Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews by Peter Longerich (booksvooks TXT) 📕

carried out from then until October. 17

According to his testimony after the war, 18 the leader of Einsatzkommando 8, Otto Bradfisch, also heard from Nebe in the first half of August that ‘there is an

order from the Führer in place according to which all the Jews, women and

children included, are to be destroyed’. Bradfisch further testified that a short

while later, when Himmler was in Minsk on 15 August19 viewing a shooting by Bradfisch’s commando, he also told him that ‘there is an order from the Führer in

place for the shooting of all Jews. This order must be followed, however difficult

that may be for us.’20

The indiscriminate shooting of women and children can be proved to have been

the practice of Einsatzkommando 8 from August onwards, but in an intensified

form in September and October. One section of Einsatzkommando 8 stationed in

Bobruisk carried out at least seven shootings and in a single one of the ‘operations’

that must have taken place in the first half of September at least 400 men, women,

and children were killed. 21 Another section of Einsatzkommando 8 (this one stationed in Borisov) murdered all 700 inhabitants of the Sembin ghetto in

August, 22 and thereafter, probably in the first half of September, a further

‘major operation’ was carried out in Lahoisk in which, according to an incident

report of 23 September, 920 Jews were killed with the support of a commando of

the SS Division ‘Das Reich’. 23 This ‘operation’ also involved the murder of all the Jewish women and children in the town since it was thenceforth described as ‘free

of Jews’. At about the same time, this commando murdered another 640 Jews in

Nevel and 1,025 in Yanovichi, and in both cases the reason given was the need to

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Mass Executions in Occupied Soviet Zones, 1941

prevent the spread of contagious diseases. 24 Further massacres, each with several hundred victims, were carried out by the same commando in various places before

the end of September. 25

According to incident reports, 26 at around the end of September the section of Einsatzkommando 8 stationed in Borisov and parts of the commando that had

remained behind in Minsk together shot ‘1,401 Jews in a major operation in

Smolowicze [Smolevichi]’, men, women, and children. The relevant report goes

on to say, ‘now that this cleansing operation has been carried out there are no Jews

remaining in the north, south, or west of Borisov’. Police Battalion 322 shot a total

of 257 Jews on 28 August in Antopol—this was part of a major ‘special operation’

in which the Higher SS and Police Commander Russia Centre reported 1,170 Jews

murdered in the areas around Antopol and Bereza-Kartuska. 27

On 1 September Police Battalion 322 had shot ‘914 Jews, including 64 women’ in

Minsk after a discussion between Bach-Zelewski and Daluege on 29 August. 28 The reason given in the battalion’s war diary for shooting so large a number of Jewish

women was that they were ‘picked up during a raid for not wearing the Star of

David’. 29 This execution was in fact part of a series of raids and shootings that claimed approximately 5,000 victims in the Minsk ghetto between 14 August and 1

September. 30

On 25 September Battalion 322 performed the ‘lock-down’ and search of a

village as part of a ‘demonstration exercise’ for representatives of the Wehrmacht

(including divisional and regimental commanders), the police, and the SD. The

unit’s war diary reports that during this ‘exercise’ it had not been possible to arrest

any partisans but that ‘a check performed on the population showed the presence

of 13 Jews and 27 Jewesses as well as 11 Jewish children. Of these, 13 Jews and 19

Jewesses were executed in cooperation with the SD. ’31 Only when this bloody demonstration had been completed did Einsatzgruppe B set about the indiscriminate murder of members of the Jewish population within its sphere of operations.

This involved the massacre of thousands of Jews on each occasion, including

women and children.

On 2 October a company of Police Battalion 322 in Mogilev (which is where

Bach-Zelewski had his headquarters) undertook a ‘special operation on the orders

of the Higher SS and Police Commander’ and picked up ‘2,208 Jews of both sexes’

(a formulation that implies the inclusion of children). These people were all shot

in an operation also involving members of the Ukrainian militia. 32 On 19 October, four days before Himmler arrived for an inspection of Bach’s new headquarters in

Mogilev, the incident reports confirm that ‘a large-scale anti-Jewish operation was

carried out in which 3,726 Jews of both sexes and all ages were liquidated’, which is

a clear indication that children were once more amongst the victims. 33 This operation involved Einsatzkommando 8 and Police Battalion 316. These two

massacres in Mogilev heralded a whole series of similar ‘major operations’ in

the east of Belarus under Bach-Zelewski’s command.

Extension of Shootings to Whole Jewish Population

223

From then on, city by city, town by town, district by district the whole of the

Jewish population, except a few remaining members of the workforce, was shot.

These ‘operations’ involved Einsatzkommandos, the Order Police, the civilian

administration, and indigenous auxiliary police officers. The focus lay on major

cities with large Jewish populations in the eastern portion of the occupation zone.

Thus, to name only the most significant places, the Vitebsk ghetto was cleared

between 8 and 10 October and 4,090 Jews were shot (according to reports by

Einsatzkommando 9); 34 when the Borisov ghetto was cleared on 20 and 21

October, at least 6,500 Jews were shot after 1,500 people with specialist training

had been filtered out; 35 in Gomel Einsatzkommando 8 shot 2,500 inhabitants of the ghetto on 3 and 4 November; 36 in Bobruisk November saw the deaths of 5,281

Jews at the hands of Einsatzkommando 8 and Police Battalion 316 during their

‘special operation’ to make the city ‘free of Jews’. 37 Other cities saw further mass executions, although exact dating and precise figures are not always easy to

establish. 38

Executions evidently progressed without let or hindrance during the winter of

1941–2. Einsatzgruppe B had already reported 45,467 liquidations by the end of

October, in which Einsatzkommandos 8 and 9 were able to demonstrate particu-

larly high figures (28,218 and 11,452 respectively). 39 By the end of February 1942, that Einsatzgruppe had reported