The Einsatzgruppen Reports: Selections from the Dispatches of the Nazi Death Squads' Campaign Against the Jews July 1941-January 1943

It was to the Einsatzgruppen - the special task forces under Heinrich Himmler and the SS he headed - that fell the responsibility for the extermination of European Jewry. Members of the Einsatzgruppen death squads were recruited from the general population, from police detachments and from SS and army units. Support staff - drivers, radio operators, translators and clerks - were also assembled. The officers of the Einsatzgruppen included intellectuals, professionals and lawyers. Otto Ohlendorf, who commanded Einsatzgruppe D, earned degrees from three universities and a doctorate in jurisprudence. Ernst Biberstein, a commander of Einsatzgruppe C, was a Protestant pastor, theologian and church official. Einsatgruppen orders were contained in detailed instructions and issued from the offices of the Reich Security Services and the SS. Not only did these directives outline the administrative structure of the Einsatzgruppen, but they also defined the relationship the death sqads would have with the regular army, the Wehrmacht. The Germans wrote down everything they did in cold, bureaucratically detached reports. This book contains their translations into English as they relate to the executions of nearly two million European Jews. (Dust Jacket).