NAZI Police Chief

Franz Josef Huber ran the Gestapo secret police in Vienna

A Nazi SS general responsible for deporting tens of thousands of Jews to death camps worked for West German intelligence after World War Two, shielded from prosecution.  The protection given to Franz Josef Huber was revealed by the German spy service BND, in archives seen by German public broadcaster ARD.

Huber ran the Gestapo in Vienna, the Nazis' second-biggest secret police HQ after Berlin.  The US military knew about his crimes.  Huber took charge of the Gestapo in Vienna immediately after Adolf Hitler annexed Austria in March 1938 and held that post until late 1944.

Adapt and survive
When the Allies occupied the disintegrating Nazi Reich, Huber was on a US wanted list and was arrested by US forces in May 1945.  He was detained for nearly three years, but the US military found him to be co-operative and released him in 1948, so he escaped prosecution for war crimes, the New York Times reports. The paper was given access to ARD's material.

BND historian Bodo Hechelhammer told ARD that at that time "the Cold War was looming, so above all they were of course looking for hardline anti-communists.  "Unfortunately all too often they searched for, and found, such types among former Nazis."

From 1955 to 1967 Huber was employed by West German intelligence, the BND. Originally it was the Gehlen Organisation, headed by ex-Nazi officer Reinhard Gehlen, who had run agents on the Eastern Front.

Huber was pensioned off in 1967, as the BND had concluded that he could not be kept on, lest his role "endanger the service". He drew a German civil service pension, but also worked for an office equipment company, living under his own name in Munich until his death aged 73.

Among Nazi elite
In Nazi-run Austria Huber worked hand-in-hand with Adolf Eichmann, who set up the Central Agency for Jewish Emigration in Vienna. It handled the mass deportation of Jews.  SOURCE:  BBC News         READ MORE