The Lithuanian Activist Front ("Lietuvos Aktyvistų Frontas", or LAF) had cooperated with Nazi operations against Poles during the German occupation. In autumn 1943, the Home Army performed retaliatory operations against the Nazis' Lithuanian supporters, mainly the Lithuanian "Schutzmannschaft" battalions, the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force, and the Lithuanian Secret Police, killing hundreds of mostly Lithuanian policemen and other collaborators during the first half of 1944. In response, the Lithuanian Sonderkommando, who had already killed hundreds of Polish civilians since 1941 (particularly the Ponary massacre), intensified their operations against the Poles.