Ernst Kaltenbrunner

Ernst Kaltenbrunner (4 October 1903 – 16 October 1946) was an Austrian lawyer, high-ranking SS official during the Nazi era, major perpetrator of the Holocaust, and convicted war criminal. After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, and a brief period under Heinrich Himmler, Kaltenbrunner was named the third director of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), which included the offices of Gestapo, Kripo and SD, serving from January 1943 until the end of World War II in Europe. He was also the president of Interpol during the same time period.

Kaltenbrunner obtained a doctorate in law from the University of Graz in 1926. He 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 had been assassinated in June 1942.

A committed antisemite, Kaltenbrunner played a pivotal role in orchestrating the Holocaust, which intensified under his leadership. He oversaw the coordination of security and law enforcement agencies involved in widespread extermination, the suppression of resistance movements in occupied territories, extensive arrests, deportations, and executions. He was the highest-ranking member of the SS to face trial (Himmler having committed suicide in May 1945) at the Nuremberg trials, where he was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Kaltenbrunner was sentenced to death, and was executed by hanging on 16 October 1946.