For what feels like the umpteenth time, we hear once again about the saga of Helmut Oberlander’s status as a Canadian citizen.
Oberlander spent the Second World War as a member of Einsatzkommando 10a, a Nazi death squad responsible for the murders of more than 90,000 Jews in Russia and Ukraine. Einsatzkommandos were one of the subgroups of the Einsatzgruppen, the notorious mobile killing units infamous for carrying out mass murders throughout Nazi-occupied Europe.
The Einsatzgruppen were the ones who led civilians, primarily Jews, into forests and fields to dig their own graves before being shot at point-blank range. Some of the most recognizable and horrific images of the Holocaust, of mothers shot with their young children in their arms, are of Einsatzgruppen members carrying out their work. Indeed, the Einsatzgruppen played a prominent role in covering Europe with the mass graves of innocents.
The biography of Oberlander is all too familiar for those who follow these cases. A member of an Einsatzgruppen subgroup, he served as a translator and interpreter between the Einsatzkommando and the local populace. From 1941 to 1943, he lived and worked full-time with Einsatzkommando 10a as they pursued their policy of mass murder throughout Europe. (more...)
No comments:
Post a Comment