Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz
Financially ruined, Ludolf Jakob von Alvensleben returned to Saxony-Anhalt and in June 1932, became an early member of the SS and Adjutant to the SA Gruppenführer and later Reichssportführer Hans von Tschammer und Osten. He rose rapidly through the ranks. By September 1939 and the invasion of Poland, Ludolf Jakob von Alvensleben had become Standartenführer. His familial connections to Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler's Personal Adjutant, Ludolf Hermann von Alvensleben enabled Standartenführer von Alvensleben to be assigned as Inspektionsführer for the ethnic paramilitary Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz in West Prussia. He established his headquarters on his dispossessed estate in Plutowo/Thorn (Polish; Torun) and exacted revenge. The cellars of the estate house became the scene for torture and murder of hundreds of Poles and Jews. He reported directly to his namesake and Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz commander Oberführer Ludolf Hermann von Alvensleben. The identical name, shared fanaticism and areas of murderous activity, has resulted in the identities of both men being confounded by historians.