The Nazi, directly responsible for the hundreds of thousands killed in German concentration camps, was deservedly hanged. At the scaffold, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, before being thrown over a bomber’s cap, said: “Be happy Germany!” To the last, he stubbornly denied any involvement in the crimes committed by his subordinates at the trial of war criminals in Nuremberg.
Lawyer son and grandson of a lawyer
Ernst Kaltenbrunner was born on October 4, 1903 in the urban community of Reed, Austria-Hungary. His distant ancestors were blacksmiths, but his grandfather had learned to be a lawyer, and then for more than twenty years he worked as the burgomaster of the small Austrian town of Eferding. Father also chose the profession of a lawyer, so in theory he had no choice but to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors.
However, having received secondary education, he entered the Faculty of Chemistry at the Higher Technical School in Graz. According to his classmates, Kaltenbrunner was not distinguished by any particular diligence, nor industriousness, did not really bother with his studies. He behaved aggressively, often participating in then-fashionable student duels. And he had good physical data for this: a ninety meter tall with broad shoulders and thin but strong hands. In memory of his turbulent youth, deep scars remained on his face, which, according to Heinrich Heine, "loafers wore as evidence of their masculinity." Having settled down to the age of twenty, he entered the Faculty of Law of the University of Salzburg, after which he graduated in 1926 and received a doctorate in law.
The beginning of labor and party activities
Having worked a little in the city court of Salzburg, Ernst Kaltenbrunner opened his own legal office in Linz. As the Soviet participants in the Nuremberg trials later wrote, he was the most difficult defendant, because he skillfully used his skills as a "bourgeois lawyer", deftly applying various legal tricks.
After six years of law practice, he joined the National Socialist Party, became an active member of the security forces of the SS. Thanks to his physical strength and ability to manipulate people, Ernst Kaltenbrunner stood out among the militants, among whom were mainly illiterate youth and unemployed veterans of the First World War. He was arrested many times for participating in power actions, but each time he managed to avoid more or less serious punishments.
Career takeoff
In 1934, SS militants broke into the office of Austrian Chancellor Dolphus, and was shot in the throat in a shootout. One and a half hundred Austrian SS men, among whom was Ernst Kaltenbrunner, were not allowed to provide medical assistance to the bleeding Dolphus. After this murder, his career went up sharply, he becomes the leader of the Austrian SS.
Almost every published biography of Ernst Kaltenbrunner describes the first meeting with Heinrich Himmler, when he melodramatically said: "Reichführer, the Austrian SS are waiting for your instructions!" In early June 1941, he was awarded the rank of SS brigadefuhrer, and was appointed commander of the SS and Vienna police. Unable to withstand the burden of power that had fallen on him and the nervous tension associated with his desire to stay on top of power, he began to drink. First, with small glasses of cognac to maintain tone, then from morning to evening, and sometimes until morning. He constantly smoked, moreover, cheap cigarettes, because they are stronger, and officially, to be closer to the nation.
In the war years
Despite overt alcoholism, in 1943 he was appointed head of the RSHA (General Directorate of Imperial Security). According to him, the decisive factor was that he was Himmler's loyal person, reliable and repeatedly tested. In addition, Ernst Kaltenbrunner was considered the best specialist in organizing and operating special units. There were legends about his incredible ability to work, as well as about rabid anti-Semitism.
The department was engaged in covert operations around the world, including support for the struggle of the mountain tribes of Iran, India, Iraq with the British, the creation of the "fifth column" in Latin America, sabotage in the Soviet Union, the introduction of provocateurs in the units of the Yugoslav and French partisans. Special groups engaged in sabotage and political killings.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner personally supervised the construction of concentration camps and the methods used to destroy prisoners. In the Mauthausen camp, a demonstration execution was specially organized for him in various ways: a shot in the back of the head, in a gas chamber, and hanging. At the end of the war, he ordered the destruction of all concentration camp prisoners.
