On 4 October 1943 at Pozen, Poland, in a speech delivered to Gruppenfuehrers of the SS, Himmler made special reference to “our comrade Obergruppenfuehrer Kaltenbrunner, who has succeeded our fallen friend Heydrich” (1919-PS).
On 9 December 1944 the decoration known as the Knight’s Cross of the War Merit, Cross with Swords, was given to SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of the Police Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Chief of the Security Police and the SD (2770-PS).
In addition he held the Golden insignia of Honor and the Blutorden. He was a member of the Reichstag after the 9th election period 1938 (2892-PS).
Toward the end of the war, Kaltenbrunner’s power increased greatly, especially after the attack on Hitler of 20 July 1944. He gained direct access to Hitler. He was very friendly with Fegelein and his wife, who was the sister of Eva Braun. So powerful had Kaltenbrunner become toward the end that even Himmler feared him. On 13 April 1945 the chief of the German foreign intelligence service, Schellenberg, asked Himmler to receive the representative of the Jewish World Congress, Mr. Storsch, from Stockholm, and Himmler said,
“But how am I going to do that in regard to Kaltenbrunner? I shall then be completely at his mercy!” (2990-PS).
B. DURING KALTENBRUNNER’S TERM IN OFFICE AS CHIEF OF THE SECURITY POLICE AND SD, NUMEROUS AND VAST CRIMES WERE COMMITTED BY THE SIPO AND SD IN THE COURSE OF OFFICIAL DUTIES.
As Chief of the Security Police after 30 January 1943, Kaltenbrunner was the head of the RSHA and the regional offices of the Gestapo, SD, and Kripo. Directly under Kaltenbrunner were the Chiefs of the main offices of the RSHA, including Amt III (the SD), Amt IV (the Gestapo), Amt V (the Kripo), and Amt VI (the SD in foreign intelligence) (L-219).
Kaltenbrunner had direct responsibility over the offices of the RSHA. All important matters had to be referred to him or had to be handled under general or special authority granted by him to office chiefs.
“All decisions of principal character are signed by the Chief of the Security Police personally. An office chief has only the authority to sign ‘acting for’ and a chairman ‘by order of’ if the subjects treated in the respective decrees fit into the general laid-down principles according to the plan of distribution of authority. In case of doubt it was the duty to get the question cleared up by reporting it to the Chief of Security Police and SD.” (L-34)
“To my knowledge no chief of office or any of the officials of the RSHA, authorized to sign, had the right to sign in any principal affairs of particular political significance without consent of the Chief of the Security Police—not even during his temporary absence. From my own experience I can furthermore declare that the chief of Amt IV, Mueller, particularly was very hesitant in signing documents concerning questions of general nature and in some cases of greater importance, and that he put aside events of such nature in most cases for the return of the Chief of the Security Police, whereby often much time was lost.” (L-50).