Last Podcast on the Left

Episode 641: Heinrich Himmler Part V – Einsatzgruppen Day

Release Date: October 31, 2025
Hosts: Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, Ed Larson

Overview

In this harrowing fifth installment of the Heinrich Himmler series, the LPOTL crew dives into the creation, operation, and consequences of the Einsatzgruppen—Nazi Germany’s infamous mobile killing squads. With their signature blend of dark humor and historical rigor, Marcus, Henry, and Ed examine how Himmler’s SS brought industrialized mass murder to Eastern Europe, the chilling evolution of Nazi methods and propaganda, and the way societies—and individuals—can become complicit in unimaginable horror. The episode is both a meticulously researched account of genocide's logistics and a meditation on complicity, trauma, and collective responsibility.

While the hosts’ banter occasionally lightens the heavy subject matter, this episode is notably somber and filled with disturbing, graphic content. Listeners are reminded throughout of the importance of remembering—and learning from—these grim chapters of history.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Tone: Gifts and Gallows Humor

• [02:32]–[04:41] The episode opens with the hosts playfully celebrating “Einsatzgruppen Day” for Marcus, who’s long awaited covering this topic. They exchange gifts (a “I poop on fascists” pigeon pin, a garden pickaxe, gardening shovel, and humorous trinkets) as coping mechanisms for the heavy material ahead.
  • Henry Zebrowski: “Today is going to be a difficult episode… a lot of horror.”
  • Ed Larson: “Whenever it gets too hard today… grab the pickaxe.”

2. The Expansion of Nazi Power & Preludes to Mass Murder

• [06:25] Marcus Parks: Recaps the annexations of Austria and Czechoslovakia, and how Nazi appetite for “Lebensraum” (living space) and economic plunder set the foundation for the Holocaust in Eastern Europe.
• Nazi occupation required SS control; Himmler delegated to Reinhard Heydrich, who created the “Action Groups” (Einsatzgruppen).
• Humorous aside: The name “Action Group” sounds ironically juvenile and harmless.

3. Escalation in Anti-Jewish Policies and Financing War

• [09:53]–[14:24] “Pogroms” become systematic, especially after the Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass” – [14:53]), a major state-sanctioned outburst of violence against Jews.
  • Marcus: “A pogrom is a concentrated attack on a Jewish population made by a group of people. It happened so often they needed a word for it.” ([12:51])
  • Nazi strategy: alternate brutality and moral “pauses” to wear down public resistance.

4. Kristallnacht’s Atrocities & the Nazi Justification

• [14:53]–[18:42] The murder of a German diplomat by a Jewish teenager is used as pretext for Kristallnacht—murder, arson, arrest, and torture on a national scale.
  • Dachau concentration camp’s cruel “Dance Jew” game is described in graphic detail.
  • Quotes about the “routine” normalization of violence and the complicity of ordinary people.

5. Invasion of Poland and the SS/Wehrmacht Divide

• [20:15]–[34:01]
  • Invasion in 1939 is engineered via false-flag attacks (“Operation Himmler”) and mass murder of civilians, especially the intelligentsia.
  • Hitler’s speeches position the war as a “world war against international Jewry.”
  • Tens of thousands killed by both Wehrmacht and SS, distinctions blur.

6. Life Under Occupation: Lebensraum, Collaboration, and Methamphetamine

• Nazis forcibly displace millions, many to certain death from exposure or starvation ([31:03]).
• Dictatorial micromanagement: Himmler builds his own “second army” via the SS.
• Methamphetamine: Nazi armies fueled by meth, contributing to relentless but unsustainable military advances ([26:41]-[28:41]).

7. Birth and Mandate of the Einsatzgruppen

• [39:13]–[41:07]
  • Einsatzgruppen resurrected as full-time extermination squads to “secure the rear” but with real purpose: “straight up murder.”
  • They role-play “civilization,” keeping violence methodical and impersonal, with post-execution schnapps and appetizers ([67:21]).

8. From Pogroms to the Final Solution

• [48:13] The chilling line, “When I hear the word culture, that’s when I reach for my revolver,” cited as a distillation of Nazi thinking.
• Nazi genocide is modeled on earlier Western colonial atrocities, including the American genocide of Indigenous peoples ([54:25]).
  • Marcus: “The Nazis saw no difference between what they were doing in Eastern Europe and what the United States had done to the Native Americans.”

9. Mechanization of Mass Murder

• The “industrialization” of genocide:
  • Experiments with explosives, vans rigged for gassing ([63:06]).
  • Problem-solving: less traumatizing, more “efficient” methods.
  • Marcus: “The industrialization of mass murder was born on the Eastern Front and midwifed by a chemist named Albert Widman.”
  • The pit horror: mass burials, quicklime, and burying people alive; moving ground, chemical burns, and ongoing mass trauma ([99:18]).

10. Trauma, Turnover, and Organizational Psychopathy

• Even hardened Nazis break down; many Einsatzgruppen members die by suicide ([107:59]).
• Repeated use of blackmail and forced assignments; high turnover due to trauma or “punishment” ([66:10]–[82:50]).
• Himmler’s obsessive micromanagement: rules for food, personal behavior, punishments, and rewards.
  • Henry: “It’s almost like Himmler was the only real Nazi… Centered in his lane… can’t trust these guys.”

11. Babi Yar—The Pinnacle of Horror

• [85:28]–[92:03] The massacre at the Babi Yar ravine: nearly 34,000 Jews executed in just two days, victims forced to strip, shot en masse, and rapidly buried.
  • Nazis orchestrate the process to be mechanical and impersonal.
  • Subsequent use of the ravine to dispose of up to 150,000 corpses over years.

12. Collaboration, Civilians, and the Aftermath

• Local collaboration with Nazi killers is widespread (esp. in the Baltics, e.g., Kaunas, Lithuania).
• Nazis cynically attempt “reasonableness” (e.g., the Madagascar Plan) but double down on murder.
• Hedwig Pothast: Himmler’s mistress and confidante, living a life of luxury while atrocities occur; rumors of household items made from human remains, but likely legends ([95:00]-[97:12]).

13. Reflection on Legacy and Guilt

• The episode closes with the hosts (especially Marcus) emphasizing the “lessons we’re supposed to know” from this series—how bureaucratized hatred, normalized atrocity, and organized efficiency can yield unimaginable evil.

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On escalation and "routine" horror:

  • Marcus Parks: “Eventually it almost became routine, like, ah, jeez, here’s another pogrom. Close the fucking window… just wait for it to pass.” ([11:35])

• On the term “pogrom”:

  • Marcus: “It’s a word that shouldn’t exist… a genocide is made up of pogroms.” ([13:09])

• On Nazi propaganda and complicity:

  • Marcus: “Nazis had a keen eye for just how much the public could take… Once people moved on from the plight of the Jews, the Nazis would restart the whole process.” ([11:35])

• On the mechanics of mass murder:

  • Henry: “You can dehumanize them as much as you want. Until they’re right in front of you.” ([61:16])
  • Marcus: “Because a traumatized soldier was useless, Himmler tasked Nazi scientists with… ways to traumatize the least amount of Nazis.” ([61:25])

• On Nazi self-justification:

  • Marcus: “A more common response from Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg… it was the only thing we could do.” ([44:21])

• On American genocide as precedent:

  • Marcus: “The Nazis saw absolutely no difference between what they were doing in Eastern Europe and what the US had done to Native Americans… They openly used the genocide that birthed America as a model for their conquest.” ([54:25])

• Babi Yar description:

  • “The Nazis and their collaborators did so happily, laughing as if—in the words of one author—they were merely watching a circus act… The operation was set up to be mechanical, soulless, and constant.” ([88:00])

Important Segment Timestamps

• [02:32] — Introduction, mood setting, and gifts for “Einsatzgruppen Day”
• [06:25] — Recap: Nazi expansion, Lebensraum, and SS/Einsatzgruppen evolution
• [14:53] — Kristallnacht: Turning point to state-sponsored, open violence
• [25:21] — Operation Himmler: False flag attacks spark WWII
• [31:03] — Invasion of Poland, mass deportations, death by starvation/exposure
• [39:13] — Re-founding of Einsatzgruppen as extermination squads
• [48:13] — “When I hear the word culture, that’s when I reach for my revolver.” (Origin of the famous line)
• [54:25] — Discussion: America as genocide model
• [63:06] — Nazis invent the gas van (mobile gas chamber)
• [85:28] — Description of Babi Yar massacre
• [107:59] — Aftermath: trauma, burnout, and the end of Einsatzgruppen relevance
• [110:11] — Japan enters the war against the US; shifting global tides
• [111:02] — Closing: Consequences, lessons, and the imperative to remember

Episode Tone & Style

• The hosts balance grim, distressing history with gallows humor, tangents, and self-aware asides (e.g., gift-giving to Marcus, music recs, playful jabs).
• At several points they underline the emotional difficulty of the topic, emphasizing the need to learn and reflect.
• Repeated references to how easily societies slip into complicity, as well as to the American context and its own dark legacy.

Concluding Thoughts

• Henry Zebrowski: “It never has and it never will [work]. Because it comes back…now we’re dealing with the sins of the past.” ([58:34])
• Marcus Parks: “Every October 23rd…Einsatzgruppen Day: it’s replacing the power of hate with the power of friendship.” ([111:05])

The episode ends with the hope that understanding these atrocities, and the banality of evil, arms us to resist their repetition.

Content Note:
This episode includes graphic descriptions of genocide, murder, torture, and discussions of complicity. The hosts' humor serves as a means of managing the heaviness but does not undercut the gravity or reality of the events described.