Eichmann's Helpers

Alois Brunner SS-Hauptsturmführer

Born 8 April 1912 in Rohrbrunn, Austria, he joined the Nazi party in 1931 and the SS in 1938. He worked as Eichmann's secretary in Vienna, and was in charge of the registration and deportation of Austrian Jews to the East. In a report by Polizeireserveleutnant Fischmann, Brunner was stated as having witnessed a transport of Jews from the Aspangbahnhof Wien to the death camp at Sobibor in Poland on 14 June 1942.

Highly regarded by Eichmann, Brunner worked in Berlin from late 1942 to January 1943 deporting the Jews of the Reich’s capital. The following month saw Brunner in Salonika, Greece, from where Jews were deported to Auschwitz and Treblinka. From July 1943 until August 1944, Brunner served in France, where he commanded the Drancy Internment Camp, near Paris. Brunner was next responsible for the deportation of Slovakian Jews from the Sered labour camp.

After the war Brunner changed his name to Alois Schmaldienst and lived untroubled in Essen. In 1954 Brunner was sentenced to death in absentia by a French court, and fled to Damascus, where he was granted asylum and lived under the assumed name of Dr. Georg Fischer. Subsequently, Brunner lost an eye and several fingers as the result of a letter bomb sent to him by the Israeli secret service, Mossad.

In 1987, in a telephone interview, he told the Chicago Sun Times:
"The Jews deserved to die. I have no regrets. If I had the chance I would do it again..."

Sources:
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
www.answers.com


Theodor Dannecker SS-Hauptsturmführer

Born 27 March 1913 in Tübingen (Germany) he joined the Nazi party in 1932 and the SS in 1934. He served on the camp staff of "Columbia Haus", located in Berlin-Tempelhof, and later at Brandenburg. From 1937 Dannecker worked for Adolf Eichmann, and from September 1940 was Head of the Jewish Department in Paris.

Dannecker was responsible for the initial deportations of Jews from France to Auschwitz, but was replaced by Heinz Rothke just prior to the Grand Rafle on 16 July 1942. From January 1943 Dannecker was Eichmann’s representative in Bulgaria, then in Hungary and from October 1944 advisor on the “Jewish question” in Italy. Transports from Bulgaria went to the death camp at Treblinka in spring 1943. On 16 October 1943 Dannecker was responsible for the Aktion resulting in the transport of 1,259 Jews of Rome to Auschwitz.

Dannecker committed suicide in a US prison camp at Bad Tölz on 10 December 1945.

Source:
http://members.aol.com


Franz Novak SS-Hauptsturmführer

Born 10 January 1913 in Wolfsberg (Kärnten / Austria). The son of a locomotive driver, in 1929 he joined the "Hitler Youth", the Nazi party, and SA in 1933. In 1934 following the assassination of Dollfuss, a crime in which he was involved, he fled to Germany, and in 1938 joined the SS and SD. Following the Anschluss, Novak returned to Austria, working in the Central Office for Jewish Emigration, first in Vienna, then Berlin, and finally in Prague.

Novak was Eichmann’s railroad ant timetable expert and occupied a liaison role with the Ministry of Transport. He worked with Eichmann on the deportation of Hungarian Jews in 1944 to Auschwitz.

Post-war, Novak went into hiding in Austria under an assumed name, but reverted to his real name in 1957. Following Eichmann’s trial in 1961, Novak was arrested and in 1964 was sentenced to eight year’s imprisonment by an Austrian court. After an appeal, a retrial was ordered in 1966, as a result of which Novak was acquitted. Two years later the Supreme Court revoked the judgement for formal reasons and ordered a further trial. This time a unanimous verdict of guilty was passed in 1969, resulting in a sentence of nine year’s imprisonment. Novak's attorney pleaded nullity and Novak was not re-arrested. After the third repeal by the Supreme Court, a verdict of guilty was passed again by the court in 1972. The jury explicitly denied that Novak acted under obligation to obey binding orders. He was convicted, however, not for murder, but for committing "public violence under aggravating circumstances" by transporting human beings without providing sufficient water, food and toilet facilities. Seven out of eight members of the jury did not hold him guilty of being an "accessory to murder" and conceded to the limitation of the crime. As a result Novak was jailed for seven years. The Supreme Court prohibited any further appeals and pleas of nullity.

Source:
http://www.doew.at


Dieter Wisliceny SS-Hauptsturmführer

Born 13 January 1911 in Regulowken (East Prussia). Formerly a journalist, Wisliceny joined the Nazi party in 1931 and three years later joined the SS and SD. At one time Eichmann’s superior in the SS, Wisliceny became Eichmann’s deputy during the war, and one of his key “Jewish” experts, working in the Reich Central Office of Jewish Emigration in Vienna. From September 1940 he was attached to the German delegation in Bratislava as an advisor to the Slovak Government on the “Jewish question”. Less fanatical than Eichmann (who later called Wisliceny a “weakling”), he accepted bribes from the Jewish relief committee in Bratislava to delay deportations, but played a leading part in the deportation of Slovak Jews to Auschwitz in 1942.

On 6 February 1943, Wislicency was sent to Greece, together with Alois Brunner, to head the Sonderkommando für Judenangelegenheiten in Salonika. The preliminary steps were quickly taken for the identification and isolation of Salonika’s Jews. The order to wear the Jewish Star was issued, and three ghettos, one the “Baron Hirsch” quarter, were enclosed. Wisliceny and his associates established themselves in two formerly Jewish owned villas in the Hodos Velissariou, and on 15 March 1943, 40 box-cars left for Auschwitz.
The next transport to leave “Baron Hirsch” was directed to Treblinka, arriving there on 26 March 1943.

In March 1944 Wisliceny stated that almost the entire staff of Eichmann’s office had assembled at KZ Mauthausen, of all places, prior to the move into Hungary to carry out the deportation of Hungarian Jews. Wisliceny and Krumey selected a new Jewish Council in Budapest on 21 March 1944, headed by Samuel Stern.
Wisliceny was actively involved in the bargaining for the lives of Hungarian Jews, but the bribes paid to him did not prevent the deportations to Auschwitz.

Arrested on 12 May 1945 near Altaussee (Salzkammergut / Austria), Wisliceny was a witness for the prosecution before the IMT at Nürnberg. His testimony was also used by the prosecution at Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem in 1961. During the course of his pre-trial interrogation at Nürnberg, Wisliceny claimed that in late April or early May 1942, Eichman had shown him an order signed by Himmler which, on Hitler’s specific authority, designated Heydrich to immediately begin the “final disposition of the Jewish question”.

Wisliceny was extradited to Czechoslovakia where he stood trial for complicity in mass murder. He was found guilty, condemned to death, and executed in Bratislava on 27 February 1948.

Sources:
Cesarani, David. Eichmann : His Life and Crimes, William Heinemann, London, 2004
Overy, Richard. Interrogations: The Nazi Elite in Allied Hands, 1945, Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, London, 2001


Hermann Krumey SS-Sturmbannführer

Born 1905 in Mährisch-Schönberg (Moravia), he joined the SS after the Anschluss. In November 1939 he was called up by the SS Head Office for Personnel, and was immediately dispatched to Poznan, where he was in charge of the programme to forcibly remove Poles from the Warthe District.
In spring 1940, Krumey was appointed head of a branch office in Lodz (Litzmannstadt) of the Central Office for Migration (Umwandererzentralstelle Litzmannstadt), which controlled the deportation of Poles to the Generalgouvernement. In summer 1941, Krumey spent some time in Croatia as part of the programme to concentrate Croatian Jews in camps.

Krumey was enlisted by SSPF Lublin, Odilo Globocnik, to bring his expertise to bear on the scheme for the resettlement of Poles and Germans as part of the Zamosc Lands Expulsion, which commenced on 24 November 1942.

Krumey had contact with Eichmann’s department during the resettlement of the Warthe District, and in spring 1944 accompanied Eichmann to Budapest, where Krumey served as a member of the group organizing the mass deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz.

Krumey was arrested by the Allies in Italy in 1945, but as the result of an affidavit submitted on his behalf by Rezso (Rudolf) Kasztner, the Zionist leader involved in negotiations with the SS in Hungary in 1944, was not prosecuted and was released in 1948.
Active in local Government at Korbach (Hessen / Germany), Krumey was arrested in 1957, 1958 and 1960, finally remaining in custody until 1965. Sentenced by the Frankfurt Schwurgericht in that year to five years imprisonment, he was deemed to have already served his sentence, and was immediately released. Following an appeal by the prosecution, a new trial was ordered and held in 1968 - 1969, as a result of which Krumey was sentenced to life imprisonment on 29 August 1969. The sentence was upheld on appeal in 1973.


Hans Günther SS-Sturmbannführer

Born 22 August 1910 in Erfurt, he served in the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Prague and Vienna. His brother Rolf also served in the same department.

Günther was killed by Czech partisans, 5 May 1945.



Rolf Günther SS-Sturmbannführer

Born 8 January 1913 in Erfurt, he was Eichmann’s permanent deputy in the RSHA.
He worked in the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna and accompanied Eichmann to Salonika.

Günther had joined the SA in 1929, when only 16 years of age. Eichmann considered him “the personification of toughness.”
He was responsible for sending Kurt Gerstein and Prof. Pfannenstiel to Belzec to test prussic acid (Zyklon B) as an agent for the disinfection of clothing. In addition, Gerstein and Pfannenstiel were to report on whether, in their opinion, Zyklon B could serve as a killing method in gas chambers, rather than the carbon monoxide being utilised at Belzec .

In his memoirs, Rudolf Höß stated that he had arrived at the figure of two and a half million Jews exterminated at Auschwitz from information provided to him by Richard Glücks, who had in turn obtained this figure from Eichmann. “Eichmann and his permanent deputy Günther were the only ones who possessed the necessary information on which to calculate the total number destroyed.” Höß later made it clear that he regarded the figure quoted by Glücks as being “far too high”, a statement which subsequent research has confirmed.
Wisliceny considered that Günther was the only one of the team to have any influence over Eichmann.

Günther committed suicide in an US internment camp at Ebensee in summer 1945.

Sources:
Höß, Rudolf. Commandant of Auschwitz, Pan Books, London, 1961
Cesarani, David. Eichmann: His Life and Crimes, William Heinemann, London, 2004

Overall Source:
Gutman, Israel, ed. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1990


© ARC 2006