Einsatzkommando

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Einsatzkommando is a German military term with the literal translation of "mission commando", roughly equivalent to the English term "task force".

The Nazi-era Einsatzkommando was originally an organization formed by Reinhard Heydrich to secure government buildings and documents following the Anschluss in Austria in March 1938. It was later transformed into the Einsatzgruppen, a genocidal death squad organization responsible for the mass murder of more than a million people.

The term Einsatzkommando is still in use for German paramilitary organizations, such as EKO Cobra.