The Chief of the Security Police and Security Service

Berlin,
January 5, 1942

65 copies
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(65th copy)

Operational Situation Report USSR No. 151

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Situation in Krasnogvardeisk and vicinity

The population's mood in the town and vicinity depends almost entirely on the food situation. In the town, one is generally glad that the Germans are here and, thus, at least the threat of war is over. Furthermore, the setting up of a labor office has greatly contributed to calming down the atmosphere since the work given out by the labor office has provided a part of the population with the means to acquire food.

As for the general political and military situation, one keeps quiet. Citizens of Marienburg, along with their Russian mayor in the lead, have developed a plan for a uniformed "Russian Volunteer Unit" that is to lead an armed struggle against Bolshevism.

In answer to the concrete question why some people reject Bolshevism, they give three reasons:

1) Bolshevism has, they claim, destroyed their property and taken away all their land. They claimed that they earned hardly enough for their essential needs.
2) They said that Bolshevism had destroyed religion.
3) They said that the leading persons in Bolshevism were Jews.

Overview

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All the Jews, without exception, in the General Kommissariats Lithuania and Latvia, are now interned in ghettos. The Jews of the Riga Ghetto who are employed by the German Army and civilian authorities, are no longer permitted to go freely to their places of work. In the morning, they are picked up in closed columns by authorized personnel who then escort them from the ghetto to their work place., and returning them in the evening the same way.

In Minsk, as well as in Riga, everything is prepared for the reception of the Jewish transports from Germany. The first transport, composed of Jews from Hamburg, arrived in Minsk on November 10, 1941. On the same day, the Jews were assigned living quarters. It was observed that some of the Jews had a totally mistaken picture about their future. They imagined, for example, that they are pioneers and will be used to colonize the East. The first three transports that were to come to Riga were sent to Kaunas. The Riga camp that is to admit about 25,000 Jews is being built and will be completed very soon.

In the meantime, the Higher SS Police in Riga, SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Jeckeln started a [mass] shooting action on Sunday, November 30, 1941. He removed about 4,000 Jews from the Riga ghetto and from an evacuation transport of Jews from Germany. (1) The action was originally intended to be carried out with the forces of the Higher SS and Police Chief; however, after a few hours, 20 men of Ek 2 who were sent there for security purposes were also employed in the shooting.

(1) In fact, the action took place on November 30. Of approximately 10,600 victims, 1000 were from a transport of deportees from Berlin, and the rest from the ghetto (see Report 156). The remaining Jews were killed a week later on December 8 (see report 155).
(The Einsatzgruppen Reports by Yitzak Arad, Shmuel Krakowski and Shmuel Spector, editors. p. 268-9)