Einsatzgruppe B Just before the 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in
Operation Barbarossa, the
Einsatzgruppen mobile
death squads, which had previously operated in Poland, were reformed and placed once again under the overall command of Reinhard Heydrich. Nebe volunteered to command
Einsatzgruppe B, an SS
death squad that operated in the
Army Group Center Rear Area as the invasion progressed. The unit's task was to exterminate Jews and other "undesirables", such as communists, "Gypsies", "Asiatics", the disabled, and psychiatric hospital patients in the territories that the
Wehrmacht had overrun. The
Einsatzgruppe also shot hostages and prisoners of war handed over by the army for execution.
Mass killing operations Around 5 July 1941, Nebe consolidated
Einsatzgruppe B near
Minsk, establishing a headquarters and remaining there for two months. The murders progressed apace. In a 13 July
Operational Situation Report, Nebe stated that 1,050 Jews had been killed in Minsk, also noting that the liquidation of the Jews was underway in
Vilna where 500 Jews were shot daily. In the same report, Nebe remarked: "only 96 Jews were executed in Grodno and Lida during the first days. I gave orders to intensify these activities". He reported that the killings were being brought into smooth running order and that the shootings were carried out "at an increasing rate". The report also announced that his
Einsatzgruppe was now killing non-Jews in Minsk. In the 23 July report, Nebe advanced the idea of a "solution to the Jewish problem" being "impractical" in his assigned area of operation due to "the overwhelming number of the Jews"; i.e. there were too many Jews to be killed by too few men. By August 1941, Nebe came to realize that his
Einsatzgruppe's resources were insufficient to meet the expanded mandate of the killing operations, resulting from the inclusion of Jewish women and children since that month.
New killing methods In August 1941, Himmler, after a visit to Minsk, decided that alternative methods of killing should be found, instead of mass-shootings. He told Heydrich that he was concerned about the SS men's mental health. Himmler turned to Nebe to devise a more "convenient" method of killing, particularly one that would spare executioners elements of their grisly task. Murder with
carbon monoxide gas, already in use in the Reich as part of
the "euthanasia" program, was contemplated, but deemed too cumbersome for the mobile killing operations in the occupied Soviet Union. Nebe decided to try experimenting by murdering Soviet psychiatric patients, first with explosives near Minsk, and then with automobile exhaust at
Mogilev. The idea of using gas was partly inspired by an incident in Nebe's past. One night after a party, Nebe had driven home drunk, parked in his garage, and fallen asleep with the engine running, nearly dying of
carbon monoxide poisoning from the exhaust fumes. To conduct the experiments, he ordered the SS chemist
Albert Widmann, a member of the criminal-technical institute of the RKPA, to come to Minsk with of explosives and exhaust hoses. The next day, Widmann, Nebe, and an explosives expert carried out their first experiment in prepared bunkers in the Minsk area. According to testimony presented at Widmann's postwar trial: Two days later, Nebe and Widmann carried out another killing experiment: five psychiatric patients from Mogilev were placed in a hermetically sealed room with pipes leading to the outside. At first, exhausts from a passenger vehicle were vented into the room, so that the carbon monoxide would kill those inside. This method failed to kill the patients, so a truck was added; the patients were dead within 15 minutes. Nebe and Widmann concluded that killing with explosives was impractical, while gassing "held promise", as vehicles were readily available and could be used as needed. After these experimental killings, Nebe thought of remodelling a vehicle with a hermetically sealed cabin for killing. The carbon monoxide from the vehicle's exhaust would be channelled into the sealed cabin in which the victims stood. He discussed the idea's technical aspects with a specialist from Kripo's Technology Institute and together they brought the proposal to Heydrich, who approved it.
Mogilev conference and escalation of violence The
Wehrmachts aggressive rear security doctrine and the use of the "security threat" to disguise genocidal policies resulted in a close cooperation between the army and the security apparatus behind the front lines. Nebe, as the
Einsatzgruppe B commander, participated in a
three-day field conference at Mogilev in late September 1941. Organised by General
Max von Schenckendorff, chief of Army Group Centre's rear area, the conference was to serve as an "exchange of experiences" for the
Wehrmacht rear unit commanders. Participating officers were selected on the basis of their "achievements and experiences" in security operations already undertaken. In addition to Nebe, the speakers included
Higher SS and Police Leader Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski;
Max Montua, commander of
Police Regiment Centre;
Hermann Fegelein, commander of the
SS Cavalry Brigade; and
Gustav Lombard, commander of the 1st SS Cavalry Regiment in
Fegelein's brigade. Nebe's talk focused on the SD's role in the common fight against "partisans" and "plunderers". He also covered the "Jewish question" and its connection to the suppression of resistance movements in occupied territories. After the conference, a 16-page executive summary was distributed to the
Wehrmacht troops and
Order Police battalions in the rear area. There was a dramatic increase in atrocities against Jews and other civilians in the last three months of 1941. Under Nebe's command,
Einsatzgruppe B committed public hangings to terrorise the local population. Nebe's report dated 9 October 1941 stated that, due to suspected partisan activity near Demidov, all male residents aged 15 to 55 were put in a camp to be screened. Seventeen people were identified as "partisans" and "Communists" and five were hanged in front of 400 local residents assembled to watch; the rest were shot. Through 14 November 1941,
Einsatzgruppe B reported the killing of 45,467 people; thereafter, Nebe returned to Berlin and resumed his duties as head of the Kripo.
President of the ICPC and Stalag Luft III murders Following the
1942 assassination of Heydrich, Nebe assumed the additional post of President of the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC), the organization today known as
Interpol, in June 1942. After the
Anschluss in 1938, the organization had fallen under the control of
Nazi Germany and was headed by Heydrich until his death. Nebe served in this capacity until January 1943, when he was replaced by
Ernst Kaltenbrunner. In March 1944, after the
"Great Escape" from
Stalag Luft III prisoner-of-war camp, Nebe was ordered by
Heinrich Müller, Chief of the
Gestapo, to select and kill 50 of the 73 recaptured prisoners in what became known as the "
Stalag Luft III murders". Also in 1944, Nebe suggested that the Roma interned at
Auschwitz would be good subjects for medical experiments at the
Dachau concentration camp, after Himmler had asked
Ernst-Robert Grawitz, a high-ranking SS physician, for advice.
1944 plot against Adolf Hitler Nebe was involved in the
20 July plot against
Adolf Hitler; he was to lead a team of 12 policemen to kill Himmler, but the signal to act never reached him. Following the unsuccessful assassination attempt, Nebe fled and went into hiding. He was arrested in January 1945 after a former mistress betrayed him. Nebe was condemned to death by the
People's Court on 2 March and, according to official records, was executed at
Plötzensee Prison in Berlin on 21 March 1945 by being hanged from a meat hook, in accordance with Hitler's order that the bomb plotters were to be "hanged like cattle." ==Assessment==