The ''Einsatzgruppen'' Operational Situation Reports (OSRs), or ERM for the german: Die Ereignismeldung UdSSR (plural: ''Ereignismeldungen''), were dispatches of the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

death squads ('' Einsatzgruppen''), which documented the progress of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

behind the German-Soviet frontier in the course of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

, during World War II. The extant reports were sent between June 1941 and April 1942 to the Chief of the Security Police and the SD (german: Chef des Sicherheitspolizei und SD) in Berlin, from the occupied eastern territories including modern-day Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, and the Baltic Countries. During the

Nuremberg War Crimes Trials The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945 ...

the originals were grouped according to year and month and catalogued using a consecutive numbering system, as listed in the below table. The original photostats are held at the National Archives in Washington D.C.

Background

Following the onset of Operation Barbarossa, during the first 5 weeks of their shooting actions, the '' Einsatzgruppen'' squads targeted primarily male Jews. This changed on July 29, 1941, when

Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...

himself, quoted at an SS meeting in

Vileyka Vileyka ( officially transliterated as Viliejka, be, Віле́йка , also ''Вялейка''; russian: Вилейка; lt, Vileika; pl, Wilejka) is a city in Belarus and the administrative center of the Vileyka District of Minsk Region. It is ...

(Polish Wilejka), criticized their leaders for the low execution figures. It was therefore ordered that the Jewish women and children be included in all subsequent shooting operations. The first women and children were killed along with the men on July 30, 1941, in Vileyka. The Nazi ''Einsatzgruppen'' were not the only formation tasked with the mass killings. Other formations included the

Order Police battalions The Order Police battalions were militarised formations of the German Order Police (uniformed police) during the Nazi era. During World War II, they were subordinated to the SS and deployed in German-occupied areas, specifically the Army Grou ...

from Germany (Orpo) participating equally in the mass murder of Polish and Soviet Jews regardless of their age and sex, including in the territories of the formerly Soviet-occupied Poland (see the Red Friday massacre), the Baltic states, and in the USSR proper. Significant numbers of women and children were murdered behind all front lines not only by the Germans but also by the local

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

and Lithuanian auxiliary forces. The largest

mass shooting There is a lack of consensus on how to define a mass shooting. Most terms define a minimum of three or four victims of gun violence (not including the shooter or in an inner city) in a short period of time, although an Australian study from 20 ...

of Soviet Jews took place on September 29, 1941, in the ravine of

Babi Yar Babi Yar (russian: Ба́бий Яр) or Babyn Yar ( uk, Бабин Яр) is a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and a site of massacres carried out by Nazi Germany's forces during its campaign against the Soviet Union in World War II. T ...

near Kiev, where 33,771 Jews of all ages were machine-gunned (Situation Report No. 101).

Original German cables

After World War II, the reports were grouped and numbered by the Allies in order to summarize their content. The actual German cables were sent in their own differing sequence including by the ''Einsatzgruppe'' A (EG–A) attached to

Army Group North Army Group North (german: Heeresgruppe Nord) was a German strategic formation, commanding a grouping of field armies during World War II. The German Army Group was subordinated to the ''Oberkommando des Heeres'' (OKH), the German army high comman ...

, ''Einsatzgruppe'' B (EG–B) attached to

Army Group Center Army Group Centre (german: Heeresgruppe Mitte) was the name of two distinct strategic German Army Groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army for ...

, ''Einsatzgruppe'' C (EG-C) attached to the

Army Group South Army Group South (german: Heeresgruppe Süd) was the name of three German Army Groups during World War II. It was first used in the 1939 September Campaign, along with Army Group North to invade Poland. In the invasion of Poland Army Group So ...

, and ''Einsatzgruppe'' D (EG–D) attached to the 11th Army. In the OSRs, individual ''Ereignismeldungen UdSSR'' (morning reports) abbr. EM, from EG–A appear in 103 different places. The reports from EG–B appear in 64 OCRs (as arranged by the Allies). The EG-C reports are listed in 77 different OCRs, and the reports from EG–D (with the least representation at source) are featured in 63 OCRs. Occasionally, large gaps appear between individual reports, caused by the lack of time or other complications including broken telephone lines in the East. Notably, in Operational Situation Report number 19, Einsatzgruppe C was changed to Einsatzgruppe B and vice versa, thus confusing further reports of their shooting actions. The OSRs are far from being equal. Some of them, such as OSR 156, include translated cables from several cities and weeks of shooting actions not yet concluded with tens of thousands of victims mentioned; while other Operational Situation Reports, such as OSR 67, resemble long essays describing mere investigations into partisan activities in rural countryside resulting in dozens of executions. Notably, the reports do not include all killings before the end of 1942. The following selection of reports are available in English translation. The complete set of reports is available in German.https://d-nb.info/1011163101/04

Notes

References

* Newer edition by Univ. of Nebraska Press / Yad Vashem 2007. * * {{Authority control Holocaust historical documents The Holocaust in Latvia The Holocaust in Ukraine The Holocaust in Lithuania The Holocaust in Russia The Holocaust in Estonia The Holocaust in Belarus The Holocaust in Poland 1941 documents 1942 documents

Background

Original German cables

See also

Notes

References