Werner Braune

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Werner Braune at the Einsatzgruppen Trial (July 1947)

Werner Braune (born April 11, 1909 in Mehrstedt ; † June 7, 1951 in Landsberg am Lech ) was a German war criminal , SS-Obersturmbannführer , who as commander of Sonderkommando 11b in Einsatzgruppe D on the murder of the Jews in the by the German Richly occupied southern Ukraine and Crimea was involved. Braune was sentenced to death in the Einsatzgruppen trial in 1948 and executed in 1951.

Life

Werner Braune was the son of a commercial employee. He attended high school and received his Abitur in 1929 . By 1932 he completed a law degree at the universities of Jena , Bonn and Munich . In 1933 he received his doctorate in Jena on a civil law topic . Braune joined the NSDAP on July 1, 1931 - still as a student and well before the " seizure of power " - at the age of 22 ( membership number 581.277).

Career in National Socialism

In November 1931, Braune became a member of the SA , which he left when he joined the SS in November 1934. (SS-No. 107.364) Also in 1934 Braune began to work as an employee in the security service of the Reichsführer SS (SD). In 1936 he also became a Gestapo employee. In 1938 he was deputy head of the Gestapo in Münster . In 1940 he became head of the Gestapo, first in Koblenz , then in the Wesermünde state police station, and from May 1941 in Halle.

Einsatzgruppe D and use until 1945

From October 1941 to early September 1942 he was the leader of the Einsatzkommando 11b, which was part of the Einsatzgruppe D. Braune's younger brother Fritz Braune was the leader of Einsatzkommando 4b.

The Simferopol massacre in the Crimea took place under Werner Braune's command . There, the Einsatzkommando murdered 14,300 Jews within three days (December 11-13, 1941). In September 1942 he returned to Halle.

In 1943 Braune was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer . From 1943 to 1944 he headed the German Academic Foreign Service before he became commander of the security police and SD in Norway in 1945 .

Legal review after 1945

Werner Braune in Nuremberg (March 1948)

In the Einsatzgruppen trial , Braune said about the massacre: “The Führer's order was there and the Wehrmacht said, 'We want this to be done before Christmas'. ... The Wehrmacht probably feared a famine with hundreds of thousands of dead. "(The commander of the Wehrmacht and the officer responsible for this section of the front was General Erich von Manstein , who was in command of the 11th Army.) When the public prosecutor asked what happened to the Jews who were arrested during the raids, Braune replied: " Like all other Jews, they were shot. "

Brown was born on April 10, 1948 sentenced to death , and on 7 June 1951 war Landsberg prison by the train executed. His widow had the body buried in the community cemetery in Oeslau . Of the seven people executed on June 7, 1951, only Pohl and Naumann were buried in the Spöttinger cemetery belonging to Landsberg prison.

literature

  • Hilary Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945–1958: Atrocity, Law, and History . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-45608-1 .
  • Norbert Frei : Politics of the past: the beginnings of the Federal Republic and the Nazi past . Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-41310-2 .
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 . (Updated 2nd edition)
  • Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10 , Vol. 4 : United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al. (Case 9: “Einsatzgruppen Case”) . United States Government Printing Office , District of Columbia 1950. In: National Archives Microfilm Publications, NM Series 1874-1946, Microfilm Publication M936. National Archives and Record Service, Washington 1973. (Excerpts from the grounds for the judgment on Werner Braune: pp. 545 - 547. )

Web links

Commons : Werner Braune  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Ulrich Herbert : Best. Biographical studies on radicalism, world view and reason 1903-1989. Dietz, Bonn 1996, p. 194, ISBN 3-8012-5019-9 .
  2. ^ Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, p. 121 - "Table 3 - Education of the Defendants".
  3. Werner Braune: Is there a foreclosure from convictions for submitting a declaration of intent? . Osnabrück 1934. (Dissertation from 1932 at the University of Jena.)
  4. ^ Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial . Cambridge 2009, p. 126 - "Table 4 - Joining Date of Defendants".
  5. ^ Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial . Cambridge 2009, p. 129 - "Table 5 - Joining Date of the SA, SS, SD and Gestapo".
  6. a b Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 72.
  7. Mr. Brit has arrived . In: Der Spiegel . No. 24 , 1951, pp. 12 ( online - June 13, 1951 ).