The armies of the Third Reich invaded the USSR on June 22, 1941. Mobile commandos, the Einsatzgruppen, were following their advance to Stalingrad with the mission of eliminating all Jews on the conquered territories.

In December 1941, after the EZG’s intervention, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Baltic states are declared “Judenfrei”: free of Jews.

Faced with the advancing Soviet troops, Nazi Germany decides to have the bodies of death camp victims dug up and burned in graves.

After being judged at the Nuremberg trials, the majority of those responsible for the murder of nearly 1.5 million Jews would walk free in the 1950s.