Schwede was made a member of the Academy for German Law. In the March 1936 Reichstag election, he was returned from electoral constituency 6, Pomerania. In May 1937 he was promoted to SA-Gruppenführer and in November 1938 to SA-Obergruppenführer. That same year, he became Chairman of the Reich League of Former Professional Soldiers (). During 1938-39, the German Pomeranian province was enlarged. Most of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia and two counties in Brandenburg were made a district, further expanding the area he controlled. During the Reichskristallnacht on 9 November 1938, Schwede oversaw the destruction of the Pomeranian synagogues. The next day, all male Stettin Jews were deported to Oranienburg concentration camp and kept there for several weeks in order to increase the level of terror. World War II and war crimes At the outbreak of World War II, Hitler gave some Gauleiters increased power over civil defense matters and Schwede was appointed Reich Defense Commissioner () for Wehrkreis (Military District) II, which included his Gau Pomerania in addition to neighboring Gau Mecklenburg. Civil administration and important industrial sectors were now subject to his direct control. Starting in October 1939, Schwede – or "Nero" as the Pomeranians nicknamed him – used this position to sweep Pomerania with an iron broom. He worked closely with the SS to make way for the resettlement of ethnic Germans arriving from the Baltic States. After learning of the Aktion T4 program, Schwede immediately ordered the evacuation of psychiatric hospitals and nursing homes in Treptow, Ueckermünde, Lauenburg, Meseritz-Obrawalde and Stralsund. Some 1400 patients were transported to Neustadt in Westpreußen to be shot by SS-Kommando Eimann or murdered by Sonderkommando Lange in gas vans. The mental sanitorium in Meseritz-Obrawalde then was converted into an Aktion T4 center and it is estimated that over 10,000 handicapped persons were killed there. The Director of the facility, , was appointed to his post by Schwede in November 1941. On 12 and 13 February 1940, the remaining 1,000 to 1,300 Pomeranian Jews, regardless of sex, age and health, were deported from Stettin and Schneidemühl to the Lublin-Lipowa Reservation that had been set up following the Nisko Plan, to their ultimate demise. On 16 November 1942, the jurisdiction of the Reich Defense Commissioners was changed from the Wehrkreis to the Gau level, and Schwede remained Commissioner only for Gau Pomerania. In 1943 Pomerania became a target of allied air raids and throughout 1944