Father arrested for keeping his six children in an Austrian cellar is grandson of Nazi war criminal

A father of six arrested on suspicion of locking his own children in a cellar is the grandson of a notorious Nazi war criminal who established the Mauthausen concentration camp, MailOnline can reveal.

Tom Landon, 54, was held by police after he used pepper spray to attack two officials who had come to question him about the living conditions of his family.

Neighbours raised the alarm after hearing ‘crying’ from the cellar of the isolated building where Mr Landon lives with his wife, 40, and their three sons and three daughters, all aged under seven.

Officials found three boys and three girls aged between seven months and seven years in the cellar of the house, which had been recently bought by Landon.

Pictured: Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Himmler’s second in command, takes the oath before giving evidence in his own defence at the Nuremberg trials. Tom Landon, who hit the headlines over the weekend after being held in custody for 24 hours, has admitted he is the Nazi’s grandson

He was held in custody for 24 hours before being released without charge, after police stormed the house in Obritz, 60 miles north of the Austrian capital Vienna and close to the country’s border with the Czech Republic. 

Mr Landon – who has self-published more than 30 books and who police called a ‘prepper’ – has since told MailOnline the incident is all part of a ‘vendetta’ by the local deputy mayor Erich Greil who disagreed with the family’s ‘off grid’ lifestyle.

He is said to be part of the Reichsburger movement, a group of right-wing extremists who believe the German empire still exists as it did prior to World War II and the current German state is insignificant. 

Police raids recently busted members of the group who were planning to storm the German capitol building and overthrow the government.

Mr Landon also confirmed to MailOnline he was the grandson of notorious Nazi war criminal Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who was leader of the feared SS in Austria and later head of police in wartime Germany.

Kaltenbrunner was a committed follower of Adolf Hitler to the bitter end, and was one of the main protagonists in the Holocaust.

He established the Mauthausen concentration camp, the first of its kind in Austria and where around 90,000 people were murdered.

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, Mr Landon said: ‘ Do you know we had police here with guns and a battering ram to get access to my property?’ Pictured: An underground tunnel is seen inside his property in Obritz, 60 miles north of the Austrian capital Vienna and close to the country’s border with the Czech Republic

Pictured: Boxes are seen stacked inside an underground tunnel inside Mr Landon’s home

According to historians, Kaltenbrunner was present at a 1940 meeting where Hitler and his fellow henchmen Josef Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler agreed all Jews incapable of heavy work should be gassed.

The Nazis went on to kill six million Jews in death camps around Europe, along with an additional 11 million people from other groups.

Leni Yahil, who wrote ‘The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry 1932-1945’ described how under Kaltenbrunner’s command, the ‘genocide of Jews picked up pace as the process of extermination was to be expedited and the concentration of the Jews in the Reich itself and the occupied countries were to be liquidated as soon as possible.’

During the summer of 1943 Kaltenbrunner was also present when 15 inmates at Mauthausen were selected to demonstrate three grim killing methods for him: killing by gunshot, hanging and gassing.

Other historians have described how he was ‘committed to Nazism’ until the bitter end and a fanatical Hitler loyalist.

He was eventually captured four days after World War Two ended by US soldiers hiding in a remote Austrian mountain cabin with two SS soldiers at Altahausse.

After being questioned and initially claiming he was a doctor his cover was blown after his mistress called out to him as he was led away from the building and she rushed up and kissed him.

He was convicted at the Nuremberg war trials in September 1946, aged 43, of crimes against humanity and executed by hanging – insisting at the end that he was in fact trying to end the Holocaust and he was being wrongly judged.

Pictured: The German defendants Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Walther Funk, Karl Doenitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel Alfred Jodl, Franz von Papen, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Albert Speer, Konstantin von Neurath and Hans Fritzsche sitting during the Nuremberg Trials. Germany, November 1945

Mr Landon told MailOnline: ‘Yes, it’s true my grandfather was a Nazi war criminal and he was a terrible man who was punished for what he did.

‘My own father was four when my grandfather was executed and I was born in 1968 so I know very little about him other than what is in history books.

‘I am not responsible for his actions and the shame of the background made me change my name from Kaltenbrunner to Landon in 1995 when I was trying to become an actor.

‘But even now people bring it up and claim that I am a Holocaust denier because of him but I’m not as my maternal grandmother was Jewish.’

In 2001, a Dutch holidaymaker found Kaltenbrunner’s Nazi security seal in a lake in the Austrian alps where it has been thrown as he escaped the Allies.

Mr Landon – who has written more than 30 books critical of his country’s government – this week invited MailOnline inside the six properties he has bought and which he intended to renovate and give one to each child when they were older.

‘This has been very traumatic for my wife and children and it’s because people like the deputy mayor have been sticking their noses in where they don’t need to be,’ the father, who lived in London before moving back to his native Austria, said.

‘My family is terrified, they won’t come back to the house where we lived for nearly a year because they are scared the police may return. Do you know we had police here with guns and a battering ram to get access to my property?

‘And all because the deputy mayor doesn’t like our chosen lifestyle and wants us out. Do you really think I would be free if I had been keeping my young children in a cellar?’

 Mr Landon, who lived in London before moving back to his native Austria, has written more than 30 books critical of his country’s government

Mr Landon said: ‘I admit I used pepper spray but it barely touched the people who came here and I was simply defending myself because these people failed to identify themselves’

Mr Landon dismissed reports in local media that his family were British, insisting his wife was German and the children Austrian

While police marked the outside of each of the properties with red paint so they can be easily identified for any future investigation on child cruelty, the case is expected to be dropped by local prosecutors.

‘I admit I used pepper spray but it barely touched the people who came here, and I was simply defending myself because these people failed to identify themselves,’ he told MailOnline.

‘I saw two men outside looking at my property and they were shouting at me to come out – one said ‘We have reason to believe you have children in here and they are unsafe and not going to school’.

‘I said they were my children, they were perfectly safe and we were teaching them at home, and it was none of their business how we chose to live.

‘But they refused to go away and they started to come in and that’s when I used the spray, they ran away over the field and then a few minutes later the police were breaking down my door.

‘The children were terrified and my wife was in tears and all for nothing, our quiet simple life here is ruined now by busy bodies who have no business interfering.

‘They used a special team of policemen to search my house because they thought I had booby traps and explosives here – they were dressed like Robocop with body armour and it was all so unnecessary.’

During the interview Mr Landon’s wife called twice and he was seen smiling, waving and blowing kisses to the children who could be heard laughing in the background.

The 54-year-old explained his children were terrified and his wife was in tears when the police raided his property

Mr Landon claimed the police used a special team to search the house because they thought he had booby traps and explosives throughout the premises

Boxes of toys were neatly placed along the walls and down stairs in the cellar, dozens of dust-covered bottles of wine were piled up in alcoves, as were plastic crates containing tinned food, nappies and medical supplies

Inviting MailOnline inside the house where the children were living he pointed out a large bedroom where the children slept and a basement cellar where he told them to hide as police broke down the door to his home.

Boxes of toys were neatly arranged along the walls and down stairs in the cellar, dozens of dust-covered bottles of wine were piled up in alcoves, as were plastic crates containing tinned food, nappies and medical supplies.

When told by MailOnline this was why police had described him as a ‘prepper’ – a person who prepares for a ‘major disaster or cataclysmic event’ – Mr Landon laughed and said: ‘I didn’t even know what that meant when they told me.

‘Once they explained it I said I was just a family man and a good father who liked to make sure I had everything my children needed, and as for the wine you can help yourself, I don’t drink.’

Mr Landon invited MailOnline inside the house where the children were living and pointed out a large bedroom where the children slept and a basement cellar where he told them to hide as police broke down the door to his home

Mr Landon said: ‘I said they were my children, they were perfectly safe and we were teaching them at home, and it was none of their business how we choose to live’

Mr Landon dismissed reports that weapons had been found, insisting they were air pistols and a deactivated World War Two gun

During his interview Mr Landon’s wife called twice and he was seen smiling, waving and blowing kisses to the children who could be heard laughing in the background

Mr Landon also dismissed reports that weapons had been found, insisting they were air pistols and a deactivated World War Two gun, adding:’ Those guns they found wouldn’t hurt anyone.’

He added: ‘We chose not to register the children but they are all mine and now we will have to go to Vienna to take DNA tests to prove they are ours. If the authorities were so concerned why have they let the children come back to us?

‘I bought these six properties for the children and I wanted us all to live together when they were older but now this plan has been ruined because the deputy mayor didn’t want us here.

‘I think I will lose 120,000 Euros now because my wife and children don’t want to come back here but I will try and get some money back by suing the authorities for what they have done to us.

‘I have been accused of being the new Josef Fritzl but it couldn’t be further from the truth. I am not an enemy of the state, I am a philanthropist and above all a loving father.’

MailOnline has approached the deputy mayor Mr Greil but he said he was unable to comment as he was involved in local elections.

The Lower Austrian police and local prosecutor were both unavailable for comment. 

Pictured: A camera watching the cellar on a road where it is believed Tom Landon had brought six children 

Austrian officials were tipped off about Mr Landon’s supposedly erratic behaviour by worried neighbours and on Thursday, and attempted to question him – but it is alleged that he reacted violently and attacked them.

Local mayor Erich Greil said: ‘There are cameras all over the outside of the buildings where he and his family and below are a series of wine cellars where it is said they were living. Neighbours became worried because they heard children’s voices and so the police and social services were called.

‘He hasn’t been here for very long and he said the building was bought by a British company. He said he had lived in England for a few years before moving to Obritz.’

Mr Greil also told local Austrian media that Landon had ‘wanted a cellar for each child’ and police are now tracing to records to find details on the children who were not registered in Austria.

A police source told MailOnline:’The man has been questioned and has now been released. Now with Interpol we are working to identify the children who we believe may have been born in the UK.

‘The man and his wife, who is British, had certainly lived in the UK and had connections there. The children have been taken into the care of local authorities temporarily. The prosecutor has also been informed as the man attacked officers with pepper spray and he faces charges for that.’

Titles of Mr Landon’s books include Red Sow, Dirty Justice, The Judas Principle and The Destructive Effect of Information Technology on Human Intellectual Development.

Checks by MailOnline over the weekend revealed Mr Landon to be the director of several companies based in London and involved in information technology and book and software publishing.

He has also written a musical about the Austrian rock star Falco – known for his 1985 hit Rock Me Amadeus – and who died in a car crash in the Dominican Republic.  

There is no suggestion any of the children were sexually abused, but the investigation has recalled the infamous case of Josef Fritzl, 87, who was jailed for life in 2009 after keeping his daughter Elizabeth in a cellar for 24 years.