Vilnius 1941: the special squad and the destruction of Jews
ENThe Nazi extermination of Jews in Lithuania was carried out by SS units belonging to Einsatzgruppen A and B. Local auxiliary units were formed to facilitate the German killing squads in their operations. In the city and surrounding region of Vilnius, the local unit given the task of killing Jews was the Vilnius Special Squad (Lithuanian: Ypatingasis būrys) The Vilnius Special Squad began the systematic shooting of the Vilnius Jews in July 1941. By the end of 1941, most of the Jews in Vilnius and the surrounding towns had been exterminated. Given the prominent role played by the Vilnius Special Squad in the destruction of the Vilnius Jews, the dearth of factual information about its organization, composition, and operation is a glaring gap in the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania. The cursory references of the Vilnius Special Squad in literature reflect the fact that almost all of its records and documents were intentionally destroyed in 1944 – an understandable action given the unit’s bloody record. Nevertheless, the few surviving documents, together with court documents from postwar trials of suspected members of the Vilnius Special Squad, make it possible to obtain a more definitive picture of this nefarious organization. [p. 348].
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