Einsatzgruppen (German for "
task forces", "deployment groups"; singular
Einsatzgruppe; official full name
Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD) were
Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary
death squads of
Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass killings, primarily by shooting, during
World War II. The
Einsatzgruppen were involved in the murder of much of the
intelligentsia and cultural elite of Poland, and had an integral role in the implementation of the
Final Solution of the
Jewish question (
Die Endlösung der Judenfrage) in territories conquered by Nazi Germany. Almost all of the people they killed were civilians, beginning with the intelligentsia and swiftly progressing to Soviet
political commissars,
Jews, and
Gypsies throughout Eastern Europe.