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[[File:Path of the Einsatzgruppen.jpg|left|200px|thumb|Path of the Einsatzgruppen]]

[[File:Path of the Einsatzgruppen.jpg|left|200px|thumb|Path of the Einsatzgruppen]]

Alongside the German Army were special mobile units whose job was to locate and kill Jews, Gypsies, Soviets commissars, and others deemed "unfit" in the areas controlled by the army.  These ''Einsatzgruppen'' (“special units”) were also aided by local populations in [[Ukraine]], [[Lithuania]], and [[Latvia]] who felt the Germans had relieved them of [[Soviet]] occupation as well as sharing a hatred for Jews and other minorities.  Making no difference between young or old, male or female, the Einsatzgruppen killed 70,000 Jews at Ponary, near [[Vilnius]], Lithuania; 33,771 Jews were machine-gunned in a ravine known as '''Babi Yar''' near [[Kiev]], Ukraine, between [[September]] 28–29, 1941;<ref>[http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/yevtushenko.htm]</ref>  9,000 Jews were killed at the Ninth Fort at Kaunas, Lithuania, on October 28, of which half of the dead were children.  On November 30 in the Rumbula Forest outside of [[Riga]], Latvia, between 25,000-28,000 were killed.

Alongside the German Army were special mobile units whose job was to locate and kill Jews, Gypsies, Soviets commissars, and others deemed "unfit" in the areas controlled by the army.  These ''Einsatzgruppen'' (“special units”) were also aided by local populations in [[Ukraine]], [[Lithuania]], and [[Latvia]] who felt the Germans had relieved them of [[Soviet]] occupation as well as sharing a hatred for Jews and other minorities.  Making no difference between young or old, male or female, the Einsatzgruppen killed 70,000 Jews at Ponary, near [[Vilnius]], Lithuania; 33,771 Jews were machine-gunned in a ravine known as '''Babi Yar''' near [[Kiev]], Ukraine, between [[September]] 28–29, 1941;<ref>[http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/yevtushenko.htm]</ref>  9,000 Jews were killed at the Ninth Fort at Kaunas, Lithuania, on October 28, of which half of the dead were children.  On November 30 in the Rumbula Forest outside of [[Riga]], Latvia, between 25,000-28,000 were killed.

 

By mid-1941, the Ukrainian SSR had the largest population of Jews in Europe. The addition of the eastern provinces of Poland in late 1939 (western Ukraine after 1945), as well as the seizure of sections of Romanian territory in June 1940, led to some 2.7 million Jews living within the borders of the newly enlarged republic. About 85% lived in cities. By 1944, 1.6 million of these Jews had died at the hands of the Germans and their allies and auxiliaries. Unlike the majority of the Holocaust's later victims who died in the industrialized mass murder of the death camps, the overwhelming bulk of Ukraine's Jews died in mass shootings during the initial stages of the war.

By mid-1941, the Ukrainian SSR had the largest population of Jews in Europe. The addition of the eastern provinces of Poland in late 1939 (western Ukraine after 1945), as well as the seizure of sections of Romanian territory in June 1940, led to some 2.7 million Jews living within the borders of the newly enlarged republic. About 85% lived in cities. By 1944, 1.6 million of these Jews had died at the hands of the Germans and their allies and auxiliaries. Unlike the majority of the Holocaust's later victims who died in the industrialized mass murder of the death camps, the overwhelming bulk of Ukraine's Jews died in mass shootings during the initial stages of the war.

====Lvov pogrom====

====Lvov pogrom====

 

Germany invaded the [[Soviet Union]] on [[June 22, 1941]], occupying Lvov within a week. The Germans claimed that the city's [[Jewish]] population had supported the Soviets. Ukrainian mobs went on a rampage against Jews.<ref>Kopstein writes: "On June 30, 1941, on the eighth day of [[operation Barbarossa]], the German invasion of the Soviet Union, a pogrom broke out in Lviv, the capital city of [[Eastern Galicia]]. Ukrainians, and to a lesser extent Poles, massacred their Jewish neighbors and fellow citizens. (…) For the next two days Lviv witnessed terrible anti-Jewish violence at the hands of the local Ukrainian population and the Ukrainian militia, and under the Nazis' approving eyes." Kopstein pp. 219-220.</ref> They stripped and beat Jewish women and men in the streets of Lvov. Ukrainian partisans supported by German authorities killed about 4,000 Jews in Lvov during this [[pogrom]].<ref>[https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/film/pogrom-in-lvov POGROM IN LVOV (8mm film, 1:38 min)], US Holocaust Memorial Musuem.</ref>

Germany invaded the [[Soviet Union]] on [[June 22, 1941]], occupying Lvov within a week. The Germans claimed that the city's [[Jewish]] population had supported the Soviets. Ukrainian mobs went on a rampage against Jews.<ref>Kopstein writes: "On June 30, 1941, on the eighth day of [[operation Barbarossa]], the German invasion of the Soviet Union, a pogrom broke out in Lviv, the capital city of [[Eastern Galicia]]. Ukrainians, and to a lesser extent Poles, massacred their Jewish neighbors and fellow citizens. (…) For the next two days Lviv witnessed terrible anti-Jewish violence at the hands of the local Ukrainian population and the Ukrainian militia, and under the Nazis' approving eyes." Kopstein pp. 219-220.</ref> They stripped and beat Jewish women and men in the streets of Lvov. Ukrainian partisans supported by German authorities killed about 4,000 Jews in Lvov during this [[pogrom]].<ref>[https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/film/pogrom-in-lvov POGROM IN LVOV (8mm film, 1:38 min)], US Holocaust Memorial Musuem.</ref>