Karl Jäger
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Karl Jäger was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland (20 September 1888 - June 1959). In World War I he received the Iron Cross (1st Class). He joined the National Socialist Party (Nazi) in 1923 (serial no. 359269) and the SS in 1932 (serial no. 62823). He was assigned to Ludwigsburg, then to Ravensburg, Germany in 1935, and to Münster in 1938, where he was named head of the local office of the Internal Security Services (SD). During the Invasion of the Netherlands on May 10, 1940, Jäger was named commander of Einsatzkommando 3, a unit of Einsatzgruppe A.
From July 1941 until September 1943 he was assigned commander of the Internal Security Services (SD) Einsatzkommando 3 in Kaunas, Lithuania. During this time, reports detailing calculated acts of mass murder where routinely submitted to his superiors. Some of these reports survived the war and are collectively referred to as the “Jäger Report”.
Reassigned back to Germany near the end of 1943, he was appointed commander of the Internal Security Services (SD) in Reichenberg in the Sudetenland.
Jäger escaped capture by the Allies when the war ended, assumed a false identity, and was able to assimilate back into society as an agriculturist until his report was discovered in March 1959. Arrested and charged with his crimes, Karl Jäger committed suicide in prison while he was awaiting trial in June 1959.
Among all Nazi documents detailing calculated acts of mass murder and other atrocities, the "Jäger Report" is one of the most horrifying. It provides a very detailed account of the murderous rampage of this "special squad" in Nazi-occupied Lithuania. Jäger was instrumental in the brutal and systematic destruction of the Jewish Community of Lithuania.
