Franz Walter Stahlecker

“ In villages, in the area where partisans had not been ascertained before, one behaved friendly towards the population. In view of the generally known shortage of bread one usually succeeded very quickly in finding one or several villagers who could be used as persons of confidence. They were promised to get bread provided they would give information concerning partisans or if they would inform the nearest units of the German Army or Police of any partisans appearing in the future. ”

“ When the other larger towns, especially Libau, Mitau, Riga, Dorpat, Reval, and the larger suburbs of Leningrad were captured, a detachment of the Security Police was always with the first army units. Above all, communist functionaries and communist material had to be seized, and the armed forces themselves had to be secured against surprises inside the towns ”

“ In Latvia up to now 30.000 Jews were executed in all. 500 were made harmless by pogroms in Riga.
Most of the 4.500 Jews living in Estonia at the beginning of the Eastern Campaign fled with the retreating Red Army. About 200 stayed behind. In Reval alone there lived about 1,000 Jews. The arrest of all male Jews of over 16 years of age has been nearly finished. With the exception of the doctors and the Elders of the Jews who were appointed by the Special Commandos, they were executed by the Self-Protection Units under the control of the Special Detachment 1a. ”

“ As a matter of fact, they alone amongst all authorities may claim to have achieved a certain steadiness on the German side. The Lithuanians, Latvians, and the Estonians, who have a fine feeling for such matters, came soon to acknowledge this fact and acted accordingly. Under these circumstances the Security Police tried to guide political, economic, and cultural matters according to definite policies, and to advise the other German authorities on these subjects. In the political sphere particularly the several competent authorities followed different viewpoints. ”

“ In some places the Self-Protection Units themselves had rendered harmless the most infamous Communists already spontaneously. Using all available units of the Detachments and Self-Protection Formations, and with the help of the German uniformed police, large scale actions were carried out in the larger towns resulting in many arrests and search actions. ”

“ This was especially urgent in Kowno because there were 30,000 Jews in a total population of 152,400. Therefore, at the end of the first pogrom a Jewish Committee was summoned who were informed that the German authorities so far had not seen any reason to interfere in the quarrels between Lithuanians and Jews. The sole basis for creating a normal situation would be to construct a Jewish Ghetto. Against remonstrations made by the Jewish Committee, it was declared that there was no other possibility to prevent further pogroms. ”

“ The detachment which was formed for action towards Leningrad was trained for operations in Leningrad during the first days after the advance to Novosselje. However, as an advance to Leningrad is not to be expected at the time planned previously, the parts of Action detachments 2 and 3 which were concentrated in Novosselje were used for extensive operations of cleansing and pacifying in the area of Panzer-Group 4, in agreement with this Group. This is done mainly in the area limited by the connection-line between Pog-Gora-Novosselje-Osjerjewo. ”

“ The pacification of Estonia had to be considered as especially important because of the good racial composition of the population. After Action-Group F, had transferred parts of White Ruthenia to Action Group A, Action-detachment 1b reinforced by parts of Action-detachment 2 and 3 took over this area. For the investment of Leningrad, the Security Police aside from the heavily increased activities against the partisans, received the further assignment to observe carefully the population which \\-as slowly returning from the woods. ”

“ It has further to be considered in each and every case, whether Red-Armists found in civilian clothes should be separated from regular prisoners of war, and should be brought into the assembly camps for civilian internees. ”

“ It was regrettable that the Ministry for Eastern Affairs had not given clear'directions from the beginning, so that up to date and in spite of our efforts the situation in the Baltic provinces is not clear. ”

“ The example of Estonia is significant for this fluctuation. In agreement with the RSHA the Action-Group brought with them the Estonian Dr. Mae as presumptive political adviser for the Estonians. In order to avoid a pernicious muddle, as happened in Lithuania and Latvia, and in order to obtain the appointment of Dr. Mae or to avoid his removal, negotiations had to be carried out with, one after the other, the Army division capturing Reval, the Army Corps competent for Reval, the Garrison commander Reval, the Field Commandatura Reval, the 18. ”

“ It shows further that the forces of the uniformed police and the Armed SS are active mainly in front of Leningrad in order to take measures against the returning population and under their own officers. [page 982] This is so much easier because the Action detachments in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have at their disposal native police units, as described in encl. ”