Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz
The perpetrators were mainly from the new "Selbstschutz" battalions called the "Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz", a paramilitary formation of civilian shooters composed of men from the German minority of pre-war Poland, as well as the "Einsatzkommando" 16 of "SS Einsatzgruppen" under command of "SS-Sturmbannführer" dr Rudolf Tröger. Between September 1939 and April 1940 Selbstschutz - together with other Nazi-German formations - murdered tens of thousands of Poles in Pomerania.