Einsatzgruppe A

Einsatzgruppe A 

Einsatzgruppe A, 1.000 troops initially, had its headquarters in Danzig. Areas of operation were Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Leningrad district. Einsatzgruppe A’s first commander was SS-Standartenführer dr. Walter Stahlecker. After Stahlecker’s death in a firefight with guerillas in 1942, Einsatzgruppe A was led by Heinz Host, SS-Oberführer dr. Humbert Achamer-Pifrader and SS-Oberführer dr. Friedrich Panzinger. SS units, specially trained assassins, assigned terror tasks for the political administration in the Soviet Union and other eastern territories. The Einsatzgruppen worked behind the lines and murdered political opposition. The Einsatzgruppen murdered between 1.25-2 million Jews and tens of thousands of Soviet citizens and Soviet POWs.