Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-2005

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

History

Major Professor

Vejas Liulevicius

Committee Members

John Bohstedt, Denise Phillips

Abstract

This thesis considers one of the most widely debated topics in modern European history: why the men of the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads following the Wehrmacht as they advanced into Russia) participated in massacres of supposedly “undesirable” people. Although this topic has been discussed for many years, to date there has been no definitive consensus formed. This thesis examines issues of the official SS publication Das Schwarze Korps and records from the Nuremburg Trials (contained in the Winfield B. Hale papers in the University of Tennessee’s Special Collections Library) in order to bring both new evidence and a new opinion into this debate.

Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Included in

History Commons

Share

COinS