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Massacre of Uus Street

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Coordinates: 59°26′15″N 24°45′00″E / 59.4375°N 24.75°E / 59.4375; 24.75
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The massacre of Uus street was committed by German forces and local collaborators on 30 August 1941 in Tallinn, Estonia.

History

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German forces occupied Tallinn on 28 August 1941 after the Soviet evacuation of Tallinn. The German occupation forces included a local Omakaitse militia. Einsatzgruppe A commanded by Franz Walter Stahlecker closely followed the German front units, actively recruiting local nationalists and antisemitic groups to instigate pogroms against the local Jewish population.[1]

In Tallinn, many Jews lived in the vicinity of the Uus street, located in Vanalinn. Several Jewish shopowners had their businesses on the street. On the night before 30 August, the area was targeted by a Omakaitse unit under the command of Karl Talpak.[2] Militiamen arrived to the street with torches and burned down several shops owned by the Jews. The Jewish residents were taken out to the street and left waiting for the arrival of the Einsatzgruppe that had orders to execute them.[3]

According to the testimony of local Estonian resident Martin Aidnik, the victims were ordered to undress and some who resisted were beaten to death:

There were armed men standing on the sidewalks on both sides of the street, the Jews - mostly women and children - in the center. An older man who I knew to be Simeon Sorokin, a glass merchant from the Uus street, refused to get naked and I saw a militiaman beat him with a gun until he was clearly dead. Then, two trucks with German soldiers arrived.[4]

According to most evidence, the Einsatzgruppe murdered 83 Jewish victims by machine-gun fire on the Uus street. They were later buried in an unmarked grave outside the city.[5]

Later, commander of the German commando reported to Stahlecker:

The removal of the Jewish population [in Tallinn] has been swift and easy thanks to the action taken by a Sonderkommando on 29 and 30 August. There has been no noticeable resistance from the Jews who were led to believe that they will be resettled.[6]

The massacre was followed by taking the remainder of the Jewish population in Tallinn to several concentration camps in Estonia such as the Jägala concentration camp, where they were killed toward the end of the year 1941.[7]

Citations and references

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  1. ^ Hillgruber 1989, p. 98.
  2. ^ Haakristi haardes.Tallinn 1979, p. 84
  3. ^ Merila 1999, p. 77.
  4. ^ Quoted in Eugenia Gurin-Loov, Holocaust of Estonian Jews 1941, Eesti Juudi Kogukond, Tallinn 1994: pg. 194
  5. ^ Merila 1999, p. 79.
  6. ^ Nuremberg Military Tribunal, Einsatzgruppen trial, Judgment, at page 209, quoting exhibit NO-2688.
  7. ^ "Report Phase II: The German Occupation of Estonia 1941–1944" (PDF). Estonian International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity. 1998. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2017-02-26.

Cited sources

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  • Hillgruber, Andreas (1989). "War in the East and the Extermination of the Jews". In Marrus, Michael (ed.). Part 3, The "Final Solution": The Implementation of Mass Murder, Volume 1. The Nazi Holocaust. Westpoint, CT: Meckler. pp. 85–114. ISBN 0-88736-266-4.
  • Merila, Toomas (1999). The Holocaust in Estonia. Tallinn: Varrak.

59°26′15″N 24°45′00″E / 59.4375°N 24.75°E / 59.4375; 24.75

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