Like many other employees of the SD , at the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union , Strauch assumed command of a unit of the Einsatzgruppen . Strauch led Einsatzkommando 2 , which was part of Einsatzgruppe A , which beginning on November 4 , 1941 was under the command of Franz Walter Stahlecker . On November 30 , 1941 , he participated , with 20 men under his command , in the murder of 10,600 Jews of Riga in the Rumbula forest near the city . As a reward for this " service " he was promoted to commander in Sipo and the SD and transferred to Belarus . In July 1943 , the Nazi general commissioner for White Russia reported on having had a conference with the " extremely capable ... chief of the SD , SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. jur . Strauch “ , who had caused " the liquidation of 55,000 Jews in just the past 10 weeks alone . " Strauch had difficulties within the SS . SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski , himself a perpetrator of the genocide , described Strauch as " the worst human I ever met in my life " . Strauch 's promotion to Standartenführer was denied . On 31 May 1944 he was appointed Sipo and SD commander in Belgium . In October 1944 Strauch was transferred to the SS military branch the Waffen-SS
the genocide
The Holocaust
Eduard Strauch