The Holocaust: Einsatzgruppen--Poland (September-November 1939)


Figure 1.--Hrydrich's reformed Einsatzgruppen took a deadly turn in Poland. They began killing both Poles and Jews. Abwehr Chief Admiral Canaris was sickened by scenes like this. All we know is that this Aktion took place in Poland, probably September 1939. We do not know who the civilans were or just why they were killed. Just being Jews or Poles was reason enough.

The Germans during the September 1939 German invasion of Poland employed special action squads of SS and police (the Einsatzgruppen--EG). The EG were deployed in Austria (March 1938), the Sudetenland (October 1938), amd Czechosolvakia (March 1939), but were not ordered to kill large numbers of Austrians and Czechs. Poland was to be different. This was not a job to be given to the Whermacht. Hitler informed his commabders just before the invasion, "things would be done of which German generals would not approve." Field Marshal Fedor von Bock reported that the Föhrer ... "did not therefore wish to burden the army with the necessary liquidatioins, but would have them carried out by the SS." The EG were mobile formations formed from the SIPO (Security Police) abd the SD (Security Service Police). The new SS security operation was named the RHSA (Reich Central Security Office) and placed under the control of Reinhard Heydrich. Eqach EG unit had 400 to 600 men. A EG was assigned to each of the five German armies invading Poland. A sixth EG was unleashed on Poznan, a border province Hitler wanted to incorporate into the Reich as quickly as possible. Their instructiins were to follow front line troops and arrest or kill anyone resisting the Germans or who they considered capable of doing so in the future. This was based on a person's position and social status. The EG units had carefully prepared lists made up of important persons in towns and villages all over Poland. These individuals were confined in rustic reception centers. Most were shots after only a few days. The focus was on intellectuals not Jews in particular. One EG commander, SS General Udo von Woyrch, on his own initiative took the initiative to seek out Jews to kill. Ethnic German self-defense units soon joined the EG in these actions, but were less coldly efficent. Tens of thousands of Polish civilians were murdered in this process.

Austria and Czechoslovakia

The German SS deoployed Einsatzgruppen (EG) in Austria (March 1938), the Sudetenland (October 1938), and Czechosolvakia (March 1939). They were special action squads of SS and police. They were ordered to arrest people from previously prepared lists. They were not ordered to kill large numbers of Austrians and Czechs ouright. Many of those arrested were killed, but in concentarion camps, not outright shooting.

Assignment in Poland

The Germans during the September 1939 German invasion of Poland again employed EG. Poland was, however, to be different. This time they had orders to kill. This was not a job to be given to the Whermacht. Hitler informed his commanders just before the invasion, "things would be done of which German generals would not approve." Field Marshal Fedor von Bock reported that the Führer ... "did not therefore wish to burden the army with the necessary liquidations, but would have them carried out by the SS." The EG had the cover of a war to do the killing. In addition, Hitler and the SS became increasingly willing to kill as one success followed another.

Command Structure

SD Chief Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of Rech Security, was responsible for the Einsatzgruppen. An EG was assigned to each of the five German armies invading Poland. A sixth EG was unleashed on Poznan, a border province Hitler wanted to incorporate into the Reich as quickly as possible. The EG commanders reported directly to Heydrich.

Composition

Heydrich formed six entirely new Einsatzgruppen for the Polish campaign. We are not entirely sure why he decided tomdo that. Unlike Czechoslovakia, he did not reactivate the Einsastzgruppen used in the Sudetenland and Czech lands. Rather he formed entirely new groups with new commanders. We are not entirely sure why he did this, but probably relates atht in Poland the EG were to be paramilitary formations. Also the fact that they would be actually shooting civilans necesitated a certain type of indiviodual. The EG were mobile formations formed from the Security Police (SIPO) and the (Security Service Police (SD). The new SS security operation was named the Reich Central Security Office (RHSA) and placed under the control of Reinhard Heydrich. Each EG unit had 400 to 600 men. About 2,700 men were involved.

Orders

Their instructions were to follow front line troops and arrest or kill anyone resisting the Germans or who they considered capable of doing so in the future. This was based on a person's position and social status. The EG units had carefully prepared lists made up of important persons in towns and villages all over Poland. Ethnic Germans in Poland had helped prepare these lists. These individuals were confined in rustic reception centers. Most were shot after only a few days. The focus of the EG was on intellectuals not Jews. The idea was to begin killing those who constituted the core of Polish nationhood. The orders in Poland were not as focused on Jews as they woukd be in the Soviet Union. Here they were ordered to arrest the elite of Polish society, including both political and cultural figures, the politically unreliable. Earlier in Austria and Czechoslovakia they went after ati-NAZIs. In Poland political orientation was only one factor. Polish national identity and culture was to be wiped out. The EG were ordered to seek out and kill a whole strata of society. This included authors, priests, composers, and other groups. One EG commander, SS General Udo von Woyrch, took the initiative to seek out Jews to kill. Ethnic German self-defense units soon joined the EG in these actions, but were less coldly efficent. Tens of thousands of Polish civilians were murdered in this process.

Operations

Five of the new EG were theoretically attached to the invading Wehrmacht forces. In fact they operated largely independently. The sixth was assigned to work specifically in the Posen (Poznan) district. The EG deployed for the invasion of Poland, unlike the earlier groups, were paramilitary formations (September 1939). Their purpose was not to fight and win battles. This was the function of the Wehrmacht. Nor were they like the earlier EG there tom make arrests. The EG were there to kill Polish civilians in sustantial numbers. The EG conducted a variety of other operations. They also confiscated of weapons, conducted police intelligence, and oversaw various actions against Jews.

Operation Tannenberg

German Führer Adolf Hitler personally issued orders to establish a unit code named Tannenberg within the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Security Ministry--RHSA) (May 1939) to begin the killing of the cream of Polish society. Hitler phrased it succintly, '... only a nation whose upper level are destroyed can be pushed into the ranks of slavery." Mallman, Böhler, and Matthãus, p. 57.] Heydrich developed the details of the plan to render the 'upper levels of society' harmless by killing 61,000 Polish civilians. The plan was code named Operation Tannembrg after the German World War I victory over the Russians. The EG were the instruments of Opperation Tannenberg. Regular Wehrmacht units, the SS and Selbstschutz (paramilitary groups formed by local ethnic Germans) units also participated. [Rossino, pp. 15 and 30.] Lists had been prepared with the help of ethnic Germans for arrest. Various ruses were used to arrest groups like university professors. Many those arrested were quickly shot. Some 20,000 Poles were shot in 760 mass execution sites. Others were transported to concentration camps where few survived the War.

Jews

The EG arrested and killed some Jews were, but the numbers were relatively small, at least in comparison with what came later. The killing of Jews at this time seems to have been conducted on the iniative of Einsatzgruppen and junior Wehrmacht commanders who were NAZI adherents rather than on specific orders by Heydrich, although he seems to have given general instructions. One Eisatzgruppe was ordered to terrorize, generating such fear that as many Jews as possible would flee to the east and the the Soviet sector. [Snyder, p. 12.] Rather than immediate killing operations, Polish Jews were terrorized by chaotic actions and roundups. The German plan was to create Ghettos for Polish Jews in major cities. The unorganized attacks and humiliations on Jews caused many to see the ghettoes as a refuge, helping NAZI authorities with the ghetiozation process. The Einsatzgruppen played a role in this. The ghetoization proess took longer than Himmler, Heydrich, and the SS planners had anticipated.

Results

One estimate suggests 500 towns and villages were burned and over 16,000 people were executed by the Einsatzgruppen in Poland (September 1-October 5).

Whermacht Reaction

The Wehrmacht actually arrested and was prepared to court martial both Wehrmacht and SS members who committed attrocities in Poland. Hitler pardoned each man arrested. No one was ever punished for exceeding orders. (And there would be no further Wehrmacht actions against its members for killing Jews and civilians.) The numbers killed were still in the thousands, not the hundreds of thousands.

Sources

Mallman, Klaus-Michael, Jochen Böhler, and Jürgen Matthãus. Einsatzgruppen in Polen: Darstellung und Dokummenbtation (Darmstadt: WGB, 20008).

Snyder, Timothy. Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin (Basic Books: New York, 2010), 524p.

Rossino, Alexander. Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003).






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Created: 10:37 PM 12/21/2011
Last updated: 5:06 AM 10/5/2013