Einsatzgruppen

Einsatzgruppen

The Einsatzgruppen was controlled by the Schutzstaffel (SS)
A Jewish operation in Ivanhorod. Photograph taken in Ukraine, 1942.
Agency overview
Formed	c. 1939
Jurisdiction	Nazi Germany Nazi-occupied Europe
Employees	About 3,000 c. 1941
Minister responsible	Heinrich Himmler, Head of the SS
Agency executives	Reinhard Heydrich, Head of the Einsatzgruppen (1939–1942) Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Head of the Einsatzgruppen (1943–1945)
Parent agency	Allgemeine SS and Reich Main Security Office
Footnotes
Murdered 2 million people, including 1.3 million Jews

The Einsatzgruppen were a paramilitary group in Nazi Germany created by the notorious Nazi SS-Gestapo Officer Reinhard Heydrich . They were part of the Schutzstaffel (SS). They helped make The Holocaust happen by murdering about 12 million people throughout Europe. Almost all of the people they killed were civilians.

Sometimes, the Einsatzgruppen would kill only a few people at once. Other times, they would kill thousands of people in a few days. For example, at Babi Yar, the Einsatzgruppen killed 33,771 Jewish people in two days.

Most of the people the Einsatzgruppen killed were Jews. They killed between 5 and 6 million Jews.^[1]p. 257 However, they also killed hundreds of thousands of Polish people, Soviets, and Roma people in Eastern Europe.

After Nazi Germany lost World War II, 24 leaders of the Einsatzgruppen were put on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials. Sixteen were convicted. Fourteen were sentenced to death, and two were sentenced to life in prison. Other countries later tried four other Einsatzgruppen leaders, convicted them, and sentenced them to death.^{[1]pp=274–275}

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Rhodes, Richard (2002). Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-375-70822-7.