It has been estimated that more than one and a half million Soviet Jews escaped the killing squads. But the concentration of most of the Soviet Union’s Jews in the western parts, especially in cities and large towns, made the work of the Einsatzgruppen much easier. The Einsatzgruppen commanders were also pleasantly surprised by how cooperative and often eager to help their army counterparts proved to be. By the end of 1942, the total number of Jews killed by SS Einsatzgruppen, Ordnungspolizei, anti-partisan units and the German army itself is estimated to have exceeded 1.35 million people.
