Reich Secret Document
Einsatzgruppe A
General Report up to October 15, 1941
...II Cleansing [of Jews] and securing the area of operation.
1)Encouragement of Self-cleansing Aktionen (Selbstreinigungs-aktionen)*
Basing [oneself] on the consideration that the population of the Baltic
countries had suffered most severely under the rule of Bolshevism and
Jewry while they were incorporated into the U.S.S.R., it was to be expected
that after liberation from this foreign rule they would themselves to
a large extent eliminate those of the enemy left behind after the retreat
of the Red Army. It was the task of the Security Police to set these
self-cleansing movements going and to direct them into the right channels
in order to achieve the aim of this cleansing as rapidly as possible.
It was no less important to establish as unshakable and provable facts
for the future that it was the liberated population itself which took
the most severe measures, on its own initiative, against the Bolshevik
and Jewish enemy, without any German instructions being evident.
In Lithuania this was achieved for the first time by activating the
partisans** in Kovno. To our surprise it was not easy at first to set
any large-scale anti-Jewish pogrom in motion there. Klimatis, the leader
of the partisan group referred to above, who was the first to be recruited
for this purpose, succeeded in starting a pogrom with the aid of instructions
given him by a small advance detachment operating in Kovno, in such
a way that no German orders or instructions could be observed by outsiders.
In the course of the first pogrom during the night of June 25/26, the
Lithuanian partisans eliminated more than 1,500 Jews, set fire to several
synagogues or destroyed them by other means, and burned down an area
consisting of about sixty houses inhabited by Jews. During the nights
that followed, 2,300 Jews were eliminated in the same way. In other
parts of Lithuania similar Aktionen followed the example set in Kovno,
but on a smaller scale, and including some Communists who had been left
behind.
These self-cleansing Aktionen ran smoothly because the Wehrmacht authorities
who had been informed showed understanding for this procedure. At the
same time it was obvious from the beginning that only the first days
after the Occupation would offer the opportunity for carrying out pogroms.
After the disarmament of the partisans the self-cleansing Aktionen necessarily
ceased.
It proved to be considerably more difficult to set in motion similar
cleansing Aktionen and pogroms in Latvia . The main reason was that
the entire national leadership, especially in Riga, had been killed
or deported by the Soviets. Even in Riga it proved possible by means
of appropriate suggestions to the Latvian auxiliary police to get an
anti-Jewish pogrom going, in the course of which all the synagogues
were destroyed and about 400 Jews killed. As the population on the whole
quietened down very quickly in Riga, it was not possible to arrange
further pogroms.
Both in Kovno and in Riga evidence was taken on film and by photographs
to establish, as far as possible, that the first spontaneous executions
of Jews and Communists were carried out by Lithuanians and Latvians.
In Estonia there was no opportunity of instigating pogroms owing to
the relatively small number of Jews. The Estonian self-defense units
only eliminated some individual Communists, who were particularly hated,
but in general limited themselves to carrying out arrests....
3) The Fight against Jewry
It was to be expected from the beginning that the Jewish problem in
the Ostland could not be solved by pogroms alone. At the same time the
Security Police had basic, general orders for cleansing operations aimed
at a maximum elimination of the Jews. Large-scale executions were therefore
carried out in the cities and the countryside by Sonderkommandos (Special
Units), which were assisted by selected units – partisan groups
in Lithuania, and parties of the Latvian Auxiliary Police in Latvia.
The work of the execution units was carried out smoothly. Where Lithuanian
and Latvian forces were attached to the execution units, the first to
be chosen were those who had had members of their families and relatives
killed or deported by the Russians.
Particularly severe and extensive measures became necessary in Lithuania
. In some places – especially in Kovno – the Jews had armed
themselves and took an active part in sniping and arson. In addition,
the Jews of Lithuania cooperated most closely with the Soviets.
The total number of Jews liquidated in Lithuania is 71,105.
During the pogrom 3,800 Jews were eliminated in Kovno and about 1,200
in the smaller cities.
In Latvia , too, Jews took part in acts of sabotage and arson after
the entry of the German Wehrmacht. In Duenaburg so many fires were started
by Jews that a large part of the city was destroyed. The electric power
station was burned out completely. Streets inhabited mainly by Jews
remained untouched. Up to now 30,000 Jews have been executed in Latvia.
The pogrom in Riga eliminated 500.
Most of the 4,500 Jews living in Estonia at the start of the Eastern
campaign fled with the retreating Red Army. About 2,000 stayed behind.
In Reval alone there were about 1,000 Jews.
The arrest of all male Jews over the age of sixteen is almost completed.
With the exception of the doctors and the Jewish Elders appointed by
the Sonderkommando they [the remaining Jews] are being executed by the
Estonian Self-defense under the supervision of Sonderkommando 1a. Jewesses
between the ages of 16 through 60 in Reval and Pernau, who are fit for
work, were arrested and used to cut peat and for other work.
At present a camp is being built at Harku, to which all the Jews in
Estonia will be sent, so that in a short time Estonia will be cleared
of Jews.
After the carrying out of the first large-scale executions in Lithuania
and Latvia it already proved that the total elimination of the Jews
is not possible there, at least not at the present time. As a large
part of the skilled trades is in Jewish hands in Lithuania and Latvia,
and some (glaziers, plumbers, stove-builders, shoemakers) are almost
entirely Jewish, a large proportion of Jewish craftsmen are indispensable
at present for the repair of essential installations, for the reconstruction
of destroyed cities, and for work of military importance. Although the
employers aim at replacing Jewish labor with Lithuanian or Latvian workers,
it is not yet possible to replace all the Jews presently employed, particularly
in the larger cities. In cooperation with the labor exchange offices,
however, Jews who are no longer fit for work are picked up and will
be executed shortly in small Aktionen.
It must also be noted in this connection that in some places there has
been considerable resistance by offices of the Civil Administration
against large-scale executions. This [resistance] was confronted in
every case by pointing out that it was a matter of carrying out orders
[involving] a basic principle.
Apart from organizing and carrying out the executions, preparations
were begun from the first days of the operation for the establishment
of ghettos in the larger cities. This was particularly urgent in Kovno,
where there were 30,000 Jews in a total population of 152,400. At the
end of the early pogroms, therefore, a Jewish Committee was summoned
and informed that the German authorities had so far seen no reason to
interfere in the conflicts between the Lithuanians and the Jews. A condition
for the creation of a normal situation would be, first of all, the creation
of a Jewish ghetto. When the Jewish Committee remonstrated, it was explained
that there was no other possibility of preventing further pogroms. At
this the Jews at once declared that they were ready to do everything
to transfer their co-racials as quickly as possible to the Viliampole
Quarter, where it was planned to establish the Jewish ghetto. This area
is situated in the triangle between the River Memel and a branch of
the river, and is linked with Kovno by only one bridge, atheasily sealed
off.
In Riga the so-called "Moscow Suburb" was designated as the
ghetto. This is the worst residential quarter of Riga, which is already
inhabited mainly by Jews. The transfer of Jews into the ghetto area
proved rather difficult because the Latvians living in that district
had to be evacuated and residential space in Riga is very crowded. Of
about 28,000 Jews remaining in Riga, 24,000 are now housed in the ghetto.
The Security Police carried out only police duties in the establishment
of the ghetto, while the arrangements and administration of the ghetto,
as well as the regulation of the food supply for the inmates of the
ghetto, were left to the Civil Administration; the Labor Office was
left in charge of Jewish labor.
Ghettos are also being set up in other cities in which there are a large
number of Jews....
* The reference is to Aktionen against Jews carried out by the local
population.
** A nationalist organization in Lithuania that rose
against Soviet rule on the day the Germans moved in.