Arthur Nebe
German police officer (1894-1945)
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 following the unsuccessful attempt to kill Adolf Hitler in July 1944.
Following 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.
Before World War II
Police career
Born in Berlin in 1894, the son of a school teacher, Nebe volunteered for military service during World War I and served with distinction. In 1920, he joined the Berlin detective force, the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo; Criminal Police). He attained the rank of police inspector in 1923 and police commissioner in 1924.
Nebe was a conservative nationalist, who embraced the shift of the country to right-wing rule in the 1930s.
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