This is a study of some of the rank-and-file men, the foot soldiers, who carried out the "Final Solution." The Trawniki concentration camp in Poland was used by the SS to train more than 5,000 men in the execution of mass murder. Of these 5,000, most were eastern Europeans recruited from POW camps, including a large Ukrainian contingent. "Trawnikis" were distributed throughout the concentration camp system, with particular prominence in the extermination camps of Aktion Reinhard. Trawnikis formed the firing squads during Ghetto liquidations, operated gas chambers, and carried out various other violent tasks deemed burdensome by German planners. This book will explore who these men were, and give a face to those faceless enforcers of the Holocaust.

WWII ended, legal reckoning began. At least 100 former Trawniki guards were investigated, arrested, and tried in the post-war period, mostly in the Soviet Union. Dozens were sentenced to death and executed. Others received 25 years' imprisonment in Soviet gulags. In 1955, a general amnesty caused all those imprisoned to be released. Nevertheless, in the 1960s, many were retried in "group" trials, receiving death sentences. Trials also took place in Poland, and a single trial took place in West Germany: that of Franz Swidersky. In the United States, OSI brought charges against 16 former guards. This story is pieced together through investigation reports, interrogation transcripts, and trial records, primarily from recently declassified former KGB archives. This work represents the most comprehensive study of these primary source materials in the English language.