Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews Peter Longerich (grave mercy .TXT) 📖

but probably all four of the commandos of

Einsatzgruppe D began the systematic murder of the entire Jewish population of a

number of villages. The decisive order for the transition to this new stage of mass

murder came at the end of August or the beginning of September from Otto

Ohlendorf. Gustav Nosske, who was leader of Einsatzkommando 12, stated on this

point in 1969 that around the beginning of September, Ohlendorf, together with

Rasch, the Leader of Einsatzgruppe C, visited him and revealed ‘that there is now

an order from the Führer according to which all Jews are to be killed indiscrim-

inately’. Until that point, he said, murders of Jews had been carried out ‘only in the

context of a general order for the security and pacification of the area behind the

lines’. 81

A report of Einsatzgruppe D for September 1941 reflects this new modus

operandi. It states that ‘the majority of our forces have been employed for the

purposes of political pacification in places that showed evidence of incipient

Jewish and communist terrorist groups, especially in the area of Ananyev and

228

Mass Executions in Occupied Soviet Zones, 1941

Dubăsari. In this area pacification was carried out extremely thoroughly.’82 The German ‘pacification operations’83 were predicated on the way the Romanian occupying powers were operating: they had begun using camps and ghettos to

imprison the 150,000 to 200,000 Jews who had remained in Transnistria and the

approximately 135,000 Jews who had been systematically deported from Bess-

arabia and the Bukovina into this area. Moreover, Jeckeln’s massacre of 23,600

Jews deported from Hungary in Kamenetsk-Podolsk took place relatively close to

Einsatzgruppe D’s area of operation and will have had a radicalizing effect on its

attitude.

In fact, by ‘extremely thorough’ pacification Einsatzgruppe D meant the mur-

der of the entire population of both villages. On 28 August in Ananyev, Sonder-

kommando 10b ‘shot about 300 Jewish men and women’, 84 or in other words all the Jews who had arrived in the town. 85 It then split into smaller sub-units that carried out murders in other places. 86 A sub-unit of Einsatzkommando 12 that had halted in Dubăsari at the end of August or early September killed small groups of

Jews there virtually every day. 87 In mid-September on the other hand, the sub-unit first murdered all of the approximately 1,500 Jewish inhabitants of the town and

then a few days later a further 1,000 Jews from the nearby areas. Drexel, the sub-

unit leader, testified on this point that he had received orders from a member of

the staff of Ohlendorf’s group ‘to shoot the Jews living in Dubăsari’. 88

Sonderkommando 10a carried out an execution in Berezovka, also probably in

September, in which 200 Jewish men, women, and children were killed. The

presence at this ‘operation’ of the commander of Einsatzgruppe D, Ohlendorf, is

documented. 89 The deputy leader of the commando, Otto-Ernst Prast, stated under interrogation in 1965 that shortly before these executions his unit, which

was already in Berezovka, had been told of an ‘order from the Führer’ for the

comprehensive shooting of all Jews. A second lieutenant from the same unit

testified that Ohlendorf and Seetzen, the leader of Sonderkommando 10a, had

announced in Berezovka that ‘from now on the Jewish question is going to be

solved and that means liquidation’. 90

In September 1941 the main body of Einsatzgruppe D crossed the River Bug and

thus left the Romanian zone of influence, the area called ‘Transnistria’ between the

Dniester and the Bug. At the end of September, Sonderkommando 11a, together

with a sub-unit of the Einsatzkommando 12 and probably with support from

Sonderkommando 11b, shot all the inhabitants of the ghetto in Nikolayev, where

the headquarters of the staff of Einsatzgruppe D was now located. This involved

some 5,000 women, men, and children. 91 At around the same time, probably a few days later, the entire Jewish population of Kherson was murdered by Sonderkommando 11a. 92

The mass executions of Ananyev, Dubăsari, Nikolayev, and Kherson that took

place between the end of August and the end of September marked the transition

to the undifferentiated murder of the Jewish civilian population in the area under

Extension of Shootings to Whole Jewish Population

229

Einsatzgruppe D. In this instance, too, Himmler personally inspected the mass

murders: for the period from 30 September until 6 October, we have evidence that

Himmler carried out an inspection tour in the Ukraine in which he also visited

Nikolayev and Kherson, so that it is clear that he was present in both places either

during or directly after the mass executions. 93

In the conclusion to its incident report for 26 September Einsatzgruppe D

reported: ‘Commando’s sphere of operations made free of Jews: from 19 August

to 15 October, 8,890 Jews and Communists executed. Total number: 13,315. Cur-

rently the Jewish question in Nikolayev and Kherson is being solved. About 5,000

Jews were dealt with. ’94 About a week later, the report states: ‘the commandos have continued to clear the area of Jews and Communist elements. In particular,

the cities of Nikolayev and Kherson have been freed of Jews and functionaries still

present were dealt with accordingly.’95

At this point, October 1941, Sonderkommando 11b was still in the Romanian

zone of occupation west of the Bug to take part in the conquest of Odessa that was

eventually achieved on 16 October. When a Soviet commando that had remained

behind in the city blew up the headquarters set up by the Romanian army a week

later, the Romanians reacted by carrying out a massacre of the Jews of Odessa that

probably claimed 40,000 victims. The Sonderkommando played its part in this

massacre by carrying out the mass execution of hostages. 96

Einsatzgruppe D continued its mass murders in the months that followed. In

the first half of October it reported that ‘the areas newly occupied by the

commandos have been rendered free of Jews’. 97 In the Einsatzgruppe’s October report it claimed: ‘the solution of the Jewish question has been energetically

undertaken by the Security Police Einsatzgruppen and the SD, in particular in

the area east of the Dnieper. The areas newly occupied by the commandos have

been made free of Jews. In the process 4,891 Jews were liquidated. In other places

the Jews have been marked out and registered. This made it possible to put labour

gangs of up to 1,000 strong at the disposal of the