Brauner's backstory, all the way. From the way that the game presents it to us, he genuinely cared so much for the daughters that he lost during World War I. Does it excuse what he does ingame? No more than Dracula could be excused for wanting humanity dead. But it doesn't stop whatever tears may have been shed for the man that Brauner once was before that day.
For bonus points? According to the Japanese manual for Castlevania: Bloodlines, it's Elizabeth Bartley who literally started World War I, as preparation for the resurrection of Dracula. The same vampire who is responsible for taking away Eric's first love. Ouch. Just... ouch.
Perhaps a saddening thing that crosses over with Fridge Logic is the nature of the portraits in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. They can be seen as more than just locations that Brauner has made, they can be depictions of events at the time.
First off, the Burnt Paradise and Nation of Fools. Both of them contain a carnival set on fire with nothing but monsters roaming there. The Fridge Horror in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin's YMMV tab has noted this may be where Brauner's actual daughters might have died and shows how his world turned upside down (much like the stage itself). As fridge logic notes, given how Romania in 1944 had embraced Nazism and sent many Jews, Romani and Romanians to the death camps, the boss of the area, Legion, a monster that wears LOADS of human corpses as a protective shell could represent the people sent away. Medusa for Burnt Paradise could represent the country going stagnant or petrified by the nature of Nazism.
Now for the Sandy Grave and the Lost City. It was around the beginning of the 1900s when the Egyptian Pyramids were being excavated and their stuff being taken to museums within Europe. Take note of the Repatriation Movement, which is based on returning those artifacts back to their homelands. For Egypt, excavating the pyrmaids of their items can be argued to be grave robbing. This adds at least a little more emphasis when Brauner mentions within the Sandy Grave of how "humans despoil the natural world". The Lost City by comparison is one undespoiled and the monsters within probably represent "the mummy's curse".
Then there's the Dark Academy and the Forest of Doom. Both of them are broken down or horrifying academies with forbidden things being learnt or simply schooling left in ruin. Part of the Nazi Agenda was censorship of non-Nazism ideals and teaching them over other curriculums. These can respectively represent the Forest of Doom (where anything not-Nazism is left to rot and decay) and the Dark Academy (where bad ideals are taught). The Frankenstein's Monster in the Dark Academy could also represent the darkest of the Nazi's ideals: the idea of creating the perfect race with a man-made monster.
Finally, there's the City of Haze and 13th Street. The most obvious impression one gets from these places is that these can represent Britain, specifically London. Sure, these look the most harmless, but think about the factor that PoR takes place in 1944. The City of Haze is deserted save for monsters patrolling it's streets, and the theme is called "Victorian Fear". Meanwhile, 13th Street looks the same, except that it's during the night at sunset. Or more explicitly, what appears to be sunset. What if the far off red light in the background is really fire? What if the City of Haze and 13th Street represent Great Britain before AND after the German Air raids respectively?
