Bassewitz-Behr joined the Nazi Party on 1 February 1930 (membership number 458,315) and the
Schutzstaffel (SS number 35,466) in 1931. In 1938, as a member of the staff of the
Reich Security Main Office, he became Inspector of Motorized Vehicles. In May 1940, he commanded an
anti-tank detachment in the
Battle of France. In preparation for the planned
German attack on the Soviet Union, he was employed from the end of April to the end of July 1941 as a
quartermaster on the
Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS (Reichsführer-SS Command Staff). From 11 November 1941 to 1 August 1942 he was appointed to the post of
SS and Police Leader (SSPF) of
Dnepropetrovsk in
Ukraine where
Einsatzgruppe D was active. During this time, Bassewitz-Behr was complicit in the killings of an estimated 45,000 civilians,
partisans and
Jews. He next was transferred from 1 August 1942 to 20 April 1943 to the position of SSPF for
Mogilev in Central Russia. From November 1942 to April 1943, he served as the Deputy to the Higher SS and Police Leader
"Russland Mitte",
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski. On 20 April 1943, Bassewitz-Behr was promoted to SS-
Gruppenführer and
Generalleutnant of Police. From 16 February 1943 to 8 May 1945 he was the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) "Nordsee," based in
Hamburg. His jurisdiction covered a wide swath of northwestern Germany, including
Schleswig-Holstein,
Oldenburg, eastern
Hanover and
Bremen. On 1 July 1944 he was appointed as a
Generalleutnant of the
Waffen-SS. In Hamburg he had responsibility for the
prisoner of war administration within his jurisdiction. Toward the end of the war, he was involved in the evacuation of the
Neuengamme concentration camp and its satellite camps. As part of this process, 71 resistance fighters imprisoned in the
Fuhlsbüttel police prison were murdered during the evacuation in April 1945. ==Postwar==