Who is SS-Gruppenführer Arthur Nebe?

[GFM2000]

Who is SS-Obergruppenführer Arthur Nebe? I find him one of the most interestingly characters of the Third Reich. He is the head of the Kripo, an SS General, and was considered a leading figure in Himmler's black empire. However, I believe he is one of the few SS Generals who had climbed so high up in the Nazi heirachy whilst actively betraying Hitler and aided the conspirators.

Does anyone have any comments to add?

PS : some of the notes I have collected on Nebe came from :

http://www.joric.com/Conspiracy/Nebe.htm

If anyone else has info on him, please do add on! Thanks!

[MaPen]

Yeah, but he was also commander of Einsatzgruppe B for about 4 months. Under his command Einsatzgruppe B executed 45.467 people.

Oh, and by the way, I dont think he ever achieved the rank of Obergruppenfuehrer.

Regards,

MaPen

[Helly Angel]

Nebe was the organizator of the shootings in homenage to Himmler in 1942.

But he was a conspirator too.
He was captured and executed by the SS in march 1945

[Michael Miller]

Basically a sly and cunning opportunist who continues to pull the proverbial wool over peoples' eyes fifty-seven years after his death.

The following disorganized mess is what I currently have on him:

Best wishes,
~ Mike Miller / A.B.R.



Arthur Nebe
SS-Gruppenführer
und Generalleutnant der Polizei


Born: 13. Nov. 1894 in Berlin
Hanged: 21. Mar. 1945 by SS due to implication in the 20. Jul. 1944 assassination plot against Hitler.

NSDAP-Nr.: 574 307 (Joined 1. Jul. 1931)
SS-Nr.: 280 152 (Joined 2. Dec. 1936)

Promotions:
SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei:
9. Nov. 1941
SS-Brigadeführer: 1. Jan. 1941
Generalmajor der Polizei: 14. Dec. 1940
SS-Oberführer: 20. Apr. 1939
SS-Standartenführer: 1. Aug. 1938
SS-Obersturmbannführer: 20. Apr. 1938
SS-Sturmbannführer:
2. Dec. 1936
Oberleutnant:
Leutnant:

Career:
Kommandeur of Einsatzgruppe B:
Jun. 1941 - 31. Oct. 1941
Chef of Amt V (Kriminalpolizei) / Reichssicherheitshauptamt:
27. Sep. 1939 - Jul. 1944
Reichskriminalpolizeidirektor in SD-Hauptamt (Chef Amt V [Kripo] in RSHA from 27. Sep. 1939 - Jul. 1944):
1. Jul. 1937 - Jul. 1944
Transferred to SS:
2. Dec. 1936

Joined NSDAP and SA:
1. Jul. 1931
Chef, Berlin Kriminalpolizei:

Entered Polizei service:
1920


[Served in a Freikorps unit

Joined Criminal Police in Berlin 1920

Police Commissar 1924

Head of Kriminalpolizei Leitstelle in Berlin 1928 to 1931 (covered Kripo Stellen in Potsdam and
Frankfurt-an-der-Oder (Nebe worked narcotics and murder squads)

Joined NSDAP as police liasion with SS-Gruppe "Ost" 1931 to April 1933

Oberregierungs-und Kriminalrat Sept 29, 1933 (equal to Lt Col)

January 1935 took over LKPA from Heydrich

July 1937 took over RKPA

Deputy to Heydrich in Amt Kriminalpolizei in Reich Security Headquarters from June 1936

Sept 27, 1939 headed new Amt V (combating of crime) in RHSA till went into hiding after 20 July 44 plot and
succeeded by Friedrich Panzinger

Warrant issued for arrest July 24, 1944, Tried Feb 25, 45, sentenced March 2, 45. ]

Service with a Freikorps unit:


Officer with 17.Pionier-Btl. during World War I; twice wounded by poison gas.
Attended the Leibniz-Gymnasium in Berlin, receiving a “Notabitur” (Emergency diploma) in Aug. 1914

Decorations & Awards:
1939 Spange zum 1914 Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse (?)
1939 Spange zum 1914 Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse
1914 Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse
1914 Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse
Verwundetenabzeichen, 1918 in Schwarz
Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Okt. 1938 mit Spange "Prager Burg"
Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer
Dienstauszeichnungen der NSDAP in Silber (?) und Bronze
SS-Dienstauszeichnungen
Polizei-Dienstauszeichnungen
Ehrendegen des RF SS
Totenkopfring der SS

Notes:
* Son of a Protestant primary school teacher.
* Married on 15. Aug. 1924 to Elise Schaeffer (born 17. Feb. 1892 in Berlin; NSV-Nr. 1 601 382 / NS-Frauenschaft-Nr. 16555). One daughter (Gisela, born 26. Jan. 1926).
* While under Nebe’s command, Einsatzgruppe B exterminated approximately 46,000 people in Byelorussia.
* Went into hiding following the 20. July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler. Betrayed by a spurned mistress and arrested, January 1945.

[GFM2000]

Hello all, and thanks for replying my post.

1) Nebe was certainly a commander of an Einzatsgruppen unit which killed several thousand in Russia. However, I did recall that he was deliberately sent to Russia with such a task, by orders of Heydrich, to prove his (Nebe's) worth as an SS man who would obey his orders "unto death". Nebe also supposedly inflated the numbers killed by his Einzatzgruppen unit to please his superiors in Berlin, while trying to minimise the killings. If I recall correctly, Nebe was recalled from Russia soon after Barbarossa, and the Eintzgruppen was replaced with someone ideologically more appropriate. Are these consistent with the acts of an anti-Nazi who was placed in an unfortunate position, or was Nebe merely playing a double game, just as long as he would come out on top?

2) Nebe was a Gruppenfuhrer, of course. That was my mistake. I saw a photo of him with 3 leaves and a star on the collar. Thinking that was taken before 1942, I thought he had already risen to Obergruppenfuhrer.

3) From all these, how do you all feel about Admiral Wilhelm Canaris? Chief of the Abwehr, one-time leader of the secret field police (which also committed atrocities in Russia), and while feeding information to the Allied power?

Thanks!

[WTW26]

Hello all, and thanks for replying my post.

1) Nebe was certainly a commander of an Einzatsgruppen unit which killed several thousand in Russia. However, I did recall that he was deliberately sent to Russia with such a task, by orders of Heydrich, to prove his (Nebe's) worth as an SS man who would obey his orders "unto death". Nebe also supposedly inflated the numbers killed by his Einzatzgruppen unit to please his superiors in Berlin, while trying to minimise the killings. If I recall correctly, Nebe was recalled from Russia soon after Barbarossa, and the Eintzgruppen was replaced with someone ideologically more appropriate. Are these consistent with the acts of an anti-Nazi who was placed in an unfortunate position, or was Nebe merely playing a double game, just as long as he would come out on top?

2) Nebe was a Gruppenfuhrer, of course. That was my mistake. I saw a photo of him with 3 leaves and a star on the collar. Thinking that was taken before 1942, I thought he had already risen to Obergruppenfuhrer.

3) From all these, how do you all feel about Admiral Wilhelm Canaris? Chief of the Abwehr, one-time leader of the secret field police (which also committed atrocities in Russia), and while feeding information to the Allied power?

Thanks!

The only thing I feel about Canaris is disgust, as about every traitor.

[MaPen]

From all these, how do you all feel about Admiral Wilhelm Canaris? Chief of the Abwehr, one-time leader of the secret field police (which also committed atrocities in Russia), and while feeding information to the Allied power?

Conservative though not a Nazi, he was one of the greatest enemies of Reinhard Heydrich. Infact after his fall in 1944 Abwehr was absorbed by SD-Ausland (RSHA Amt VI). He knew that Hitler's politics would eventualy destroy Germany. Was he a traitor? Yes. I think that he should have resigned the moment he heard about killings in Poland.

Regards,

MaPen

[GFM2000]

It had been a while since I started this thread, but does anyone know who, or what, eventually gave the game away against Nebe? I understand that Mike Miller had already posted "Went into hiding following the 20. July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler. Betrayed by a spurned mistress and arrested, January 1945."

But why would such a high ranking SS General risk going into hiding anyway? Such a move would obviously incriminate him in the plot to kill Hitler. For example, even Himmler had played the double game, actively hunting down the conspirators whilst plotting behind Hitler's back. Were there, thus, any other reasons for Nebe's unusual behaviour?

Thanks!

[Ostuf Charlemagne]

NEBE:If it may be of interest, in his real memories (the ones he wrote in liberty in Argentina and published by his wife in 1982...,not the ones the jews published after his death) Eichmann who knew him well,wrote that he faked his death with a corpse of some poor unknow guy he procured, and during some days everybody in the RSHA tought he commited suicide...the only one who didn't buy this version was another great criminalist : ''Gestapo'' Mueller !
Mueller went investigating and found Nebe putting preisure on a former mistress.

[Heimatschuss]

Hello,

I think the story about the disgruntled mistress that caused Nebe's death has to be corrected a bit. The woman who gave Nebe's whereabouts to the Gestapo was Adelheid (or Adelheit?) Gobbin, a female officer of the Berlin police. Here is a short biography of her:


Adelheid Gobbin

born Dec.17th, 1896 in Bischweiler (Alsace), her father was a general (probably the later Generalmajor Paul Gobbin (1864-1935))
Nurse training, works in welfare and social crime prevention.
1926 joins Berlin police (one of the first police women there)
1927 transferred to female CID of Berlin police
1929 divorced, acquaintance with Arthur Nebe
1932 promoted to Kriminalkommissarin (i.e. jumps from career track of middle service officials to career track of elevated service officials)
until 1933 member of SPD (Social Democats Party)
after 1933 warns communists and Jews about imminent police actions
1937 head of desk KJ M III 2 (sex offences) of the female CID
25.07.1944 interrogated by Gestapo about General Fellgiebel, a relative of hers.
End of July 1944 Nebe contacts Gobbin and asks for a hiding place. Gobbin first takes him to her apartment, then arranges Nebe's hide in Motzenmühle (on Lake Motzen, south of Berlin) with the Frick family.
January 1945 interrogated again by the Gestapo. Gestapo investigator 'Lietzenberger' (probably Stubaf Willy Litzenberg) threatens to shoot her, her mother and her sister if she doesn't reveal Nebe's place. Gobbin's resistance collapses and she gives the place away. After Nebe's arrest she's released.
March 1945 Nebe and Walter Frick are executed, Gobbin suffers a nervous breakdown and is out of office till the end of the war
May 1945 booked by Soviet authorities to command the female CID in Berlin starting June 1st, 1945
May 30th, 1945 arrested by Soviet authorities, transferred to special camp no. 7 Weesow
August 1945 transferred to special camp no. 6 Frankfurt/Oder
September 1945 transferred to special camp Jamlitz
March 1947 transferred to special camp No. 1 Mühlberg
January 19th, 1950 released from special camp Buchenwald
July-September 1950 denazified in West-Berlin
1953 - 1957 Commissar with the female CID in West-Berlin
August 1963 dies in West-Berlin.

At age 47 Gobbin was a bit beyond the classic mistress age and Nebe would have been very dumb to give an actual mistress his address. That's one of the first places the Gestapo would have looked for it. Nebe knew enough about police tactics and the ways of the Gestapo not to do so. I think that Gobbin's version of the events is at least as believable as the one you find in a number of books and which is presumably based on the narrations of the Gestapo investigators.


Sources:

Andreas Weigelt
"Umschulungslager existieren nicht". Zur Geschichte des sowjetischen Speziallagers Nr. 6 in Jamlitz 1945 - 1947
Brandenburgische Historische Hefte Nr. 16,
Hersausgeber: Brandenburgische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung, Postdam, 2001
Online version http://www.politische-bildung-brandenbu ... slager.pdf
pp.153-154, photo also from there


Susanna Swoboda-Riecken
Berufliche Sozialisation und Rollenverständnis der Geschlechter in der Gegenwart. Dargestellt am Beispiel der Frauen in der Schutzpolizei.
Ph.D. thesis, University of Kiel, 2001
http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?i ... 579423.pdf
(pp.56-80 give background info the historical development of police women in Germany, esp.in the Prussian police.)

http://web.genealogie.free.fr/Les_milit ... ajor/G.htm

[Phil Nix]

Hello all, and thanks for replying my post.

1) Nebe was certainly a commander of an Einzatsgruppen unit which killed several thousand in Russia. However, I did recall that he was deliberately sent to Russia with such a task, by orders of Heydrich, to prove his (Nebe's) worth as an SS man who would obey his orders "unto death". Nebe also supposedly inflated the numbers killed by his Einzatzgruppen unit to please his superiors in Berlin, while trying to minimise the killings. If I recall correctly, Nebe was recalled from Russia soon after Barbarossa, and the Eintzgruppen was replaced with someone ideologically more appropriate. Are these consistent with the acts of an anti-Nazi who was placed in an unfortunate position, or was Nebe merely playing a double game, just as long as he would come out on top?

2) Nebe was a Gruppenfuhrer, of course. That was my mistake. I saw a photo of him with 3 leaves and a star on the collar. Thinking that was taken before 1942, I thought he had already risen to Obergruppenfuhrer.

3) From all these, how do you all feel about Admiral Wilhelm Canaris? Chief of the Abwehr, one-time leader of the secret field police (which also committed atrocities in Russia), and while feeding information to the Allied power?

Thanks!

I believe that Nebe was the only EG commander to volunteer for the duty
Phil Nix

[Peter]

I believe that Nebe was the only EG commander to volunteer for the duty
Phil Nix

Thanks Phil, I didnt know until now that Nebe had volunteered. Is there a letter offewring his services in Nebe's SS-PA ?

[Max Williams]

I believe that Nebe was the only EG commander to volunteer for the duty
Phil Nix

Thanks Phil, I didnt know until now that Nebe had volunteered. Is there a letter offewring his services in Nebe's SS-PA ?

No, there's hardly anything in his file. See Heinz Hohne "Order of the Deaths Head".
Max.

[Peter]

I cant get to my copy at the moment Max, does it give a source for that statement ?
thanks

[Max Williams]

See page 356, First American edition 1970. Source quoted as "Nebe Series, 2 Feb. 1950, p24" which I believe is the series from Der Spiegel "Das Spiel ist aus - Arthur Nebe" 29 Sept 1949 - 20 April 1950.
Max.