Klaus Braun

“	That's him! That's Klaus Braun! His father Ernst was an engineer and helped with the crematoria of Auschwitz! Very efficient! 30 trays, 3 bodies for tray, 90 corpses in ashes at a time.	„
	~ Aaron Lesnick

Klaus Braun, also known by his alias of Abraham Klein, is the overarching antagonist of the CSI: NY Season 5 episode "Yahrzeit". Throughout most of the episode, Klaus posed as a gentle Jewish Holocaust survivor. Beneath his warm and gentle exterior however, he is actually a Nazi responsible for betraying at least one family of Jewish refugees to Auschwitz during the Final Solution.

He was portrayed by the late Ed Asner.

Biography

Past

“	Klaus father was SS and Klaus was Hitlerjugend! Like father, like son.	„
	~ Hannah Schnitzler

Born at some point after the First World War, Klaus Braun grew up in Strausberg, Germany during the Nazi regime. Klaus' father Ernst Braun was an SS engineer who helped to build Auschwitz camp's crematoria. Klaus followed in his fathers footsteps and between 1941 to 1943 was a member of the para-military group Hitler Youth.

During the Final Solution, in which the Nazis began rounding up and exterminating jewish people, Klaus' neighbors, the Schnitzler's, desperately tried to escape from Germany, knowing that it was only a matter of time before they and their two children were killed. In 1942, Klaus approached the family, posing as a member of a resistance movement. He offered to drive them to the border, in exchange for the wife Esther's diamond studded brooch. Although it was a valuable family heirloom, the Schnitzler's were desperate. They met with Klaus in the woods, at which point, Esther tearfully handed over the brooch.

However, Klaus then betrayed the family. Instead of driving them to the border as promised, he took them straight to Auschwitz. There, he watched on coldly as the entire family was executed in front of him. Afterwards, Klaus kept the brooch and took several more of the family’s possessions for himself.

Not long afterwards, Klaus found himself in a horrifying predicament. In 1944, the tide turned against the Nazi's, whose regime collapsed at the end of World War II the following year, with Klaus’ father being killed by the Allied forces at some point during the final stages of the conflict. As such, he knew that it was an only a matter of time before he ended up a wanted man. His victims’ families would no doubt want justice for their loved ones and once his crimes were exposed, he would be lucky to escape execution, let alone arrest. Through means unspecified, Klaus managed to evade discovery and justice. To cover his tracks, Klaus forged a new identity for himself. He took up the name Abraham Klein and presented himself as a Jewish Holocaust survivor from Auschwitz. To further corroborate his story, Klaus had an identification number tattooed onto his left arm.

The plan worked flawlessly and nobody bothered to question or investigate Klaus' story. Thus, treated as a victim, rather a criminal, "Abraham" was sheltered and eventually left Europe, moving to America. He found employment as a clockmaker and eventually started his own business. At some point, before he unfortunately immigrated to the US Klaus married and had one son, whom he named David. To cover his lack of knowledge on Judaism, Klaus claimed that his experiences at the camp had robbed him of his faith. However, his son embraced their family’s so called "legacy" on his father’s behalf obviously due to obviously not knowing that it wasn’t his legacy at all and that he was obviously actually Christian all along.

At some point prior to the event of Yahrzeit, Klaus' wife passed away and as the world moved on his family's business became less and less profitable. Despite these setbacks, Klaus' identity remained hidden and for nearly 60 years, nobody suspected that they were in fact harboring a wanted fugitive in their midst.

Yahrzeit

“	After the war you had go to hiding! So you pretended to be the one you despised most to enter in this country to avoid discovery and capture! And it worked for almost 60 years! Until you sold this brooch! Then something intervened, fate, Karma! Personally, I prefer to think it was God.	„
	~ Detctive Mac Taylor

Then, in what would prove to be a fatal mistake for him, Braun tried to sell Esther Schnitzler's brooch (claiming it had been his wife's). He did this to provide financial security for his son and grandchildren. Unfortunately, the man he tried to sell it to, Xander Green was in fact a neo-Nazi. By pure coincidence, Xander possessed Esther Schnitzer's journal, which contained a drawing of her family brooch. Recognising the jewelry, Green tried to blackmail Klaus into paying him more money in exchange for his silence, Knowing that Xander could blow his cover and reveal the awful truth that he had managed to hide for nearly six decades, Klaus murdered him. He ambushed Xander in his office and fatally shot him with the bayonet handgun from his Hitler Youth days. Thus, ironically the neo-Nazi ended up murdered by a real life Nazi.

Xander’s murder was investigated by the New York CSI team. "Abraham" was identifed as one of the last people to see Xander alive. In standard procedure, he was questioned. Klein appeared to fully co-operate. He admitted to getting into an argument with Green, claiming that Xander had said he was selling the brooch for too much and that some bruises on his arm came from a small struggle between the two men. With no reason to suspect him, Detctive Mac Taylor asked to take a photo of "Abraham's" bruises for the record. When "Abraham" complied, the officer was noticeably disturbed by the tatoo on his arm, as well as the story about Auschwitz. It is later emerged that Mac's father McCanna Boyd Taylor, helped to liberate the Buchenwald camp in the 1940's, but was left deeply traumatized by what he saw.

The detectives carry out a thorough investigation, during which they learn about Esther, the fate of her family and their betrayal at the hands of Klaus Braun. Despite help from the Israeli government, their investagations soon reachs a dead end. Their prime suspect, neo-Nazi Michael Elger has a solid alibi and whilst they manage to recover hundreds of items from Xander and Elger's World War II "collections" none of it was used to kill the former. Back to square one, Stella and Mac try to find any possible leads.

The former tells the latter that the last known person to see Xander before he was shot was one of the models, whose alibi has already checked out. She calls up a picture of the said model, which unwittingly provides the breakthrough they have been looking for. Noticing something, Mac enlarges the picture to focus on the brooch the woman is wearing. Scrolling through their evidence file, they match the jewel to the drawing from Esther's journal. Remembering what Esther's cousin, Hannah, had said in her testimony, Mac informs Stella that Esther gave the brooch to a boy who turned out to be from the Hitler Youth named Klaus Braun.

This causes Stella to ask how Abraham managed to get his hands on it, wondering if he had at some point stolen it from Braun? Mac however, has another theory. Calling up Hannah's testimony, he isolates an image of Braun's face, then uses a computer software to digitally age the boy by sixty years. When he puts this picture next to the one he had previously taken of "Abraham" the two detectives are shocked to see that they are identical. At long last, they have found their killer and, in the process, unwittingly unmasked a Nazi war criminal.

"Abraham" is brought in. However, instead of being questioned about Xander Green's murder, the enraged and disgusted Mac presents him with the evidence they have acquired about his true identity and his betrayal of the Schnitzers. He tells Klaus that they know who he really is, what he did between 1941 to 1943 and that he murdered Xander to cover his tracks. Whilst the interogation is going on, Ben Lesnick and other representatives of the Israeli government are called in. They watch the interview alongside the other detectives. Having studied the testimony of thousands of World War II survivors, Ben is able to positively identify "Abraham" as Klaus Braun.

Meanwhile, Klaus continues to dismiss the accusations against him, insisting that he is Abraham Klein. Mac, however, has done his research and is able to do what nobody has done for the past sixty years; pick apart Klaus' story. The façade ultimately drops, when Mac points to the one way mirror and informs Klaus that Israeli consulate members have verified his identity. Glaring at the mirror, Klaus' true colours are finally exposed. When Mac demands to know if Klaus has anything to say, Braun coldly says (in German) "We should have killed them all." When Ben translates it for the others, the investigators are appaled by what the unrepentant Klaus just said.

After nearly sixty years in hiding, Klaus is finally arrested. He is led outside in handcuffs, where he sees his son David waiting for him in the hall. The two men exchange a look and at long last, David Klein, sees the true face of his father; Klaus Braun. Having clearly been informed about the circumstances behind "Abraham’s" arrest, David finally realises that the accusations are true and that his family’s "legacy" is a lie. Appaled and furious, David takes a minor revenge for all of the people whose lives Klaus destroyed. With a final hateful look at the man who had deceived everybody, David turns his back on his father, denouncing him. Klaus desperately calls out, but his son abandons him, choosing the Jewish faith over the man he has just discovered is a Nazi. The shocked Klaus is led away to stand trial for Xander Green's murder and his crimes against humanity during the 1940's.

With the investigation over, Mac personally returns Esther's brooch to her cousin Hannah. Genuinely grateful, she thanks him for bringing her cousins killer to justice at long last. The two light a yahzerit candle and say a prayer for the avenged Esther, her family and in honor of Mac's father.

Gallery

Klaus as member of Hitler Youth.

Klaus in 1942.

A young Klaus Braun's photo.

Klaus' photo in age progression.

Trivia

• Ed Asner, who was Jewish himself confessed that it was a shock for him to play Klaus Braun.