This chapter presents an overview of Nazi mass killing operations in the North Caucasus from August 1942 to January 1943, set against military developments in the region and drawn especially from the findings of the author's book on Einsatzgruppe D. It looks into the ways Einsatzgruppe D and the Wehrmacht cooperated in the North Caucasus in the implementation of the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question,” with an eye to employment of local collaborators, and provides unit-by-unit descriptions of the larger executions.

Background and Military Strategy

For the summer of 1942, Germany's Nazi dictatorship and three-branched military prepared an offensive intended as a decisive final strike against the Soviet Union, finishing what Operation Barbarossa had started. The code name of this undertaking was “Operation Blue.” At the start of the great war against the Soviet Union in 1941, the declared objective of Hitler and his general staff was for German troops to penetrate far enough eastward to reach (ideally) a north-south line from Arkhangelsk to Astrakhan, thus enabling the establishment of four Reich commissariats (Ostland, Ukraine, Muscovy/Russia, and Caucasus). Therefore, the collapse of the Soviet Union would not end with just the loss of its European territories. Ultimately, it was also necessary for Siberia to fall under German domination and for German troops to occupy the southern regions that had fallen to the Soviet Union during the War Communism period. In particular, this was also to secure the oil reserves of the Caspian Sea for Germany's continuing war efforts— now against its main opponent, the United States. The German forces were not strong enough to fight a war along the entire length of its eastern front, thrusting toward Siberia, Moscow, and central Russia, and in the south toward the Volga and the Caucasus. Hitler had to make a choice, so he chose the southern option. German soldiers, backed up by panzer divisions and air fleets, would march toward Stalingrad, with an even more massive force heading south through Rostov-on-Don, the “Gateway to the Caucasus.” Its assignment was to push toward Mount Elbrus, Nalchik, Elista, Mozdok, and Grozny.