In August 1941, the 707th Infantry Division was deployed to the Eastern Front to undertake security duties in the occupied regions of the Soviet Union behind Army Group Centre's front lines.[1][5] In October 1941, personnel of the division conducted public hangings of resistance members in Minsk, including that of 17 year old Masha Bruskina.[6] The 707th Infantry Division and attached Order Police units murdered over 10,000 individuals, most of whom were Jews, in Belorussia between October and November 1941.[5][7] Almost all of the division's officers and enlisted personnel willingly took part in these killings; the small number who refused were only lightly punished.[8] This operation was initiated by von Bechtolsheim, who issued orders explicitly calling for the "annihilation" and "extermination" of Jews.