Latvijas Vēsturnieku komisijas raksti - 23.sējums

146 Konferences “Baltija Otrajā pasaules karā (1939–1945)” referāti par holokausta tematiku
and active officers of the police. Its first deployment abroad was a brief stint to help
crush the Prague student revolt in November 1939. In May 1940, it was transferred to
Oslo, where its duties were supposed to include helping secure the border with neutral
Sweden. 44 This latter task in this sector of the country was mainly performed by Police
Battalion 2 stationed in the town of Kongsvinger, leaving PB 9 mainly to patrol and
maintain order in the Norwegian capital. 45
In February 1941, PB 9 was recalled back to Berlin. It had been decided that PB 9’s
companies were to be distributed among the four Einsatzgruppen being assembled for
the attack on the USSR. Regarding the region covered in this paper, the 1st Company
under Oberleutnant Peter Clausen was assigned to EG A, while the 2nd Company
under Hauptmann Helmut Gantz was assigned to Einsatzgruppe B (EG B). 46 For the 1st
Company within EG A, the 1st Platoon became part of Rudolf Batz’s Einsatzkommando 2
(EK 2) for Latvia, and the 2nd Platoon was included in Jäger’s EK 3 for Lithuania, while
the 3rd Platoon and the company staff were included in Stahlecker’s unit staff for EG A. 47
In the service of the Einsatzgruppen, the men of PB 9 left behind them a trail of
death and destruction with few equals, even in grim the history of the Holocaust. The
total estimated death toll for PB 9 during this period is 97,000, 48 although even this
astounding figure may be too low. There exists testimony that Gantz’s 2nd Company
serving with EG B was by itself responsible for ending 52,000 lives. 49
Some members of Gantz’s company arrived in Kaunas at the very beginning of
July 1941, while others travelled via Daugavpils and Pskov to reach the Russian town
of Novosel′e on 20 or 22 July. Eventually the entire company reassembled at Novosel′e,
with the exception of three men who remained in behind Kaunas at the headquarters
of Jäger’s EK 3. After some time 2nd Company was transferred back to Kaunas, and
later moved to Vilnius. In November, some of Ganz’s men were transferred from Vilnius
to the SD in Minsk, where they came under the command of Ehrlinger’s Sk 1b. 50 In
all likelihood, these men would have recognised Ehrlinger from their time in Oslo, and
perhaps he recognised them as well.
Stahlecker arrived in Riga accompanied by Clausen and 1st Company’s 3rd Platoon.
Those men of 1st Company not travelling with Stahlecker arrived in Riga in early July
1941 along various routes. One group travelled from Liepāja to Ventspils first, while the
other group came via Lithuanian Šiauliai. 51
Along the way, the police soldiers participated in mass killings. The men in Erhard
Grauel’s Teilkommando executed over 300 mainly Jewish prisoners in Liepāja between
7 and 10 July, before moving on to Ventspils. 52 In Ventspils, Grauel ordered the local
Latvian police chief Kārlis Lobe to round up all adult Jews in Ventspils District. With the
assistance of Latvians from the Ventspils Selbstschutz detachment, the men of PB 9 under
Grauel’s command executed some 300 Jews in Kaziņu Wood over the next few days. 53