Walter Blume ( SS officer ) Walter Blume ( born 23 July 1906 in Dortmund — died 13 November 1974 in Dortmund ) was a lawyer , an " SS - Standartenführer " ( colonel ) , leader of " Sonderkommando 7a " , part of the extermination commando group " Einsatzgruppe B " , which distinguished itself with the killings of thousands of Jews in Belarus and Russia . Blume was also responsible for the deportation of over 46 , 000 Greek Jews to Auschwitz . Early life . Blume was born into a Protestant family in Dortmund , Germany . His father was a schoolteacher and held a doctorate in law . Walter also studied law at the Universities of Bonn , Jena , and the University of Münster , passing the bar examination and receiving his doctorate in law from the University of Erlangen in April 1933 . He was hired as a police inspector in his hometown of Dortmund on 1 March 1933 , serving under Wilhelm Schepmann , and joined the SA and Nazi Party ( member 3 , 282 , 505 ) on 1 May 1933 . In 1934 he was transferred to the Prussian Secret State Police Office , where he also worked for the SD . He was registered on 11 April 1935 in the ranks of the SS ( member 267 , 224 ) , joining the staff of the Reich Main Security Office ( RSHA ) . Gaining the attention of his superiors , in 1939 he was appointed the Director of Staff of the Gestapo . He served in the State Police Offices of Halle , Hanover and Berlin until 1941 . Gestapo career . In March 1941 , Blume was called to Düben where he was given responsibility for collecting , reorganizing and selecting the components of the " Einsatzgruppen " squads . In May he assumed the leadership of " Sonderkommando 7a " attached to " Einsatzgruppe B " ( under Arthur Nebe ) assigned to the 9th Army , part of Operation Barbarossa which started on 22 June 1941 . Blume had been personally informed by Reinhard Heydrich that he and the 91 men under his command had a single task : the " Judenvernichtungsbefehl " ( order to exterminate the Jews ) . Heydrich made it clear that this was on Hitler ' s orders . Activities in Belarus and Russia . Blume and his squad ravaged the region of Belarus ( Vitebsk ) , and parts of western Russia ( Klintsy , Nevel , Smolensk ) killing 1 , 517 Jews by September 1941 of which Blume personally took a careful record . On 26 July 1941 , Blume participated in the killing of 27 Jews who , not having reported for work , were shot down in the streets . Blume himself shot an unspecified number of victims at point - blank range with his revolver . Blume also prepared the extermination contingent for operation in Moscow when it was conquered , which ultimately did not occur . Blume only stayed in command of " Sonderkommando 7a " until 17 August 1941 and was succeeded in this post by Eugen Steimle . It appears that he was recalled to Berlin due to his reluctance to shoot women and children , which led him to acquire a reputation among his fellow SS officers for being " weak and bureaucratic " . He spent the next two years in charge of the Gestapo office in Düsseldorf . Later during his affidavits Blume stated : Although Blume insisted at the trial that the Führer ' s orders filled him with revulsion , he was reported to have announced to the firing squad after each shooting , Activities in Greece . In late 1943 Blume was promoted to " SS - Standartenführer " and assigned as commander in charge of the " Sicherheitspolizei " ( SiPo , Security Police ) in Athens , together with " Hauptsturmführer " Anton Burger , during the Axis occupation of Greece . Between October 1943 and September 1944 Blume managed , under the direction of Adolf Eichmann , the deportation of over 46 , 000 Greek Jews , the majority of them from Salonika , along with approximately 3 , 000 from Rhodes , Kos , Athens , Ioannina , and Corfu , to Auschwitz Concentration Camp . Blume rewarded his subordinates , including Anton Burger , with gold coins , jewelry and fine clothes stolen from the victims of deportation . In mid - 1944 Blume gained some notoriety among his Nazi colleagues for proposing the " Chaos Thesis " , arguing that if the Germans were forced to leave occupied territories , they should blow up factories , docks and other installations ; they should also arrest and execute the entire political leadership of Greece , leaving the country in a state of anarchy . Blume also proposed sending the entire able - bodied male population of Athens to forced labor in Germany , to prevent them from joining the " andartes " . Hermann Neubacher at the German Foreign Office did not receive this suggestion favorably , however Blume proceeded with plans to arrest Greek politicians and send them to Haidari concentration camp . On 4 September 1944 Neubacher ordered Blume to cease his " chaos operations " , and on 7 September Ernst Kaltenbrunner ordered Blume to leave Greece . When the Nazis left Greece in September 1944 , the country was considered " Judenfrei " ( " free of Jews " ) , and Blume returned to RSHA headquarters in Berlin . Nuremburg conviction . In 1945 , Blume was captured in Salzburg by the Americans and brought to Landsberg Prison . He was tried at the Einsatzgruppen Trial for his crimes , including crimes against humanity , war crimes and membership in three criminal organizations , the SS , SD and Gestapo . The indictment specified Blume ' s direct responsibility for the murder of 996 people between June and August 1941 . Concerning his motivation for helping to perpetrate the Holocaust , Blume said that he admired , adored , and worshiped Hitler because Hitler was successful not only in the domestic rehabilitation of Germany , as Blume interpreted it , but successful in defeating Poland , France , Belgium , Holland , Norway , Yugoslavia , Greece , Luxembourg , and other countries . To Blume these successes were evidence of great virtue in Hitler . Blume believed that Adolf Hitler " had a great mission for the German people . " Dr . , Blume ' s lawyer , collected affidavit s on Blume ' s character describing Blume ' s honesty , good nature , kindness , tolerance , and sense of justness . The Tribunal expressed " regret that a person of such excellent moral qualities should have fallen under the influence of Adolf Hitler . " On April 10 , 1948 Blume was sentenced to death by hanging , but at a 1951 amnesty the sentence was commuted to 25 years . Blume was released from prison in 1955 after serving only ten years of the penalty . Second trial . From 1957 Blume worked as a businessman in the Ruhr Valley , remarried in 1958 and had six children ( including two by adoption ) . In 1968 he was arrested and tried again by a state court in Bremen , together with his subordinate " Obersturmführer " Friedrich Linnemann , for charges related to the deportation of Jews in Greece . In spite of considerable evidence against him , all charges were dropped on 29 January 1971 . Blume died in 1974 at the age of 68 years . In 1997 a cache of luxury watches , rings , gold bar s and gold teeth worth approximately $ 4 million , together with identity documents and Gestapo promotions belonging to Colonel Walter Blume were uncovered in Brazil in the possession of a family member , pawnbroker Albert Blume .