Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

 

Einsatzgrϋppen


 

Einsatzgruppen Operational Situational Reports 

[ OSR's #8 - #195 ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Operational Situation Report USSR No. 81

 

 

 

 

The Chief of the Security Police and the SD, Berlin,
 

September 12, 1941


 

Top Secret
48 copies
--------------------
(36th copy)

 
 

Einsatzgruppe C

 

Location: Novo-Ukrainka

 

Report relating to the situation in the Ukraine submitted by Einsatzkommando 6.

 

All experiences confirm the assertion made before that the Soviet state was a Jewish state of the first order. This can be ascertained in every enterprise, authority and even in the kolkhozes. Take the director, vice-director, the bookkeeper, the cashier, the manager of the depots of each enterprise; they were Jews, and the employees and workers were Ukrainians. The manager of the local labor union, the party-secretary of the same enterprise are Jews as well.

 

This is found to be the rule in the medium and small enterprises, let alone the big ones. For these reasons, the Jewish question has become a burning problem for the Ukrainian people.

 

Whenever this question is discussed, enthusiastic approval can be heard. The use of the word "Zhid" was threatened with severe punishment and considered to be symptomatic of an anti-Soviet attitude during the Bolshevik era. The acceptable form was that of "Yevrei."


The aversion of the population and clear understanding of the Jewish problem increases when going from west to east. This means that in the districts of central and east Ukraine, where there are no old timer Jews, the Jew is rejected with ever greater enthusiasm than in the "old-Jewish" districts west of Berdichev and Zhitomir. There, a greater passivity and an accommodation to the association with Jews took place over the course of centuries.

 

Concerning propaganda measures for the broad masses in the Ukrainian districts it should be kept in mind that the population be induced to take active steps against the Jews. This may be traced back to the fear still prevailing in many circles that the Reds might come back again.


Time and time again this intimidation was made by the older people with the addition that they already had the experience in 1918 when the Germans suddenly withdrew. In order to counteract this psychosis of fear, and to break the spell which adheres to the Jews as carriers of political power in the eyes of many Ukrainians, Einsatzkommando 6 in several instances marched the Jews through the town under guard prior to their execution.

 

It was likewise often deemed important to have men from the militia (Ukrainians) participate in the execution of Jews. Word seems to have been passed to Jews on the other side of the front about the fate they can expect from us.

 

While a considerable number of Jews could be apprehended during the first weeks, it can be assumed that in the central and eastern districts of the Ukraine , in many cases, perhaps 70-90 % (possibly even 100%)  of the Jewish population have fled the area.

 

The gratuitous evacuation of many thousands of Jews many be considered to be an indirect success of the work of the SD. We hear mostly from the other side of the Urals, this is a great contribution to the solution of the Jewish question in Europe.

 

On a side note we would mention the discovery of Jewish Kolkhozes. Between Krivoy-Rog and Dnepropetrovsk there is a considerable number of Jewish Kolkhozes which consist of Jews not only as managers but also as agricultural laborers. as far as we could discover they are Jews of low intelligence who have been found unsuitable for important tasks and "exiled" to the the remote areas by political leadership.


In order to be sure work was carried out uninterrupted, Einsatzkommando 6 refrained from shooting the Jews in these cases, and was satisfied with the liquidation of the Jewish mangers only, replacing them with Ukrainians.

 

Some experiences

 

Executions of Jews are understood everywhere and accepted favorably. It is surprising how calm the culprits are when they are shot, both Jews and non-Jews. Fear of death appears to have been dulled by twenty years of Soviet rule.

 

 


 

 

Sources:

 

NARA

Translation by Hermann Feuer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright: H.E.A.R.T  2007

     

 

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