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Peter Paulsen
Peter Paulsen served as SS archaeologist and commander of Sonderkommando Paulsen. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Warsaw, the General Government and territories annexed to the Reich 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
- Paulsen was an SS archaeologist who headed the special unit known as Sonderkommando Paulsen.
- The unit confiscated Polish archaeological, library and museum collections in occupied territories.
- Its work linked scholarly expertise and SS institutions to cultural plunder and Germanisation.
Place in the chain of responsibility
Paulsen represents the field implementation of cultural seizure by specialists: identifying, taking and moving collections. His command should not be equated with all Ahnenerbe activity or every German cultural-plunder office.
Key events and mechanisms
- In occupied Poland Sonderkommando Paulsen surveyed and confiscated archaeological and museum holdings.
- The unit also operated against collections in Warsaw and annexed territories.
- After the war Paulsen avoided conviction and returned to academic work in West Germany.
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
No court convicted Paulsen for the work of his Sonderkommando. He continued his scholarly career and died in 1985.
Limits of the evidence
The unit's institutional subordination changed over time. Its acts must be attributed to the Sonderkommando on documentary grounds and not generalised to the entire Ahnenerbe.
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.