War, Pacification, and Mass Murder, 1939

Five Security Police Einsatzgruppen, 2,000 men strong, were deployed along the German-Polish border in August 1939. During the campaign in Poland in September and immediately afterward, they, in full agreement with the Wehrmacht, took a crucial part in the pacification of the newly-conquered territories and paved the way for their subsequent "Germanization". Included in their activities were the murder of hundreds of Polish and Jewish civilians and expulsions of tens of thousands of others. Presents a selection of 86 wartime and postwar documents (translated from German, Polish, and Yiddish) showing the Einsatzgruppen's activities. Pp. 87-120, "Persecuting Jews", presents documents concerning the Nazi anti-Jewish atrocities in 1939, the expulsion of Jews from German-annexed areas, and the earliest murders of hundreds of Polish Jews in Dynów, Raciąż, and other places.