As leader of the SS in Austria Kaltenbrunner was active
in the Nazi intrigue against the Schuschnigg Government. On the night
of 11th March, 38, after Goering had ordered Austrian National Socialists to seize control of the Austrian
Government, 500 Austrian SS men under Kaltenbrunner's command surrounded
the Federal Chancellery and a special detachment under the command of
his adjutant entered the Federal Chancellery while Seyss-Inquart was
negotiating with President Miklas. But there is no evidence connecting
Kaltenbrunner with plans to wage aggressive war on any other front.
The Anschluss, although it was an aggressive act, is not charged as
an aggressive war, and the evidence against Kaltenbrunner under Count One does not in the opinion
of the Tribunal, show his direct participation in any plan to wage such
a war.
When he became Chief of the Security Police and SD
and Head of the RSHA on 30th January, 1943, Kaltenbrunner took charge
of an organisation which included the main offices of the Gestapo,
the SD and the Criminal Police. As Chief of the RSHA, Kaltenbrunner
had authority to order protective custody to and release from concentration
camps. Orders to this effect were normally sent over his signature.
Kaltenbrunner was aware of conditions in concentration
camps. He had undoubtedly visited Mauthausen and witnesses testified that he had seen prisoners killed by the various
methods of execution, hanging, shooting in the back of the neck and
gassing, as part of a demonstration. Kaltenbrunner himself ordered the
execution of prisoners in those camps and his office was used to transmit
to the camps execution orders which originated in Himmler's office. At the end of the war Kaltenbrunner participated in the arrangements
for the evacuation of inmates of concentration camps, and the liquidation
of many of them. to prevent them from being liberated by the Allied
armies.
During the period in which Kaltenbrunner was Head of
the RSHA, it was engaged in a widespread programme of war crimes and
crimes against humanity. These crimes included the mistreatment and
murder of prisoners of war. Einsatz Kommandos operating under the control
of the Gestapo were engaged in the screening of Soviet prisoners of
war, Jews, commissars and others who were thought to be ideologically
hostile to the Nazi system were reported to the RSHA, which had them
transferred to a concentration camp and murdered. An RSHA order issued
during Kaltenbrunner's regime established the "Bullet Decree,"
under which certain escaped prisoners of war who were recaptured were
taken to Mauthausen and shot. The order for the execution of commando
troops was extended by the Gestapo to include parachutists while Kaltenbrunner
was Chief of the RSHA. An order signed by Kaltenbrunner instructed the
Police not to interfere with attacks on bailed out Allied fliers. In
December, 1944,
Kaltenbrunner participated in the murder of one of the French Generals
held as a prisoner of war.
During the period in which Kaltenbrunner was Head of
the RHSA, the Gestapo and SD in occupied territories continued the murder
and illtreatment of the population, using methods which included the
torture and confinement in concentration camps. usually under orders
to which Kaltenbrunner's name was signed.
The Gestapo was responsible for enforcing a rigid labour
discipline on the slave labourers and Kaltenbrunner established a series
of labour reformatory camps for this purpose. When the SS embarked on
a slave labour programme of its own, the Gestapo was used to obtain
the needed workers by sending labourers to concentration camps.
The RSHA played a leading part in the “final
solution” of the Jewish question by the extermination of the
Jews. A special section under the Amt IV of the RSHA was established
to supervise this programme. Under its direction approximately six million
Jews were murdered. of which two million were killed by Einsatzgruppen and other units of the Security Police. Kaltenbrunner had been informed
of the activities of these Einsatzgruppen when he was a Higher SS and
Police Leader, and they continued to function after he had become Chief
of the RSHA.
The murder of approximately four million Jews in concentration
camps has heretofore been described. This part of the programme was
also under the supervision of the RSHA when Kaltenbrunner was head of
that organisation, and special missions of the RSHA scoured the occupied
territories and the various Axis satellites arranging for the deportation
of Jews to these extermination institutions. Kaltenbrunner was informed
of these activities. A letter which he wrote on 30th June, 1944, described
the shipment to Vienna of 12,000
Jews for that purpose, and directed that all who could not work would
have to be kept in readiness for " special action," which
meant murder. Kaltenbrunner denied his signature to this letter, as
he did on a very large number of orders on which his name was stamped
or typed, and, in a few instances, written. It is inconceivable that
in matters of such importance his signature could have appeared so many
times without his authority.
Kaltenbrunner has claimed that when he took office
as Chief of the Security Police and SD and as Head of the RSHA he did
so pursuant to an understanding with Himmler under which he was to confine
his activities to matters involving foreign intelligence, and not to
assume overall control over the activities of the RSHA. He claims that
the criminal programme had been started before his assumption of office;
that he seldom knew what was going on; and that when he was informed
he did what he could to stop them. It is true that he showed a special
interest in matters involving foreign intelligence. But he exercised
control over the activities of the RSHA; was aware of the crimes it
was committing, and was an active participant in many of them.