Ernst Kaltenbrunner

In 2001, a Dutch citizen on vacation found Kaltenbrunner's personal Nazi security seal in an Alpine lake in Styria, Austria, 56 years after he had thrown it away in an effort to hide his identity. The words "Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD" (Chief of the Security Police and SD) are engraved on it.

Ernst Kaltenbrunner was born on October 4, 1903, in Ried im Innkreis, Austria. His father was a lawyer and his family members were keen supporters of the Pan-German Movement.

He attended Realgymnasium in Linz and then went to Graz University from where he obtained his doctorate degree in law in 1926. He worked at a law firm in Salzburg for a year and later opened his own office in Linz in 1928.

Ernst Kaltenbrunner joined the Nazi Party as an NSDAP member on October 18, 1930, and the following year, he became the district speaker (Bezirksredner) for the party in Oberösterreich. In the same year, he also joined the SS and became a legal consultant (Rechtsberater) for the party. In 1932, he served in this same post for SS Abschnitt VIII.

In the early 1930s, he also began working at his father's law firm, and in 1933 he became the head of the National-Socialist Lawyers' League in Linz.

In January 1934, he was jailed for conspiracy by the Engelbert Dollfuss government. After he led a hunger strike, he was released along with 489 party members. In 1935, he was jailed again for conspiracy, and he lost his license to practice law.

In 1935, he headed the illegal SS Abschnitt VIII in Linz, and was regularly in touch with Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, and Heinz Jost, getting their orders and monetary support for his Austrian comrades. The Austrian authorities arrested him in 1937 for heading the illegal Nazi Party.

He actively assisted in the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938. Thereafter, he held the post of the state secretary for public security in the Seyss-Inquart cabinet, and was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer in March 1938, and later to SS-Gruppenführer (lieutenant general). During this time, he also helped in establishing the concentration camp at Mauthausen near Linz. In the same year, he was appointed High SS and police leader for Donau, and he held the post till 1943.