Ypatingasis būrys

The unit, primarily composed of Lithuanian volunteers,[2] was formed by the German occupation government[3] and was subordinate to Einsatzkommando 9 and later to Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo).

The Vilnian Special Squad (Lithuanian: Ypatingasis būrys) was first mentioned in documents dated 15 July 1941.

The Special Squad (YB) began as police units formed when Lithuania was occupied by Germany in 1941.

Lithuanian historian Arūnas Bubnys notes that it is difficult to confirm how many members the YB had and how many people they killed.

Polish historian Czesław Michalski [pl] estimates that it grew from a base of 50 while Tadeusz Piotrowski asserts there were 100 volunteers at the onset.

The YB also guarded the Gestapo headquarters in Vilnius, the prison on present-day Gediminas Avenue, as well as the Paneriai base.

[citation needed] Together with the German military's Einsatzgruppen, the squad participated in the Ponary massacre, in which some 70,000 Jews were murdered, many from nearby Vilnius[11] along with estimated 20,000 Poles and 8,000 Russian POWs.

The YB is known to have killed people in Paneriai, Nemenčinė, Naujoji Vilnia, Varėna, Jašiūnai, Eišiškės, Trakai, Semeliškės, and Švenčionys.

By the end of 1943, Norvaiša and Lukošius were deployed to a self-defence battalion and command of the YB was transferred to sergeant Jonas Tumas.

In 1972, Polish authorities arrested three men, one Polish (Jan Borkowski, who during the war used a Lithuanized version of his name, Jonas Barkauskas), and the other two of mixed Polish–Lithuanian ethnicity (Władysław Butkun aka Vladas Butkunas and Józef Miakisz aka Juozas Mikašius) and sentenced them to death.