Karl Jäger, one of the most infamous perpetrators of the Holocaust, was a key figure in the systematic extermination of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. As the commander of Einsatzkommando 3, a subunit of the Einsatzgruppen, Jäger orchestrated the massacre of approximately 90,000 people—most of them women, children, and the elderly—during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania. His role in these atrocities remains one of the darkest chapters of World War II, culminating in his eventual capture and execution.
The Rise of Karl Jäger
Born in 1888 in the small village of Schaffhausen, Germany, Karl Jäger rose through the ranks of the Nazi Party, joining the SS in 1932. His career path aligned perfectly with the genocidal policies of Adolf Hitler, and by the time the war broke out, Jäger had secured a leadership role in the SS. His appointment as commander of Einsatzkommando 3, part of the mobile killing squads tasked with executing Nazi racial policies, sealed his fate as one of history's most ruthless mass murderers.
The Massacres in Lithuania
Jäger's Einsatzkommando was deployed to Lithuania in 1941, where it began its gruesome work. The unit systematically rounded up Jews from towns and villages, forcing them into ghettos before executing them en masse.
Under Jäger's command, these mass killings were carried out with chilling efficiency. Victims were often stripped of their clothing and marched to pits where they were shot and buried. Jäger's meticulous record-keeping revealed the horrifying scale of his crimes. The infamous "Jäger Report," discovered after the war, detailed the murders of 137,346 people between July and December 1941, including nearly 90,000 women and children.
One of the most harrowing massacres occurred in Kaunas (Kovno), where thousands of Jews were murdered in a single day. Jäger’s sadistic cruelty extended beyond the killings—his unit often subjected victims to torture and humiliation before their deaths.
The Fall of Jäger
As the tide of the war turned against the Nazis, Jäger retreated with the German forces, attempting to avoid accountability for his crimes. In the chaos of Germany’s defeat, he managed to go into hiding, evading capture for years by living under a false identity.
However, justice eventually caught up with him. In 1959, Jäger was discovered in West Germany and arrested. The evidence against him, including the damning Jäger Report, was irrefutable. His trial exposed the full extent of his crimes, and he was sentenced to death for his role in the Holocaust.
Jäger’s Execution
On June 22, 1959, Karl Jäger faced justice for the atrocities he committed. He was hanged, marking the end of a life defined by unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. His execution was a small measure of justice for the tens of thousands of innocent lives he had destroyed.