Einsatzgruppen in a victorious Reich?

Wendigo

Banned
If Nazi Germany had managed to occupy Europe from France to the Urals, managing a peace with the US/Britain and going ahead with Generalplan Ost and the rest of their sick plans (like AANW or Fatherland), what would have happened to the Einsatzgruppen?

Would they be disbanded?

Grown in size?

Used against Slavs?

Guarding slave laborers in the East?

How prevalent would the issue of PTSD be among its members like IOTL?
 
Grown in size, but with a fairly high turnover rate among most units--PTSD was, after all, one of the drivers for the invention of the gas van and gas chamber. Eventually, natural selection would concentrate a growing fraction of sociopathic criminals into the Einsatzgruppen (think Dirlewanger), reducing turnover rates some. They'd grow even more evil as a result.
 

Wendigo

Banned
They'd grow even more evil as a result.
Meaning evil as individuals or in their actions, becoming more brutal?

It's hard to get more evil when you're already shooting men, women and children in the head into ditches by the thousands on a daily basis.
 
Meaning evil as individuals or in their actions, becoming more brutal?

It's hard to get more evil when you're already shooting men, women and children in the head into ditches by the thousands on a daily basis.

More brutal and also less repentant on average. The ones with some problem doing the job would get shunted out--thus increasing the concentration of genuine madmen. Dirlewanger-types will become the norm.
 
Would they be disbanded?

Grown in size?

Used against Slavs?

Guarding slave laborers in the East?

How prevalent would the issue of PTSD be among its members like IOTL?

1. Highly unlikely

2. Highly likely

3. They aready were

4. they had different tasks, SSers would be used for guarding

5. Like said earlier, there would be increase in brutality and thus more PTSD, but once they weed out the "weaker" members and the mindless monsters are left, they will become better and worse at the same time.

i think after growing bigger they will reduce once the task is less "massive"(i tremble using these words) and they will probably be assimilated into some other party.
 

Cook

Banned
what would have happened to the Einsatzgruppen?

It needs to be remembered that the Eisatzgruppen did not do most of the killing of civilians in the Soviet Union; members of the Wehrmacht were seconded to assist the SS in their duties. That's why the extermination of Jews, Gypsies, and other undesirables proceeded in a wave - sweeping over the land as the armies advanced, and then sweeping back as they retreated. The scale of the killings was simply beyond the capacity of the SS to perform on their own, even with the assistance of enthusiastic locals.

If you want more information on who actually did the killing, I recommend Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands.
 

Towelie

Banned
I would imagine that the men recruited from criminal units and backgrounds would be executed in secret after they had expired in usefulness. The SS True Believers would probably have to sign secrecy pledges.

This was not the kind of thing that the government wanted the general population to know about.

Slav enslavement is going to require a permanent military force in the East. Extermination of subhuman races however by the time of disbandment I think would have been over.
 

Wendigo

Banned
I would imagine that the men recruited from criminal units and backgrounds would be executed in secret after they had expired in usefulness. The SS True Believers would probably have to sign secrecy pledges.

This was not the kind of thing that the government wanted the general population to know about.

Slav enslavement is going to require a permanent military force in the East. Extermination of subhuman races however by the time of disbandment I think would have been over.
The plan was for between 14-15 million Slavs as chattel serfs in the East on plantations and such. How large of a force would be needed to guard them, catch any escapees, and brutally squash any rebellions?
 
The plan was for between 14-15 million Slavs as chattel serfs in the East on plantations and such. How large of a force would be needed to guard them, catch any escapees, and brutally squash any rebellions?
A few escapees could be tolerated, and rebellion could be put down by crack SS forces.
 
Assuming the war is won as described, the number of Einsatzgruppen would actually decline. Once the boundaries of German control were established, it would be more a matter of rounding up any surviving Jews, Roma, and whoever else was scheduled for immediate elimination and sending them to camps like Auschwitz where they could be adequately "processed". Those shot by the Einsatzgruppen did not have their clothes, hidden jewels/money, and dental gold "harvested" and thus represented a financial loss. By the time the war is won the extermination camps are established and working smoothly. It is simply a matter of rounding up any of the Untermenschen who have not yet been deported or have escaped the net and shipping them - no need for major shootings (like Babi Yar). Sure there will be some shootings of isolated small groups or individuals, but not like the early days in the USSR.

For the Slavs being worked to death or allowed to starve, SS men assigned to such duty, probably on a rotational basis would serve. Other than troublemakers executed locally, probably publicly and gruesomely as an example, there would not be deportation to the camps. Eventually the camps, like the Einsatzgruppen would be downsized. Of course there would be concentration camps for punishment, but once the "portable" populations singled out for extermination (Jews and Roma primarily) the need for a large extermination apparatus is no longer needed. There will be millions yet to die, but they (mostly Slavs) will die in place.
 
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