Paul Blobel Research Paper

Gaven Boni Boni 1

Mr. Thompson

Contemporary Studies

15 December 2016

Paul Blobel

Paul Blobel was a German SS-Standartenführer and a member of the SD in World War ii,

two horribly evil Nazi positions. Blobel is also responsible for the organization of the Babi

Yar Massacre, a massacre claiming 33,771 Jewish lives, it took place during September 29-30th,

1941. It is considered "the largest single massacre in the history of the Holocaust" to that

particular date. He was put in charge of Aktion 1005, the task of destroying all evidence of Nazi

wrong doings in Eastern Europe. In 1941 Blobel along with

Otto Rasch, commander of Einsatzgruppe were also at the Rear Headquarters Army Group

South. There, they made the decision to exterminate the Jews of Kiev, saying that it was in

retaliation for the explosions. The mass killing would be carried out by soldiers under the

command of Blobel and Rasch, who were also responsible for a number of other atrocities in

Ukraine in 1941. The commander of the Einsatzkommando reported two days after the massacre

“The difficulties resulting from such a large scale action in particular concerning the seizure were

overcome in Kiev by requesting the Jewish population through wall posters to move. Although

only a participation of approximately 5,000 to 6,000 Jews had been expected at first, more than

30,000 Jews arrived who, until the very moment of their execution, still believed in their

resettlement, thanks to an extremely clever organization.” A truck driver named Hofer recalls

seeing the massacre saying, “I watched what happened when the Jews arrived. The Ukrainians

led them where one after the other they had to give up their luggage, then their coats, shoes and

over-garments and also underwear. They also had to leave their valuables in a designated

These work groups were called Leichen Kommandos, or corpse units

and were all part of Sonderkommando 1005. It was at the end of June when Blobel got his orders

While the main aim was to erase evidence of Jewish exterminations, the Aktion would also

include non-Jewish murders of the Nazi’s. At first the Jews from the Lodz area had been gassed

at Chelmno in gas-vans and buried in pits in a nearby forest. Blobel began his work

experimenting at Chełmno. He attempted to use incendiary bombs to destroy bodies, but this was

unsuccessful as the weapons set fire to nearby forests. The most efficient way was found to be

giant pyres on iron grills. The method involved building layers of corpses and firewood on

railway tracks. Afterwards remaining bone fragments would be crushed by pounding with heavy

dowels or in a grinding machine and then re-buried in pits The operation officially began at

Sobibór concentration camp. At the conclusion of these experiments the SS had found a simple

way to erase their crimes. The results of Paul Blobel’s experiments were sent to Odilo