Polish historian Czesław Michalski estimates that it grew from base of 50[7] while Tadeusz Piotrowski asserts about that there were 100 volunteers at its onset.[8] According to Michalski, after its initial creation, at various times hundreds of people were members.[7] Arūnas Bubnys states that it never exceeded a core of forty or fifty men.[9] 118 names are known; 20 of the members have been prosecuted and punished.[10] Together with German police, the squad participated in the Ponary massacre, where some 70,000 Jews were murdered,[11] along with estimated 20,000 Poles and 8,000 Russian POWs, many from nearby Vilnius.