Nazi Perpetrators:

The Gestapo
Nazi Perpetrators: Table of Contents | Einsatzgruppen | Police Battalion 101

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The Geheime Staatspolizei (German for Secret State Police,
abbreviated Gestapo) was the secret police of Nazi Germany, and its
main tool of oppression and destruction, which persecuted Germans,
opponents of the regime, and Jews. It later played a central role in
helping carry out the Nazi's "Final Solution."
The Gestapo was formally organized after the Nazis seized power
in 1933. Hermann Gring, the Prussian minister of the interior,
detached the espionage and political units of the Prussian police and
proceeded to staff them with thousands of Nazis. On April 26,
1933, Gring became the commander of this new force that was given
power to shadow, arrest, interrogate, and intern any "enemies" of the
state. At the same time that Goring was organzing the
Gestapo, Heinrich Himmler was directing the SS (Schutzstaffel,
German for Protective Echelon), Hitler's elite paramilitary corps. In
April 1936, he was given command of the Gestapo as well, integrating
all of Germany's police units under Himmler.
Later in 1936, the Gestapo was merged with the Kriminalpolizei (or
Kripo, German for Criminal Police). The newly integrated unit was
the called the Sicherheitspolizei (or Sipo, German for Secret Police).
In 1939, during the reorganization of the German armies, the Sipo was
joined with an intelligence branch of the military known as
the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, meaning Security Service). After this
merger,
the
Sipo
became
known
as
the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA, meaning Reich Security
Central Office), and was headed by Reinhard Heydrich. Because of
these frequent changes, the functions of the Gestapo became blurred,
and often overlapped with those of the other branches of the German
forces.

During World War II, the Einsatzgruppen ("Task Force", mobile killing
squads) was formed, and came to be an integral part of the Gestapo. It
was the Einsatzgruppen's job to round up all the Jews and other
undesirables living within Germany's newly conquered territories,
and to either send them to concentration camps or put them to death.
At the end of 1940, when the Jews in Eastern Europe were interned
in ghettos, the Gestapo was charged with guarding and supervising the
ghettos, imposing forced labor, and causing starvation and disease in an
effort to decimate the ghetto inhabitants. After the invasion of Russia in
1941, the decision was made to kill all the Jews of Europe in gas
chambers and the Gestapo was called upon to supervise the dispatch of
the Jews to the camps specially adapted or constructed for the program
of mass murder.
The Gestapo units excelled in their unabated and premeditated cruelty,
in their ability to delude its intended victims as to the fate that awaited
them, and in the use of barbaric threats and torture to lead the victims to
their death, all as part of the "Final Solution." The units were taught
many torture techniques, and were also taught many of the practices
that German doctors in Dachautested on the inmates of concentration
camps. During its tenure, the Gestapo operated without any restrictions
from the civil authority, meaning that its members could not be tried for
any of their police practices. This unconditional authority added an
elitist element to the Gestapo; its members knew that whatever actions
they took, no consequences would arise.
After the war, very few of the important members of the Gestapo were
caught and brought to trial.

The Einsatzgruppen:
Directives & Activities
Einsatzgruppen: Table of Contents | Background & Overview | Directives & Activities

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There were a number of briefings about the aims and activities of
the Einsatzgruppen in the Nazi-occupied territories of the Soviet Union.
The first took place in Pretsch, and it was conducted by Bruno
Streckenbach, Chief of Department One of the RSHA. Streckenbach
acted as spokesmen for Himmler and Heydrich in explaining the
Fuhrer's order concerning the murder of the Jews.
The meeting is described in Ohlendorf's testimony at the
Einsatzgruppen Trial No. 9 at Nuremberg. (6) It is also mentioned in
the affidavit by Dr. Walter Blume, who headed SK 7a: "During June,
Heydrich, Chief of the Security Police and the SD, and Steckenbach,
head of Office I of the Reich Security Main Office [RSHA], lectured on
the duties of the Einsatzgruppen and Einsatzkommandos. At this time
we were already being instructed about the tasks of exterminating the
Jews. It was stated that Eastern Jewry was the intellectual reservoir of
Bolshevism and, therefore, in the Fuhrer's opinion, must be
exterminated. This speech was given before a small, select audience.
Although I cannot remember the individuals present, I assume that
many of the Einsatzgruppe and Sonderkommando chiefs were
present." (7)
Another briefing was given by Heydrich at a meeting of the leaders of
the Einsatzgruppen and Einsatzkommandos which took place on June
17. There again the Fuhrer's orders concerning the murder of the Jews
was discussed, as stated by Standartenfuhrer Dr. Walter Blume: "I heard
another speech by Heydrich in the Prinz Albrecht Palace in Berlin, in
the course of which he again emphasized these points.' (8) Erwin
Schulz, head of EK-5, testified at the Nuremberg Trials that 'Some time
during the first ten days of June 1941, the chiefs were called to the
RSHA in the Prinz Albrecht Palace to hear a speech by Heydrich in
which he outlined the policy to be adopted, giving us some guidelines

concerning the fulfillments

Einsatzgruppen." (9)

of

the

tasks imposedupon

the

At the third meeting, which probably took place shortly before June 22,
high-level SS and Police chiefs met in the office of the Chief of Order
Police, General Kurt Daluege. As Heydrich was unable to attend, he
sent them a memorandum dated July 2, 1941 (dated after the invasion
of the Soviet Union), specifying who was to be eliminated:
Executions
All the following are to be executed:
Officials of the Commintern (together with professional Communist
politicians
in
general);
Top- and medium-level officials and radical lower-level officials of the
Party. Central committee and district and sub-district committees;
Peoples commissars; Jews in Party and State employment, and other
radical elements (saboteurs, propagandists, snipers, assassins, inciters,
etc.) insofar as they are, of special importance for the further economic
reconstruction of the Occupied Territories ... (10)
More details are contained in Report No. 111 dated October 12, 1941:
'The principal targets of execution by the Einsatzkommandos will be:
political functionaries, ...Jews mistakenly released from POW
camps, ...Jewish sadists and avengers, ...Jews in general...'
According to the testimony of Otto Ohlendorf, head of Einsatzgruppe
D, dated April 24, 1947, the objective was the "murder of racially and
politically undesirable elements." Later on in the Einsatzgruppen trial,
he said (October 1948): "The goal was to liberate the army's rear areas
by killing Jews, Gypsies and Communistactivists ..." (11)

The Einsatzgruppen:
The History of Einsatzgruppe D
by Andrej Angrick

Einsatzgruppen: Table of Contents | Background & Overview | Directives & Activities

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On June 22, 1941, the Soviet Union was attacked on a broad front by
three German armies. Following in the wake of these armies were four
mobile units established by the Sicherheitshauptamt (Head Security
Office) ofReinhard Heydrich, the Einsatzgruppen (task forces) A, B, C
and D.
Einsatzgruppe D was led first by Otto Ohlendorf and later by Walter
Bierkamp, and was deployed in the south of the occupied Soviet Union.
Together with the 11th Army of the Wehrmacht, the unit was active in
Bessarabia, Bukovina, the southern Ukraine, and the Crimea and was
transferred together with Heeresgruppe A (Army A) in the summer
of 1942 to the Caucasus. The unit's principal task was to murder
political opponents and to participate in the Endlsung, the final
solution of the Jewish question, as part of the general policy of
extermination. Roma, asocial elements, prisoners of war and real and
supposed opponents of the new regime were included in the mass
murders. In addition, members of Einsatzgruppe D were co-responsible
for the deployment of their own spies and the repulsion of those of the
NKVD, the control of the oppressed population, and the development
of a local administration.