation. Among the ones liquidated was an official of the Communist party who was said to have been a political Commissar. The political Commissar Valerian Sakharinkov was seized in the field, near Mogilev, and liquidated. S. was a member of the party since 1919. He was a fanatic Bolshevik who until the end exercised a strong influence on large parts of the population. 31 Jews who had been in contact with partisans were liquidated in Chashy, 60 km from Mogilev.

Since neither a local nor a field com- mand post qr a town administration has as yet been formed in Chashy, the detachment operating there appointed a council. Partisans shot at the detachment during its return from Chashy and succeeded in escaping into the woods. An NKGB informer was liquidated among others in Bobruisk.

 

This man, according to the testimony of witnesses, had about 200 persons on his conscience. A number of Jews, who agitated the population by spreading rumors, were also shot. A secret letter was found in the Communist party building in Velish during the examination of file materials there. It concerned an instruc- tion of the delegate of the People's Commissariat regarding preparations for December 25,1940, in which complete mobilization by January 10, 1941 is called for. Moreover, files on the Komsomol membership and of the Communist party could be secured in the NKVD building. The formation of a Jewish Council, the marking, and registration of the Jews were also carried out.

 

Eight Jews who had tried to intimidate the population by spread- ing false rumors and who were also members of the Komsomol were liquidated in Kolkhoz Voroshilov, 17 km from Velish. Moreover, the former head of the office of forestry development in Velish, a Jewess, was shot for sabotage. In Novo-Svienchiany, 169 and in Vilnius 612 more persons were subjected to special treatment. In Vitebsk, the actions against the Jewish intelligentsia were continued. A Jewess insidiously asked a German soldier to open a door. As he did so the soldier's lower arm was torn off by an explosive charge.

She was apprehended through investigations by the Einsatzkommando. The Jewess was then publicly hanged. Some other persons who participated in setting Vitebsk afire and who drove cattle out of the villages in compliance with Stalin's proclamation were also liquidated. In Minsk, 615 more persons were liquidated in the course of an action in the civilian-prisoner camp there. All the executed were of racially inferior stock.

Also liquidated were a Russian who shot at Ger- man soldiers, and two persons who were caught red-handed while cutting cables of the Luftwaffe. A Byelorussian was apprehended by the local command post in Minsk on suspicion of committing acts of sabotage. He was found guilty of having destroyed cables of the German Army with an axe behind the Rushkin barracks. He was liquidated. A Jew and a Byelorussian woman who, as Bolshevik agitators, carried out the lowest kind of agitation and work sabotage were subjected to the same treatment.

Ten more Jews from Minsk, who until the last, had carried on anti-German propaganda among the population, were also shot. A Russian who roamed through the town in the disguise of a beggar and terrorized the population with threats of arson, also had to be executed. Furthermore, a member of the civilian order service was liquidated. He made searches of apartments in Minsk and in the village of Znianka without orders. While doing this, he looted the apartments. The liquidation was necessary, for no other reason than he told the persons concerned that he was acting by order of the German authorities.

A number of other persons were shot be- cause of sabotage, looting, and Communist propaganda. Ten Russians, who found a hide-out in the barracks at the border of Minsk, were subjected to the same treatment. According to the investigations, they were former convicts.

Einsatzgruppe D


Location; Ananyev

Operational Report from the district bordering the Dniester: From Khotin to Yambol, including Chernoctshy.

The territory, with the exception of the Hungarian-occupied area around Svanzia, was cleared of Jews. The Rumanians had driven thousands of selected persons unfit for labor, such as invalids and children, from Bessarabia and Bucovina into the German sphere. In the vicinity of Svanzia-Mogilev-PodoIski-Yampol, a total of approximately 27,500 Jews were driven back to Rumanian territory, and 1,265, partly younger ones, were shot.

3,105 more Jews and 34 Communists were liquidated in Chernovtsy in the course of search actions east of the Dniester. No terror and sabotage groups were discovered.
 

 

 


 

 

Sources:

 

NARA

Translation by Hermann Feuer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright: H.E.A.R.T  2007

     

 

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