of 14 November, multiple buildings in the city center were blown up by time-fuses left by the retreating Red Army. Casualties included the commander (Generalleutnant Georg Braun) and staff of the 68th Infantry Division. The Germans arrested some 200 civilians (mostly Jews) and hanged them from the balconies of large buildings. Another 1,000 were taken as hostages and interned in the Hotel International on Dzerzhinsky Square. All of these war crimes were committed by frontline Wehrmacht commanders, not by SS troops. On 14 December, the Stadtkommandant ordered the Jewish population to be concentrated in a hut settlement near the Kharkov Tractor Factory. In two days, 20,000 Jews were gathered there. Sonderkommando 4a, commanded by SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel, of Einsatzgruppe C started shooting the first of them in December, then continuing to kill them throughout January in a gas van. This was a modified truck that fitted 50 people in it; the van drove around the city and slowly killed the people that were trapped in it with carbon monoxide that was emitted from the vehicle itself and channeled into an airtight compartment. The victims died by a combination of carbon monoxide poisoning and suffocation. The German Army confiscated large quantities of food to be used by its troops, creating acute shortages in the Ukraine. By January 1942 around one-third of the city's 300,000 remaining inhabitants suffered from starvation. Many would die in the cold winter months. As a result of the battles in Kharkov, the city was left in ruins. Dozens of architectural monuments were destroyed and numerous artistic treasures taken. One of the Soviet Unions's best known authors, Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy wrote: "I saw Kharkiv. As if it were Rome in the 5th century. A huge cemetery…" See also Second Battle of Kharkov Third Battle of Kharkov Notes References Sources Glantz, David M. (2001). Before Stalingrad, Tempus Publishing Ltd. Kharkov News Kiessling, Hannes (2007–2011). Bericht über die Einnahme von Charkow, 57.Infanterie-Division. Retrieved 14-08-2011 Kirchubel, Robert (2003). Operation Barbarossa 1941: Army Group South, Praeger Publishers. Margry, Karel (February 2001). "Kharkov", After The Battle, Issue 112, p. 3–45 Memoir of Kharkov’s History Ukrainian Historical Journal External links Conflicts in 1941 1941 in the Soviet Union Battles of Kharkov Battles of World War II involving Germany Battles involving the Soviet Union Battles and operations of the Soviet–German War Operation Barbarossa October 1941 events