BACKGROUND:
Sonderkommando 4 b purposely incited anti-Jewish pogroms in Tarnopol’ Ukraine in early July 1941. The exhumed corpses of Ukrainians and 10 German soldiers who had been killed by the NKVD [Soviet secret police] were presented to Wehrmacht soldiers as victims of the Jews.
SOURCE # 1:
Letter from German soldier to his parents
Tarnopol’ (July 6, 1941)
Dearest Parents!
I have just returned from the laying out of our fellow soldiers from the Air Force and the mountain troops who were captured by the Russians. I can’t find the words to describe something like this. Our fellow soldiers are bound, ears, tongues, nose and genitals have been cut off, that is how we found them in the basement of the Tarnopol’ courthouse, and we also found 2,000 Ukrainians and ethnic Germans similarly maltreated. That is Russia and the Jews, the paradise of the worker…
Revenge was quick to follow. Yesterday we and the SS were merciful, for every Jew we found was shot immediately. Today things have changed, for we again found 60 fellow-soldiers mutilated. Now the Jews must carry the dead out of the basement, lay them out nicely, and then they are shown the atrocities. After they have seen the victims, they are killed with clubs and spades.
So far, we have sent about 1,000 Jews into the hereafter, but that is far too few for what they have done. The Ukrainians have said that the Jews had all the leadership positions and, together with the Soviets, had a regular public festival while executing the Germans and Ukrainians. I ask you, dear parents, to make this known, also father, in the local branch [of the NSDAP]. If there should be doubts, we will bring photos with us. Then there will be no doubts.
Many greetings, your son Franzl
SOURCE #2:
Operational Situation Report, USSR Number 28, July 20, 1941
The troops passing through, who had the opportunity to see these horrors and, above all, the corpses of the murdered German soldiers, beat a total of about 600 Jews to death and set fire to their houses.
BACKGROUND:
InZhytomyr, Ukraine(early August 1941) two officials of a Soviet regional court, Kieper and Kogan were arrested & tortured until they admitted committing “atrocities.” At the same time, more than 400 local Jewish men were arrested. On August 7th, a car with a loudspeaker belonging to the German 6th Army Propaganda Company drove through town announcing public executions. More that 400 Jewish men guarded by the SS sat next to a gallows while many Wehrmacht soldiers looked on in the crowd. After Kieper & Kogan were hanged, the 400 Jews were taken out of town and shot.
SOURCE #3:
Operational Situation Report, USSR Number 58, August 20, 1941
The organization of both the hanging of the two Jewish murderers and the shooting can be characterized as exemplary… The relationship with the Wehrmacht remains untroubled; above all, there is a constantly growing interest in Wehrmacht circles in the tasks and concerns of security police work. This was especially evident during the executions. Furthermore, the Wehrmacht is itself engaged in promoting the accomplishment of security police tasks.
Kieper & Kogan moments before hanging with Wehrmacht onlookers in crowd (August 1941)
Transcript of report given by German soldier who eye-witnessed the Zhytomyr pogrom