Extracts from an Einsatzgruppen report, including arrests of Jews, forced labor, the execution of Jewish men and "obstinate" Jewish women, and actions against Communists and partisans

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TOP SECRET 100 copies Copy No. 42.
ACTIVITY AND SITUATION REPORT NO. 6. OF THE TASK FORCES [Einsatzgruppen] OF THE SECURITY POLICE AND THE SD IN THE U.S.S.R.
(Time covered by report: 1-31 October 1941)
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Table of Contents Page
I. Stations.............................................. 1
II. Activities.
A. Eastern Territory (Ostland)
a. Partisan activity and counteraction .:......... 1
b. Situation in Leningrad........................... 2
c. Jews .......................................... 7
B. White Ruthenia.
a. Partisan activity and counteraction ........... 8
b. Arrests and executions of communists,
officials and criminals......................... 11
c. Jews .......................................... 12
d. Enemy propaganda activity................. 14
e. Material seized .......................... 15
C. Ukraine
a. Partisan activity and counteraction............. 16
b. Arrests and executions of communists,
officials and criminals......................... 17
c. Jews ........................................ 18
d. Enemy propaganda activity...................... 19
e. Material seized ................................ 20
III. Economy. Commerce and Culture.
A. White Ruthenia
a. Economy and commerce........................... 20
b. Supplies and provisions......................... 21
c. Agriculture ............................. 21
d. Culture—Church .............................. 22
B. Ukraine
a. Economy and commerce........................ 23
b. Supplies and provisions..................... 24
c. Agriculture ................................ 25
d. Culture
1. Schools .........,........................... 25
2. Church .................................... 26
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IV. Attitude of foreign groups
A. White Ruthmians
Attitude towards Germanism...,................. 27
B. Ukrainians
a. Attitude towards Germanism.................. 28
b. Tendencies to autonomy.......................29
c. Attitude .towards Bolshevism................ 29
V. The German Racial Group in the area around Landau.... 30
I. STATIONS.
During the period covered by this report the stations of the Task Forces of the Security Police and the SD have changed only in the Northern Sector.
The present stations are:
Task Force A: since 7 October 1941 Krasnowardeisk.
Task Force B: continues in Smolensk.
Task Force C: since 27 September 1941 in Kiew.
Task Force D: since 27 September 1941 in Nikolajew.
The Action and Special Commandos [Einsatz und Sonder Commandos] which are attached to the Task Force continue on the march with the advancing troops into the sectors which have been assigned to them.
II. ACTIVITIES.
A. Eastern Territory (i. e. Baltic area)
a. Partisan activity and counteraction.
The activity of the Bolshevist partisans in area of task force A has quieted down somewhat. Nevertheless, intelligence work has been further extended through the dispatching civilian agents, and the enlistment of the village elders and of the population. The results of the preliminary intelligence work served as a basis for several actions in the active combatting of the partisans. From a captured activity report of a partisan group, it can be ascertained that the partisans anticipate, in view of the approaching winter season, that they will not be able to hold out longer than the middle of November.
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c. Jews. In 1940 there were in Estonia approximately 4,500 Jews almost exclusively in Reval, Dorpot, Narwa and Pernau. There were only a few Jews in the country districts. After the occupation of the Eastern territory by German troops there were still approximately 2,000 Jews. The larger part had left the
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country in an easterly direction together with the Soviet authorities and the Red Army.
Spontaneous demonstrations against Jewry followed by pogroms on the part of the population against the remaining Jews have not been recorded, on account of the lack of adequate indoctrination.
However, the Estonian Protective Corps [Selbstschutz], formed at the time of the entry of the Wehrmacht, immediately started a comprehensive arrest action of all Jews. This action was under the direction of the task force of the Security Police and the SD.
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The measures taken were:
1. Arrest of all male Jews over sixteen.
2. Arrest of all Jewesses from 16-20 years, who lived in Reval and environments and were fit for work;, these were employed in peat cutting.
3. Comprehensive detention in the synagogue of all Jewesses living in Dorpot and its environments.
4. Arrest of the Jews and Jewesses fit for work in Pernau and environments.
5. Registration of all Jews according to age, sex, and capacity for work for the purpose of their detention in a camp is being prepared.
The male Jews over 16 were executed with the exception of doctors and the elders. At the present time this action is still in progress. After completion of this action, there will remain only 500 Jewesses and children in the Eastern territory.
As an immediate action the following has been ordered by the task force of the Security Police and the SD:
1. Identification of all Jews.
, 2. The prohibition to carry on a public trade.
3. Prohibition of use of sidewalks and public transportation as well as of visits to theaters, cinemas and restaurants.
4. Prohibition of attendance at schools.
5. Seizure of all Jewish property.
B. WHITE RUT HEN IA .
a. Partisan activity and Counteraction.
Contrary to the situation in the North sector, the activity of the partisans in the area of task force B has increased slightly.
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In Welikij Luki alone, 19 reports of attacks by partisans were received. However, the main weight of partisan activity lately has been shifting over to the perpetration of acts of sabotage. It has been noted, that the strongest groups divide themselves into smaller ones. This results in a better camouflage and mobility. How far this camouflage goes, is shown by three cases where partisans married into three villages, in order to appear unsuspected. Furthermore, Red Army men were unmasked as partisans; they had obtained certificates surreptitiously from units of the Wehrmacht, showing them to be unsuspected as political prisoners who ' were to be left at large. When interrogated by the Action Commandos of the Security Police and the SD, they admitted after long denials that they had received the order to pass themselves off as political prisoners or as forced laborers, and to take up the fight again as partisans behind the front.
Again and again it can be observed, that the population refuses to support the partisans, and in several instances they have even acted actively against the partisans, if by this action the destruction of their property could be prevented.
In several actions against smaller partisan groups, a number of partisans would be shot.
At Choslawitschi 4 partisans who had shot at a German soldier were apprehended and liquidated.
Southeast of Demidow, five partisans were captured after a search of the forests; they admitted to have killed 14 German soldiers. They were liquidated.
In several actions northwest of Welish 27 partisans were apprehended and shot.
In the village Michalowo, after careful reconnaissance through civilian agents, 8 partisans were surprised in a house by the same Commando of the Security Police and the SD, they were arrested and hanged the next day in this particularly partisan-infested village. . :
The president of the District Region Soviets in Tarenitsch and his secretary were shot because of their connections with partisans. ' '
During an action approximately 70 kilometers south of Mogi-lew, 25 Armenians, Kirghizs and Mongols were apprehended with false identification papers with which they tried to conceal the fact that they belonged to a partisan group. They Were liquidated.
In the same district two partisan leaders were captured and shot.
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An Action Commando of the Security Police and the SD shot 3 partisans at Iwniki, who shortly before capture had thrown their weapons into a brook.
In Wultschina 8 juveniles were arrested as partisans and shot. They were inmates of ,a children's home. They had collected weapons which they hid in the woods. Upon search the following were found: 3 heavy machine guns, 15 rifles, several thousand rounds of ammunition, several hand grenades,, and several packages of poison gas Ebrit.
b. Arrests and executions of Communists, Officials and Criminals.
A further large part of the activity of the Security Police was devoted to the combatting of Communists and criminals. A special Commando in the period covered by this report executed 63 officials, NKVD agents and agitators.
In the vicinity of the Tytschinino railway station 4 girls were shot because they^attempted to derail a train by loosening the fish-plates.
Three communist officials and one Politruk were liquidated at Gorodnia.
18 persons were executed at Mogilew; they had acted as political officials and Politruk. Weapons were found in their possession.
An Action Commando convicted a member of the Supreme Council of the White Russian Soviet Republic of arson in Wit-ebsk. He was shot. ,
Bloodr-Cellar in Tschemigow. In the NKVD building in Tscher-nigow a blood cellar was discovered. It was soundproof and lightproof. One room served as the place for executions. The wall was covered with boards serving as butts with sawdust strewn in front of it which was completely soaked with blood.
Lunatics. The Red Troops had opened the insane asylum at their departure and had armed some of the inmates. 21 insane persons were apprehended in the meantime and liquidated. In Minsk 632 and in Mogilew 836 persons were shot.
In Mogilew in addition 33 looters were executed.
The liquidations for the period covered by this report have reached a total of 37,180 persons.
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c. Jews.
. Now as ever, it is to be noted that the population on their own part refrains from any action against Jews. It is true that the population reports collectively of the terror of the Jews to which they were exposed during the time of the Soviet regime, or they complain about new encroachments of the Jews, but nevertheless, they are not prepared to take part in any pogroms.
All the more vigorous are the actions of the task forces of the Security Police and the SD against the Jews who make it necessary that steps be taken against them in different spheres.
In Gorodnia 165 Jewish terrorists and in Tschernigow 19 Jewish Communists were liquidated. 8 more Jewish communists were shot at Beresna.
It was experienced repeatedly that the Jewish women showed an especially obstinate behavior. For this reason 28 Jewesses had to be shot in Krugoje and 337 at Mogilew.
In Borissow 321 Jewish saboteurs and 118 Jewish looters were executed. i
In Bobruisk 380 Jews were shot who had engaged to the last in incitement and horror propaganda (Hetz- und Greuelpropaganda) against the German army of occupation.
In Tatarsk the Jews had left the Ghetto of their own accord and returned to their old home quarters, attempting to expel the Russians who had been quartered there in the meantime. All male Jews as well as 3 Jewesses were shot.
In Sadrudubs the Jews offered some resistance against the establishment of a Ghetto so that 272 Jews and Jewesses had to be shot. Among them was a political Commissar.
Mogilew
In Mogilew too, the Jews attempted to sabotage their removal to the Ghetto. 113 Jews were liquidated.
Wit
Moreover, four Jews were shot on account of refusal to work and 2 Jews were shot because they had illtreated wounded German soldiers and because they did not wear the prescribed markings.
In Talka 222 Jews were shot for anti-German propaganda, and in Marina Gorka 996 Jews were shot because they had sabotaged orders issued by the German occupation authorities.
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At Schklow 627 more Jews were shot, because they had participated in acts of sabotage.
Witebsk
On account of the extreme danger of an epidemic, a beginning yas made to liquidate the Jews in the ghetto at Witebsk. This involved approximately 3000 Jews.
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C. UKRAINE. .
a. Partisan activity and counteraction.
Although- partisan activity in the south sector is very strong too, there is nevertheless the impression that spreading and effective partisan activity are strongly affected by the flight of higher partisan leaders, and by'the lack of initiative of the subordinate leaders who have remained behind. Only in one case a commando of the Security Police and the SD succeeded in a fight with partisans in shooting the Secretary of the Communist Party for the administration district of Nikolajew-Cherson, who was at the time Commissioner of a 'partisan group for the district Nikola-jew,-Cherson-Krim. , s .
The leader of a partisan group of five was captured after an exchange of shots near Odessa. He had the task of spotting artillery positions and of reporting them to a Soviet command post. , ,
An action against partisans near Kostromka resulted in the arrest of 16 persons,, among them a Politruk, a Unit leader of an annihilation brigade, as well as 3 communist revolutionaries.
The Jew Herschko Salomon, who had belonged to a parachute Defense-Assault battalion, was located at the city hospital in Nikolajew. The screening of PWs resulted in the discovery of 3 Jews who were members of a partisan company.
In Belabanowka the former president of the village soviet, who had attempted to form a partisan group of his own, was arrested.
Furthermore a member of the Polit. Bureau and president of a workers union, at present organizer of partisan groups, was arrested and liquidated.
14 partisans were shot at Kiew.
In the course of an action at Cherson, 2 persons were apprehended who attempted to carry information behind the Bol-
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shevist lines. At the same time the leader of a band of partisans was shot after a lengthy fight.
b. Arrests and Executions of Communists and Officials.
The seafch for leading communists resulted in the arrest of Kaminski, former GPU chief of Cherson. In the years 1919/21, he had carried out the liquidation of the Czarist officers. The head of the prison work shops of the NKVD was also caught.
In Kiew a number of NKVD officials and political commissars were rendered innocuous.
c. Jews.
The embitterment of the Ukrainian population against the Jews is extremely great, because they are thought responsible for the explosions in Kiew. They are also regarded as informers and agents of the NKVD, who started the terror against the Ukrainian people. As a measure of retaliation for the arson at Kiew, all Jews were arrested and altogether 33,771 Jews were executed oh the 29th and the 30th September. Money, valuables and clothing were secured and put at the disposal of the National-Socialist League for Public Welfare [NSV], for the equipment oUthe National Germans [Volksdeutschen] and partly piit at the disposal of the provisional city administration for distribution to the needy population.
Shitomir
In Shitomir 3145 Jews had to be shot, because from experience they have to be regarded as bearers of Bolshevist propaganda and saboteurs.
Cherson -In Cherson 410 Jews were executed as a measure of retaliation for acts of sabotage. Especially in the area east of the Dnjepr the solution of the Jewish question has been taken up energetically by the task forces of the Security Police and the SD. The areas newly occupied by the Commandos were purged of Jews. In the course of this action 4891 Jews were liquidated. At other places the Jews were marked and registered. This rendered it possible to put at the disposal of the Wehrmacht for urgent labor, Jewish worker groups up to 1000 persons.
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