On June 27, 1941, the 221st Security Division held the Polish city of Białystok, which had been in the Soviet zone of occupation.

That day, the 309th Police battalion started a pogrom on the Jewish community: Jews were arrested, beaten, beards were cut, and people were shot.

[1] In March of 1942, the division under Pflugbeil command embarked on large scale Nazi security warfare in the Yelnya-Dorogobuzh area east of Smolensk.

[2] The so-called anti-partisan operations in "bandit-infested" areas amounted to destruction of villages, seizure of livestock, deporting of able-bodied population for slave labour to Germany and murder of those of non-working age.

[3] The tactics included shelling villages not under German control with heavy weapons, resulting in mass civilian casualties.