Einsatzgruppen
Alex Jessee
The Einsatzgruppen were squads of german soldiers whos jobs were to kill all people deemed unfit to live. The soldiers would go into recently captured areas and load people onto trucks. They would be transported to large trenches and executed by gun. While most of those killed were Jews, Gypsies, Communists, Homosexuals, and other minorities were also killed. There were between 2,400 and 4,000 total soldiers that operated in these killing units. Reinhard Heydrich was responsible for staring this group and was the leader until it was abolished. The total number of people killed by Einsatzgruppen is about 1,500,000. The soldiers could not bear to kill so many people everyday and the group was discontinued. This led to the use of concentration camps and death camps to be the primary method of kllling Jews.
Einsatzgruppen
German soldiers execute prisoners in trench. The prisoners were transported to the trenches and then had to be shot by a german soldier. It was a very personal method of killing and it took a toll on the soldiers.
Crematorium
German soldiers are shown looking at human remains inside an oven. The people in the oven were most likely sent to a gas chamber to be executed before being burned. This is a much more indirect way of killing people rather than shooting them. The Einsatzgruppen were no longer needed when the concentration camps were established.