In this position Beutel organised the initial capture of Warsaw's Jewish population and set in motion their ghettoization.[3] 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.[4] This figure is given as 900 by another source.[5]