Wilhelm Hoettl (1915–1999)

In 1938, at the age of only 23, he received a doctorate in history from the University of Vienna. While still a student there, he joined the Nazi Party (member 6309616) and the SS (no. 309510). Höttl was first stationed in Vienna with the SD foreign bureau and then moved to Berlin where he was promoted to the SS rank of Sturmbannführer (Major). In 1944 Höttl became the Ausland-SD's Acting Head of Intelligence and Counter Espionage in Central and South-East Europe. In March he was assigned to Budapest, where he served as second in command to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's SS representative in Hungary, and as political advisor to Hitler's ambassador there, Edmund Veesenmayer. After the war, Höttl figured prominently as a prosecution witness at the Nuremberg Trials.