Name Lothar Beutel | ||
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Died May 16, 1986, Steglitz, Bonn, Germany | ||
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.
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. 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. This figure is given as 900 by another source.
Criminal police (Kripo) 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. By mid-October 1939 Beutel had been replaced as Einsatzgruppe IV chief by Josef Albert Meisinger.