Walter Kutschmann

Walter Kutschmann (24 July 1914 – 30 August 1986) was a German SS-Untersturmführer and Gestapo officer, a member of an Einsatzkommando, based first in Lwów, Poland (today Lviv, Ukraine), and later in Drohobycz. He was responsible for the massacre of 1,500 Polish Jews in Lwów in the years 1941–1942. Kutschmann fled to Argentina using an assumed name in 1948 and lived undetected until 1975. When his true identity was discovered that year, he avoided arrest and evaded capture until 1985. Kutschmann was tracked down and arrested by Interpol that year, but he died in custody before he could be extradited to West Germany to face trial.

Early life and career Walter Kutschmann was born in Dresden in 1914, the son of a dentist. In 1928, he joined the Hitler Youth. In 1932, he enlisted in the Luftwaffe, in which he served until 1936. Kutschmann began to study law, but left this career path to join the Condor Legion, loyal to the forces of Francisco Franco in Spain, participating in the Spanish Civil War. There he was later the third secretary of the German consulate in Cádiz. Kutschmann was a relative latecomer to the Nazi Party (membership number 7,475,729) and the SS (membership number 404,651).

Wartime criminal activity in Poland and Ukraine At the start of the Second World War, he moved to Leipzig, where he joined the local SiPo (Security Police) forces commanded by Karl Eberhard Schöngarth. Kutschmann was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer and was the commanding officer of an Einsatzkommando unit that operated in Drohobycz, Poland. Under his leadership, they carried out the massacre of Lwów professors in 1941. In 1942, he ordered the murder of 1,500 Polish intellectuals in the Lwów region, in Brzeziny and Podhajce in what is now part of Ukraine. Witnesses said the Ukrainians who were ordered to dig the graves for the killings were themselves later slain on Kutschmann's orders. Witnesses also claim that Kutschmann shot a 17 or 18-year-old Jewish housemaid in Drohobycz in 1941, where he headed the local Gestapo office, after he accused her of having transmitted a venereal disease to him. Later, he was hired by Osram, a German lighting manufacturer, where Kutschmann served as purchasing manager. In August 1973, he married Geralda Baeumler, an Argentine citizen of German origin, a businesswoman and a veterinarian. When his true identity was uncovered in 1975, Kutschmann left his job and settled with his wife in the resort town of Miramar, in the southern region of Buenos Aires Province. journalist Alfredo Serra of Gente magazine, thanks to a tip from an unnamed businessman from Greater Buenos Aires, A second extradition request was made in 1985, and he was again arrested by Interpol agents in Florida in the Vicente López Partido in Greater Buenos Aires. Kutschmann was buried in Los Polvorines, Buenos Aires Province.

His wife was reported to the authorities for animal abuse, specifically for euthanizing homeless dogs in gas chambers.