“The Last Jew in Vinnitsa”  is a famous photograph taken near the city of Vinnitsa (Vinnytsia) during the Holocaust in Ukraine.

The photo shows a man waiting for his execution by the Einsatzgruppen next to a mass grave. The photo dates from between 1941 and 1943. For more information, see “The Last Jew in Vinnitsa.”

The Einsatzgruppen were mobile paramilitary death squads of the SS that followed the army on the Eastern Front and executed Jews and other minorities/people under the command of Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich.

The Einsatzgruppen committed some of the worst atrocities of the war. Eyewitness accounts are disturbing, including those of Wehrmacht soldiers who happened to witness the executions (they claimed they didn’t understand what was happening or why; many believed the victims were partisans). Sometimes locals were used for digging or other work; some participated voluntarily.