Memo: THE IMPORTANCE OF ERNST KALTENBRUNNER
A Government document predating Kaltenbrunner's conviction at Nuremberg explained why he should be executed -- and remembered
During my research into the career and eventual capture of Ernst Kaltenbrunner, a prevailing theme has been the fact that most people need an introduction to the man — they haven’t heard of Kaltenbrunner, in spite of his rank and power within the Third Reich.
And, frankly, neither had I until undertaking this project.
Robert Matteson, the man who captured Kaltenbrunner as he hid in an Austrian Mountain cabin, included this in The Last Days of Ernst Kaltenbrunner, which he wrote for the CIA Historical Review Program:
He was a powerful man. Even Himmler, to whom he theoretically reported, feared him: asked in April 1945 to receive some Swedish delegates from the Jewish World Congress, Himmler said to Schellenberg, "How am I going to do that with Kaltenbrunner around? I should then be completely at his mercy."
Among the Matteson’s papers was the following unsigned intelligence report, reproduced here with manuscript edits and misspellings intact, designed to shed light upon the scope of Kaltenbrunner’s influence in the Reich. The document makes clear that Kaltenbrunner, though not a “household name villain” then or now, was indeed one of the worst of the worst — the highest-ranking member of the SS to face trial after Himmler committed suicide in May 1945.
It calls the story of his capture by Matteson, by the way, “one of the best news stories of the European conflict.”
Kaltenbrunner was convicted Oct. 1, 1946 of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang. In the next installment, we’ll explore the story of the psychopath who bluffed his way into being the hangman at Nuremberg.
Headquarters Third US Army
Intelligence Center
US Army
Intelligence Center US Army11 September 1945
Note: The following account is forwarded to you for 2 reasons.
First, the Importance of Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner as a Nazi War Criminal has been entirely overlooked by the American Public and press. Second, the account of his capture is one of the best news stories of the European conflict.
THE IMPORTANCE OF ERNST KALTENBRUNNER
Dr. K has been listed in the 30 August 1945 edition of the New York Times as one of the 24 Major War Criminals to be tried shortly by the Crimes Commission in Nurnberg. He is noted simply as Chief of the security and Criminal Police. In reality, SS Obergnjippenfuhrer Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner ranked with Hitler, Himmler, and Bormann as one of the most powerful men in the Nazi Reich. As Chef von der Slcherheitspolisei und SD, Dr. K was chief of the German Intelligence Service, of the Gestapo, and of the Kripo. Under his direct supervision operated the most effective and terrifying control system the world has ever known. The 3IP0(?) and SD comprise what is known in Germany as the Reicheicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) which is the headquarters for all intelligence (including military intelligence) and counter-intelligence activities of the Reich. Dr. K was the head of this RSHA in his position as Chief of the SIPO AND SD. The SIPO consists of the Gestapo and KBIP0, the feared executive and punitive arms of the RSHA. The SD was a vast intelligence gathering net at home and abroad. But also within the SD was Sabotage unit of SKORZENY. After 1944 also included in RSHA was the Militarisch Amt or former Abwehr functions. The SD thru Amt III of the RSHA provided secret agents in every profession and walk of life in the Reich. The reports from these SD agents, no one of whom knew any other, provided a continuous flow of information on all spheres of German life. Goebbels and Rosenberg, for example, never knew who were the SD agents within their own Ministeries. The SD thru Amt VI had agents in every country in the world. Very often these agents were attached to commercial firms abroad, very often they served officially on the German embassy staffs. The world has often wondered at the efficiency of Nazi control over the millions of slave laborers within its borders. The answer was the intelligence of the SD on which the Gestapo based its action. The exploits of SKORZENY’s Sabotage units operating under the RSHA are now well-known. In addition to his position of leader of the RSHA, Dr. K was appointed 18 April 1945 by Himmler to command all forces in the Southern half of the Reich, Including the National Redoubt area.
II THE CAPTURE OF SS OBERGRUPPENFUHRER DR. ERNST KALTENBRUNNER:
Special Agent Robert Matteson of the Counter Intelligence Corps of the Third US Army was operating with a Task Force during the last days of the War which had been sent into the Redoubt area to clean up the last resisting pockets of SS. The Austrian Alps in the vicinity of Alt Ausee was the heart of this area. The CIC Agent was hot on the trail of Kaltenbrunner and Skorseny following tips he picked up from members of the Austrian Freedom Movement. On 8 May 1945 accompanied by a relative of the Duke of Hapsburg and leader of the Bad Ischel Austrian Freedom group he had proceeded in front of the task force to the town of Strobl near St. Wolfgang where he succeeded in persuading Frau Kaltenbrunner’s Gestapo guards to surrender their ward. Interrogation of the wife of K revealed that Kaltenbrunner had left Strobl one week before for the Alt Ausee area. On 10 May the CIC Agent arrived in the mountain hamlet of Alt Ausee, Austria. (ALT Ausee,though a village of only 4000 persons, is well-known as a mountain summer resort and as the home of 3 Gauleiters - HENLEIN, JURTY, SIGRUBER of the Prince Chlodwig HOHENLOWE-SCHILLINGSFURST of the Countess Palten, of the nephew of Von Hindenburg, and as a music, film, and theatre colony.) By the eleventh of May, Matteson, with the aid of Albrecht Gaiswinkler, a native from Austria who had been parachuted into the territory one month before the American task force arrived, had captured and arrested the Intelligence (SD) staff of Kaltenbrunner complete with the powerful radio transmitters that connected K’s staff with the rest of unoccupied Europe. Included in this staff group were Dr. Wilhelm Hottl, K’s principle adviser who in a last desperate face-saving attempt had made contact with US representatives in Switzerland to sell the idea that an Austrian Independence group all former prominent Nazis, desired a rapprochement between Austria and America in a common front against the menace of Communism.) Waneok -Nazi Intelligence Chief of all SE Europe, and Auner and Mandl(?) two of the most clever and dangerous Agents in the employ of the Nazi machine. The neutralizing of this staff group of K’s command for the National Redoubt together with their communication system is considered probably the most important single action contributing to the demolishing of the Nasi’s plans for post-war resistance and subversive movement.
Interrogation of K’s staff disclosed no further information on K’s whereabouts, except that he was “probably hiding out in the mountains in the vicinity”. But on the morning of 11 May the Agent came across what is known in CIC parlance as a Stogey. A mountain forest ranger had seen K and his Adjutant Arthur Scheidler, together with SS guards, in the Wildensee Hutte at the summit of the Totes Gebitges range of the Austrian Alps, "five days previously.” Matteson acting promptly on the tip requested 3 mountain guides from the local Austrian Freedom Movement. The plan was for the CIC Agent to accompany the guides. They we were to leave at midnight 11 May so as to arrive at the cabin during darkness when the crust on the snow was still hard. Matteson was to wear Austrian leder-hose and carry no weapon. He was to approach the cabin as a mountain-crosser seeking route information and warmth. The Austrian dress and no weapon were to facilitate his approach to the cabin in the event that an SS guard were posted; He was then to deliver a note to whoever opened the door -- a note from Gisela Gräfin von Westarp [handwritten correction by Matteson) pleading to her
husbandman to give himself up to the Americans before the Russians nabbed him.Because of the danger from SS hiding in the mountains, the task force Commander ordered an Infantry squad to follow the group of four to render withdrawing support in the case of resistance. A squad from G Co. 318th Regiment was selected on a volunteer basis. The plan went according to hoyle. After 6 hours of steep ascent through heavily-forested mountain side, up past the timber line and over snow chasms 30 feet deep, the party minus 2 accident casualties reached a ridge of snow 250 yards from the cabin. The CIC Agent gave instructions to the
infantryAustrians1 to approach on the double only after he had given a hand signal. He then approached the cabin by a circuitous route to avoid the possibility of last minute detection. However, there was no real cover save drifted snow. After 20 minutes the Agent was at the cabin and on the porch. All seemed quiet In fact deserted. Matteson knocked at the door. No answer. The door was bolted, the window shutters closed. He knocked again, this time on the shutters. There was a groan from within as if a person had been half-aroused from his sleep. finally repeated knocking brought a man to the window. (As It turned he was an SS guard.) The man scanned the background of snow and then accepted the proffered note. He declined knowledge of any person named Kaltenbrunner. In the meantime he noticed the mountains guards, armed with rifles, approaching. He quickly crossed the room, picked up a revolver and slammed shut the window shutter. The Agent, thinking the shooting was about to start got off the porch. The SS guard opened the door and came out on the porch. Matteson meanwhile signaled for theinfantryAustrians. The guard seelng them approaching retreated from the porch back into the cabin.With the
InfantryAustrians in a half-moon around the house, the Agent shouted an ultimatum to come out. With no answer forthcoming, he climbed on the porch and with the aid of an Infantryman began to break down the door. With that the door opened and out stepped 4 men with their hands over their heads. A quick search of the cabin revealed: a quantity of ammunition, a German sub-machine gun, 3 German rifles, several revolvers, an identification card of Kaltenbrunner, letters addressed to Soheidler, Gestapo and Kripo badgee No. 2 (Himmler as Reich’s fuhrer of the SS and Police had No. 1 badge) and a picture of K, his wife, and 3 Children. Brief interrogation proved only that no persons who admitted being either K or Scheidler were there. So the trek back was commenced with the 4 prisoners under Infantry guard.At 11:30 12 May the party reached Alt Ausee. The wife of S. and the mistress of K (Gisela von Westarp - former wife of SS Obergruppenfuhrer Wolff Chief of all SS in Italy) were in the group eagerly awaiting the result of the action. (Word had seeped out the day before that such an action was contemplated. But the secret of the destination of the Party had been well kept.) On seeing them the wife of S and the mistress of K broke from the group of on-lookers and threw their arms around the necks of their men.2 It was all over. K who was posing as discharged Wehrmacht doctor with forged papers and medical kit, S who also had false name and papers admitted their identity. Asked if the CIC rated with German Intelligence, K Indicated that It was much feared. He went on to state that the present operation would compare favorably with his man Skorseny's liberation of Mussolini.
III KALTENBRUNNER AS WAR CRIMINAL: As Heydrich’s successor In 1943 to the post of Chief of the Gestapo, Kripo and German Intelligence Service, it was planned for security reasons to keep K’s name from the light of publicity. Consequently he is not well-known to the German public and almost completely unknown to the American public. For this reason it is important that the American press make use of the above facts and any others they may get from the War Crimes Commission, in revealing K’s true significance (and the significance of his Intelligence net SD to the German people and the world. K in the published list of the 24 Major War Criminals is simply listed as Chief of the Security and Criminal Police. Also at the time of his capture, he was referred to as the originator of mass-execution by gas. There is nothing to indicate that the following additional facts about him have been published:
A. Chief of the SIP0 and as such the superior officer to the immediate heads of the Gestapo and KRIPO. Responsible directly to Himmler and Hitler.
B. Responsible together with the Chief of the SS Economic and Administrative Department for control of all German Concentration Camps.
C. Personally responsible for the mass deportation from places of asylum of Hungarian and Polish Jews to German Concentration Camps. Responsible for the mass execution by gas of thousands of Jews*
D. Responsible by order of Hitler for the ruthless purge carried out after the July 20th 1944 attempt on Hliler’s life. Was a close friend and favorite of Hitler.
E. Chief and responsible officer of the secret SD which had its intelligence net over the world. Within this SD was the famous sabotage section of Skorseny. Its operations with 150 ps Brigade behind American lines during the Rundstedt offensive, its attempts on Eisenhower’s life, its bridge blowing and time bomb tactics etc. need no detailing.
F. Appointed Commanding Officer of Southern Europe by Himmler during the 1st stages of the War. Himmler took over Northern /Europe. K’s area included the famous Redoubt area in which the last ditch, fanatical stand was to take place and from which was to emanate coordinated instructions on underground resistance.
G. Considered by the Inner Nasi circle as ranking with Hiller, Himmler, and
Bormann as one of the most powerful men in the Nasi Reich.
H. The brain of a plot to bring the Americans and English into war with Russia.
I. Resisted capture by hiding out in fortified cabin in remote mountainous area under false name with false papers.
Public opinion has an important effect on the minds of the most dispassionate Judges. To those who have suffered because of this war it means much that public opinion be completely and accurately informed of the War criminals and their War Crimes so that at the bar the people’s judges will feel the full weight of the people’s opinion. Unless the news coverage is as detailed as possible with the facts available and the character and crimes fully exposed, the sense of justice of the people of the World may rightly be offended in its more sober moments when a harsh sentence is imposed. It is with this in mind that more details are submitted on Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner who to date has escaped the heat of indignation of an uninformed people.
Matteson actually motioned for the Army squad to come up and encircle the cabin. The Austrian guides had already started to approach — much to Matteson’s chagrin — thinking no one was there.
In a handwritten note on the document, Matteson corrects this rather cinematic scene to reflect his recollection that it was Arthur Scheidler’s wife alone who ran to meet her husband.