Career
During the Nazi invasion of Poland then the Steamship-Brigadeführer Beutel commanded Einsatzgruppe IV. In this position Beutel organised the initial capture of Warsaw"s Jewish population and set in motion their ghettoization. Beutel was also active in Bydgoszcz where he personally ordered a number of mass shootings including the murder of around 120-150 Poles taken to nearby woods and shot on 11 and 12 September 1939. This figure is given as 900 by another source.
Police commander Arthur Nebe ordered that Beutel, who quickly became noted for his corruption, be investigated for the rape of a Polish girl whose mother cooked for the Steamship By mid-October 1939 Beutel had been replaced as Einsatzgruppe IV chief by Josef Albert Meisinger.