September 27, 1941

 

48 copies
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(36th copy)

 

Einsatzgruppe A

 

Location: Kikerino

 

1.) Partisans

 

Within the area of the civil administration, Einsatzkommandos 2 and 3 found at various localities an intensified propaganda activity of the Jewish population for the Bolshevik cause. Wherever such propaganda activity appears, the severest measures are taken and as far as possible the localities are entirely purged of Jews.

 

As this Jewish propaganda activity has been particularly intensive in Lithuania, the number of persons liquidated within the area of Einsatzkommando 3 has increased to approximately 75,000. For specific tasks, special Kommandos had to be sent repeatedly into the rural districts and were assigned to certain localities for several days. Thus, for example, one Kommando had to be sent to Plyusa as reports about large-scale looting were received from there. 47 per- sons were arrested and questioned. Seven persons were shot for looting, two more were publicly escorted through the streets of the locality, while the inhabitants were told that these persons had been looting food to the detriment of the population.

 

Another Sonderkommando had to be sent to Mugotovo where 87 insane per- sons armed themselves and roamed the countryside looting. It was ascertained that these inmates were incited by eleven Communists, part of whom presumably belonged to a partisan group. The eleven agitators, among them six Jews, and the insane were liquidated In the vicinity of the headquarters of Group Staff Posye, Kikerino and Meshno, the whole male population was regularly screened immediately on arrival of the units.

 

This repeatedly resulted in the arrest of partisans, Jewish and Communist agitators, looters, etc. Since the locations of the Einsatzgruppe are always near the headquarters of Armored Group IV, appreciation for this systematic and successful screening of the neighboring area was repeatedly voiced by Armored Group IV.

2.) The Jewish problem in Ostland

The first actions against the Jews in the Reichskommissariat Ostland (besides in the capacity of the administrative police) were undertaken by the Security Police. After the civil administration had taken over, the Einsatzkommandos transferred all anti-Jewish actions in the administrative police field, whether completed or only initiated, to the civil administration agencies. The establishment of ghettos has already begun everywhere and is being continued by the civil administration.

Only in Vilnius, which was taken over by Einsatzgruppe A at a later date, preparations were not as yet made for the confinement in a ghetto of the 60,000 Jews living there Emsatzkommando 3 now has suggested the establishment of a ghetto and will at the same time initiate the necessary pacification actions against the political activity of the Jews. In Riga, the so-called Moscow quarter of the town was designated as a ghetto even before the civil administration took over and a council of Jewish elders had been appointed.

The removal of the Jews into the ghetto is being continued. The Jews in the cities are being employed by all German agencies as unpaid manpower. Difficulties with employing agencies are every- day occurrences. If and when they occur the Security Police must take steps against Jewish workers. Economic agencies have repeated- y filed applications for exempting Jews from the obligation to wear the Star of David and to authorize them to patronize public inns.

This concerns mostly Jews who are designated as key personnel for certain economic enterprises. Such efforts are, of course, suppressed by the agencies of the Security Police. In the old Soviet-Russian territory, Jews were found only sporadically, even in the cities. Most of the Jews who had been living there had fled.

At present, and since the old Soviet-Russian territories have been occupied, the Wehrmacht itself usually issues orders for the marking of Jews. Thus the Commander-in-Chief of the 18th Army has ordered, for example, that Jews must be distinguished by white arm- bands with the Star of David to be worn on both arms.

 

Einsatzgruppe C