Einsatzgruppen Were Created Right Before Anschluss

Einsatzgruppen (SS Death Squads) played the key role in the “Holocaust by Bullets” – the first (though not the most murderous) phase of Shoah – although Order Police Battalions made a significant contribution as well.

Contrary to a common misconception, Einsatzgruppen (then just Einsatzkommando) were created not in August of 1939 – right before invasion of Poland – but 17 months earlier, right before Anschluss of Austria.

Ad hoc Einsatzkommando was the brainchild of Reinhard Heydrich (then head of SD, Gestapo and SiPo). It was formed by Heydrich as part of the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police; SiPo) to secure government buildings and documents following the Anschluss and to crush any resistance… of which there was none.

Seven months later, two units of Einsatzgruppen (Einsatzgruppe Dresden and Einsatzgruppe Wien) were stationed in the just-occupied Sudetenland. Their purpose was multifaceted: to occupy newly acquired territories, gather crucial intelligence (they were specifically tasked with confiscating government papers and police documents), and eliminate perceived threats to the Nazi regime.

It was the latter addition to their functions that ultimately made Einsatzgruppen into feared death squads tasked with “pacifying” occupied territories (including but not limited to murdering Jews perceived to be existential enemies of the Reich).

Consequently, it is an irrefutable fact that this major step on the Road to Holocaust and the heavy slab in the “stack of slabs” (that ultimately killed four million Jews) was made in the beginning of October of 1938.

However, at that time, few (if anyone) would imagine such a murderous transformation. After occupation of Sudetenland, Einsatzgruppen mostly only secured government buildings and questioned senior Czech civil servants.

True, they arrested about 10,000 Czech communists and other potential activists of Czech Resistance… but they killed no one (detained individuals either ended up in SS concentration camps or were released altogether).

They were strictly forbidden to mistreat and kill those arrested and to harass uninvolved persons Einsatzgruppen were set up and dispatched by the Gestapo, which claimed responsibility because the Sudeten Germans were defined as citizens of the Reich.

Einsatzgruppen were to arrest people “hostile to the Reich” by means of a “special wanted list” and reports from Sudeten Germans, confiscate their documents, dissolve their facilities, occupy Czechoslovak police stations and monitor postal and telephone traffic… in short, did normal policework in occupied territories.