Erwin Schulz

Erwin Wilhelm Schulz (27 November 1900 – 11 November 1981) was a German member of the Gestapo and the SS in Nazi Germany.

In April 1918, Schulz, then 17, volunteered for service in the Imperial German Army.

However, World War I ended before he saw combat.

The German Empire collapsed in the face of a communist revolution.

Around this time, many German youths who, like Schulz, were not old enough to have served in World War I, enlisted in the Freikorps, hoping to prove themselves as patriots and as men by crushing the revolution.

Schulz himself would participate in the suppression of the Spartacist uprising as a member of the 3rd Guards Regiment.

He was discharged later that year.

After finishing high school, Schulz went to a university in Berlin.

He'd wanted to study medicine, but was "frustrated by the economic consequences of the war" and for reasons of "expediency," studied political science and law for two semesters instead.

Schulz never received a doctorate in law, albeit some called him Dr. Schulz.

He studied law for two semesters in Berlin, but then left his studies to join the Freikorps Oberland in the spring of 1921.

During his time in the Freikorps, Schulz fought Polish insurgents during the Silesian Uprisings.

Afterwards, he worked in a bank and relocated to Hamburg in 1923.

He joined the uniformed police force (Schutzpolizei) in Bremen, and in 1926 was appointed a police lieutenant.

In 1930, he was transferred to the intelligence division of the Bremen police, which dealt with political counter intelligence.

Schulz's direct involvement in Nazism started in 1931.

In 1931, he started working as an informant for the SS.

Schulz secretly helped the Nazis gradually take over the offices of the Bremen police.

In May 1933, Schulz joined the Nazi Party.

In June 1933, the intelligence division was changed into the Gestapo, and in November, Schulz was appointed the deputy chief.

He took over as the head on 1 May 1934.

In 1935, he joined the SS and SD.

In March 1938, Schulz was promoted to Sturmbannführer and became the state councilor for the state of Bremen.

As late as November 1938, he spoke out against anti-Semitic excesses and prosecuted Nazis and police officers for illegal persecutions and looting.

Even as he served in the proto-Einsatzgruppen while establishing Gestapo posts in the Sudetenland, Austria, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Schulz attempted to maintain moral limits.

In April 1940, he was inspector-instructor of cadets of the SiPo and SD at Charlottenburg.

Numerous colleagues testified that Schulz kept his ties with Nazism separate from his professional job, to the extent that they were unaware of his connections.

He actively humanely with the use of protective custody, disciplined excesses by his subordinates.

He was the leader of Einsatzkommando 5, part of Einsatzgruppe C, which was attached to the Army Group South during the planned invasion of Soviet Union in 1941, and operated in the occupied territories of south-eastern Poland and Ukrainian SSR committing mass killings of civilian population, mostly men of Jewish ethnicity, under the command of SS-Brigadeführer Otto Rasch.

Schulz's case was notable for demonstrating that service in the Einsatzgruppen was voluntary.

He did not volunteer for the job, nor did he turn it down.

Previously, he'd expressed opposition to mass shootings.

Under orders, however, Schulz, despite "serious misgivings," participated in the massacres of Jewish men.

After being ordered to kill Jewish women and children, he protested.

When he was unable to get the order retracted, he asked if he could stop.

The request was granted within days, with him being discharged on the orders of Reinhard Heydrich himself.

Schulz not only faced no consequences for stopping, but was promoted shortly after.

By the end of the war, he'd reached the rank of Brigadeführer, the SS equivalent of a brigadier general.

For example, in early 1941, some of the students at his SiPo school were detailed to Einsatzgruppen units in Russia, returning after a few months.

According to one student, Schulz objected to the shootings of Jews, and threatened to expel them for unsuitable character if they were involved.