Paul Blobel

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Paul Blobel (August 13, 1894 - June 8, 1951) was an SS-Standartenführer and a member of the SD. Born in the city of Potsdam, he participated in the First World War, where by all accounts he served well and was decorated with the Iron Cross first class. After the war, Blobel studied architecture and practised this profession from 1924 until 1931, when upon losing his job, he joined the Nazi party and joined the SS.

During the German invasion of the Soviet Union, he commanded Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C that was active in the Ukraine. Following Wehrmacht troops into Ukraine, the Einsatzgruppen would be responsible for "liquidating" political and racial undesirables. Blobel was primarily responsible for the Babi Yar massacre at Kiev.

Owing to health reasons brought about mostly by his alcoholism, he was dismissed from his command on January 13, 1942.

From July 1942 to 1944, he was entrusted with Aktion 1005, the task of eliminating all traces of mass murder and massacre carried out by the Germans in the Soviet Union. This was carried out by exhuming the bodies from mass graves and burning them, a task that Blobel optimized with techniques he had developed: alternating layers of bodies with firewood or the use of rails as grills.

Up to 59,018 executions are attributable to Blobel, though during testimony he alleged to have killed "only" 10,000-15,000. He was later sentenced to death by the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunal in the Einsatzgruppen Trial. He was hanged at Landsberg Prison on June 8, 1951.