Ypatingasis būrys Ypatingasis būrys ( " Special Squad " ) or Special SD and German Security Police Squad ( , , also colloquially " strzelcy ponarscy " ( " Ponary riflemen " in Polish ) ( 1941 – 1944 ) was a Nazi killing squad of approximately 50 men , also called the " Lithuanian equivalent of Sonderkommando " , operating in the Vilnius Region . The unit , primarily composed of Lithuanian volunteers was formed by the German occupational government and was subordinate to Einsatzkommando 9 and later to Sicherheitsdienst ( SD ) and Sicherheitspolizei ( Sipo ) . There are different estimates regarding the size of the unit . Polish historian Czesław Michalski estimates that it grew from base of 50 while Tadeusz Piotrowski asserts about that there were 100 volunteers at its onset . According to Michalski , after its initial creation at various times hundreds of people were its members . Arūnas Bubnys states that it never exceeded a core of forty or fifty men . 118 names are known , 20 of the members have been punished . Together with German police the squad participated in the Ponary massacre , where some 70 , 000 Jews were murdered , along with estimated 20 , 000 Poles and 8 , 000 Russia n POWs , many from nearby Vilnius . History . The first mention of the name of the Vilnian Special Squad , ( ) is from documents dated 15 July 1941 . The Special Squad ( YB ) began as police unit formed after Lithuania was occupied by Germany in 1941 . Many were volunteers , particularly recruited from the former paramilitary nationalistic Union of Lithuanian Riflemen ( ) organization . It was composed primarily of Lithuanians , although according to Lithuanian historian Bubnys , a few Russians and a few Poles served in it as well . The unit was subordinated to German police , and had no autonomy . Amongst the original organizers of the squad were junior lieutenants Jakubka and Butkus . After 23 July 1941 , the commanding officer was Juozas Šidlauskas . Squad members were issued Soviet weapons and white armbands and were used as guards and to move Jews from their apartments to the Ghetto . In November 1941 , lieutenant Balys Norvaiša , became the commander of the squad and his deputy was lieutenant Balys Lukošius . The size of the squad was reduced to between forty and fifty men . By the end of 1943 , Norvaiša and Lukošius were deployed to a self - defence battalion and command of the YB was transferred to sergeant Jonas Tumas . Some of the squad members were wearing uniforms of Lithuanian Army until in 1942 they were issued green SD uniforms with Swastika and skulls on caps . Squad members were also issued SD identity cards . YB was subordinate only to the German Security Police . Longest serving commander of YB was SS man Martin Weiss . Weiss used to not only command executions but to kill victims personally . In 1943 Weiss was replaced by private Fiedler . YB was created to kill people and it killed people during its entire existence . It carried out most of the murders in 1941 . YB killed people in Paneriai , Nemenčinė , Naujoji Vilnia , Varėna , Jašiūnai , Eišiškės , Trakai , Semeliškės , and Švenčionys . YB also guarded the Gestapo headquarters in Vilnius , the prison on present day Gediminas Avenue , as well as the Paneriai base . When Germans closed Vilnius ' monasteries in 1943 , YB guarded their facilities until Germans removed the seized property . In 1943 YB performed far less executions than in 1941 – 1942 . From December 1943 Paneriai was guarded by an SS unit and by 1944 , according to Lithuanian historian Bubnys , YB did not perform shootings in Paneriai . From August 1943 YB was renamed to a Squad of 11th Battalion of Latvian Legion . Old identity documents were replaced with new documents of Latvian Legion troops . Despite the formal change , YB was still serving German Security Police and SD . In July 1944 YB was moved to Kaunas and stationed at Ninth Fort . There YB guarded prison and before retreating killed 100 prisoners . Then YB was moved to Stutthof , escorted Jews to Toruń . It stayed there until April 1944 , when received orders to convoy Jews to Bydgoszcz . However members of YB fled from the approaching front and Jewish prisoners escaped . Some YB members successfully retreated to Germany , some stayed in the zone occupied by Red Army . YB killed tens of thousands people , mostly Jews . Ten YB members were sentenced and executed by Soviet authorities in 1945 ( Jonas Oželis - Kazlauskas , Juozas Macys , Stasys Ukrinas , Mikas Bogotkevičius , Povilas Vaitulionis , Jonas Dvilainis , Vladas Mandeika , Borisas Baltūsis , Juozas Augustas , Jonas Norkevičius ) . In total twenty YB members were convicted by Polish and Soviet authorities , four of them in Poland in the 70s . In 1972 Polish authorities arrested three men , one Polish ( Jan Borkowski , during the war using a Lithuanized version of his name , Jonas Barkauskas ) , the other two of mixed Polish – Lithuanian ethnicity ( Władysław Butkun aka Vladas Butkunas and Józef Miakisz aka Juozas Mikašius ) and sentenced them to death – later commuted to 20 years imprisonment . Other YB members died after the war or lived abroad . According to the Lithuanian historian Bubnys who cited the Polish historian Helena Pasierbska , during 1941 – 1944 , approximately 108 men were members of YB . Nonetheless Bubnys notes that it is difficult to answer two questions : how many members YB had and how many people they killed . Bubnys argues that the number of 100 , 000 victims attributed to the organization is inflated .