Schulz never received a doctorate in law, although some Nazis called him Dr. Schulz. He studied law only for two semesters in Berlin but left university to join the Freikorps in 1922. For a time, he worked in a bank and relocated to Hamburg in 1923. He joined the uniformed police force in Bremen, and in 1926 was appointed a police lieutenant. In 1931 he was an informant for the SS. He officially joined the Nazi Party in May 1933 and in November was appointed head of the Gestapo of Bremen. In 1935 he joined the SS and SD. In March 1938 he was promoted to SS-Major and State Councillor for the state of Bremen. In April 1940 he was inspector-instructor of cadets of the SiPo and SD at Charlottenburg. In May 1941 Schulz was appointed chief of Einsatzkommando Nr. 5. He directed the execution of thousands of Jews in Lvov, Zhytomyr, Dubno and Berdychiv between June and late August 1941. When he convened with Otto Rasch at Zhytomyr in mid August 1941, Rasch informed him that on the orders of Adolf Hitler, more Jews needed to be shot. The Senior SS and police leader for occupied Eastern RussiaFriedrich Jeckeln ordered that all Jews not engaged in forced labor, including women and children, were to be slaughtered. Schulz summarized the meeting: Shortly thereafter he questioned both Bruno Streckenbach and Reinhard Heydrich on this point; it was confirmed that this order had come from Hitler. Schulz asked to be relieved of his post, citing that he was not made for this kind of mission in the East. At the end of August, he left Zhytomyr for Berlin and was promoted to SS-Oberführer. He was appointed deputy to Erwin Rösener, SS and Police Leader and commander of SS-Oberabschnitt Alpenland from 1 May to 28 May 1944. Arrested by the Allies, Schulz wrote a letter to Lucius D. Clay, deputy to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, requesting clemency. At the Einsatzgruppen Trial, the Tribunal acknowledged that he had acted to oppose the "intolerable" situation that was put to him but found him guilty of committing mass murder and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. This sentence was reviewed by the "Peck Panel" and commuted to 15 years in prison in January 1951. On 9 January 1954 Schulz was released from the prison for war criminals in Landsberg on probation.
