Lothar Beutel

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Lothar Beutel (6 May 1902 in Leipzig – 16 May 1986 in Berlin-Steglitz) was a German pharmacist by profession and the Schutzstaffel (SS) officer in World War II serving on behalf of the Sicherheitsdienst branch of the SS.

File:Bydgoszcz-rozstrzelanie zakładników 9.09.1939.jpg
Einsatzgruppe IV execution of Polish hostages at the Bydgoszcz town square on 9 September 1939

During the Nazi invasion of Poland then the SS-Brigadeführer Beutel commanded Einsatzgruppe IV. In this position Beutel organised the initial capture of Warsaw's Jewish population and set in motion their ghettoization.[1] Beutel was also active in Bydgoszcz where he personally ordered a number of mass shootings including the murder of around 120-150 Poles taken to nearby woods and shot on 11 and 12 September 1939.[2] This figure is given as 900 by another source.[3]

Police commander Arthur Nebe ordered that Beutel, who quickly became noted for his corruption, be investigated for the rape of a Polish girl whose mother cooked for the SS.[4] By mid-October 1939 Beutel had been replaced as Einsatzgruppe IV chief by Josef Albert Meisinger.[5]

References

  1. Dan Michman, The Emergence of Jewish Ghettos During the Holocaust, Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 75-76
  2. Jochen Böhler, Klaus-Michael Mallmann, Jürgen Matthäus: Einsatzgruppen w Polsce ("Einsatzgruppen in Poland"), Bellona, Warszawa 2009, pg 80 and 141
  3. Michael Mueller, Geoffrey Brooks, Canaris: the life and death of Hitler's spymaster, Naval Institute Press, 2007, p. 163
  4. Mario R. Dederichs, Heydrich: The Face of Evil, Casemate Publishers, 2009, p. 104
  5. Barbara Engelking-Boni, Jacek Leociak, The Warsaw ghetto: a guide to the perished city, Yale University Press, 2009, p. 31

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