Rudolf Brandt (June 2, 1909 - June 2, 1948) was a German SS

Schutzstaffel

The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...

 officer during 1933-1945 and a civil servant.

A lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 by profession, Brandt was Personal Administrative Officer to the Reichsführer-SS

Reichsführer-SS

was a special SS rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945. Reichsführer-SS was a title from 1925 to 1933 and, after 1934, the highest rank of the German Schutzstaffel .-Definition:...

 (Personlicher Referent von Reichsfüehrer SS) Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...

, and a defendant at the Doctors' Trial

Doctors' Trial

The Doctors' Trial was the first of 12 trials for war crimes that the United States authorities held in their occupation zone in Nuremberg, Germany after the end of World War II. These trials were held before U.S...

 at Nuremberg

Nuremberg

Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

 for his part in securing the 86 victims of the Jewish skeleton collection

Jewish skeleton collection

The Jewish skeleton collection was an attempt by the Nazis to create an anthropological display to showcase the alleged racial inferiority of the "Jewish race" and to emphasize the Jews status as untermenschen as opposed to the German race which the Nazis considered to be Aryan ubermenschen...

, an attempt to create an anthropological

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 display of plaster body casts and skeletal remains of Jewish untermenschen

Untermensch

Untermensch is a term that became infamous when the Nazi racial ideology used it to describe "inferior people", especially "the masses from the East," that is Jews, Gypsies, Poles along with other Slavic people like the Russians, Serbs, Belarussians and Ukrainians...

.

Life and work

Rudolf Brandt, the son of a railway worker, was born on June 2, 1909, and raised in modest circumstances in the German-Polish border town of Frankfurt an der Oder. Brandt was a member of the student's stenography (shorthand) club at the Realgymnasium, and in 1927, at the age of 18, won a competition with a transcription speed of 360 syllables per minute.

He attended the University of Berlin and the University of Jena (1928-1932), simultaneously working from 1928 to 1930 as a court reporter at the Provisional National Economic Council. Brandt would continue to practice stenography in the evenings with his colleague and former Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

 schoolmate Gerhard Herrgesell.

Brandt was awarded a Law Degree from the University of Jena in July of 1933. He had joined the Nazi party in January of 1932 (NSDP 1 331 536) and joined the SS in October of 1933 (SS 129 771) (*1). By February of 1934, Brandt and his skills in transcription had come to the notice of Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...

, who had him transferred from another office in Berlin to his staff. (*3)

In 1936, Brandt was named Leiter des Persönlichen Stabes RFSS, and in 1937, Persönlicher Referent des RFSS, a position he held until May 1945. In this position Brandt handled Himmler's entire correspondence with the exception of matters pertaining to the Waffen SS or the Police.

Schellenberg, the only SD Department Chief to report directly to Himmler, said of Brandt:

"Because of his ability as a perfect stenographer, his punctuality, his untiring diligence, he became Himmler's convenient and omnipresent registering, reminding and writing machine, complaining about being overworked, and on the other hand, declaring with pride that he had to produce 3000 – 4000 out-going letters per month."

"Brandt would begin work at seven in the morning, no matter what time he had gone to bed the night before. Three or four hours of sleep were sufficient for him. As soon as Himmler had risen in the morning and washed, Brandt would go to him loaded with papers and files, and while Himmler shaved he would read him the most important items of the morning’s mail. This was done with the greatest seriousness. If there was bad news, Brandt would preface it by saying, ”Pardon, Herr Reichsfuehrer,” and thus forewarned, Himmler would temporarily suspend his shaving operations: a precautionary measure to prevent cutting himself. Brandt was certainly most important. He was the eyes and ears of his master and the manner in which he presented a matter to Himmler was often of decisive importance."

From 1938, Rudolf Brandt was Ministerial Councilor and Head of the Minister's Office in the Reich Ministry of the Interior.

Brandt was a member of the entourage which accompanied Himmler into hiding, leaving Flensberg on May 10, 1945, with the vague
goal of attempting to reach Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

. He became separated from Himmler and surrendered along with most of the party to British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 troops on May 21. Himmler was captured, though not identified on May 22, along with his Waffen SS aides, Werner Grothmann

Werner Grothmann

Werner Grothmann , German Nazi functionary. Born in Frankfurt am Main. He was an accounting officer until 1933 and became a member of the Schutzstaffel or SS. During late 30s he became an SS - Leibstandarte, commanding the Deutsches SS Standarten in Muenchen, Germany.During the 1940 invasion of...

 and Heinz Macher

Heinz Macher

Heinz Macher was an SS-Sturmbannführer and Nazi official. He was born in Chemnitz, Germany and joined the Nazi party in the early 1940s....

.

Brandt watched from inside the wire at the Westertimke

Westertimke

Westertimke is a municipality in the district of Rotenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany.Westertimke belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, established in 1180...

 detention camp when Himmler was brought in with his aides on May 23, 1945. It was then that Himmler identified himself to the camp commandant. Himmler committed suicide later that evening as when he bit down on the cyanide

Cyanide

A cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....

 ampule about to be discovered by the British Physician.

Rudolf Brandt was indicted after the war by the US Military Tribunal

Military tribunal

A military tribunal is a kind of military court designed to try members of enemy forces during wartime, operating outside the scope of conventional criminal and civil proceedings. The judges are military officers and fulfill the role of jurors...

, on charges of:

1. Conspiracy to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity;
2. War crimes, to wit performing medical experiments without the subjects' consent on prisoners of war and civilians of occupied countries, as well as participation in the mass-murder of concentration camp inmates;
3. Crimes against humanity: committing crimes described under count 2 also on German nationals; and
4. Membership in a criminal organization, the SS.

Brandt, in common with most of the defendants at the Doctor's Trial, was acquitted on the first count as the Tribunal felt that it fell outside their jurisdiction.

He was found guilty on the other three counts, as he had been responsible for the administration and coordination of the experiments at the camps. He was hanged on June 2, 1948, his 39th birthday.

The career of Erik Dorf in the 1978 miniseries "Holocaust", mirrors that of Brandt. Both were lawyers by profession, both were administrative aides to top SS leaders, and both performed a clerical role in the unfolding of the Final Solution

Final Solution

The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...

.