The Schutzstaffel (SS): Waffen-SS, Gestapo & Einsatzgruppen
The SS Officer Behind the Lwów Professors Massacre: Walter Kutschmann
11m
Walter Kutschmann was an SS officer and Einsatzgruppen commander responsible for some of the earliest Nazi atrocities following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Best known for leading the execution squad that murdered the Lwów professors, he also oversaw the killings of Polish intellectuals, the persecution of Jews, and mass executions across occupied Eastern Galicia.
This documentary traces Kutschmann's path from the Hitler Youth and the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War to the SS, his role in Operation Barbarossa, the massacre of 27 Polish professors and their families, the deportation of thousands of Jews, and his later involvement in the failed German intelligence operation Modellhut with Coco Chanel. It also follows his escape through Nazi ratlines to Argentina, decades spent living under a false identity, and the international hunt led by Simon Wiesenthal that ended with his arrest shortly before his death in 1986.
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