Rudolf Brandt

Rudolf Hermann Brandt (2 June 1909 – 2 June 1948) was a German SS officer from 1933–45 and a civil servant. A lawyer by profession, Brandt was the Personal Administrative Officer to Reichsführer-SS (Persönlicher Referent vom Reichsführer SS) Heinrich Himmler and a defendant at the Doctors' Trial at Nuremberg for his part in securing the 86 victims of the Jewish skeleton collection, an attempt to create an anthropological display of plaster body casts and skeletal remains of Jews. He was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and executed in 1948.

Rudolf Brandt, the son of a railway worker, was born on 2 June 1909, and raised in modest circumstances in the 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 schoolmate Gerhard Herrgesell.

Brandt was awarded a doctorate of law from the University of Jena in July 1933. He joined the Nazi Party in January 1932 (membership number 1,331,536) and the SS in October 1933 (membership number 129,771). Brandt and his skills in transcription were noticed by Heinrich Himmler, who had him transferred to his staff. On 11 December 1933, he joined the Staff of Reichsführer-SS Himmler in the capacity of clerk. In November 1935, he was commissioned an Untersturmführer (second lieutenant) and ultimately rose to the rank of Standartenführer (colonel).

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