 In 1940, Buchardt was promoted to head of the SD in Lublin, where he worked under Odilo Globocnik and began participating directly in the Holocaust.Buchardt carried out similar work in Łódź in February 1941, this time reporting directly to the Reich Security Main Office.On the eve of Operation Barbarossa (June 1941), Buchardt was recalled and, in order to have "blood experience" rather than merely be a "desk scholar", he was assigned to "Vorkommando Moskau" of Einsatzgruppe B.