Operational Situation Report USSR No. 151
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Situation in Krasnogvardeisk and vicinity
The population's mood in the town and vicinity depends almost entirely
on the food situation. In the town, one is generally glad that the
Germans are here and, thus, at least the threat of war is over. Furthermore,
the setting up of a labor office has greatly contributed to calming
down the atmosphere since the work given out by the labor office has
provided a part of the population with the means to acquire food.
As for the general political and military situation, one keeps quiet.
Citizens of Marienburg, along with their Russian mayor in the lead,
have developed a plan for a uniformed "Russian Volunteer Unit" that
is to lead an armed struggle against Bolshevism.
In answer to the concrete question why some people reject Bolshevism,
they give three reasons:
1) Bolshevism has, they claim, destroyed their property and taken
away all their land. They claimed that they earned hardly enough for
their essential needs.
2) They said that Bolshevism had destroyed religion.
3) They said that the leading persons in Bolshevism were Jews.
Overview
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All the Jews, without exception, in the General Kommissariats Lithuania
and Latvia, are now interned in ghettos. The Jews of the Riga Ghetto
who are employed by the German Army and civilian authorities, are
no longer permitted to go freely to their places of work. In the morning,
they are picked up in closed columns by authorized personnel who then
escort them from the ghetto to their work place., and returning them
in the evening the same way.
In Minsk, as well as in Riga, everything is prepared for the reception
of the Jewish transports from Germany. The first transport, composed
of Jews from Hamburg, arrived in Minsk on November 10, 1941. On the
same day, the Jews were assigned living quarters. It was observed
that some of the Jews had a totally mistaken picture about their future.
They imagined, for example, that they are pioneers and will be used
to colonize the East. The first three transports that were to come
to Riga were sent to Kaunas. The Riga camp that is to admit about
25,000 Jews is being built and will be completed very soon.
In the meantime, the Higher SS Police in Riga, SS-Obergruppenfuhrer
Jeckeln started a [mass] shooting action on Sunday, November 30, 1941.
He removed about 4,000 Jews from the Riga ghetto and from an evacuation
transport of Jews from Germany. (1) The
action was originally intended to be carried out with the forces of
the Higher SS and Police Chief; however, after a few hours, 20 men
of Ek 2 who were sent there for security purposes were also employed
in the shooting.
(1) In fact, the action
took place on November 30. Of approximately 10,600 victims, 1000 were
from a transport of deportees from Berlin, and the rest from the ghetto
(see Report 156). The remaining Jews were killed a week later on December
8 (see report 155).
(The
Einsatzgruppen Reports by Yitzak Arad, Shmuel Krakowski and
Shmuel Spector, editors. p. 268-9)