This document from 1943 represents one of the darkest chapters in the history of international police cooperation. It is an inaugural letter from SS-Gruppenführer Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner as President of the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC), the predecessor organization of Interpol.
The International Criminal Police Commission was founded in 1923 in Vienna to coordinate cross-border crime prevention. After the Anschluss of Austria in 1938, the organization came under the control of Nazi Germany. Headquarters were moved to Berlin, and the ICPC was effectively transformed into an instrument of Nazi rule.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1903-1946) assumed leadership of the ICPC as successor to Reinhard Heydrich, who had been fatally wounded in an assassination attempt in Prague in June 1942. Kaltenbrunner had already been appointed chief of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in January 1943, one of the most powerful and feared institutions of the Nazi regime. The RSHA united the Security Police, the Security Service, and the Gestapo under one roof.
The letter dated May 29, 1943, composed in Berlin-Wannsee, marks Kaltenbrunner's formal assumption of office as ICPC President. The choice of location is symbolic: the villa at Wannsee had hosted the infamous Wannsee Conference in January 1942, where high-ranking Nazi officials coordinated the organizational details of the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”
The document was sent to all ICPC members, including occupied and allied countries. The entry stamp dated June 22, 1943 at the Norwegian Ministry of the Interior documents its distribution to occupied territories. Norway had been under German occupation since April 1940 and was administered by a Quisling government under Vidkun Quisling.
The accompanying issue of the journal “Internationale Kriminalpolizei” (International Criminal Police) dated June 10, 1943, featuring Kaltenbrunner's portrait photograph in SS uniform, underscores the complete militarization and Nazification of the once-civilian international police organization. This publication served propaganda purposes and legitimized Nazi control over international police work.
Under Kaltenbrunner's leadership, the ICPC was misused to persecute political opponents, hunt down escaped Jews and resistance fighters, and coordinate deportations. The original goals of international crime prevention were subordinated to the criminal objectives of the Nazi regime.
After World War II, Kaltenbrunner was indicted before the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. The charges included conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. As the highest-ranking surviving SS leader, he bore responsibility for the murder of millions in concentration camps, for mass murders by the Einsatzgruppen, and for countless other atrocities.
The verdict was announced on September 30 and October 1, 1946: Kaltenbrunner was found guilty on all counts except conspiracy and sentenced to death. On October 16, 1946, he was executed by hanging at Nuremberg Prison.
After the war, international police cooperation was reorganized. In 1946, the International Criminal Police Organization was re-established in Brussels, later becoming known as Interpol. The organization completely distanced itself from its Nazi past and established democratic structures.
Documents such as this inaugural letter are important historical testimonies to the perversion of international institutions by the Nazi regime. They document how even organizations with originally legitimate goals can be placed in the service of a criminal ideology. Such artifacts today serve historical research and serve as a reminder to protect democratic institutions against totalitarian appropriation.
