Heinrich Otto Seetzen, known as Heinz Seetzen, 1906-1945 Chief of the Hamburg Gestapo Main Office, January 1940 to September 1942 © Bundesarchiv Of the leading members of the National Socialist political police, one of the most monstrous murderers was the Hamburg Gestapo Chief Heinrich Seetzen. In his external appearance, his restless energy, and his ice-cold character, one contemporary was strongly reminded of Reinhard Heydrich, the organizer of the "Final Solution". Seetzen was one of the prototypical jurists who were predestined for rapid advancement in Heinrich Himmler's police apparatus. Heinrich Seetzen was born on 22 June 1906 in Rüstringen, Friesland, as son of a gourmet food merchant. He pursued a legal career and found a position with the Eutin Gestapo in 1934. He was chief of the Aachen Gestapo from 1934 to 1938, and was transferred to the Gestapo in Vienna and Stettin before becoming chief of the Hamburg Gestapo from January 1940 to June 1941. Here he was promoted to Oberregierungsrat and Obersturmbannführer. After the assault on the Soviet Union, Seetzen led a Special Commando of Einsatzgruppe D from July 1941 to July 1942, which murdered some 15,000 men, women and children in Russia and the Ukraine, primarily Jews but also Roma and Sinti, prisoners-of-war, and locals suspected of being "partisans". Even during his deployment as Special Commando leader, Seetzen remained involved with Hamburg Gestapo affairs, visiting the city several times during this period. In April 1942, the main organizer of the "Final Solution" Adolf Eichmann, who was the "Jew Specialist" at the Reich Security Main Office, addressed a message directly to Seetzen regarding the deportation of Jews from Germany. Here, Eichmann recommended that Jewish leaders should not be deported too early, because they would initially be needed "for a properly conducted liquidation." In August 1942, Seetzen was transferred to Kassel as Inspector of the Security Police and Security Service. He filled the same role in Breslau in 1943, and was then promoted in 1944 to Commander of the Security Police in Prague, and thereafter to Higher SS and Police Commander for Central Russia and Belorussia. As Chief of Einsatzgruppe B from April to August 1944, Seetzen oversaw mass murders in Belorussia. After the war he escaped from Breslau to northern Germany, hiding under the name of Michael Gollwitzer in Hamburg-Blankenese. As British soldiers arrested him on 28 September 1945, he evaded his responsibility for the crimes against humanity by biting into a cyanide capsule.