From 1940-1945 mobile killing squads known as the Einsatzgruppens were used for the execution of Jews. The overall purpose of the Einsatzgruppens were to kill off as many Jews as possible to try and bring an end to their population. Germans organized four major Einsatzgruppen units designated as A, B, C and D. The Einsatzgruppen leaders were often well educated and extremist Nazis. Einsatzgruppens had one main method of execution, mass shootings. Due to Germans use of the Einsatzgruppens, American history was impacted since Americans after the war demanded justice of Jews and took part in the war crime trials. The overall purpose of Einsatzgruppen was to kill off the Jewish population. The reasoning for this was because Germany was becoming …show more content…
Recruits gathered in a Border-Police school in Pretsch, due to the large amount of citizens joining they were overcrowded and had to move some recruiters to Duben and Bad-Schmiedeberg. In all three of these places units were were being organized and prepared for to begin the mass killing of several innocent Jews. Throughout this process four major Einsatzgruppen units were created, designated as A, B, C and D. While most of the groups were composed of mainly German SS and police, many locals and businesses joined in, supporting and contributing to the murder. Locals often played a role in helping bury the murdered jews into mass graves, while businesses helped build crematory ovens and provide other supplies to the killers. Einsatzgruppen units were overseen by the command of German Security Police and Security Services officer, they were also highly supported by the German Army. The German Army had an immense impact on the commencement of Einsatzgruppen, they provided the units with weapons, transportation, housing, protection and extra help with handling …show more content…
At the beginning of Einsatzgruppen only jewish men were targeted, but after a few short months the units began killing men, women and children with no concern of age or sex. To proceed through with the mass shootings members in Einsatzgruppen units would go into Jewish populated towns and gather up male Jews, telling them that they were needed for work and job opportunities, such as working on a farm. Subsequently, the men would be escorted out to their death site, usually fields, forests, or the outskirts of the cities, where mass graves had been prepared for them. Often if the Einsatzgruppen unit had not been able to get around to digging up a mass grave, they would tell the Jews to do it, making them believe this was their “job opportunity”. Once the graves were prepared the Jews were then told to strip down to their skin and relinquish their valuable items. Jews were forced to give up their valuable items, so that Einsatzgruppen could later send the items to Germany where they would be dispersed out to local business to help Germany economically. Following this, the Jews would then be told to line up along the mass grave, finally coming to realization that they were going to be murdered, sadly it was too late. The Jews were then shot and killed by the Einsatzgruppen, falling into the mass graves. Once the Einsatzgruppen killed off the men of the Jewish populated towns they would then proceed back
Glass) programme, all of which was aimed towards the Jewish. population, specifically to isolate them from the German society and to drive them out of the German area. After the June 1941 invasion of The Soviet Union, Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) began killing operations aimed entirely at the Jewish community. The SS, the Elite. Guards of the Nazi state, soon regarded the mobile killing methods.
...upying Poland in 1939, the policy of forced emigration became untenable for the Nazi regime. It was simply unrealistic to make more than 3 million Polish Jews emigrate. This led to ambitious Nazi plans for a solution to the ’Jewish Question’.” The Nazis wanted to keep their place to themselves, and they disliked the Jews. They tried moving the Jews to another place, but the amount of time it would take was too long. Therefore, they thought of the Final Solution. They sent Jews to concentration camps, where they killed many Jews. They though that this solution would keep their place to themselves, not to share with any other race. This reminds me of the Rwandan Genocide, because both genocides wanted to remove a specific group or race. In the Holocaust, they wanted to remove all Jews, and in the Rwandan Genocide, the Hutus wanted to wipe the whole Tutsis population.
Poland was devastated when German forces invaded their country on September 1, 1939, marking the beginning of World War II. Still suffering from the turmoil of World War I, with Germany left in ruins, Hitler's government dreamt of an immense, new domain of "living space" in Eastern Europe; to acquire German dominance in Europe would call for war in the minds of German leaders (World War II in Europe). The Nazis believed the Germans were racially elite and found the Jews to be inferior to the German population. The Holocaust was the discrimination and the slaughter of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its associates (Introduction to the Holocaust). The Nazis instituted killing centers, also known as “extermination camps” or “death camps,” for being able to resourcefully take part in mass murder (Killing Centers: An Overview).
Killing Squads managed to find a fast killing tactic. This is a crucial part of the topic because figuring out how Killing Squads kill could show why they were able to kill so many Jews, Gypsies, and Communist leaders. Killing Squad were also called death squads,mobile killing units, and Einsatzgruppen. The killing squads were often made of the German S.S and police personnel (USHMM). This means that the killing squads did have some military experience. Killing Squads act swiftly,usually tanking the Jewish population by surprise (USHMM). This is also why they were called mobile killing units. Killing Squads would enter towns and gather the people, usually in vast open areas. Open areas are easier to dig the mass graves that the dead would be put it. After victims gave their valuables to the killing squad and undressed, they were gassed in vans, shot it trenches, or shot in prepared pits (USHMM).People gassed in vans were killed by the carbon monoxide produced by the van because the exhaust pipes were blocked. These research findings reveal the harsh tactics of killing squads. The squads don't care how the Jews died, as long as it was cheap.
When they had finished their work, the men from the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion or hate, they shot their prisoners, who were forced to approach the trenches one by one and offer their necks. Infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for the machine guns. " (Wiesel 6)". The Jews were scared and frightened by the Germans, they listened to everything they had told them to do in fear of dying.
Another method of dehumanizing the Jews was to make sure they turned on one another. Once the Jews began turning on each other, it kept them in their place and allowed them to mistrust one another even though the Germans were the real culprits. Since goods were scarce, it did not take long for the ghettos to descend into chaos. Stealing became a common practice amongst those who could not afford to buy illegally on the black market. Another way to make sure Jews constantly mistrusted one another was to make sure Jews were the ones who kept the ghettos running. Within the ghettos, a Jewish police force called Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst was created to keep Jews from escaping the ghettos. They wore armbands with an identifying marker and a badge. They were not permitted to use guns but were allowed to carry batons. The Jewish police reported any mishaps to the German police who were assigned to check perimeters outside the ghettos. They were recruited from two groups: lawyers and criminals. The criminal group was larger and soon became the dominating force behind the police and life inside the ghettos. In the Warsaw ghetto, a special group called Group 13 was created for the purpose of combatting the black market that thrived during this time. The group was also known as the Jewish Gestapo and had orders to report back to the German Gestapo. While officially the group’s job was to fight off the black market, unofficially the group extorted and blackmailed Polish sympathizers. They also were very skilled in tracking down Jews who had managed to not be sent to the ghettos. The Jewish Police were also in charge of a prison that allowed them to continue their illegal operations
Dr. Michael Mussmanno, a jury in the Nuremberg Trials, stated that the main purpose of constructing the Einsatzgruppen was, “to murder Jews and deprive them of their property.” Many German civilians began persuaded to believe that Jews were the reason for their problems. The Einsatzgruppen were four paramilitary units created for the purpose of murdering Jews and other races. They began by going on massacre missions in Jew communities, then to shoving Jews in gas vans. The gas vans were supposed to make it easier for the Nazis to exterminate the Jews, but it really just made it harder. They heard the victims suffer longer, and it was more painful. They followed Adolf Hitler, in belief that everything that he said was correct. People in the Einsatzgruppen were German civilians that thought what they were doing was helping Germany. It was a nationalistic thing. The Einsatzgruppen had a leading role in the implementation of the Final Solution in territories ruled by Nazi Germany.
Hitler’s first and foremost goal in Germany was to eliminate all of the Jews. With this plan in mind, he consistently sought different methods to kill Jews. One of the first methods Hitler used to complete this mass murder operation was the Einsatzgruppen. According to A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust, the Einsatzgruppen were killing units generally composed of German SS and police personnel(...
As the Ghettos (in Poland) were quickly filling in occupants, the Nazi Party started ‘Mobile Killing Squads’, which traveled from one neighborhood to another ripping Jews from their home and killing (using gas vans or guns) them in the street. But, this method proved inefficient with the number of Jewish People who ran, and the number of killers that were being affected by the gases. This then caused the anti-Semitic party to start sending Jews to the six extermination camps throughout Poland. Which according to Paul B. Kern was all a part of the Final Solution.
The Third Reich sought to eliminate the Jews because the Germans viewed the Jews as parasites that were infecting their country and the world. With economic and physical pressure, Germany was able to encourage the Jews to flee Germany, however, not many left because of restrictions. The Nazis created the final solution in order to quickly eliminate all of the Jews that existed primarily in Germany. Through the use of medical experimentation, gas chambers, and the crematorium, around 6 million Jews were killed.
The Schutzstaffel or SS was created in 1925 by the Nazi party to protect Adolf Hitler and other important Nazi leaders. Heinrich Himmler was appointed leader of the SS by Hitler in 1929. The SS were racial elites with profound loyalty to Hitler and the promotion of Germany. (SS, 2013) In order to become a member of the SS all candidates had to endure selections based on their racial ancestry and support of the Nazi party. In Nazi Germany the SS was responsible for security identification of ethnicity, settlement and population policy and intelligent collection and analysis. (SS, 2013) They also were responsible for the concentration camp system and police forces. In 1939 the SS assumed the responsibility for “solving” the Jewish Question. (SS And The Holocaust, 2013) In the imminent invasion of the Soviet Union Hitler ordered the SS implementation of settlement plans and population policy in conquered Soviet territories. Special SS Einsatzgrupp...
The Nazis follow through with Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jews. Many of the soldiers who work at the death camps were not even members of the Nazi party originally. However, most follow orders obediently
Among 1.5 million Jews were shot to death in the most brutal way by different Nazi units. The so-called Einsatzgruppen, which operated behind the front against the Soviet Union, were
In conclusion, there were many groups besides the Jews that became victims to the persecution and murder by the Nazis. There were motivations in creating a master race, and occupying new land to create space for the German people, protecting and watching out for any political parties or cultures that may have gone against Hitler or damaged his master race, and he wanted to rid his country of those unhelpful to it or going against religious traditions.
Killing centers are facilities established exclusively or primarily for the mass murder of human beings. Today they are know as death camps. They are different than concentration camps, concentration camps were used as a holding camp for all of the outcast. Death camps are used to kill all of the outcast. This is where German police murdered over 2,7000,000 Jews. The first ever death camp was named Chelmno which was opened in Warthegau (which is in a part of Poland) in December 1941. They killed mostly Jews, but also Roma (Gypsies which were people from Rome who traveled into Germany and were considered dirty). The schutzstaffel (ss) considered it to be a top secret thing, but how do you keep the murdering of millions of people secret? You can’t! Almost as soon as they started doing it, the people all over the world heard about it. The thing is, most of the people that lived in Germany followed the rules of Adolf Hitler and didn’t mind that there was millions of people being put to death. To hide all of the traces of gas operation, they had special prisoner units called the sonderkommandos. They were forced to remove the victims of the gas chamber and they will cremate them. The ground of some killing centers were made to be used as a camouflaged to hide the death of millions.