The SS Einsatzgruppen were the most notorious of the Schutzstaffel (SS),
the paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany. Under the leadership of
the notorious Otto Ohlendorf they were responsible for the introduction
of a regime of terror involving mass killings, primarily by shooting, in
occupied territory of the Soviet Union during 1941 and 1942. Under the
direction of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and the direct supervision
of SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich the Einsatzgruppen played the
leading role in the implementation of the Final Solution in territories
conquered by Nazi Germany, but they were also responsible for combatting
partisans and eliminating Soviet political commissars, mental patients
and Gypsies throughout Eastern Europe.
Otto Ohlendorf and the other SS Einsatzgruppen leaders were eventually
brought to justice and the 1947 Einstazgruppen trial at Nuremburg bears
his name. The trial provided a wealth of primary source documents and
testimony which proved the guilt of the perpetrators, but also provided
a frightening insight into just how closely the SS sponsored
Einsatzgruppen had co-operated with the Wehrmacht and local populations.
Emmy AwardTM winning Author and historian Bob Carruthers has revisited
and edited the primary source material from the trial to provide a new
and chilling insight into the work of the Einsatzgruppen which draws
frightening conclusions and blows away the myths with regard to the
presumed lack of involvement on the part of the Wehrmacht. Essential
reading for anyone with an interest in the true nature of the war on the
Russian Front from primary sources.
