The Einsatzgruppen were SS mobile units attached to the regular German army (Wehrmacht) tasked with the elimination of civilian elements deemed hostile to the Reich. In the Polish campaign of 1939, they executed members of Poland’s intelligentsia including political leaders, college professors and priests, as well as Jews. The scale of murder increased dramatically during Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s assault on the Soviet Union and the Ukraine in June 1941. Four Einsatzgruppen, each subdivided into mobile Kommando units, were to operate along the front from north to south. Their victims included Roma and Sinti, Communist party officials (Commissars), “mental defectives” and especially Jews: Jewish men, women, and children of all ages were to be executed.
The Einsatzgruppen leaders themselves were highly educated Nazi careerists, some with doctorates and law degrees. One was a Protestant pastor and theologian. Another had two PhDs. All were personally selected by Reinhard Heydrich, head of Reich Security under Heinrich Himmler, both for their level of education and their degree of fanaticism. The Einsatzgruppen Kommando groups worked with the German Order Police, local militia groups and collaborators as they cut a large swath across the Baltic States, Eastern Poland, the Ukraine and Soviet Union. Victims would be rounded up with the help of locals, ordered to report to a central location (e.g., a town square), marched or driven to remote sites, and, having been forced to undress, shot over ravines, cliffs, ditches, sand pits, quarries or graves they were at times made to dig themselves. All the while family and friends they had known a lifetime stood by anxiously awaiting their turn.
Interviews conducted by French Catholic priest Father Patrick Desbois with surviving witnesses - formerly neighbors of the murdered Jews - enabled him to piece together aspects of the infrastructure of execution that facilitated the murder of Jews by the Einsatzkommandos (Holocaust by Bullets; In Broad Daylight). While there were variations in details from community to community, Father Desbois is painfully clear that the systematic murder of Jews depended on auxiliary and local police on one hand, but importantly on the conscription and active participation of local neighbors for jobs such as providing transportation to the murder site; grave digging and filling the gravesite after an “Aktion,” and provision of food and drink for the executioners.
Holocaust historian Wendy Lower (The Ravine:A Family, a Photograph, a Holocaust Massacre Revealed) also identified patterns of collusion between non-Jewish locals and the Germans. Teenage girls were conscripted into gravedigging. Ukrainian police were employed for collecting the Jews to be murdered. The presence of the Germans seemed to release years of barely suppressed rage against Jewish neighbors by the Ukrainians. Jews were assaulted and mocked even as their homes were pillaged. Jewish women-including teenagers- were raped by local militia. Even babies were not spared the monstrous barbarity.
Lower’s Ravine documents her determined probing into the background of a photograph depicting the murder of a Jewish woman and her two children on the edge of a ravine near the Ukrainian town of Miropol in October, 1941. The mother is pictured kneeling over the edge of this ravine, her head wreathed in smoke from rifles fired at point blank range-blank by a Ukrainian militia man and a German officer. She is clutching the hand of the barefoot young boy with another child-a girl-nestled in her apron, barely discernable through the plume of smoke- before falling- holding her children close- into the depths of the ravine to lay among Jewish neighbors who had already met the same fate.This photograph evokes the depthless horror of the systematic murder of Jews throughout the territory defiled by the Einsatzgruppen and their collaborators.
The Einsatzgruppen were ultimately responsible for the murder of 1.5 to 1.7 million Jews throughout German-occupied Baltic countries, Eastern Poland, the Ukraine and the. Soviet Union. Father Desbois and Dr. Lower draw our attention not only to the means and methods of the mass murder of Jews, but as well to the unbearable truth of an extensive landscape of unmarked mass graves, shrouded in silence, concealing a dark history. There were more Jews murdered by the Einsatzgruppen squads and their collaborators than perished in Auschwitz, notwithstanding that Auschwitz has become a veritable metonym for the Holocaust.
Other “atrocity” photographs in this collection include: 2012.1.397 and 2012.1.100d. The former, the “Last Jew in Vinnitsa” shows an unidentified Jewish man about to be shot by a member of Einsatzgruppen D. German historian Jurgen Matthaus places this event in Berdichev and not Vinnitsa. More than 35,000 Jews were murdered in Berdichev in 1941.The latter is a photograph transformed into a post World War II Polish postcard and shows Jews awaiting execution in the forest near the Polish town of Bochnia, circa 1942.
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Broadside Announcing German Round-Up of Jews in Ukraine
2012.1.501
Tan poster with text (possibly in Ukrainian).
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A printed broadside (Bekanntmachung), posted in Rivne, Ukraine. The broadside announced orders directed to Jews in the local ghetto: ".... Jews must wear a yellow insignia approximately 8 cm. in diameter on the left front and center back of all outer clothing... The (Ghetto) population is required to assemble at 12 noon on Friday, 19 Sept. 1941...." As the German military pushed eastward into the Soviet Union, they were trailed by "Einsatzgruppen," special SS extermination squads whose sole purpose was to round up and execute "political enemies of the state" -- which included 1.4 million Russian Jews. This poster was used in a local effort to identify, label and round up some of these victims.
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Eyewitness Testimony from Smorgonie, Lithuania to Killing of Jews
2014.1.297
Feldpostbrief' printed along with two handstamps, one black with date, one purple with Reich seal. Interior: Pencil handwriting in German. Several sentences are scrawled on the sides. Fold crease through middle.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Disturbing folded Feldpost lettersheet sent from a Corporal (Obergefreiter) with signals detachment 660 (nachrichtenabteilung) on special assignment in Smorgonie, Lithuania Oct 22, 1941.
"Also this morning I grabbed 7 Jewesses when cleaning out the homes; they were all attractive, as we were slowly coming out. Two girls we kept for ourselves for the living quarters, one to cook and the other for clothing, it is really a shame for the girls, two had such beautiful black hair, they were all shot at once."
After the invasion of Lithuania in 1941, thousands of Jews were executed; these girls would have been in hiding from the killing squads. According to the Yad Vashem website, at the beginning of 1941 there were approximately 220,000 Jews in Lithuania and by the end of 1941 there were only around 40,000, primarily in the ghettos.
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The Hanging of Masha Bruskina
2014.1.187
Image taken from behind Masha Bruskina as authorities tie a noose around her neck. Further information: Bruskina was a 17-year-old Jewish member of the Minski Resistance, and a volunteer nurse at the Polytechnic Institute Hospital. She was arrested by Lithuanian authorities, and hung as an example to other would-be rebels.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Maria "Masha" Bruskina was a 17-year-old Jewish member of the Minsk Resistance during World War II. A volunteer nurse at a hospital, she cared for wounded Russian soldiers and helped them escape by smuggling clothing and false documents. Betrayed by a patient, she was arrested by the Wehrmacht and Lithuanian auxiliary troops (Schutzmannshaft). German authorities, wishing to make an example of her, decided on a public hanging along with two other members of the resistance to occur on October 26, 1941. Masha was paraded through the streets with a plaque around her neck labelling her as a partisan before being executed. A monument to her has been erected in Israel.
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Official Document with W. Filderman Signature Stamp Regarding Official Dispositions from War Department
2012.1.66ab
Typewritten documents on onionskin paper in Romanian.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Note from November 1941 regarding the Official Dispositions from War Department for requisition of all Synagogues, Temples, Association Houses. There will be a so-called "Real Estate Census" between 1942 and 1946.
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Official Document with W. Filderman Signature Stamp Regarding Jewish Work Requirements
2012.1.68
Typewritten documents on onionskin paper in Romanian.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Subsequent to General Headquarter Order No. 55874 Nov. 20, 1941, the Federation of Jewish Communities Unions in Romania informs all Jewish organizations how to proceed after the end of the "National Labour Activities," in which Jewish qualified workers are forced to integrate. It includes rules about what is allowed and what isn't allowed: "The Jews must be present on the State Work Department from every District, every month. They must not travel out of the District limits. They must inform the Internal Ministry authorities about their presence at home. They will be taken on every moment at Prahova Oil & Gas Distilleries."
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Feldpost Envelope from Member of SS Polizei Einsaztkommando Burger
2014.1.300
Front: Addressed in blue ink to Frau Elsie Kitahofer. One red stamp with Hitler's profile facing left in right corner with black circular hand stamp over it. Back: Return address handwritten in blue ink on top flap.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
SS Feldpost cover from member of SS Polizei Einsaztkommando Bürger, an anti-partisan unit operating in the Ukraine and subsequently in Italy. This cover is from Ungarische-Brod.
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Official Document with W. Filderman Signature Stamp Regarding Property Documents
2012.1.71
Typewritten document on onionskin paper in Romanian.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A note regarding all the judicial requirements and property documents for the Jewish organizations to combat the requisitions of their houses and religious temples.
[Related item: 2012.1.70]
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Official Document with W. Filderman Handwritten Initials Regarding Property Documents
2012.1.70
Half page with short message typewritten in Romanian.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A note regarding all the judicial requirements and property documents for the Jewish organizations to combat the requisitions of their houses and religious temples.
[Related item: 2012.1.71]
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Holocaust in Ukraine: Soldiers Prepare to Shoot Civilians
2015.2.193
Front: Black and white photograph showing seven soldiers next fo a field of corn using rifles to shoot at a group of men with their backs turned.Back: Includes pencil markings, blue hand stamps, orange writing.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Photograph from Ukrainian Archives of civilians before firing squad. It is not clear from this photo whether these "soldiers" are Germans, German Order Police, or possibly "Schutzmannschaften" or collaborationist auxiliary police working under the Germans, e.g., Lithuanian, Ukrainian, etc. auxiliary police. Nor is it clear from this photo who the civilians are: Jews, partisans, etc.
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German Soldiers Checking Papers of a Jewish Man (Holocaust in Ukraine)
2015.2.194
Front: Black and white photograph of a Jewish man with a dark beard, wearing a cap, and holding items in his left hand next to two soldiers. The soldier closest to the Jewish man goes through what the Jewish man is holding. The man to the right wears glasses and looks on.Back: Includes blue hand stamps as well as writing in pencil and orange ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Photograph from Ukrainian Archives of Jewish man having papers searched.
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German Soldier Giving a Command (Holocaust in Ukraine)
2015.2.195
Front: Black and white photograph of a man in Nazi uniform with glasses giving a Nazi salute as a group of Jewish people looking on.Back: Includes blue hand stamps as well as writing in pencil and orange ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: German soldier giving a command to a group of Jews.
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German Soldiers Speaking to a Jewish Man (Holocaust in Ukraine)
2015.2.196
Front: Black and white photograph of a Jewish man to the left facing the camera wearing a dark coat with fur collar. To the right of him are two soldiers, one who appears to be speaking to the man, and one behind wearing glasses with his hands on his hips. A crowd stands behind the three figures.Back: Includes blue hand stamps as well as writing in pencil and orange ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Photograph of soldiers - possibly collaborationist auxiliary police - addressing a Jewish man. Note the self-satisfied pose of the soldier with hands on hips.
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Soldiers and Jewish Men Smiling for Camera (Holocaust in Ukraine)
2015.2.197
Front: Black and white photograph depicting a group of people, including two soldiers on the right side, a woman smiling at the camera, and a man wearing glasses and a vest.Back: Includes blue hand stamps as well as writing in pencil and orange ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: It would appear from this photo of a mix of soldiers and auxiliary police and smiling Jewish men that everyone is having a good time. The Jews, however, are the only ones wielding shovels.
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Jewish Man Searched by German Soldier (Holocaust in Ukraine)
2015.2.198
Front:Black and white photograph of a Jewish man with both arms raised. He wears a long coat, hat and boots, and has a bushy black beard. To the right of him is a German soldier pointing at the Jewish man in a hat and long coat.Back: Includes blue hand stamps as well as writing in pencil and orange ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Photo of Jewish man, arms in air, about to be searched by German soldier.
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Envelope from German Occupied Bila Tserkva, Ukraine
2014.1.213
Front: A yellowish envelope with writing in black cursive ink. Includes a large X in blue pencil across the envelope, as well as three blue postage stamps of Adolf Hitler, two black and two purple hand stamps and a box written in orange pencil.Back: Includes writing in black cursive ink and two pieces of white tape.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Registered cover from German-occupied Bila Tserkva, 1942. Soon after the German occupation of Bila Tserkva in August 1941, General Walther von Reichenau, commander of the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht, ordered his men to assist the Einzatzgruppen and the Ukrainian auxiliaries in murdering the Jews. Over the next few days most of the adult Jews of Bila Tserkva were liquidated. The difficult task of killing the remaining children fell to the Ukrainians as the Germans found the job too emotionally taxing. Despite attempts on the part of several chaplains to free the frightened and hungry children, von Reichenau insisted that the executions proceed. According to the report of one SS man present at the scene of the murders, even the Ukrainians were trembling at the prospect of shooting children over the pit that had been prepared for them. "The wailing was indescribable. I shall never forget the scene throughout my life. I find it hard to bear." The chaplains did not protest the murder of the adults.
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An Antisemitic Wooden Sign in Both Ukrainian and German Announcing that an Establishment is “Judenfrei”
2012.1.509
Wooden sign with text in German and Ukranian "Judenfrei", meaning that this area, or establishment, is free of Jews, a favorite Nazi epithet.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
At once a favorite Nazi epithet and an allusion to the Final Solution to the Jewish Question, “Judenfrei” meant Free of Jews, reassuring clients of an establishment that Jews were neither present on the premises nor welcome.
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Official Cover from Reichkommisar of Occupied Ukraine, Rowno
2019.2.96
Envelope with blue postage stamp of Hitler on right side, stamp with large "R" printed in red and "Rowno (Wolhynien) 406" printed in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Cover is franked with overprinted stamp used for occupied Ukraine. The Reichkommisariat Ukraine was the civilian occupation regime, administered at this time by Erich Koch, with control over both Gestapo and police. Its capital was the city of Rovno. Einsatzgruppe C and D were both active in the Reichkommissariat Ukraine. Koch was particularly brutal, and was found guilty of war crimes, including the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Poles and Jews.
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Envelope from Zhytomyr, Ukraine
2014.1.212
Front: A tan envelope with typewritten address, four postage stamps of Adolf Hitler in pink, blue, purple and green, one red and four black hand stamps.Back: Several pencil markings.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: During World War II, Zhytomyr was occupied by the Germans from July 1941 to December 1943. It was the site of Himmler's Ukrainian headquarters. It was also, as Wendy Lower describes, "a laboratory for... resettlement activists" working towards the elimination of all Jews to facilitate colonization of the East. Tens of thousands of Jewish men, women, and children were murdered by both stationary and mobile police units, indigenous auxiliaries, and SD and SS personnel by the end of 1942.
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Feldpost Postcard of a Winter Scene from Member of Police Battalion 303
2014.1.299
Front: Photo of a horse-drawn sled going through a snowy forest with a person bundled in black clothes riding the sled. Back: Left side is a message written in pencil. Right side has address written in pencil. Two handstamps, one blue stamp with Nazi eagle between the sides, one black stamp on right side. Right side, and some of left side, has a number of colorful pencil lines in pink, orange, blue, red, brown, yellow, orange, green, etc.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Police Battalion 303 was a military unit of the Nazi Order Police active in Kiev on September 29 and 30, 1941 and involved in the massacre of 33,771 Jews at Babi Yar. Babi Yar is considered one of the largest single massacres in the history of the Holocaust. It was carried out by Einsatzgruppe C, along with the aid of the SD and SS Police Battalions backed by local police. Otto Rasch commanded Einsatzgruppe C. The order to murder the Jews of Kiev was made by the military governor Kurt Eberhard and Friedrich Jeckeln and implemented by Paul Blobel. The Jews, stripped of all clothing, were led into the ravine, ordered to lie down on top of those already killed and shot in the back of the head. In this way the bodies were stacked one upon the other in layers. At a later date, Blobel was tasked with obliterating all evidence of the murders.
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Day of German Police Commemorative Postcard
2012.1.451
White postcard with an illustration of two men in SS uniforms. Titled, "Die Polizei im Fronteinsatz." Includes a message written in pencil.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Third Reich postcard produced for the 1942 Day of German Police and shows a German combat policeman and a Waffen-SS man between police and Waffen-SS insignia. This postcard essentially celebrates Nazi SS and Order Police accomplishments in the "East" after the 1939 invasion of Poland, including the murder of Jews and partisans.
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Letter to Mother from Son at War Front: “the Jews Had Everything”
2014.1.269
Front: White paper with message written in greyish ink.Back: Continuation of letter with a signature on the bottom.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Dear Mother! I just find the time to write a letter to you. We are still appointed where partisans and cliques carry out their nefarious deeds. The Russian tries to continue to fight in the back of the front. We push against with all rigor. One can not trust anybody. I talked with a Ukrainian and an ethnic German. 6,500 Jews had been killed in one day. They say that there are no more living Jews in occupied Russia. The people here in the Ukraine lived poorer than the poorest in Germany. Only the Jews had everything. The cliques have levelled complete villages to the ground. Just we alone found 120 killed in one village at Lemberg. Russia is terrifying. Up to 10 people live in a sinkhole, it is worse than a German pigpen. It is normal in Russia. These people are not human, but less than animals. One should exterminate them. Russia is dirt, misery, and mud and all the Russians are dirt and cattle. They live as pigs, eat like pigs and kill like beasts. They even kill little children, babies. Mother, if I would write down everything, you immediately would lose your belief in God. No human on earth can be as brutal as the Russian. They even eat and deal with human flesh. I saw this with my own eyes as humans from villages had been gutted! Dear mother, don't be worried anyway. We have everything under control and soon we will accomplish to release these poor humans and to exterminate the so called Soviet paradise to the last man. Write to father and Kurt that I am well and that they shouldn't be worried. I often think of you and our beloved Fatherland and soon, very soon I will be with you all again. Heil Hitler my Mother! Yours, Josef.
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Reinhard Heydrich Assassins Reward Broadside
2019.2.354
Broadside titled “BEKANNTMACHUNG” at top of left side and “VYHLASKA” at top of right side, left half of broadside in German, right side of broadside in Czech, dated May 27, 1942.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
SS Obergruppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich, the Reichsprotektor in Bohemia and Moravia (Czechoslovakia), head of the Reich Security Main Office, Chairman of the infamous Wannsee Conference (which devised plans for implementation of the Final Solution), and the man responsible for the Einsatzgruppen had been wounded in an assassination attempt by British-trained Czech soldiers on May 27, 1942 and died one week later on June 4 - from his wounds.
This rare broadside of “Bekanntmachung,” issued by Karl Hermann Frank just hours after the assassination attempt on Heydrich’s life, offers a reward of 10,000 kronen leading to the capture of the perpetrators. A state of civil emergency is declared with a curfew, along with the closure of restaurants, theaters, amusement parks, and public transportation. Anyone violating the curfew, aiding the perpetrators, or failing to notify the authorities of the identity or whereabouts of the perpetrators is to be shot along with their entire family.
Hitler ordered brutal reprisals following Heydrich’s death. Karl Hermann Frank carried out these reprisals against the entire village of Lidice, which was razed to the ground, its male residents executed, and its women and children deported to Ravensbruck where most were murdered. A similar massacre occurred in the village of Lezaky.
The assassins, Jan Kubis and Josef Valcik, evaded capture by committing suicide in a cathedral in Prague where they had been hiding. Text in both German and Czech.
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Broadside Announcing Czechoslovakian Death Sentence for Siba Ladislav, Fousek Karel, Kosal Josef, and Krupicka Frantisek for Killing Reinhard Heydrich
2012.1.574
Red poster with Nazi eagle and Swastika on top. Includes two sections of text in German and Polish.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Rare broadside poster made of red-colored, very thin paper, Prague. The poster announced the shooting deaths of four men connected to the assassination of SS General and "Protector" of Czechoslovakia Reinhard Heydrich. Czech partisans trained by Britain's Special Operations Executive mortally wounded Heydrich in Prague on May 27, 1942, assaulting his automobile. The broadside noted the summary court martial of Prague had sentenced Siba Ladislav, Fousek Karel, Kosal Josef and Krupicka Frantisek to death by shooting on June 20 and 22, 1942, for their connections to the assassins.
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Envelope from Rovno, Ukraine
2014.1.266
Front: Green envelope with four postage stamps of Adolf Hitler in various colors. Includes four black and two purple hand stamps, a line of writing in purple pencil and a red and white sticker.Back: A black hand stamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Cover to Berlin with handstamp of Reichskommissariat of the Ukraine. Rovno (Rivne) fell to the Germans in June 1941 and was turned into a regional civilian administrative capital in Volhynia. Erich Koch was the Hitler-appointed Reichskommisar whose mission was to exploit the region - its resources and people - for German ends.
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Letter from Wilhelm Kube (1887-1943)
2015.2.168ab
Front: White paper with printed return address in upper left corner and date written on upper right.Back: Continuation of letter in black ink with printed text.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Letter dated December 20, 1942 to a young girl stating in part: "May 1943 will be filled with a strong fighting spirit... in Adolf Hitler's movement.... we will fight until the final victory against the Bolsheviks... Then the era of youth will come." Kube was the Generalkommissar of Belorussia where his ruthless administration oversaw the extermination of the large Jewish population. In October 1941, Kube vehemently protested the "unauthorized" murder of Jews by Einsatzgruppen squads. Ironically, he himself participated in a Minsk ghetto atrocity wherein a group of children were seized and thrown into sand pits to die. Kube, accompanied by several of SS officers, approached the screaming children and threw handfuls of sweets. The children perished in the pits. Kube was assassinated by a partisan bomb placed under his bed in 1943.