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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.

[[File:360px-Lviv pogrom (June - July 1941).jpg|right|200px|thumb|Lvov pogrom, June-July 1941.]]

[[File:360px-Lviv pogrom (June - July 1941).jpg|right|200px|thumb|[[Lvov pogrom]], June-July 1941.]]

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.