It was a fitting end for a monster who condemned more than , Jews to their deaths. Alois Brunner, once the world's most wanted Nazi, spent his final years in a cell in Damascus, where he was given the choice of an egg or a tomato to eat each day. But in the decades he spent as a guest of the Assad regime in Syria after fleeing post-war Germany , Brunner proved his value before being condemned to prison.
As deputy to Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann, Brunner had overseen the deportations of Jews from countries including France and Austria and had conducted interrogations which reputedly left blood stains and bullet holes on the walls of his office.
The war criminal, who may have survived until , advised the Syrian dictatorship on torture methods he had learned in roles that included commandant of the Drancy internment camp outside Paris. In return, he was protected from extradition by Hafez al-Assad, the father of ousted Syrian president Bashar, who has fled to Russia after the collapse of his regime. But it was under Hafez - who ruled until his death in - that Brunner's fortunes turned after he defied orders not to give interviews and so, by the s, had been locked up.
By then, he had survived two letter bombs sent by Israeli intelligence that saw him lose an eye and all of the fingers on his left hand. He was jailed after initially proving his worth to the Syrian regime by imparting his knowledge of SS torture methods. He advised the Syrian dictatorship on torture methods he had learned in roles that included commandant of the Drancy internment camp outside Paris.
Above: Inmates at the Drancy camp. Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff said in that he was '99 per cent sure' that Brunner lived until before being buried in a now-unknown location in Damascus. The war criminal was once described by Eichmann - who was executed in Israel in after being captured by Mossad in Argentina - as one of his best men.
