Figure 1.--After the War, many Wehrmacht commanders blamed the Holocaust on Hitler and the SS. In fact, the Wwhrmacht played an important role in the killing. Here Whermcht ifficers are personally murdering Jews in front of their men. The photograph is unidentified, but was taken somewhere in the Soviet Union, probably in 1941. This is how these orders transferred to in flesh and blood. Image couresy of Military History of the 20th Century History Blog.

After the War, many Wehrmacht commanders blamed the Holocaust on Hitler and the SS. In fact, the Wwhrmacht played an important role in the killing. Here Whermcht ifficers are personally murdering Jews in front of their men. They had standing orders from OKW to do this. A series of standing orders were issued byb OKW. They were not as explicit as those issued the the SS Einsatzgruppen, but they were clear enough as whst was ti be done. This unidentifief photograph was taken somewhere in the Soviet Union, probably in 1941. This is how the OKW orders transferred to in flesh and blood. This image is notable because two senior officers are personally doing the killing. You have to ask, why would they do this personally and why would they want to be photographed doing it? We would be very interested in any insights readers can offer to better understand thid horrifying image.

The People

There appear to be three groups of people involved here. The killers, the vivtims, and a group of officers watching the execution process. The killers as far as we can tell are regular Wehrmact officers. They are not SS or SD men, nor do they appear to be police auxileries like Kripo. And they appear to be senior officers (majors or coronels). They are clearly not junior officers. They look to be the right age for senior officers. And as far as we can tell, they are Wehrmacht officers, not SS or SD men or Kripo men. This shows the degree the regular Wehrmacht was involved in killing operations in the East. The men they are posed to kill look like ordinary civilians. They are probably Jews, but the could have been partisans. The partisans were not very active in 1941 and the there wee many Jews, especially in what is now Belarus and the Ukraine. The German view that the very fact that they were Jews made them Bolshevick subversives. A reader thinks that becuse there hand are bound and are being killed individually they were probably partisans, but we have noted accounts of Jews being killed in this manner. The process is being observed by another group, probably junior officers and NCOs, based on the field jackets and boots. We do not know if they were instructed to watch or did so voluntarily. As we can't see their faces, we can not assess their reaction. Finally, there is an individual in the upperleft-hand corner. A reader thinks he is a commander supervising the operation. Or he could be a staff member intereested in the process.

Photographer

We do not know who bthe photographer was. We do not think it was anapshot taken by a soldier. Many German soldiers took their cameras with them and German soldier photography is an inmortant source in World War II. This looks more like a pgotograph taken by an official photographer. These men, however, did not normally take photographs of German attricitie. Rather we think hat one of the officers here, or perhaps both instructed him to take their pictures for their personal use.

Killing Operation

The victims are kneeling down in front of a freshly dug pit. It is difficult to assess how big the pit here was. Some were huge. But there were pits dug of varying sizes. The men here may have dug the pit themselves or as part of a larger labor brigade that is now bring liquidated. This could be a graining erercise, the senior officers demonsrating to the junior officers and NCOs how to conduct killing operations. So this most likely is a major as a battalion commander showing his company and platoon commanders what to do to keep order or to demonstrate their ruthlessness for any disobedience from the civilians. We believe it is fairly unusual to have senior officers killing civilians like this. Perhaps they hated Jews and wanted to be part of the process or more likely it was training exercise.

Location

The photograph has no markings. It was most likely taken in what is now Belarus (formerly Eastern Poland) or the Ukraine.

Date

The image is undated. Most photographs like this were taken in 1941. This looks like is was not taken the first two monts month of Barbarossa when the weather was warm, but before the weather turned cold. This September-October seems likely.

Question

Perhaps the greatest unknown about this image was why two senior Wehrmacht officers would want their photograoh taken killing Jews or other civilians, in essence commiting war crimes. The only thing we can think of is that it was a helpful career advancing action to show how diligently they were following the Barbarossa, Commissar, and other standing orders issued for operations in the East. A reader writes, If they wanted to show their devotion to the Führer, a photo says a thousand words for the thousand year Reich they were fighting for. And they probably felt so superior that Germany was going to win the war they did not care." Perhaps they believes that they were making history and wanted a record of their heroic participation.

Action 1005

The Germans left burial pits full of Jews and other they killed all over the Baltics, eastern Poland, and the Ukraine. Burrying the bodies hid them from sight, but did not destoy gthe evidence. While they were winning the War, the thought that the graves would ever come to light seemed remote. The Jews were just buried, After the Soviet 1941-42 winter offensiveand even more after Stalingrad, it becanme advisable to destroy the evidence. The discovery of the NKVD's work in the Katyn Forrest made clear the adverse consequences flowing from the discovery of these graves and the evidenbce of war crimes. Thus the SS organize Jewish slave labor gangs to dig up the bodies and burn them this destroying the bodies. The problem forvthe Germans was finding the grave sights and the fact that were so many such sites. Finding the graves by the death camps was easy. Finding the huge numbers of graves that the Einsatzgruppen left scattered all over the western Soviet Union, the Baltics, and eastern Poland.

Created: 3:39 AM 12/8/2011
Last updated: 3:39 AM 12/8/2011