Arthur Nebe

Arthur Nebe
Nebe in 1942
Born	(1894-11-13)13 November 1894 Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died	21 March 1945(1945-03-21) (aged 50) Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, Nazi Germany
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Motive	Nazism
Criminal penalty	death penalty
Details
Victims	45,000+
Span of crimes	1941–1944
Country	Belarus and Germany
SS career
Allegiance	German Empire  Nazi Germany
Service / branch	Imperial German Army Schutzstaffel
Years of service	1914–1918 1931–1944
Rank	SS-Gruppenführer
Unit	Kriminalpolizei
Commands	Reich Criminal Police Einsatzgruppe B Interpol
Battles / wars	World War I
Awards	Iron Cross, first class[1] War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class with Swords[1]

Arthur Nebe (German: [ˈaʁtuːɐ̯ ˈneːbə] ^ⓘ; 13 November 1894 – 21 March 1945) was a German SS functionary who held key positions in the security and police apparatus of Nazi Germany and was, from 1941, a major perpetrator of the Holocaust.

Nebe rose through the ranks of the Prussian police force to become head of Nazi Germany's Criminal Police (Kriminalpolizei; Kripo) in 1936, which was amalgamated into the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in 1939. Before the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, Nebe volunteered to serve as the commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe B, one of the four mobile death squads of the SS. The unit was deployed in the Army Group Centre Rear Area, in modern-day Belarus; it reported over 45,000 victims by November 1941. In late 1941, Nebe was posted back to Berlin and resumed his career with the RSHA. Nebe commanded the Kripo until he was denounced and executed after the failed attempt to kill Adolf Hitler in July 1944.

After the war, Nebe's career and involvement with the 20 July plot against Hitler were the subject of several apologetic accounts by surviving members of the plot, who portrayed him as a professional policeman and a dedicated anti-Nazi. These portrayals have since been discredited by historians who describe him as an opportunist and a mass murderer driven by racism and careerism.