Karl Brunner

Karl Brunner (26 July 1900 – 7 December 1980) was a German lawyer, SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of the police and the SS and police leader in Salzburg and Bolzano. Brunner served as head of the Einsatzkommando 4/I during the invasion of Poland and the early stages of the German occupation in 1939, tasked with the killing of Polish civilians. During his time in Northern Italy he was also responsible for the arrest, and ultimately, the deportation of the Jews in his area of jurisdiction, as well as reprisals against Italian civilians.

After the war Brunner was held at Island Farm Prisoner of War Camp. He later entered the Bavarian government service and died in 1980 without facing prosecution for his criminal conduct during the war.

Biography Brunner was born in Passau on 26 July 1900 in what was then the Kingdom of Bavaria within the German Empire. During World War I, from September 1917 onward, he served in the Bavarian 16th Infantry Regiment "Großherzog Ferdinand von Toskana", from which he was discharged in 1919.

Leaving the Bavarian Army with the rank of lieutenant, Brunner joined the Freikorps, a right-wing paramilitary militia, in 1919 and was part of the Marine-Brigade Ehrhardt in 1922–23. He also was a member of the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund , the largest and most active antisemitic organization in the Weimar Republic. After studying law at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, he worked as a lawyer from 1927 onward. Shortly after his arrival in Northern Italy, on 12 September 1943, he ordered the arrest of all Jews in his jurisdiction.

Brunner has been blamed for some the final atrocities committed by Germany in Italy, after the German surrender.

Brunner was arrested in Bolzano on 13 May 1945. He spent the next three years in British Prisoner of War Camps, the final year of it at Island Farm, and was released in May 1948. During his time in the SS, he rose to the rank Generalmajor of the police, promoted on 21 October 1942, and SS-Brigadeführer (brigadier general), promoted on 9 November 1942. He was also awarded the Iron Cross first class in January 1945.

In post-war Germany, Brunner worked for the Gehlen Organization, a predecessor of the Bundesnachrichtendienst, the domestic West German intelligence service. In 1956, he re-entered Bavarian government service, rising to the rank of a Regierungsrat in the district of Pfaffenhofen. Brunner never faced any charges for his criminal conduct in the SS during the war.