Werner Braune

Who is Werner Braune?

Karl Rudolf Werner Braune was a German member of the Nazi police and military organization known as the Schutzstaffel, or, more commonly, by its German initials, SS. He held the rank of Obersturmbannführer. During the course of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, which began on 22 June 1941, Braune was the commander of Special Detachment 11b, which was in turn part of a Special Purpose Unit D. This unit, and three others similarly organized, have since come to be known by their German name of Einsatzgruppen. As commander of Special Detachment 11b, Braune organized and conducted mass murders of Jews in German-occupied areas of southern Ukraine and in the Crimea. For his role in these crimes, Braune was tried before the Nuremberg Military Tribunal in 1948 in the Einsatzgruppen trial. He was sentenced to death, and in 1951 was executed by hanging.