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Armband worn by member of einsatzgruppen, a Nazi mobile killing squad

Asphyxiation in gas chambers was not the first form of mass murder to be carried out against Jews in Nazi-occupied countries.  The systematic mass murder of Jews began in the summer of 1941, before any gas chambers had been built.  Approximately 1.2 million Jews were killed by the einsatzgruppen, mobile killing squads that came into the occupied areas together with the German army.                                                                   

The Jews of Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, and Bessarabia were the first to be murdered en masse by the einsatzgruppen.  The Nazis abandoned mass murder by machine gun execution in favor of gassing because gas killed more people more quickly.

On loan from Darrell English

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