The German intelligence agency, BND, has confirmed that it destroyed their file of Alois Brunner, one of the world's most-wanted Nazi criminals and former right-hand man to Adolf Eichmann. The files on Brunner, who sent some 130,000 Jews to their deaths and was called Eichmann's "best man," disappeared in the late 1990s. Der Spiegel reported over the weekend that the BND destroyed all 581 pages of their Brunner file, leading many to believe he was working for German intelligence after World War II and was therefore under their protection. The BND confirmed on Monday that they had, indeed, destroyed the files, but did not provide further details. Little has been heard from Brunner since he escaped to Damascus following World War II. It is not known whether or not he has died, but if he is still alive, he would be 99 today. Brunner was commander at the Drancy internment camp, north of Paris, where Jews were held before being sent to their deaths at Auschwitz. Earlier in the war, Brunner helped wipe out the Jewish communities in Vienna and Salonica. At some point between 1994 and 1997, the BND gave an order to erase all of Brunner's file from their computers, Der Spiegel reported. A document, dated Feb. 22, 1994 that was obtained by Der Spiegel, read, "The organization needs to part with these documents." A second memo dated three years later, read, "The information security officer made sure it was erased. Nothing remains." The fact that the BND destroyed the file on Brunner raises serious suspicions that the former SS captain was employed as a German agent in Syria following World War II. Brunner was arrested by U.S. forces in Vienna immediately after the war, but managed to escape using the identity of another SS member, Anton Brunner. He eventually made his way to Egypt and then Syria, where he was protected by successive regimes. In Syria, Brunner befriended then-President Hafez al-Assad and was made a special advisor to the government. In 1961 and 1980 he was wounded by parcel bombs, believed to have been sent by Mossad agents, causing him to lose several fingers and an eye. He was tried in absentia several times and repeatedly convicted of crimes against humanity, receiving a death sentence in 1954 and a sentence of life in prison in 2001. Brunner never expressed remorse for his actions. In 1987, he was quoted as saying, "The Jews needed to die. They were trash. If I could, I would do it all again." Since 1992, no new information has surfaced on Brunner's whereabouts.
