Hermann Schaper Hermann Schaper ( born 12 August 1911 at Straßburg im Elsass , Germany – deceased ) , was a German member of the NSDAP ( card number 105606 ) and SS ( No . 3484 ) during the Second World War . He was responsible for atrocities committed by the Einsatzgruppen in Poland and the Soviet Union and was convicted after the war of numerous war crimes . Wartime activities . Schaper joined the SS and was promoted to the rank of SS - Untersturmführer on 20 April 1935 . He achieved the rank of SS - Obersturmführer on 20 April 1937 . Before the 1939 invasion of Poland , Schaper worked at the SD principal offices in the Third Reich . During the German occupation of Poland Schaper served as SS - Hauptsturmführer , the captain of " Kommando SS Zichenau - Schröttersburg " – a Nazi Einsatzgruppe , one of five such formations created in eastern Poland and composed of 500 – 1000 functionaries of the SS and Gestapo . Schaper operated in the Płock ( renamed Schröttersburg ) district administered by Count van der Groeben . His superior was a Gestapo chief based in Ciechanów ( renamed Zichenau ) . Schaper ' s death squad was deployed in the newly formed Bezirk Bialystok district soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union . Himmler himself visited Białystok on 30 June 1941 and pronounced that more forces were needed in the area , because the massive chase after the fleeing Red Army left behind a security vacuum . On July 3 additional formation of Schutzpolizei arrived in the city from the General Government , led by " SS - Hauptsturmführer " Wolfgang Birkner , veteran of " Einsatzgruppe " IV from the Polish Campaign . The relief unit , called " kommando Bialystok " , was sent in by " SS - Obersturmbannfuhrer " Eberhard Schöngarth on orders from the Reich Main Security Office , due to reports of Soviet guerrilla activity in the area with Jews being of course immediately suspected of helping them out . On 10 July 1941 Schaper ' s Einsatzgruppe was subdivided into dozens of smaller commandos ( Einsatzkommando s ) numbering from several to several scores of people whose mission was to kill Jews , communists and the NKVD collaborators in the captured territories often far behind the advancing German front . The entire Einsatzgruppe employed the same , systematic method of mass killing across many Polish villages and towns in the vicinity of Białystok . Schaper ' s murderous rampage south - east of East Prussia is fairly well documented , and included Wizna ( end of June ) , Wąsosz ( July 5 ) , Radziłów ( July 7 ) , Jedwabne ( July 10 ) , Łomża ( early August ) , Tykocin ( August 22 – 25 ) , Rutki ( September 4 ) , Piątnica , Zambrów as well as other locations . Postwar trials . At the beginning of the 1960s , the war crimes committed by Schaper were investigated by the German Judicial Centre for Prosecuting Nazi Crimes in Ludwigsburg . The prosecutors had called a key witness , the German " Kreiskommissar " in Łomża , who named the Gestapo paramilitary " Einsatzgruppe B " under " SS - Obersturmführer " Hermann Schaper in the course of Birkner ' s investigation . Schaper was charged in 1964 with personally directing the Einsatzkommando responsible for the mass killing of Jews in the city . Two witnesses from Israel – Chaja Finkelstein from Radziłów and Izchak Feler from Tykocin – recognized Hermann Schaper from photographs as the one responsible also for the pogrom in Radziłów on 7 July 1941 , as well as the pogrom in Tykocin of 25 August 1941 . The methods used by Schaper ' s death squad in these massacres were identical to those employed in Jedwabne ( a few kilometers distance ) only three days later . Schaper denied the charges , and the Germans found the evidence insufficient to prosecute him at that time . He lied to interrogators that in 1941 he had been a truck driver and used false names . Legal proceedings against him were terminated on 2 September 1965 despite his positive identification . During the subsequent investigation , Count van der Groeben confirmed that it was indeed Hermann Schaper who conducted mass executions of Jews in his district . Schaper ' s case was reopened in 1974 . In 1976 , a German court in Giessen ( Hessen ) pronounced Schaper guilty of executions of Poles and Jews by the " Kommando SS Zichenau - Schroettersburg " . Schaper was sentenced to six - years imprisonment , but was soon released for medical reasons . He died of old age in his nineties . According to statement received by the Polish IPN from German prosecution , the documentation of his trial is no longer available and , it has most likely been destroyed after the case was terminated .