Army Group North's objective was Leningrad via the Baltic States. Comprising the 16th and 18th Armies and 4th Panzer Group, this formation drove through Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the cities of Russian SFSR of Pskov and Novgorod. While under German occupation, Latvia was administered as part of Reichskommissariat Ostland. In 1941 empowered by the Einsatzgruppen and Nazi war criminal Franz Walter Stahlecker the far-right-wing extremist group of 500 Arajs Kommando led by Viktors Arājs participated in the Holocaust. 80,000 to 100,000 Latvian citizens were killed during the Nazi occupation, including ca. 70,000 Latvian Jews; about 20,000 Jews brought from Central and Eastern Europe were also murdered in Latvia. Nearly three years later in 1943, forced conscription of 180,000 Latvian men into the German auxiliary forces was ordered by Hitler. Latvian soldiers fought on both sides of the conflict against their will, including in the Latvian Legion of the Waffen-SS, most of them conscripted by the occupying authorities.