Operational Situation Report USSR No. 178
(March 9, 1942)
The Chief of the Security Police and Security Service
65 copies
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(51st copy)
OPERATIONAL SITUATION REPORT USSR No. 178
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Einsatzgruppe A
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Location: Krasnogvardeisk
A large number of partisans was reported in several villages west
of Babtai in which the population is predominantly Russian and Polish.
The police measures to combat this group of partisans were completely
successful on the third of this month. Altogether, 102 people, including
11 women were brought in for investigation.Besides that, six Russian
prisoners of war were found as well as 12 Russian and one Polish peasant.
It was determined that they helped partisans and had connections with
Soviet terrorists. They were shot. The prisoners of war were temporarily
taken into custody for a thorough investigation.
On February 27, four more persons who had participated in acts of
sabotage on railroad installations were arrested in Pabrado and Butiai
and transferred to Vilnius. Among the people arrested is also the
organizer of sabotage, Stanislaus Szklenik, from Pabrado. During the
arrest of two criminals in the village of Guzili, five inhabitants
of the village were found in possession of firearms and ammunition;
two revolvers, one rifle, and one crate of rifle ammunition were found
and seized. All five people were shot on the spot.
Within the last few days, three Jews deported from the Reich to Riga
were caught escaping from the ghetto or their work quarters. The Jews
were shot or hanged in the presence of the ghetto or camp inmates.
On March 2, three young fellows who worked for the partisans as informers
in the environs of Minsk were arrested.
The Jew Bronstein who ran a partisan recruiting office was also arrested.
Inquiries revealed that the partisans in the Minsk area are constantly
receiving reinforcements of manpower and materials from Minsk. Thus,
a transport of 13 partisans were sent from Minsk in the direction
of Lagoisk.
During an action against the Jews, carried out on March 2 and 3,
3,412 Jews were executed in Minsk, 302 in Vileyka and 2,007 in Baranovichi.
In all, a total of 5,721 Jews were executed.
The partisan question is increasingly discussed in German circles.
From the Byelorussian side it was stated that the partisan movement
has grown stronger since the beginning of the winter and that the
situation is indeed serious.
The execution of the Jews of Minsk on March 3 has raised the conjecture
in the minds of the town population that further large-scale actions
will take place in all Byelorussia within the next few weeks. The
population welcomed the actions taken for they had grown angry that
the Jews are relatively well-supplied with respect to food. This was
determined again and again while searching through empty Jewish apartments.
At the suggestion of the commander of the Security Police and the
Security Service, a discussion took place at the General Kommissariat
on questions concerning ethnic Germans.
Generous and extensive care for ethnic Germans [due to the harsh
winter] is to be introduced immediately.
On the basis of a confidential report, it was possible to arrest
the former manager of the accounts department on the civilian prison
in Minsk. A Soviet Russian was also arrested on suspicion of Communist
activity. There were frequent irregularities on the part of the Schutzmannschaft
against civilians, such as pillaging, thefts, and physical ill-treatment
during house searches.
In connection with the arrest of two Russian Jews
in Minsk, it was determined that a widespread gold trade is still going
on among them.
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Einsatzgruppe B
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Location: Smolensk
The situation and the mood in the Vitebsk district have considerably
deteriorated. This is due to two factors: the deputy mayor of Vitebsk
was murdered on the night of January 29/30. This incident naturally
elictited a feeling of unrest and insecurity among the population.
On the one hand, the town's population views this murder as an act
of revenge by the Jews, on the other, the act of partisans.
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Einsatzgruppe D
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Location: Simferopol
Activity of the Security Police
During the period under report, the areas north of Simferopol in
the Crimea were searched again. The western part as far as the Yevpatoria
Ak-sheih line, the eastern part as far as the railway line Simferopol-Dzankoy,
as well as the rural area in the north as far as Dzankoy heights,
have now been worked over. The Teilkommando that has been posted in
the central region is greatly handicapped by the bad conditions of
the roads. A one-time survey of the entire Crimea is almost complete.
Thus the southern territories of Kommandos 10b, 11a, and 11b, particularly
the larger localities, are frequently, some even constantly, under
surveillance. Due to the sever cold and snowstorms, as well as the
impassable roads, Kommando 12 was forced to limit its activity in
the period under report to places closer to the territory in which
the Teilkommando was deployed. For the time being, its location is
being changed to the area south of Stalino. In the period under report,
further success was achieved concerning the arrest and the disposal
of unrelieable elements thanks to the extended network of secret informants.
Besides, more than 1,000 Jews and Gypsies, many of them politically
suspect persons, we caught.
From February 16 to 28, 1942, 1,515 people were shot, 729 of them
Jews, 271 Communists, 74 partisans, 421 Gypsies and asocial elements
and saboteurs.
(The
Einsatzgruppen Reports by Yitzak Arad, Shmuel Krakowski and
Shmuel Spector, editors. p. 306-309)
Source: The
Nizkor Project
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