Bruno Müller

Bruno Müller
Bruno Müller in occupied Kraków
Born	(1905-09-13)September 13, 1905 Strasbourg, German Empire (now France)
Died	March 1, 1960(1960-03-01) (aged 54) Oldenburg
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Schutzstaffel
Years of service	until 1945
Rank	Obersturmbannführer
Unit	SS-Totenkopfverbände
Commands held	Generalgouvernement

Obersturmbannführer Bruno Müller or Brunon Müller-Altenau (Strasbourg, September 13, 1905 – March 1, 1960, Oldenburg) served as Senior Storm Unit Leader during the Nazi German invasion of Poland. In September 1939, he was put in charge of the Einsatzkommando EK 2, attached to Einsatzgruppe EG I of the Security Police. They were deployed in Poland along with the 14th Army of the Wehrmacht.

Müller was head of the Gestapo office (Geheimstaatspolizei) in Oldenburg from 1935 until World War II. During the invasion of Poland, he served as one of four captains of the mobile killing squads (Einsatzkommandos) within Einsatzgruppe I, led by SS-Standartenführer Bruno Streckenbach. In total, eight Einsatzgruppen (German: special-ops units) had been deployed in Poland. They were active until late 1940, and composed of the Gestapo, Kripo and SD functionaries involved in extermination actions including Operation Tannenberg as well as Intelligenzaktion against the Polish cultural elites. Müller was appointed commander of the Gestapo Division 4 Krakau in the new General Government district (Generalgouvernement) two months after the attack.

Müller personally conducted the operation Sonderaktion Krakau against the Polish professors in occupied Kraków. On November 6, 1939 at the Jagiellonian University (UJ) lecture room no. 56 of the Collegium Novum, he summoned all academics for a speech, where he announced their immediate arrest and internment. Among them were 105 professors and 33 lecturers from the Jagiellonian University, including its rector Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński, 34 professors and doctors from Academy of Mining and Metallurgy (AGH), 4 from College of Commerce (Wyższe Studium Handlowe) and 4 from Lublin and Wilno universities, as well as the President of Kraków, Dr Stanisław Klimecki who was apprehended at home. All of them, 184 persons in total, were transported to prison at Montelupich, and – some three days later – to detention center in Wrocław (German: Breslau). They were sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the other side of Berlin two weeks later, and in March 1940 further to Dachau near Munich after a new 'selection'.