The hunt for one of the most powerful and sinister figures of the Nazi regime reached its dramatic conclusion in the early hours of May 12, 1945, when a small team of American counter-intelligence agents and infantrymen cornered Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner in a remote mountain hut in the Austrian Alps. The 6’4″ tall, heavily scar-faced SS General, once the second most powerful man in the SS under Heinrich Himmler, had been hiding in the rugged terrain of the Totes Gebirge, or “Dead Mountains,” hoping to evade capture as the Third Reich collapsed around him.
His arrest, orchestrated by Special Agent Robert E. Matson of the U. S.
Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), ended the flight of a man responsible for the deaths of millions and brought a final, grim chapter to the European theater of World War II.
Kaltenbrunner, born in Austria in October 1903, was no ordinary Nazi functionary. The son of a lawyer, he had obtained a PhD in law from Graz University in 1926 before opening his own legal practice in Linz. His distinctive facial scars, which he carried until his death, were the result of both university fencing competitions and injuries sustained in a car accident.
Joining the Nazi party in 1930 and the SS in 1931, he quickly rose through the ranks of the Austrian Nazi movement, which was then a prohibited organization. His early career was marked by arrests for conspiracy against the Austrian government, including a six-month prison sentence that cost him his license to practice law, yet these setbacks only fueled his radicalism and his loyalty to the cause of Anschluss with Germany.
Following the forced union of Austria with Germany in 1938, Kaltenbrunner was rewarded with high government positions and a rapid promotion to SS-Gruppenführer. He was instrumental in establishing the Nazi apparatus in Austria, including the notorious Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz. By June 1940, he had been appointed Chief of Police in Vienna, and his work building intelligence networks brought him to the attention of Himmler.
In June 1942, following the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague, Himmler appointed Kaltenbrunner as his deputy and head of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), commanding the combined forces of the Gestapo, the criminal police (Kripo), and the SD security service. He also inherited Heydrich’s role as president of the International Criminal Police Commission, today’s Interpol.
In his new role, Kaltenbrunner was ruthless and efficient in tightening the SS’s grip over Germany as the war began to turn against the Nazis. Completely loyal to Hitler, whom he believed had been sent by God to save Germany, he pursued anti-Jewish policies with enthusiasm, overseeing the acceleration of the Holocaust and keeping a careful eye on the concentration camp system. In October 1943, he ordered SS-Obersturmbannführer Herbert Kappler, chief of German police in Rome, to proceed with the eradication of Italy’s Jews, leading to the deportation of thousands to Auschwitz.
His personal life was equally complex; he conducted an 𝒶𝒻𝒻𝒶𝒾𝓇 with Countess Gisela von Westarp, a member of Himmler’s Berlin staff, who gave birth to twins in March 1945.
One of Kaltenbrunner’s most high-profile late-war assignments was heading the investigation into the July 20, 1944, assassination attempt on Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair. The subsequent mass roundups resulted in the execution of 5,000 people and the imprisonment of many thousands more. In December 1944, he was promoted for the final time to General of the Waffen-SS, a military position alongside his political and police roles, and was showered with awards including the Knight’s Cross of the War Merit Cross, the Golden Party Badge, and the Blood Order.
Yet, despite reaching the very height of his powers, Kaltenbrunner realized the writing was on the wall for Nazi Germany following the failures of the Ardennes offensive and the massive Soviet attack on the Eastern Front.
On April 18, 1945, Himmler named Kaltenbrunner commander-in-chief of German forces in southern Europe, despite his lack of military experience. He traveled to Berlin to celebrate Hitler’s last birthday on April 20, but as the Red Army closed in on the city’s eastern suburbs, he made himself scarce, retreating to Austria to assume his command. The area he commanded was part of the so-called “National Redoubt” or “Alpine Fortress,” a largely propaganda-driven creation of Joseph Goebbels designed to fool the advancing Americans into believing a prolonged German resistance would occur in the high Alpine mountains.
The Americans took the bait, diverting considerable military forces to the region, though actual resistance was sporadic and light.
In the final days of the war, the Nazis had secreted vast amounts of wealth in the region, including Reichsbank gold, looted art, and evacuated museum collections. Among the invading troops were intelligence teams from the CIC, tasked with finding and arresting top Nazi war criminals. Heading the CIC team attached to the 319th Infantry Regiment of the U.
S. 80th Infantry Division was Special Agent Robert E. Matson, accompanied by his interpreter, Sydney Brasin.
On May 3, 1945, the 80th Infantry Division, which had just linked up with Soviet forces at the river Enns, was redirected south into the National Redoubt. Matson had an early success on May 5 when he interrogated the Nazi party leader in the village of Vorchdorf, who revealed that the Gauleiter of Upper Austria, August Eigruber, had passed through heading for Grundlsee, a resort town 60 kilometers east of Salzburg.
Though it was outside his area of responsibility, Matson pursued the lead, and in Grundlsee, local police told him that Eigruber had indeed passed through a week earlier, accompanied by two “really big fish”: Reich Labor Front leader Dr. Robert Ley and Ernst Kaltenbrunner. They were all heading for the Ausseerland, an area of mountains dotted with salt mines in the heart of the National Redoubt.
Moving out with a U. S. tank battalion, Matson had a firsthand look at the concentration camp at Ebensee, created by Kaltenbrunner as part of the Mauthausen camp complex.
On May 6, the CIC agents drove 16 kilometers into the National Redoubt but met no resistance. At Bad Ischl, a resort town formerly used by Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, they encountered Austrian Wehrmacht troops that had changed sides, now members of the Austrian Freedom Movement fighting to free Austria from remaining Nazi influence.
Leaving Brasin at Bad Ischl to organize an informant network, Matson accompanied an Austrian Freedom Movement lieutenant and some of his men, who were still dressed in German uniforms and heavily armed, to the town of Strobl. The road was clogged with men and vehicles of the Sixth SS Panzer Army in retreat from the Soviets, but the weary Waffen-SS troops paid Matson no heed. Questioning the mayor of Strobl, it looked as though Matson had his quarry, for the mayor said that Kaltenbrunner’s party had been staying at a villa on the outskirts of town.
Moving to the estate in two cars, Matson and the Austrian troops walked up to the front door, noting several German military types in civilian clothes who followed them discreetly at a distance but did not try to stop them. The door was opened by a blonde woman in her late 30s, Frau Kaltenbrunner, with her three children, but of Kaltenbrunner himself there was no sign.
Matson placed Elizabeth Kaltenbrunner under arrest and warned her bodyguards that U. S. troops would arrive shortly.
Frau Kaltenbrunner and the children were piled into a car, and the chief bodyguard explained that they had been ordered by Kaltenbrunner to safeguard his family, but he had heard on the radio the American order to all Austrians to turn in their weapons to local mayors’ offices and had complied. Matson noted that these SS men clearly had no intention of resisting his attempts to take Frau Kaltenbrunner into custody. In the meantime, Sydney Brasin at Bad Ischl had established that the center of the National Redoubt was the town of Altaussee, nestled 30 kilometers south of Matson’s point in the Totes Gebirge.
Matson’s party drove Frau Kaltenbrunner to the 80th Infantry Division headquarters, where she admitted that her husband had been at the villa at Strobl on May 3 and had held a meeting attended by many senior Nazis, including Gauleiter Eigruber, RSHA foreign intelligence chiefs Wilhelm Waneck and Wilhelm Höttl, and SS-Obergruppenführer Otto Skorzeny, Hitler’s famed commando leader and a personal friend of Kaltenbrunner.
On May 8, V-E Day, the 80th Infantry Division put together a task force to make its way to Altaussee, consisting of a company of infantry and some Sherman tanks under the command of Major Ralph Pearson. The war may have ended in Europe, but it looked likely that German resistance would continue in the heart of the National Redoubt. Driving over the Pötschen Pass, the scenery was splendid, with spring meadows and huge snow-capped mountains.
Reaching Bad Aussee, the column stopped for a rest. Moving on, the road climbed higher and higher into the mountains until, 4 kilometers on, they arrived at Altaussee, the last major settlement before the Totes Gebirge. The town sat beside a beautiful Alpine lake with towering peaks beyond, and contained the summer homes of several prominent Nazis, such as Heinrich Himmler and Arthur Seyss-Inquart.
Local rumors said that Kaltenbrunner, along with other wanted Nazis, had taken refuge in high mountain huts in the Totes Gebirge, but it took quite a time for Matson to pinpoint exactly where Kaltenbrunner was most likely hiding out.
One thing that came to light was an RSHA radio transmitting station at the Villa Kerry on the outskirts of town. It was Kaltenbrunner’s only remaining method of communication with other Nazi groups in the region, and the CIC men soon seized it and shut it down. Matson located two important persons closely associated with Kaltenbrunner: his mistress Countess Gisela von Westarp and the wife of his adjutant, Arthur Scheidler.
They and others mentioned that Kaltenbrunner was with Scheidler and two other SS men. Before the U. S.
column had reached Altaussee, Kaltenbrunner’s group had literally taken to the hills, dressed in civilian clothes and well armed. On May 11, Matson finally established where Kaltenbrunner was supposedly hiding: a mountain hut called the Wilder Hütte atop the Totes Gebirge. Getting there would require a heavy climb of at least 5 hours, led by four Austrian mountain guides, all of them former German Army mountain troops.
Major Pearson insisted that the CIC detachment be accompanied by a squad of U. S. infantry in case Kaltenbrunner and his party resisted arrest.
Matson was given command over the soldiers and carried with him a note from Countess von Westarp to Kaltenbrunner explaining the situation and telling him he would be safe in U. S. custody.
At 11:30 p. m. on May 11, the team assembled for a final briefing, and at midnight the long hike began.
Heavy snow slides covered the route, and trees had been swept down. It was an arduous climb, and three of the soldiers were left behind due to injuries received during the hike. At 5:00 a.
m. , just before dawn, the team reached the snow-covered pass and could see the Wilder Hütte. The land around it provided little cover, making any kind of approach to the hut difficult without being seen, but the hut itself looked deserted.
No smoke came from its chimney, and no movement could be seen; all the shutters were firmly locked. Had Kaltenbrunner moved on?
Leaving the guides and the remaining troops behind a snow ridge 300 yards from the cabin, Matson alone crossed to it via the cabin’s blind side. He knocked on the front door and then tried it; it was locked. Then came the sound of a man groaning inside, and Matson hammered on a window shutter.
The shutter was opened, and a rough-looking man aged about 35 asked what he wanted. Matson asked in German to come in, but the man refused, and Matson instead handed him Countess von Westarp’s note. The man read it and said that he didn’t know these people.
Matson glanced over his shoulder and saw the four Austrian guides, rifles slung over their shoulders, casually walking up towards the hut. The man in the hut panicked, quickly crossed the room, and picked up a pistol. Matson retreated to the side of the building.
The U. S. infantry, now down to eight men, also moved up and formed a semicircle before the hut, weapons ready.
Matson and the others called for the men inside the hut to surrender. For 10 minutes this went on, and nothing happened, but eventually the door opened and the four men came out with their hands held high. Among them was the tall, unmistakable figure of Ernst Kaltenbrunner.
Inside the hut, the Allied troops found four Mauser rifles, four pistols, a large quantity of ammunition, two MP40 machine pistols, and an MG42 machine gun. There was also a large quantity of counterfeit U. S.
dollars and British pounds. In the fire pit, they found various interesting items, including Kaltenbrunner’s identity card as chief of the RSHA and his metal dog tags. However, all four men refused to admit their identities.
At 11:30 in the morning, the party and their prisoners arrived back at Altaussee, and when Countess von Westarp and Iris Scheidler ran to embrace their men, it was obvious who they were, and the pretense was dropped.
Kaltenbrunner and Scheidler were sent on to higher U. S. headquarters for interrogation.
Sent to London in July 1945, Kaltenbrunner was given the third degree treatment at the notorious MI5-run London Cage, but this treatment actually caused him to clam up and refuse to cooperate at all with his interrogators. Following this, he was flown to Nuremberg for trial alongside 20 other senior Nazis. With Himmler dead by his own hand in British custody, Kaltenbrunner was the most senior surviving SS official, and the other defendants gave him the cold shoulder, beginning the process of trying to blame all of the excesses of the Nazi regime on Himmler and his acolytes to distance themselves from their own culpability.
At the end of the trial, Kaltenbrunner was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was hanged on October 16, 1946, and his body was cremated, with his ashes thrown into a river, ensuring that the man who had once stood as the towering enforcer of the Nazi police state would have no grave to become a shrine for future sympathizers.