Stahlecker Report

SS-Brigadier General Walter Stahlecker submits a summary report on the killing of Jewish civilians in the northwestern region of the Soviet Union. The report documents the killing of more than 118,000 unarmed Jewish men, women, and children by men under Stahlecker’s command between June 22 and October 15, 1941. He submits his report to the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin, which has responsibility for carrying out the Holocaust in German-occupied Europe during World War II.

Stalhlecker commanded Einsatzgruppe A, one of four German special action units assigned to kill Jews, Roma (Gypsies), communists, and government officials during the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.  With the help of local auxiliaries, informants, and interpreters, Stahlecker’s men swept through the Baltic States and Belarus directly to the home communities of Jews (especially in Kovno, Riga, Vilna, and Minsk) and shot them without regard for age or sex. 

Stahlecker’s report was submitted as evidence of Nazi atrocities (crimes against humanity) at the Nuremberg war crimes trials after the war.