I’m going to suggest that Brandt did not ‘know the most.’ The evidence that he had noJ. Duncan wrote:Brandt knew the most. As Himmler's secretary, he passed on all of Himmler's notes, letters, and memorandum.
It's only bad he was executed because the man knew so much. He could have explained a lot to future researchers, although I reckon that he did much of that during his trial. Not much has been written on him in English language within the standard books dealing with the SS administration. He was an important figure who should be biographically analyzed.
‘big picture’ knowledge to trade is born out in the fact that much more culpable Himmler intimates,
(Wolff, Schellenberg) did escape hanging.
Brandt was indicted and convicted on ~100 letters documenting his involvement in facilitating, in the name of RFSS, inhumane medical experiments. But if you read the letters, you can come to the view that Brandt has little interest in these experiments. He is responding, again for RFSS, to Drs. Rasche, Sievers et al who have an agenda they feel is best represented to Himmler through the secretary, Brandt.
Brandt’s attorney points out that these ~100 letters were culled from ~100,000 letters from Brandt which were concerned with more mundane matters.
“As Persönlicher Referent des RFSS, Brandt handled Himmler’s entire correspondence with the exception of matters pertaining to the Waffen SS or the Police.”
(Trial Transcript: NMT 01. Medical Case - USA v. Karl Brandt, et al., English Transcript: p. 4997 (26 March 1947) Luitpold Schallermeier (assistant to Karl Wolff in Himmler's office)
So rather than know the most, it seems that Brandt’s energies were directed towards the huge tasks associated with meeting RFSS’s more eccentric priorities: approving brides for SS men, Lebensborn, program, Ahnenerbe Institute, keeping two Himmler households ticking over etc.
It was because the early medical experiments with the Luftwaffe and the weird request for ‘Skeletons” from Ahnenerbe fell outside the area of police (which controlled the death machine), that Brandt was sent into the breech.
J Duncan is correct in that little is written of him in English. Here is something I put together from trial transcripts and Schellenberg’s book.
Rudolf Brandt, the son of a railway worker, was born and raised in modest circumstances in the German-Polish border 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 University of Berlin and 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 Law Degree from University of Jena in July of 1933. He had joined the Nazi party in January of 1932 (NSDP 1 331 536) and joined the SS in October of 1933 (SS 129 771) By February of 1934, Brandt and his skills in transcription had come to the notice of Himmler who had him transferred from another office in Berlin to his staff.
In 1936, Brandt was named Leiter des Persönlichen Stabes RFSS, and in 1937 Persönlicher Referent des RFSS, a position he held until May 1945.
In this position Brandt handled Himmler’s entire correspondence with the exception of matters pertaining to the Waffen SS or the Police.
Schellenberg, the only SD Department Chief to report directly to Himmler, said of Brandt, “Because of his ability as a perfect stenographer, his punctuality, his untiring diligence, he became Himmler’s convenient and omnipresent registering, reminding and writing machine, complaining about being overworked, and on the other hand, declaring with pride that he had to produce 3000 – 4000 out-going letters per month.”
“Brandt would begin work at seven in the morning, no matter what time he had gone to bed the night before. Three or four hours of sleep were sufficient for him. As soon as Himmler had risen in the morning and washed, Brandt would go to him loaded with papers and files, and while Himmler shaved he would read him the most important items of the morning’s mail. This was done with the greatest seriousness. If there was bad news, Brandt would preface it by saying, ”Pardon, Herr Reichsfuehrer,” and thus forewarned, Himmler would temporarily suspend his shaving operations: a precautionary measure to prevent cutting himself. Brandt was certainly most important. He was the eyes and ears of his master and the manner in which he presented a matter to Himmler was often of decisive importance.”
Brandt was a member of the entourage which accompanied Himmler into hiding, leaving Flensburg May 10, 1945 with the vague goal of attempting to reach Bavaria. He became separated from Himmler and surrendered along with most of the party to British troops on May 21st. Himmler was captured, though not identified on May 22 along with his Waffen SS aides, Werner Grothmann and Heinz Macher.
Brandt watched from inside the wire at the Westertimke detention camp when Himmler was brought in with his aides on May 23.
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Before sentencing, everyone from Schellenberg to Hanna Reitsch argued that Brandt had no ability to make policy and was at every instant transmitting the orders of RFSS.
Rudolf Brandt was found as culpable as many of the physicians who had actually conducted the experiments, and like the minority of physicians who had earned a third strike through membership in a criminal organization, the SS, he was hanged.
Himmler, we are told had Hitler's gift of compartmentalizing existence. I would suggest that to a very large extent
Brandt, the stenographic machine, was out of the loop as opposed to Wolff who really was the Asst. RFSS that everyone imagined Brandt to be. Wolf had the foresight to get to Italy and start charming Dulles in Bern. Brandt trudged after Himmler into the wilderness even though there were no more memos to transcribe.
