Alois Brunner

Alois Brunner (8 April 1912 in Nádkút , Vas County , Hungary , Austria-Hungary ; - between 2001 and 2012 in Damascus, Syria) was an Austrian SS-Hauptsturmführer. He was one of Adolf Eichmann's most important collaborators in the extermination of the European Jews, in Nazi jargon "Final Solution to the Jewish Question [sic]". As head of SS special commandos deployed for this purpose, Brunner was jointly responsible for the deportation of 128,500 Jews from Vienna, Berlin, Greece, France and Slovakia to German concentration and extermination camps between 1939 and 1945.

(In the literature he is sometimes referred to by the abbreviation Brunner I, to distinguish him from Anton Brunner (Brunner II)).

Since the 1950s like many other Nazis , he had found refuge among the Arabs. (The common thread of anti-Jewish campaign, after Zionists' 1948 victory). He was employed in Syria by Hafez Al Assad, had advised the Arab regimes of Egypt and Syria on torture methods he employed in the Holocaust. His diabolical 'legacy' by Assad dictatorship lasted till the end of 2024, at the overthrow of Bashir al-Assad, afrer a genocide of some 700,000.

The Mossad tried, in 1961/1980, to liquidate him, but only managed to injure him in the eye and hands.

This devil died, (like Eichmann), without any remorse, in fact, he said, he would do it (commit the extermination), all over again.

Notes

• The Nazi of Damascus.

TIME. November 11, 1985.

Since word came last summer that Dr. Josef Mengele was dead, a man named Alois Brunner, once top aide to Mass Murderer Adolf Eichmann, has headed the list of living Nazi war criminals. Brunner has long been rumored to be living in Damascus, Syria, and last week the Munich-based magazine Bunte disclosed that its reporters had found him there. At age 73, it said, Brunner is missing most of his fingers and is half blind as a result of two letter bombs sent to him by unknown parties in 1961 and 1980. He boasted to Bunte of his war crimes, referring to the hundreds of thousands of Jews he sent to the gas chambers as “that rubbish.” Brunner is still being sought by half a dozen countries and is under two death sentences in France. Syria has ignored requests to extradite him. Bunte quotes Brunner as saying he is willing to stand trial so that “Israel won’t get me.” But Brunner apparently would not be allowed to leave Syria if he wanted to: having served for years as an adviser to the Syrian secret service, says Bunte’s managing editor, the fugitive “knows too much.”

• The Nazi of Damascus - by Jay Solomon. The Free Press'". Dec 19, 2024.

• The Nazi who helped build Assad's torture regime. Daily Mail. Dec 12, 2024.

• A Nazi Taught Interrogation Tactics to Syrians and Egyptians. New Lines Magazine. Aug 4, 2022.