- Period
- 1941–1944
- Region
- Occupied eastern Europe
- Method
- Mass shootings
- Victims
- Well over one million Jews
What the term means
After Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, shootings escalated from targeted killings to the systematic murder of entire Jewish communities, including women, children and elderly people.
Who carried out the killings
Einsatzgruppen were central, but Order Police, Higher SS and Police Leaders, Waffen-SS formations, military authorities, civil administrations, Axis forces and local auxiliaries also participated.
How shootings were organized
Victims were commonly ordered to assemble for registration, labor or supposed resettlement, then marched or transported to forests, ravines, forts, quarries or pits. Money and valuables were confiscated before organized shooting.
Major sites
Babyn Yar, Paneriai, Rumbula, the Ninth Fort, Kamianets-Podilskyi and Maly Trostenets are among the best-known sites, but hundreds of smaller killing locations existed.
Victim experience and resistance
Escape was constrained by armed cordons, family responsibilities, unfamiliar terrain, denunciation and the speed of operations. Resistance included flight, hiding, warning neighboring communities and joining partisans.
Destroying evidence
From 1942 onward Aktion 1005 detachments forced prisoners to exhume and burn bodies, crush bones and disperse ashes. The effort destroyed evidence but did not erase German reports, testimony, graves, photographs or archaeology.
How historians know
Evidence includes German reports, police orders, local records, survivor and bystander testimony, photographs, graves, archaeology and trials. Perpetrator records are indispensable but require comparison with independent evidence.
Sources
This page draws on the institutional sources listed below.