(b. 1912), SS officer who served as one of Adolf Eichmann'S assistants.
Originally from Austria, Brunner joined the Nazi Party in 1931 and the SS in 1938. After the Anschluss---the annexing of Austria by Germany in March 1938---Brunner began working for the SS's Security Service (SD) and Security Police in Vienna. In August he was appointed director of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration (Zentralstelle Fuer Juedische Auswanderung) in Vienna, an office established by Eichmann whose purpose was to "encourage" the Jews of Austria to leave the country.
World War II broke out in September 1939; in October and November Brunner was responsible for deporting groups of Jews from Vienna and Moravia to Nisko, in the Lublin district of Poland. In February and March 1941 Brunner was put in charge of the Deportation of Jews from Vienna to the Kielce area in south central Poland. In October 1941 he deported more Viennese Jews to the east.
In March 1943 Brunner was transferred to Greece, where he took charge of the deportation of the Jews of Salonika and of those from Macedonia and Thrace, regions occupied by Bulgaria during the war. In July 1943 Brunner moved on to France. He took control of the Drancy detention camp, which had previously been run by the French. After his arrival, the inmates' conditions deteriorated rapidly, and deportations to Auschwitz were stepped up. While in France, Brunner also went to the part of southern France which, until that time, had been under Italian control. Brunner oversaw the deportation of the Jews from that area to Drancy, and then on to Auschwitz. In September 1944 Brunner traveled to Bratislava, Slovakia, in order to finish the job of deporting the Jews of that country.
After the war, Brunner disappeared. Despite his absence, the French authorities conducted a trial against him and sentenced him to death in 1954. He later reappeared in Syria, where he was granted asylum, and settled there under a new name. It is not known if he is still living or not. (see also Bohemia and Moravia, Protectorate of and Nisko and Lublin Plan.)
