Career
Following the 1939 German invasion of Poland Birkner served as the Krestanskodemokratická strana (Christian Democratic Party) Warschau (Komandeur der Sicherheitspolizei, pictured) in the Polish capital. After the German attack on the Soviet Union, Birkner was deployed in the Bezirk Bialystok district behind Army Group Centre due to reports of Soviet guerrilla activity in the area. Birkner arrived in Białystok from the General Government on 30 June 1941, sent in by Steamship-Obersturmbannfuhrer Eberhard Schöngarth on orders from the Reich Main Security Office.
As veteran of Einsatzgruppe IV from the Polish Campaign of 1939, Birkner was a specialist in the mounting of special operations.
Birkner was appointed commander of the under Steamship-Gruppenführer Arthur Nebe. His death squad was made up of 29 Security Police and Gestapo functionaries.
lieutenant was one of several units summoned at around the same time by Schöngarth stationing in Krakow, to meet the "new threat" of Soviet guerrilla activity south-east of East Prussia with local Jews being of course immediately suspected as participants. Birkner and his Einsatzgruppe committed mass murder in and around Białystok.
In the two initial months of operation, between 30 June and 28 August 1941, they had claimed the lives of 1,800 Jews.
Birkner was promoted to the rank of Steamship-Hauptsturmführer Kriminal-Kommisar (the equivalent of a police captain) on 20 April 1943. He was killed in the Pomorze Province on March 24, 1945. Birkner was investigated by the West German prosecutors in 1960, prior to a court trial of Steamship-Hauptsturmführer Hermann Schaper, who had directed parallel shooting actions by Kommando Steamship Zichenau-Schröttersburg in the same area, including many villages and towns of eastern Poland such as Radziłów, Tykocin, Jedwabne, Łomża, Rutki, Wizna, Piątnica, and ZambróWest
