[1] In 1973, for saving Jews, he received the Righteous Among the Nations title awarded by the Israeli Yad Vashem, the highest honor given to a non-Jew.

He began his career as a banker at the "Pommersche Bank" in Stralsund and started to work for Shell Oil Company in Hamburg in 1938.

[4] After witnessing the "Invaliden-Aktion" in August 1942, an SS-led evacuation of a Jewish orphanage in Borysław, Beitz became determined to act to save local Jews.

Having a position of importance, Beitz received advance word of Nazi actions against local Jews and provided warning to the Jewish community.

He also had the opportunity to select suitable workers from Jews who were being held at transfer points for deportation to concentration camps.

In August 1942, he "extricated 250 Jewish men and women from the transport train to the Belzec extermination camp by claiming them as 'professional workers.

[5] According to Yad Vashem, "The Jews that he rescued from deportation included many unqualified workers, often in poor physical condition, who could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be described as 'professionals' or indispensable to the oil industry.

[2] Beitz remained active in the foundation and led its effort to fund the creation of the Museum Folkwang in Essen.

[8][10] In July 2013, Beitz died at age 99 at his holiday home on the island of Sylt off the northern coast of Germany.