<p>Soldiers from unidentified units of <a href="/narrative/2290">Einsatzgruppe</a> C look through the possessions of Jews massacred at <a href="/narrative/5337">Babi Yar</a>, a ravine near Kiev. Soviet Union, September 29–October 1, 1941.</p>
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Babyn Yar (Babi Yar) massacre in Kiev, 1941
Chief Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, Case #9 of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings. Photograph taken in Nuremberg, Germany, between July 29, 1947, and April 10, 1948.
Media Essay
Ben Ferencz and the Einsatzgruppen Case
International Military Tribunal entry pass for Benjamin Ferencz, war crimes investigator and later chief prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen Trial.
Article
Ben Ferencz and the Fight for International Justice
Pass issued to Benjamin Ferencz, war crimes investigator and later chief prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen Trial. This pass granted the bearer free movement within the US-occupied zone of postwar Germany.
Artifact
Ben Ferencz's pass
International Military Tribunal entry pass for Benjamin Ferencz, war crimes investigator and later chief prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen Trial.
Artifact
Ben Ferencz's tribunal pass
Chief Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, Case #9 of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings. Photograph taken in Nuremberg, Germany, between July 29, 1947, and April 10, 1948.
Photo
Chief Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz
Chief Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz presents evidence during the Einsatzgruppen Trial, Case #9 of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings. Ferencz is flanked by German defense lawyers Dr. Friedrich Bergold (right, counsel for Ernst Biberstein) and Dr. Rudolf Aschenauer (left, counsel for Otto Ohlendorf), who are protesting the introduction of certain documents as evidence.
Photo
Chief Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz presents evidence during the Einsatzgruppen Trial
Defendant Paul Blobel at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, case #9 of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings.
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Blobel on trial
On September 15, 1947, defendant Paul Blobel pleads not guilty during his arraignment at the Einsatzgruppen Trial. Blobel was the commander of the unit responsible for the massacre at Babi Yar (near Kiev). He was convicted by the military tribunal at Nuremberg and sentenced to death. Blobel was hanged at the Landsberg prison on June 8, 1951.
Photo
Defendant Paul Blobel pleads not guilty at the Einsatzgruppen Trial
One page of a document belonging to Chief Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz listing the defendants in the Einsatzgruppen Case along with their position and crimes, line of defense, counts against them, and sentence.
Document
Document Belonging to Chief Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz
Drexel Sprecher was educated at the University of Wisconsin, the London School of Economics, and at the Harvard School of Law before receiving a position at the US Government's Labor Board in 1938. He enlisted in the American military after the United States declared war on Germany, and was posted to London. After the war, Sprecher served as a prosecutor of Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials.
Oral History
Drexel Sprecher describes a witness at the Nuremberg trials
Einsatzgruppen
Animated Map
Einsatzgruppen
This map accompanied a secret undated German report on the mass murder of Jews by Einsatzgruppen A (mobile killing unit A). During the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, the map was introduced as evidence by both the American and British prosecution teams. The document, entitled "Jewish Executions Carried Out by Einsatzgruppen A" and stamped "Secret Reich Matter," shows the number of Jews executed (symbolized by coffins) in the Baltic states and Belorussia by late 1941. The legend near the bottom states that "the estimated number of Jews still on hand [was] 128,000."
Article
Einsatzgruppen: An Overview
Media Essay
Einsatzgruppen (Abridged Article) - Photographs
Map
Einsatzgruppen activity in the Baltic area
In the summer of 1941, following Germany's attack on the Soviet Union, the Germans began to perpetrate mass shootings of Jewish men, women, and children in territory seized from Soviet forces. These murders were part of the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question,” the mass murder of Europe’s Jews. Many of these mass shootings were organized and committed by task forces or special action groups, called Einsatzgruppen in German. Units of Einsatzgruppen followed the German army as it invaded the Soviet Union and Soviet-controlled territory. In addition to the Einsatzgruppen, other German units also carried out mass shootings. These units included Order Police battalions, military units (Wehrmacht), and the Waffen SS, as well as Schutzmannschaften (collaborating auxiliary police units formed of native recruits). The Einsatzgruppen were a relatively small group. Without additional forces, the systematic mass murder of Jews in these regions would not have been possible.  This map shows some of the locations of mass killing sites in eastern Europe at the height of German expansion. The area on the map largely coincides with what today are Ukraine and parts of Belarus, Poland, and Russia. Of particular note is the Babyn Yar massacre site in the Ukrainian city of Kyiv (marked with a yellow dot). The massacre at Babyn Yar was one of the largest mass killings at a single location during World War II. 
Map
Einsatzgruppen massacre sites in Ukraine and surrounding areas

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