English source-aligned edition
Robert Schefe
Robert Schefe served as commander of Einsatzkommando 2/V in 1939, later head of the Gestapo in Łódź. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in northern Mazovia, Łódź and the Wartheland through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.
Confirmed findings
- Schefe commanded Einsatzkommando 2/V during the invasion of Poland; IPN studies document that office within Einsatzgruppe V.
- Research on the unit's activities indicates that, on his orders, the detachment sent to Mława deported Jews eastward in September 1939.
- IPN and Institute of Contemporary History sources confirm that from 1940 to early 1942 he was first deputy head and then head of the Gestapo office in Łódź.
Place in the chain of responsibility
The profile links the phase of a mobile task-force unit with a permanent Gestapo office. It shows the transition from operations in September 1939 to command of a regional terror office, without automatically assigning Schefe every later crime of the Łódź Gestapo.
Key events and mechanisms
- Einsatzkommando 2/V operations during the 1939 campaign
- leadership of the Gestapo in Łódź, 1940–1942
The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.
Postwar accountability
Schefe disappeared late in the war and was later declared dead with 1945 recorded as his date of death; he never stood trial for his activities in Poland.
Limits of the evidence
The operations of individual Einsatzgruppe V detachments and the competencies of successive departments of the Łódź Gestapo must be distinguished. Holding the office does not prove personal participation in every act committed by its staff.
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.