Karl Rudolf Werner Braune (11 April 1909 − 7 June 1951) was a German SS functionary during the

Nazi era Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and a

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

perpetrator. During the German

invasion of the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...

of 1941, Braune was the commander of ''Einsatzkommando'' 11b, part of ''Einsatzgruppe'' D. Braune organized and conducted mass murders of

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

in the

Army Group South Rear Area Army Group South Rear Area (''Rückwärtiges Heeresgebiet Süd'') was one of the three Army Group Rear Area Command (Wehrmacht), Army Group Rear Area Commands, established during the 1941 German Operation Barbarossa, invasion of the Soviet Union. C ...

, the

Reichskommissariat Ukraine During World War II, (abbreviated as RKU) was the civilian occupation regime () of much of Nazi German-occupied Ukraine (which included adjacent areas of modern-day Belarus and pre-war Second Polish Republic). It was governed by the Reich Min ...

(

southern Ukraine Southern Ukraine ( uk, південна Україна, translit=pivdenna Ukrayina) or south Ukraine refers, generally, to the oblasts in the south of Ukraine. The territory usually corresponds with the Soviet economical district, the Southern E ...

and in the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

). For his role in these crimes, Braune was tried before an American military court in 1948 in the Einsatzgruppen trial. He was convicted, sentenced to death and executed in 1951.

Early life

Braune attended a type of German school known as a Gymnasium and graduated in 1929 with a diploma known as an ''

abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

''. He then studied

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

at the universities of

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

, and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. He graduated in 1933 with a degree in civil law from the University of Jena. On 1 July 1931, at the age of 22, and while still a student, Braune joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

and was assigned membership number 581,277.

Nazi career

In November 1931, Braune became a member of the Nazi

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

organization known as the ''

Sturmabteilung The (; SA; literally "Storm Detachment") was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi ral ...

'' (SA), sometimes called "stormtroopers" in English. In November 1934, he joined the SS and was assigned membership number 107,364. At the same time in 1934 Braune began working for the Nazi Security Service known as the ''

Sicherheitsdienst ' (, ''Security Service''), full title ' (Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization ...

'' (SD). In 1936, Braune was also working for the secret police organization, the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

. In 1938 he became acting Gestapo leader in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...

. In 1940, he became a Gestapo chief, first in

Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...

, next in the state police office in

Wesermünde Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Rive ...

and then, in May 1941, in Halle.

Einsatzgruppe commander

From October 1941 to the beginning of September 1942, Braune was the commander of Special Detachment 11b, part of ''

Einsatzgruppen (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the im ...

'' D, which was under the command of

Otto Ohlendorf Otto Ohlendorf (; 4 February 1907 – 7 June 1951) was a German SS functionary and Holocaust perpetrator during the Nazi era. An economist by education, he was head of the (SD) Inland, responsible for intelligence and security within Germ ...

, who later would be executed as a war criminal. Werner Braune's younger brother (18 July 1910 − 30 December 1992) was the commander of Sonderkommando 4b. Under the command of Werner Braune, Special Detachment 11b carried out the massacre of

Simferopol Simferopol () is the second-largest city in the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, and is considered the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. However, ...

, in the

, where in the course of three days from 11 to 13 December 1941 they murdered 14,300 Jews. In September 1942 Braune returned to Halle. In 1943 he was promoted to the rank of SS-''

Obersturmbannführer __NOTOC__ ''Obersturmbannführer'' (Senior Assault-unit Leader; ; short: ''Ostubaf'') was a paramilitary rank in the German Nazi Party (NSDAP) which was used by the SA (''Sturmabteilung'') and the SS (''Schutzstaffel''). The rank of ''Obersturm ...

'' (lieutenant colonel). From 1943 through 1944, he was the leader of the German Foreign Service Academy, until, in 1945, he was sent to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

as the commander of the Security Police (''

Sicherheitspolizei The ''Sicherheitspolizei'' ( en, Security Police), often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Germany for security police. In the Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the ...

''; SiPo) and SD. Klee, Ernst, ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945''. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Zweite aktualisierte Auflage, Frankfurt am Main 2005, page 72.

Trial and conviction

Following the end of the war, Braune was indicted as a war criminal in the Einsatzgruppen trial that was held before the

Nuremberg Military Tribunal The subsequent Nuremberg trials were a series of 12 military tribunals for war crimes against members of the leadership of Nazi Germany between December 1946 and April 1949. They followed the first and best-known Nuremberg trial before the Int ...

. Braune's only defense was that he was acting under

superior orders Superior orders, also known as the Nuremberg defense or just following orders, is a plea in a court of law that a person, whether a member of the military, law enforcement, a firefighting force, or the civilian population, should not be considere ...

, sometimes referred to as the "Nuremberg defense". This was rejected by the court: On 10 April 1948, Braune was sentenced to death and shortly after midnight on 7 June 1951 he was executed by hanging at

Landsberg Prison Landsberg Prison is a penal facility in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about west-southwest of Munich and south of Augsburg. It is best known as the prison where Adolf Hitler was held in 1924, a ...

. Also hanged on 7 June 1951 at Landsberg Prison were six other Nazi war criminals including

Erich Naumann Erich Naumann (29 April 1905 – 7 June 1951) was an SS-Brigadeführer, member of the SD, and a convicted war criminal. Naumann had a key role in the Holocaust in Eastern Europe as the commander of Einsatzgruppe VI and the commander of Einsat ...

Paul Blobel Paul Blobel (13 August 1894 – 7 June 1951) was a German ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD) commander and convicted war criminal who played a leading role in the Holocaust. He organised and executed the Babi Yar massacre, the largest massacre of th ...

and

Oswald Pohl Oswald Ludwig Pohl (; 30 June 1892 – 7 June 1951) was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. As the head of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office and the head administrator of the Nazi concentration camps, he was a key figure in ...

. As Braune was escorted down the hallway to the gallows, he shouted "Kameraden, es lebe Deutschland!" (Comrades, long live Germany!).

Notes

References

* Hilary Earl: ''The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945–1958: Atrocity, Law, and History''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, . *

Norbert Frei Norbert Frei (born March 3, 1955 in Frankfurt) is a German historian. He holds the Chair of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Jena, Germany, and leads the Jena Center of 20th Century History. Frei's research work investigates how ...

: ''Vergangenheitspolitik: die Anfänge der Bundesrepublik und die NS-Vergangenheit''. Beck, München 1996, . *

Ernst Klee Ernst Klee (15 March 1942, Frankfurt – 18 May 2013, Frankfurt) was a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he was best known for his exposure and documentation of medical crimes in Nazi Germany, much of which was concer ...

: ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich''. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007. . (Aktualisierte 2. Auflage) * ''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")''. US 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. (Auszüge aus der Urteilsbegründung zu Werner Braune: S
545

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Braune, Werner 1909 births 1951 deaths Executions by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals People from Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis People from Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt Nazi Party members SS-Obersturmbannführer Gestapo personnel Einsatzgruppen personnel Holocaust perpetrators in Russia Holocaust perpetrators in Ukraine German people convicted of crimes against humanity Executed people from Thuringia Executed mass murderers