Alois Brunner: The Nazi Butcher of Thessaloniki’s Jews

The archetypal gathering of Jews by the Germans astatine Eleftheria Square successful Thessaloniki. Public Domain

Alois Brunner, 1 of the astir ruthless figures of the Holocaust and a cardinal collaborator of Adolf Eichmann, was straight liable for the systematic deportation and murder of tens of thousands of Jews crossed Europe, with his actions successful Thessaloniki, Greece, representing 1 of the astir tragic episodes.

Brunner during his tenure arsenic an SS officer.Oublic Domain

Brunner wiped retired a centuries-old assemblage successful Thessaloniki

Brunner, known arsenic Eichmann’s “right-hand man,” was dispatched to the Balkans successful aboriginal 1943 specifically to signifier the demolition of the large, centuries-old Jewish assemblage of Thessaloniki.

Within a play of conscionable 2 months, Brunner oversaw the systematic deportation of astir 43,000 to 46,000 Greek Jews from the city.

The victims were crammed into sealed freight wagons for a harrowing nine-day travel to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination campy successful occupied Poland, wherever astir each were murdered upon arrival.

Brunner’s ratio and dedication to the Nazi docket efficaciously wiped retired the entirety of Greece’s largest Jewish community.

A vocation of atrocities

Brunner’s nonstop relation successful the Final Solution extended acold beyond Greece. Conservative estimates suggest helium was accountable for the deaths of astatine slightest 128,500 radical successful total. His different large assignments included:

• Organizing the deportation of 47,000 Austrian Jews.
• Commanding the notorious Drancy internment campy adjacent Paris, overseeing the transport of thousands of French Jews, including hundreds of children, to the state chambers

After the war, successful the 1950s, helium escaped to Syria, wherever helium allegedly became an advisor to President Hafez al-Assad, begetter of Bashar al-Assad. He managed to flight 2 assassination attempts by members of the Israeli intelligence.

He was repeatedly convicted and sentenced to decease successful absentia successful France during the 1950s.

The nonstop timing of Brunner’s decease remains a root of conflicting reports. While immoderate quality suggests helium died successful 2010, aboriginal investigations bespeak his decease whitethorn person occurred earlier, perchance successful December 2001, allegedly portion confined to a miserable basement successful Damascus.

He was ne'er brought to justness successful person.

Related: Diane von Fürstenberg Honored successful Thessaloniki, The Birthplace of Her Holocaust Survivor Mother