Editing Reich Security Main Office (section)

===Oversight of ''Einsatzgruppen''===
The RSHA also oversaw the ''[[Einsatzgruppen]]'', [[death squad]]s that were formed under the direction of Heydrich and operated by the SS.{{sfn|Rhodes|2002|pp=3–4}} Originally part of the SiPo, in September 1939 the operational control of the ''Einsatzgruppen'' was taken over by the RSHA. Men for the ''Einsatzgruppen'' were drawn from the RSHA's Security Police, SD, Gestapo, [[Kriminalpolizei (Nazi Germany)|Kripo]], [[Ordnungspolizei|Orpo]], and [[Waffen-SS]].{{sfn|Rhodes|2002|pp=5–6, 12–13}} Heydrich and Bruno Streckenbach, head of personnel at the RSHA, personally selected ''Einsatzgruppen'' leaders from these units.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=356}} These committed Nazis and antisemitic ideologues were highly educated, often holding doctorates in law, and had years of experience in policing and security.{{sfn|McDonough|2021b|p=129}} Their first missions were conducted during early territorial expansions (Austria, Sudetenland, Bohemia-Moravia) to target political opponents, when the ''Einsatzgruppen'' units followed the invasion forces of the [[German Army (1935–1945)|German Army]] into Eastern Europe.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=185}} Although designed only as temporary units on their initial use, these RSHA-controlled units became permanent by 1942, with ''Einsatzgruppen'' A, B, C, and D becoming notorious for atrocities, especially against Polish intellectuals, whom they systematically arrested or executed based on pre-compiled lists. Additional ''Einsatzgruppen'' operated in other regions like North Africa, Croatia, Hungary, and Slovakia, continuing their role in political repression and genocide.{{sfn|Echternkamp|2018|pp=94–95}} Not infrequently, commanders of ''Einsatzgruppen'' and ''Einsatzkommando'' sub-units were also desk officers from the main office of the RSHA.{{sfn|Burleigh|2000|p=599}} Historian [[Raul Hilberg]] estimates that between 1941 and 1945 the ''Einsatzgruppen'', related agencies, and foreign auxiliary troops co-opted by the Nazis,{{efn|Hilberg outlines the participation of non-German auxiliaries assigned to the Orpo and ''Einsatzgruppen'' in these killing operations within his work, ''Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders: The Jewish Catastrophe, 1933–1945''.{{sfn|Hilberg|1992|pp=87–102}} He also discusses the overall complicity of non-German governments.{{sfn|Hilberg|1992|pp=75–86}}}} killed more than two million people, including 1.3 million Jews.{{sfn|Rhodes|2002|p=257}}