Curt Bruns

Curt Bruns (March 12, 1915 – June 15, 1945) was a Wehrmacht captain and war criminal. During the Battle of the Bulge, he ordered the executions of two U.S. prisoners of war after learning that the two men were German-born Jews. When giving the order, he said, "The Jews have no right to live in Germany." Bruns was executed for the crime six months later, becoming the first German war criminal to be executed by the United States Army for war crimes after World War II.

Early life and military service Bruns was born in Juist, German Empire, in 1915. He was a grocery clerk in Stuttgart before joining the Wehrmacht in 1936. Bruns became an officer in 1939. He obtained the rank of Hauptmann in September 1943. He got married and had a child.

War crimes Between December 16, 1944, and December 20, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, U.S. soldiers captured about 30 Wehrmacht soldiers, including Corporal Heinrich Kauter, captured on December 16. During this time, Kauter and his fellow POWs were interrogated by two U.S. soldiers who spoke German fluently. On December 20, 1944, about 300 U.S. soldiers, including the two interrogators, were captured by the German 2nd Battalion, 293rd Volksgrenadier Regiment, 18th Volksgrenadier Division. The Germans were led by Curt Bruns, who was operating in Bleialf and Schoenberg. The American POWs were immediately marched to a customs house. Kauter went ahead of them. Bruns was in the street in front of the customs house when the POWs arrived. Bruns told Korn that his battalion had once taken several hundred U.S. soldiers and 15 U.S. officers captive. Among them, he recalled, were two Jewish officers. Bruns said he had the officers separated from the rest and sent them back to the line of command, after which they were supposed "to lay them down." Bruns told Korn he had sworn a holy oath that, "Regardless of whether Germany will win this war or not, to devote my life to the destruction of Jews."