Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1903-1946)
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk...tenbrunner.htm
Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the son of a lawyer, was born in Austria on 4th October, 1903. He got a doctorate in law from Graz University in 1925 and set up as a lawyer in Linz.
Kaltenbrunner joined the Austrian Nazi Party in 1932 and worked closely with Arthur Seyss-Inquart and Adolf Eichmann. Kaltenbrunner became head of the Austrian SS in 1934 but soon afterwards was arrested and accused of being involved in the assassination of Engelbert Dollfuss. Found guilty of conspiracy and was sentenced to six months in prison.
After Anschluss Kaltenbrunner was elected to the Reichstag and became minister for state security as well as police chief in Vienna. During the next three years Kaltenbrunner served as Commander-in-Chief of the Schutzstaffel (SS) in Vienna.
Hitler promoted Kaltenbrunner on the date of the Anschluss to the rank of SS Brigadefuehrer and leader of the SS Oberabschnitt Donau. On 9/11/1938 he was promoted to the rank of SS Gruppenfuehrer. During the liquidation of the Austrian national government and the reorganization of Austria into Alps and Danube Districts, he was appointed Higher SS and Police Leader of the governors of Vienna, Lower Danube, and Upper Danube, in Corps Area (Wehrkreis) XVII, and in April 1941 was promoted to Major General of the Police (2938-PS).
In April 1941 Kaltenbrunner was appointed Lieutenant-General of Police. He impressed Heinrich Himmler and when Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated in May, 1942, Kaltenbrunner was appointed as head of the SD (Sicherheitsdienst). In this position he not only controlled the Gestapo but also the concentration camp system and was responsible for carrying out the Final Solution.
Nearly seven feet tall, with deep scars on his face from his student duelling days, Kaltenbrunner appeared to obtain pleasure from his work and took personal interest in the different methods of killing the inmates in the extermination camps.
His close control over the RSHA meant that direct knowledge of and responsibility for the following crimes was ascribed to him:
Mass murders of civilians of occupied countries by Einsatz Groups.
Screening of prisoner of war camps and executing racial and political undesirables.
The taking of recaptured prisoners of war to concentration camps, where in some cases they were executed.
Establishing concentration camps and committing racial and political undesirables to concentration and annihilation camps for slave labor and mass murder.
Deportation of citizens of occupied countries for forced labor and disciplining of forced labor.
The execution of captured commandos and paratroopers and protection of civilians who lynched Allied fliers.
The taking of civilians of occupied countries to Germany for secret trial and punishment.
Punishment of citizens of occupied territories under special criminal procedure and by summary methods.
The execution and confinement of persons in concentration camps for crimes allegedly committed by their relatives.
Seizure and spoliation of public and private property.
Murder of prisoners in SIPO and SD prisons.
Persecution of Jews.
Persecution of the churches.
On 9 December 1944 the decoration known as the Knight's Cross of the War Merit, Cross with Swords, was given to SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of the Police Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Chief of the Security Police and the SD . -In addition he held the Golden insignia of Honor and the Blutorden. ( He was a member of the Reichstag after the 9th election period 1938 )
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July 20, 1944: Kaltenbrunner stuns his entourage by reporting that Hitler has been assassinated and then asking whether anybody wishes to play cards while they await further news.
http://www.joric.com/Conspiracy/Kaltenbrunner.htm
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With the Red Army closing in on Germany, Kaltenbrunner gave orders for all prisoners in extermination camps to be killed and then fled south but was captured by Allied troops. Accused of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial he was found guilty and executed on 1st October, 1946.
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Statement made by Ernst Kaltenbrunner on the scaffold on 1st October 1946.
I have loved my German people and my fatherland with a warm heart. I have done my duty by the laws of my people and I am sorry my people were led this time by men who were not soldiers and that crimes were committed of which I had no knowledge.
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The journalist, Howard K. Smith, observed the execution of Ernst Kaltenbrunner and nine other leaders of the Nazi Party on 1st October 1946.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner entered the execution chamber at 1.36 a.m., wearing a sweater beneath his blue double-breasted coat. With his lean haggard face furrowed by old duelling scars, this terrible successor to Reinhard Heydrich had a frightening look as he glanced around the room.
He wet his lips apparently in nervousness as he turned to mount the gallows, but he walked steadily. This was the man, one of whose agents - a man named Rudolf Hoess - confessed at a trial that under Kaltenbrunner's orders he gassed 3 million human beings at the Auschwitz concentration camp!
As the black hood was raised over his head Kaltenbrunner, still speaking in a low voice, used a German phrase which translated means, "Germany, good luck."
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Hol...enbrunner.html
http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/Kaltenbrunner.htm
Re: Ernst Kaltenbrunner
