SD MenEinsatzgruppen (Special Task Forces) were mobile killing units that operated in German-occupied Europe. Members came from the SS (Schutzstaffel), SD (Sicherheitsdienst / Security Service of the SS), Sipo (Sicherheitspolizei / Security Police) and the Orpo (Ordnungspolizei / Order Police).
They first appeared during the Anschluss (unification with Austria), reappearing on the invasion of Czechoslovakia. In both of these countries they served as mobile offices of the SD and Sipo, responsible for the security of the regime. But it was with the invasion of Poland that the activities of the Einsatzgruppen escalated from occasional to wholesale murder.
A killing site By an agreement between the military and the SS of 31 July 1939, the task of the Einsatzgruppen (EG) in Poland was defined as the "combating of all anti-German elements in hostile country behind the troops in combat."
Initially 5 Einsatzkommandos were formed, subsequently increased by the addition of two further Einsatzgruppen and a separate Einsatzkommando from Gdansk (Danzig). In total they numbered some 3,000 men.
Many of the leaders were representative of the intellectual elite of the Nazi party. Of the 25 Einsatzgruppen and Einsatzkommando leaders, 15 of them bore the title of PhD, most of them doctors of jurisprudence or philosophy. Their task was the elimination of Polish political opponents and Jews. In theory, the army exercised control of the conquered territories, being permitted to not only use force against armed resistance, strikes and sabotage, but also to arraign irregulars and spies before a court-martial and sentence them to death. However, this did not satisfy Reinhardt Heydrich. Although 200 executions were occurring daily, he complained that the courts-martial were much too slow:
"The people must be shot or hanged immediately without trial. The little people we want to spare, but the nobles, priests, and Jews must be killed."
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