Paul Blobel was more than a Nazi officer in a black uniform. He was a killing machine designed to eliminate and cover up the truth. In 1941, he commanded an SS death squad that rolled through occupied Russia, leaving graves in its wake.

At Belaya Tserkov, his troops killed every adult Jew. They went on to attack the children. Blobel quarreled with his second-in-command who would be responsible for the shooting. They hired a Ukrainian militia to carry out the task. This indicates the level of brutality.

And then there was Babyn Yar in Kiev. Over 33,000 Jews were informed that they were going to be resettled. Two days later they were all dead in a ravine. His unit even employed a gas van, a truck which killed forty at a time through its exhaust.

By 1943 Blobel had a new assignment. Operate Sonderkommando 1005. Exhume corpses. Extract gold teeth. Incinerate the bodies. Erase the records.

He worked for a year to erase the crime. But the scale was too big. The truth clawed its way back to the surface.

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