The Chief of the Security Police and Security Service

Berlin,
December 19, 1941

65 copies
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(51st copy)

OPERATIONAL SITUATION REPORT USSR No. 148

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Einsatzgruppe B

Location: Smolensk

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Measures against criminals and looters

The following were shot after summary proceedings:

One Russian who proved to have murdered mayor Nikta Kaslov in Pudavaya near Mogilev;

One second lieutenant who had committed embezzlement in several cases;

A Russian who had hung around as a vagrant for several months and who had made his living as a thief;

Two Jews and two Russians who had looted repeatedly;

Four Russians who had made their living by committing punishable offences, mainly robberies;

The Russian Ivan Gorlov in Gzhatsk, a member of the Communist Party since 1924 who was proved to have participated in setting fire to mills, warehouses, and granaries;

Two Russians who, after the arrival of the German troops, carried out looting of food, and illegal slaughtering in Gzhatsk;

Three Russians in Kursk who had looted;

A Russian in Orel who was caught in the act of setting a fire, and 12 other persons, among them several Jews, who were proved to have helped in starting other fires;

Sidarov, a member of the NKVD, who had a leading part in starting fires and in looting in Orel;

The head of the local Order Police in Rudnia Korochenko, who did not carry out any of the instructions of the German occupation authorities. A considerable amount of loot was found in his apartment;

Three Russian women in Gomel who wereinvolved in prostituion and had infected several German soldiers.

Special Operations

During the purging of the forced labor camp at the Mogilev base, 150 Jews were apprehended who had been rebellious. They were shot.

During the checks along the roads radiating out of Mogilev carried out with the help of the Order Police, 135 people, mostly Jews, were apprehended. The Jews were not wearing the Jewish badge; others were on a 'tour' without the prescribed [identification] papers. 127 people were shot.

In agreement with the commander, the transit camp in Mogilev was searched for Jews and officials. 126 people were found and shot.

As was shown by confidential messages, the Jews in Bobruisk became active again immediately after the Teilkommando was withdrawn. Some of them no longer wore their Jewish badges. Refusals to work increased. Connections with partisans were detected, and, finally, provocative conduct towards members of the German occupation forces [was detected]. The strongest measures had to be taken to stop these activities which greatly endangered public security and order. Therefore, by carrying out a special action, a total of 5,281 Jews of both sexes were shot. The town of Bobruisk and its nearby area is free of Jews.

Since the Jews in Partichi near Bobruisk showed a hostile attitude to the Germans and had close connections with partisans, a special action was carried out in the course of which 1,013 Jews and Jewesses were shot.

A large-scale action against the Jews was necessary in Rudnya near Smolensk because they lent extensive help to the partisans, spread disruptive proaganda, partly refused to work, and did not wear their Jewish badges. This, altogether 835 Jews of both sexes were shot.

52 Jews were caught in Gomel without identification papers, trying to pass themselves off as Russians. Among them were also Communist agitators. They were shot.

Confidential agents reported that the still numerous partisans in Gomel were aided in every way by the Jews. Consequently, a special action had to be carried out in Gomel, Rogachev, and Kormu. Thus, a total of 2,365 Jews and Jewesses were shot.

Following an action against the partisans which was carried out by the 221st Security Division with the aid of a troop of Einsatzkommando 9 in the area of Klinovichi, a reorganization of the township of Klinovichi and Cherikov became necessary because the Jews of the townships proved hostile to the Germans and sympathized with the partisans. Altogether 786 Jews of both sexes were shot.

For the same reasons, special actions were carried out in Roslavl and Shumyachi near Roslavl. A total of 510 Jews of both sexes were shot.

Sixteen mentaly ill Jewish and Russian children were shot in Shumyachi. They had been placed in a children's home which had been left in a totally neglected condition by the Soviet authorities. In part, the children were laying in their own excrement. All had severe eczema. The German chief military physician from the hospital in Shumyachi who was called in for consultation declared that the children's home and its inmates were an epidemic center of the first degree, sufficient reason for their shooting.

In Vitebsk, the ghetto was evacuated. During the process a total of 4,090 Jews of both sexes were shot.