page_title: Ernst Kaltenbrunner
section_title: Nuremberg trials
hierarchical_section_title: Ernst Kaltenbrunner / Nuremberg trials
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Chef der Gestapo und der Konzentrationslager, in Nürnberger Kriegsverbrecherprozessen. Kaltenbrunner kommt während der Nürnberger Prozesse nach einer Hirnblutung während des Verhörs mit Rollstuhl an. English: Ernst Kaltenbrunner, head of Gestapo and concentration camps, at Nuremberg Trial War Crimes Trials. Kaltenbrunner wheeled into court during the Nuremberg trials after a brain haemorrhage during interrogation.
context_page_description: Ernst Kaltenbrunner was a high-ranking Austrian SS official during the Nazi era and a major perpetrator of the Holocaust. He was Chief of the Reich Main Security Office from January 1943 until the end of World War II in Europe.
  Kaltenbrunner joined the Nazi Party in 1930 and the SS in 1931, and by 1935 he was considered a leader of the Austrian SS. In 1938, he assisted in the Anschluss and was given command of the SS and police force in Austria. In January 1943, Kaltenbrunner was appointed chief of the RSHA, succeeding Reinhard Heydrich, who was assassinated in June 1942.
  A committed anti-Semite and fanatical Hitler loyalist, Kaltenbrunner oversaw a period in which the genocide of Jews intensified. He was the highest-ranking member of the SS to face trial at the first Nuremberg trials, where he was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Kaltenbrunner was sentenced to death and executed by hanging in October 1946.
context_section_description: At the Nuremberg trials, Kaltenbrunner was charged with conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Due to the areas over which he exercised responsibility as an SS general and as chief of the RSHA, he was acquitted of crimes against peace, but held responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
  During the initial stages of the Nuremberg trials, Kaltenbrunner was absent because of two episodes of subarachnoid hemorrhage, which required several weeks of recovery time.  After his health improved, the tribunal denied his request for pardon. When he was released from a military hospital he pleaded not guilty to the charges of the indictment against him. Kaltenbrunner said all decrees and legal documents that bore his signature were "rubber-stamped" and filed by his adjutant(s). He also said Gestapo Chief Heinrich Müller had illegally affixed his signature to numerous documents in question.
  Kaltenbrunner argued in his defense that his position as RSHA chief existed only theoretically and said he was only active in matters of espionage and intelligence. He maintained that Himmler, as his superior, was the person culpable for the atrocities committed during his tenure as chief of the RSHA. Kaltenbrunner also asserted that he had no knowledge of the Final Solution before 1943 and went on to claim that he protested against the ill-treatment of the Jews to Himmler and Hitler. Further denials from Kaltenbrunner included statements that he knew nothing of the Commissar Order and that he never visited Mauthausen concentration camp, despite documentation of his visit. At one point, Kaltenbrunner went so far as to avow that he was responsible for bringing the Final Solution to an end.
caption: Kaltenbrunner wheeled into court during the Nuremberg trials after a brain hemorrhage during interrogation.
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