SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper (1915-1976)

Joachim Peiper, also known as Jochen Peiper, was a German officer in the Waffen-SS who rose to the rank of SS-Standartenfuehrer and became one of the most controversial and decorated commanders in the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler during the Second World War. Born on 30 January 1915 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf in the German Empire, he served initially as a personal adjutant to Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler before earning renown for his aggressive leadership on the Eastern Front, in Italy, and particularly during the Ardennes Offensive of 1944, where he commanded Kampfgruppe Peiper as part of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. Peiper received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords for his actions in key battles, but his career was also marked by accusations of war crimes, including the killing of prisoners and civilians. After the war he was convicted in the Malmedy Trial, though his death sentence was later commuted and he was released in 1956. He lived quietly in West Germany and later France until his death on 14 July 1976 in Traves, where his house was destroyed in a fire widely believed to have been an arson attack by unknown assailants. Peiper embodied the image of the fanatical and charismatic SS panzer leader whose units were notorious for their brutality toward enemy soldiers and civilians alike.

Peiper came from a military family. His father, Woldemar Peiper, was a retired captain in the Imperial German Army, and his mother was Charlotte Schwartz Peiper. He had two brothers, Hans-Hasso and Horst. There is no available information on his religious affiliation. In April 1923 he joined the Hitler Youth and on 16 October 1933 he entered the SS as member number 132496, also holding NSDAP membership number 5508134. He underwent officer training at the SS-Junkerschule in Braunschweig and served as a platoon leader with the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler from 1936 onward. On 26 June 1939 he married Sigurd Hinrichsen in an SS ceremony, and the couple had three children: a son, Heinrich Hinrich Peiper, and two daughters, Elke and Silke. By 1938 Peiper had become an adjutant on Himmler's personal staff, a position that kept him close to the highest levels of the SS leadership and allowed him to observe the planning of major operations.

Peiper's first combat experience came during the Western Campaign of 1940, when he returned briefly from staff duties to lead a company in the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and earned both classes of the Iron Cross for his performance in France. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 he served on the Eastern Front with the division, taking part in the fighting around Mariupol, Rostov, and Taganrog. By early 1943 he had been promoted to SS-Sturmbannfuehrer and commanded the third battalion of the second SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment. His aggressive style of leadership, marked by rapid advances and close-quarters combat, soon drew attention during the German counteroffensive in the Third Battle of Kharkov.

It was during the desperate fighting to recapture Kharkov in February and March 1943 that Peiper earned the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 9 March 1943. His battalion was ordered to relieve the encircled 320th Infantry Division, which was retreating westward through deep snow and blizzards under constant Soviet pressure. Peiper personally led his grenadiers in savage hand-to-hand fighting against a Soviet ski battalion, hacking through enemy lines in sub-zero temperatures to break the encirclement. At the village of Krasnaya Polyana his troops engaged in room-to-room combat and discovered that a German medical detachment in their rearguard had been massacred and mutilated. Despite these horrors, Peiper's men pushed forward with ferocious determination, secured vital bridgeheads, and successfully extracted the battered infantry division along with its sick and wounded. His personal courage, including the close-quarters destruction of enemy armor, proved decisive in this sector and earned him the highest German bravery award at the time.

Later in 1943 Peiper took command of SS-Panzer-Regiment 1 of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler during the defensive battles around Zhytomyr in the winter of 1943-1944. As Soviet forces launched a massive offensive west of Kiev, he directed a series of aggressive night counterattacks in knee-deep snow and freezing conditions. His panzers penetrated up to thirty kilometers into the Soviet rear, overran the field headquarters of four enemy divisions, and claimed more than two thousand Soviet dead in relentless tank duels and infantry clashes lit by flares and burning vehicles. These actions helped stall the Soviet advance and stabilize the German front, leading to the award of the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross on 27 January 1944. After a period of operations in northern Italy, including the disarming of Italian units and the incident at Boves in September 1943, Peiper returned to the Eastern Front and later assumed command of the first SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment.

Peiper's most famous exploit came during the Ardennes Offensive in December 1944, when he commanded Kampfgruppe Peiper within the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler as part of the sixth Panzer Army. The battle group, equipped with Panther and Panzer IV tanks plus the heavy Tiger II tanks of the 501st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion, formed the armored spearhead tasked with racing westward to seize Meuse River bridges and reach Antwerp. Advancing more than fifty kilometers in the opening days despite fuel shortages and bitter cold, Peiper's forces overran American positions at Losheimergraben, captured bridges and fuel depots at Stavelot and Buellingen in house-to-house fighting, and pushed deep into the Ardennes Forest. Isolated near La Gleize after supply lines were cut, his men held out in the ruins of villages under constant air and artillery attacks before destroying their remaining equipment and breaking out on foot. Leading roughly eight hundred survivors through enemy territory in a grueling march back to German lines, Peiper achieved the deepest penetration of the entire offensive. For this audacious command under extreme adversity he received the Swords to his Knight's Cross on 11 January 1945.

Following the collapse of Germany in May 1945, Peiper was captured by American forces and became a central figure in the Malmedy Trial, where he and other members of the Leibstandarte were accused of war crimes related to the killing of American prisoners during the Ardennes campaign. Sentenced to death, he saw his sentence commuted amid controversies over the trial procedures and was released from prison in December 1956 after serving eleven years. He subsequently worked in the automobile industry and in 1972 moved to the small village of Traves in eastern France, where he lived quietly under the pseudonym Rainer Buschmann and worked as a translator. On the night of 14 July 1976 an unknown group set fire to his isolated house, and Peiper perished in the blaze at the age of sixty-one. His death remains officially unsolved but is widely regarded as the result of revenge by former resistance fighters or others seeking retribution for his wartime actions. Peiper's legacy continues to divide historians, who view him alternately as a brilliant but ruthless panzer commander or as a symbol of the Waffen-SS's crimes during the Second World War.

Source:  
https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/  
https://en.wikipedia.org/  
https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/13761/Peiper-Joachim-Jochen-Waffen-SS.htm
https://grokipedia.com/  
https://rk.balsi.de/index.php?action=list&cat=300  
https://www.unithistories.com/units_index/index.php?file=/officers/personsx.html  
https://web.archive.org/web/20091027052912fw_/http://geocities.com/orion47.geo/index2.html  
https://forum.axishistory.com/  
https://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/  
https://www.geni.com/  
https://www.findagrave.com/ (Familieninformationen)  
Michael Reynolds: The Devil's Adjutant - Jochen Peiper, Panzer Leader (1995)  
Jens Westemeier: Joachim Peiper - A Biography of the Waffen-SS Commander (2007)

SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Pfeiffer (1913-1944)

Hans Friedrich Georg Pfeiffer was a German officer in the Waffen-SS who served as one of Adolf Hitler’s personal adjutants in the Führerhauptquartier before transferring to frontline combat duties with the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend during the Second World War. Born on 28 April 1913, he rose quickly within the elite Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and was assigned to Hitler’s inner staff by the early years of the conflict. Pfeiffer’s role placed him in close proximity to the dictator at key headquarters locations, including the Felsennest command post in 1940 during the campaign in the West. He signed official documents on Hitler’s behalf as late as December 1942 and appeared in numerous photographs alongside the Führer, capturing moments of routine headquarters life amid the escalating war. By 1943 he held the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer and was officially listed among the small circle of SS ordnance officers and adjutants responsible for personal liaison duties at the highest level of command.

Little is known of Pfeiffer’s private life prior to his military service, including details of his parents, siblings, or any spouse and children, as wartime records and postwar archives have preserved scant personal information beyond his professional trajectory. He began his SS career in the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, the Führer’s ceremonial and combat bodyguard formation, where he demonstrated the loyalty and efficiency required for staff assignments. His transfer from the protective environment of the Führerhauptquartier to a combat division reflected the growing manpower needs of the Waffen-SS in 1943, when many adjutants and headquarters personnel were reassigned to newly raised units. Pfeiffer joined the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, a formation composed largely of teenage recruits from the Hitler Youth organization, and was given command of the 4th Company within the first battalion of SS-Panzer-Regiment 12, equipped with Panther tanks. This posting thrust him into the intense armored warfare that characterized the division’s debut on the Western Front following the Allied landings in Normandy.

The 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend was rushed into action in early June 1944 as part of the German effort to contain the Allied bridgehead in Normandy. Pfeiffer’s company participated in the fierce defensive and counterattacking operations around the city of Caen, engaging Canadian and British forces in a series of village battles that became emblematic of the brutal close-quarters fighting in the bocage terrain. On 11 June 1944, during the Canadian assault on the village of Rots, elements of Pfeiffer’s 4th Company supported SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 26 in street-to-street combat against troops of the 46 Royal Marine Commando and supporting Canadian armored units. His Panther tank advanced into the village under heavy fire, providing direct support to infantry positions that were under sustained attack from Sherman tanks and infantry assaults. The engagement turned into a chaotic melee of house-to-house fighting, with Panthers maneuvering through narrow streets while exposed to anti-tank fire from multiple directions.

Pfeiffer was killed instantly when a high-explosive shell struck the cupola of his command tank, decapitating him while he directed operations from the open hatch. Eyewitness accounts from his crew and comrades describe the gruesome scene: the tank continued to operate for a short time with his body still inside the fighting compartment as the radio operator transmitted urgent orders and the driver attempted to extract the vehicle from the line of fire. SS-Oberscharführer Erwin Wohlgemuth, a platoon leader in the same company, later recounted seeing the tank churning through debris and wounded before it was destroyed by Canadian Shermans, only learning afterward that his commander had been killed moments earlier. Another crew member, SS-Sturmann Hans Kesper, described the desperate repair attempts and radio calls urging Pfeiffer forward under mounting pressure. The loss of the company commander occurred amid one of the division’s most desperate defensive actions, as the 12th SS fought to prevent the Canadians from securing key heights west of Caen.

Following the battle, Pfeiffer’s remains were eventually recovered from the wrecked Panther and interred in a temporary field grave before being reburied postwar at the German military cemetery in La Cambe, Normandy. His death exemplified the high attrition rate among experienced SS officers transferred from staff roles to combat commands in the final years of the war, as the Hitlerjugend Division suffered devastating casualties in the Normandy campaign. Although Pfeiffer did not receive the highest German decorations such as the Knight’s Cross, his service record reflected the typical progression of loyal SS personnel who combined headquarters proximity with frontline leadership. The precise circumstances of his final moments, preserved in divisional histories and veteran recollections, underscore the ferocity of the armored engagements around Rots, where Panthers and Shermans clashed at point-blank range amid ruined villages and hedgerows. Pfeiffer’s brief but intense combat career, spanning from Hitler’s inner circle to the muddy fields of Normandy, remains a footnote in the broader history of the Waffen-SS and the failed German defense of occupied France in 1944.

Source:
https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/
https://en.wikipedia.org/
https://www.tracesofwar.com/
https://grokipedia.com/
https://rk.balsi.de/index.php?action=list&cat=300
https://www.unithistories.com/units_index/index.php?file=/officers/personsx.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20091027052912fw_/http://geocities.com/orion47.geo/index2.html
https://forum.axishistory.com/
https://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/
https://www.bundesarchiv.de/en/
https://www.geni.com/
https://books.google.com/
https://www.hitler-archive.com/
https://ww2gravestone.com/
https://www.royalmarineshistory.com/

Benno von Arent: Architect, Designer, and Nazi Cultural Figure (1898-1956)

Benno von Arent was a multifaceted German artist, architect, and stage designer whose career became deeply intertwined with the Nazi regime. Born into a military family, he rose to prominence in the 1930s as the Reich's official stage designer, contributing to the grandiose aesthetic of National Socialist propaganda events. His work exemplified the monumental style favored by Adolf Hitler, blending architecture, theater, and political spectacle. However, his involvement with the SS and the Nazi Party cast a long shadow over his legacy, leading to post-war denazification proceedings and his eventual death shortly thereafter.

## Early Life and Education

Benno Georg Eduard Wilhelm Joachim von Arent was born on July 19, 1898, in Görlitz, Prussia (now part of Germany), into a family with a strong military tradition. His father, also named Benno von Arent, was a Prussian Lieutenant Colonel who died in 1904, and his grandfather was a Prussian Lieutenant General. This background instilled in him a sense of discipline and nationalism from a young age. Arent served in World War I, fighting on the front lines, and afterward joined the Freikorps and the Reichswehr, paramilitary groups that suppressed leftist uprisings in the turbulent Weimar Republic.

Faced with high unemployment in post-war Germany, Arent held various odd jobs, including as a car salesman. Largely self-taught in architecture and design, he lacked formal higher education in these fields but demonstrated a natural aptitude. By the early 1920s, he gravitated toward the arts, joining the völkisch-minded and anti-Semitic Militant League for German Culture, which aligned with emerging right-wing ideologies.

## Career Beginnings in Theater and Design

Arent's professional breakthrough came in 1923 when he secured his first theater job in Berlin as an outfitter and stage designer. Initially struggling, he honed his skills in various Berlin theaters, developing a realistic and detailed approach to set design. His early work focused on costumes and scenery, drawing from his self-taught architectural knowledge.

By the late 1920s, Arent had established himself in the German cultural scene. His designs began to reflect a preference for monumentalism, which would later resonate with Nazi aesthetics. He also ventured into film, serving as a production designer for movies like *Victor and Victoria* (1933), showcasing his versatility in visual arts.

## Involvement with the Nazi Party and Rise to Prominence

Arent's career trajectory shifted dramatically with the rise of the Nazis. He joined the SS in 1931 and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1932, positioning himself within the regime's inner circles. In 1932, he co-founded the Bund nationalsozialistischer Bühnen- und Filmkünstler (Union of National Socialist Stage and Movie Artists), which was rebranded as the Kameradschaft der Deutschen Künstler (Fellowship of German Artists) after Hitler's ascension to power in 1933.

By 1936, Arent received personal commissions from Hitler, who admired his work and appointed him Reichsbühnenbildner (Reich Stage Designer). This title underscored his role in crafting the visual spectacle of Nazi rallies and events. Hitler often imposed his own ideas on Arent, treating him as a protégé in a teacher-student dynamic. Arent's designs for street decorations during major marches, such as those in Nuremberg, influenced his stage work, emphasizing grandeur and symbolism.

In 1937, Arent was awarded the title of professor, a honor bestowed on key Nazi cultural figures. He designed diplomatic uniforms for the Foreign Ministry and, in 1939, was appointed Reich Commissioner for Fashion—a role cut short by the outbreak of World War II. His style, often described as realistic and monumental, aligned with Hitler's vision but struggled to evolve distinctly due to wartime constraints and competition from architects like Albert Speer.

## Notable Works and Contributions

Arent's most famous architectural project was the design of the Berlin House of the German Labour Front (DAF), a symbol of Nazi labor organization. His stage designs for operas and rallies featured towering columns, eagles, and dramatic lighting, epitomizing the regime's propaganda aesthetic. He also contributed to the visual elements of events like Mussolini's 1937 visit to Germany, where he orchestrated elaborate decorations in Berlin.

In theater, Arent's work extended to modern dance and opera, where he collaborated on productions that aligned with Nazi cultural policies. His designs for the 1936 Berlin Olympics revue *Freut euch des Lebens!* highlighted propaganda efforts, blending art with ideology.

## Wartime Activities and Post-War Period

During World War II, Arent served on Heinrich Himmler's personal staff as an SS member. On August 15, 1941, he witnessed the execution of partisans and Jews near Minsk, an event that underscored his proximity to Nazi atrocities. In 1944, he joined the Waffen-SS and was promoted to SS-Oberführer. Captured by Soviet forces near the war's end, he remained in captivity until 1953.

Upon release, Arent returned to West Germany. In 1956, denazification proceedings began against him in Berlin, aiming to assess his Nazi involvement and potentially bar him from public life.

## Death and Legacy

Benno von Arent died on October 14, 1956, in Bonn, West Germany, at the age of 58, shortly after his denazification sentencing. His death marked the end of a career defined by artistic talent overshadowed by political complicity.

Arent's legacy remains controversial. While his designs contributed to Nazi spectacle, post-war scholarship views him as a collaborator who enabled the regime's cultural propaganda. His work is studied in contexts of totalitarian art, architecture, and theater, serving as a cautionary tale of art's intersection with politics.



## Bibliography
- Wikipedia: Benno von Arent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benno_von_Arent
- Find a Grave: Benno von Arent (1898-1956). https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/121019749/benno-von_arent
- Jewish Virtual Library: Benno von Arent. https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/biographies-wing/all-biographies-by-last-name/v/benno-von-arent
- IMDb: Benno von Arent. https://imdb.com/name/nm0901889
- Alchetron: Benno von Arent. https://alchetron.com/Benno-von-Arent
- https://www.walter-frentz-collection.de/fotoarchiv/personenarchiv-a-z/personen-a-b/#&gid=1&pid=17
- Speer, Albert. *Inside the Third Reich*. Simon & Schuster, 1970. (Mentions Arent in the context of Nazi architecture and design.)
- Petropoulos, Jonathan. *Artists Under Hitler: Collaboration and Survival in Nazi Germany*. Yale University Press, 2014.
- Karina, Lilian, and Marion Kant. *Hitler's Dancers: German Modern Dance and the Third Reich*. Berghahn Books, 2003.
- Klee, Ernst. *Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945*. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, 2007.
- Werr, Sebastian. *Heroische Weltsicht. Hitler und die Musik*. Böhlau, Wien, 2014.

SS-Obersturmbannführer Michael Kneissl, SS Officer in the "Lost German Girl" Video

9 May 1945

Full name: Michael Kneissl
Nickname: unknown
Date of Birth: 30 November 1891 in Münich, Bavaria (German Empire)
Date of Death: 29 March 1947 in Brno prison (Czechoslovakia)
Religion: Gottgläubig (believing in God)
Blood group: unknown
NSDAP Number: 64 395 (13 July 1927)
SS Number: 24990 (8 February 1932)
Academic Title: no
Family: unknown
Physical Feature: unknown

Beförderungen (Promotion):
20.10.1931 SS-Anwärter
08.02.1932 SS-Mann
08.02.1932 SS-Scharführer
12.02.1932 SS-Truppführer
01.12.1932 SS-Sturmführer (SS-Untersturmführer)
31.07.1933 SS-Obersturmführer
24.12.1933 SS-Sturmhauptführer (SS-Hauptsturmführer)
01.06.1936 SS-Sturmbannführer
09.11.1943 SS-Obersturmbannführer
30.01.1944 SS-Obersturmbannführer der Reserve

Karriere (Career):
17.06.1937 - 01.02.1938 Führer I.Sturmbann / SS-Standarte 74 in Swinemünde
01.02.1938 - 01.09.1939 Führer II.Sturmbann / SS-Standarte 74 in Swinemünde
01.09.1939 - 01.05.1940 Fi.Ru.S. Boden Amt Prag
01.05.1940 - 01.05.1944 Führer beim Stab SS-Abschnitt XXXIX
01.05.1944 - 08.05.1945 Führer beim Stab SS-Abschnitt XXXVII

Orden und Ehrenzeichen (Medals and Decorations):
00.00.194_ Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz
00.00.194_ Kriegsverdienstkreuz II.Klasse mit Schwertern
30.01.1944 Kriegsverdienstkreuz I.Klasse mit Schwertern

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael Kneissl was born on November 30, 1891 in the Bavarian metropolis of Munich as the eldest of three children. His father was a butcher and coachman. After finishing elementary school he entered the apprenticeship and at the same time attended the art-industrial school in Munich, where he trained as an artistic carpenter. He went to Austria, Liechtenstein and Baden looking for experience. Just before his nineteenth birthday, however he had to return to Munich, where he entered military service with the 2nd Royal Bavarian infantry regiment. After completing his basic military service, he voluntarily signed up the army. In 1915, he also managed to get married and two children were born from this marriage.

After the outbreak of World War I, Kneissl fought on both the Eastern and Western fronts. In 1916 he was transferred to the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment (List), i.e. the same unit in which the later "leader of the German nation"Adolf Hitler served, but now an insignificant ordinary soldier. As a result of a severe head injury, Vizefeldwebel Kneissl was redeployed in July 1917 as an auxiliary officer in the War Department. Shortly after the end of the war he became the official representative entrusted with the management of the personnel department. About half a year later his commission was revoked and Kneissl remained until early March 1920 in the Heeresabwickelungsamt Bayern as a civil employee. In 1918–1919 he also worked with the Freikorps, made up of career officers in the Bavarian Ministry of War, who sought to overthrow the Bavarian Republic of Soviets. After released from military service, he held various small office jobs in the state service before becoming office assistant from July 1921 and finally at the beginning May 1924 as a secretary at the official court in Berchtesgaden. However, his career took a turn for the worse when he was sentenced to one year in 1928 and seven months in prison for embezzlement and fraud. The reason was allegedly not his profiteering, but rather chaos in the agenda and reduced performance due to head injuries he received in the war (however, he forgot to mention this fact during the post-war interrogation).

According to the same protocol, which may contain misleading information, in the 1920s Kneissl reported as a member for the Social Democratic Party. However, he soon turned around and leaned towards the radical right. He joined the NSDAP on July 13, 1927 in the local group in Berchtesgaden and received membership number 64 395. It happened long before the NSDAP became strong political party in the breakthrough election of 1930. Kneissl thus undoubtedly belonged to the "old fighters" of the Nazis movement. After the war, however, he testified that after only three months as a Nazi member he came out and was not politically organized. From his personal records it also appears that in the years 1929–1931 he belonged to the members of the largest veteran organization in Germany, Stahlhelm. Kneissl was to return to the ranks of the NSDAP in 1932. In the same year he also applied to become the member of the SS. He became a candidate for membership on October 20, 1931, and only after upon completion of the probationary period, he was accepted into the SS in the rank of SS-Scharführer on February 8, 1932. He was assigned to the position of adjutant within the III./1. Sturmbann and soon the entire Standarte. Starting on April 20, 1934, he worked as an SS officer of special purpose for Abschnitt I. However, he submitted a transfer request even before taking up his new position to the Political Cash of Württemberg in Ellwangen (future 2. SS-Standarte). Command With effect from May 26, 1934, SS Kneissl complied, and at the same time he entered. On May 8, 1934, he joined the SS. He also appeared as an exemplary member of the SS from the Catholic Church and declared himself a "believer in God", which in the context of the time it meant subscribing to the Nazi ideology and Adolf Hitler. Soon however, it caught up with a stain from the past, because he hid his criminal prosecution when joining the SS and was threatened with expulsion. However, taking into account the great merits in the "struggle for movement', his offense was finally forgiven and the SS even tried to erase him from the criminal record.

So the whole case did Kneissl no harm. On the contrary, he already started on May 8, 1935 to the SS-Verfügungstruppen and with effect from 17 May 1935 became a company commander in 9/1. SS-Standarte. On March 1, 1936, he was appointed commander of the training camp for the Austrian Legion in Ranis within the SS collection center. Soon after that Kneissl was also promoted to the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer. With his poor performance however, the service had significant problems and the command of the collection center even submitted a proposal on his release from office after various improprieties occurred in the camp. However, Kneissl was able to make significant efforts to make amends and request his release. It was eventually withdrawn. However, the SS command was not convinced of Kneissl for other needs, and in January 1937 it was decided not to pay it as a regular tax employee. Kneissl would therefore have to look for a civilian profession. Finally however, he kept his job in the SS and was transferred with effect from June 17, 1937 to I. and later II. battalion 74. SS-Standarte as their commander. However, he did not generally appear as a prospective cadre. As a result of an old injury, he suffered from dizziness, memory losses, nervousness and irritability. He therefore did not meet the criteria for an officer of the SS and was found unfit for service. The review expressly recommended placing it in a quieter place.

In addition, Kneissl's situation was complicated by personal problems. His marriage was falling apart because he was having an affair with another woman with whom he had two more children. The SS Command However, even in this case, did not throw the "old fighter" overboard and offered him the service of an SS lawyer in divorce, medical leave and even a smaller financial injection to bridge his desperate financial circumstances. Kneissl actually went on medical leave because of an old injury that has been extended to him several times. After finishing the treatment, he then being supported from the B fund of the Reich SS leader, and was to be paid before he found a new civilian employment.

In the meantime, however, the overall situation has changed. Aggressive policies of Germany bear fruit when Adolf Hitler found himself at war and the SS began to expand massively into the occupied territories. Officers, even those unfit for field service, were suddenly in critical shortage. Application was also found for Kneissl, namely in the Society for People's Care and Assistance settlement, to which he was transferred on September 13, 1939. He was tabulated and thus paid by the Land Office in Prague. With effect from May 1, 1940, he was then appointed officer at staff XXXIX. section SS. So he became an important official institution of the German occupation administration in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The Land Office was a key tool for the Germanization of the Czech lands, a form of modern colonization. In his own words, Kneissl carried out the distribution of "land parcels".

Rapid growth of the armed forces of the SS organization (Waffen-SS) however, exploited its personnel reserves to the limit. Sources were also sought in civil society institutions. The decision of the SS command became crucial for the reactivation of Kneissl on the establishment of a guard battalion to guard occupation authorities and repressive facilities, which was to be built mainly from local resources, i.e. members of the Allgemeine-SS from the Protectorate. On July 22, he was in charge of the personnel matters of the new unit. In 1940 in Berlin he met with the commander of XXXIX. section of the SS, SS-Oberführer W. Opländer. As a result, Kneissl was drafted into the Waffen-SS on 30 July 1940 with effect from 1 August 1940 with the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer der Reserve. He was also appointed as commander of the newly formed guard battalion SS Böhmen-Mähren. Together with him, another employee of the Land Office became an officer of this unit, SS-Untersturmführer Hans Hempel. SS Böhmen-Mähren Guard Battalion is made from the security office and prisons of the Gestapo office in Brno and from 1 November 1940 also the police prison in the relatively distant Terezín, where the company moved under Hempel's command. Kneissl then went to the Terezín prison regularly as part of business trips.

Kneissl lasted almost three years at the head of the SS Böhmen-Mähren guard battalion. Under his command, the unit played a vital role in the terror of the period, the so-called first and second state of emergency in Moravia. A total of 396 persons were executed by the SS in the courtyard of the Kounice dormitories in 1941, of which 71 women and 8 juveniles under 18. After the war Kneissl confirmed that he was personally present at almost every execution. His men also performed house raids, street closures and accompanied prison transports to concentration camps. In the following period, Kneissl with his battalion took part in a campaign against the partisan movement in southern Moravia.

The Waffen-SS command in Bohemia and Moravia evaluated Kneissl's activities with satisfaction and his attitudes were described as "befitting an old warrior". The proposal for promotion states that Kneissl exercised "impeccable command of the battalion since July 27, 1940, i.e. two whole years. It was especially evident in the tense period in the fall of 1941 and after the assassination of the SS-Ogruf. Heydrich from the end of May 1942. As a result, Kneissl earned a promotion to the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer with effect from 1 September 1942.

The SS command did not forget Kneissl's merits even after the guard battalion was abolished. In the summer of 1943, with effect from 13 July 1943, he became the commander of the fraternal guard battalion SS Prag. He replaced SS-Obersturmbannführer Peter. The command of the SS guard units thus remarkably remained, especially in wartime. At the time of Kneissl's command, the subordinated 4th guard company were tasked with carrying out executions without a court verdict (so-called Sonderbehandlung). Since 1943, the Small Fortress has executed 300 prisoners. Kneissl received other awards while in command of the battalion. On the occasion the "festival of fallen heroes", that is, the killed participants of the Munich "beer party" coup on 9 November 1943, he was promoted to the rank of SS-Obersturmbannführer, first within the Allgemeine-SS. On the day of another official Nazi holiday of January 30, 1944, which commemorated the accession of Hitler to the post of Reich chancellor, Kneissl was promoted to the same rank within the Waffen-SS. on the same date he was also awarded the War Meritorious Cross of the First Class with swords. On the other hand, his transfer to the status of staff of XXXVIII. section of the SS as of May 1, 1944 was only a formal matter.

Due to his "rich" Nazi past, Kneissl was also in a special position of SS guard units in the protectorate area by more important personalities than one would expect from a mere regular battalion commander. Courtesy correspondence, which, however, often turned into a more personal tone, he maintained with a whole range of representatives of the state administration, the repressive apparatus, the army and other components not only in protectorate territory (for example, the Gauleiter and the Reich Governor in Vienna dr. H. Jury or the head of the SS Main Command Office H. Jüttner).

Personal relationships bound him, for example, to a "specialist" in brutal operations in the rear of eastern front, C. von Gottberg, or the chief of Himmler's personal staff and later supreme commander of the SS and police in Italy K. Wolff. Considering to his position, he also maintained close relations with the Gestapo, albeit he denied vehemently after the war. On the last New Year of the war, the head of the Prague administrative office E. Gerke did not fail to respond to New Year's wishes: "I wish you the same all the best in the coming year and may I express my hope for the space here the very important good cooperation between our two headquarters will continue and to be created in the following year as well."

However, the situation at the fronts continued to deteriorate for Nazi Germany, and the German command had to start planning for the defense of Prague. Guard Battalion SS Prag, together with other army and police units in Section C within defense point "Northwest" (Stützpunkt "Nordwest") assigned SS-Obersturmbannführer Kneissl as the commander of the so-called government district, i.e. the surroundings of Prague Castle and Černín Palace. However, at the last moment he was replaced when he was recalled on May 2 or 3, 1945, according to his statement through K. H. Frank's military adviser SS-Oberführer B. Voss. The reason was supposed to be laziness in the construction of defense facilities around Černínský palaces. Kneissl argued after the war that, from a military point of view, the palace had no defense without a front field meaning, and therefore he decided not to defend it in the long term. His successor is an instructor from the SS-Junkerschule in Prague, SS-Sturmbannführer Schlappauf.

Kneissl kept quiet about his activities during the uprising after the war. Supposedly only at night from 7 to 8 May he took over the abandoned battalion and in the morning hours of 9 May moved simultaneously with the 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment "Der Führer" and various Wehrmacht units and the police from Prague to Rokycany, where these groups surrendered to the Americans. After the signing of the armistice, there is no combat action between the German occupation and the insurgents, and the retreat took place without a single shot being fired.

However, Kneissl ultimately failed to escape justice. First, the German prisoners were sent to the prison camp in Ejpovice near Pilsen and then to Klatov. Here the SS members were separated from the others and transported to a prison camp in Regensburg, where Kneissl was investigated by an American military commission. Subsequently, he was released from the Regensburg camp and transferred to a civilian interned camp in Plattling and gradually to other places. He finally being sent to the Dachau prison camp, which was located in the place of the longest functioning concentration camp of the Nazi regime. Here his identitiy was discovered and handed over to Czechoslovakia, including together with Otto, a former member of the Brno Gestapo Koslowski, with whom Kneissl interacted during his service in Brno. Subsequently, on January 18, 1947 Captain Rudolf Lukaštík from the search group transported the general B. Ečer to the prison in Pilsen, and four days later the Regional Office took over both prisoners of State Security in Brno to stand up for crimes committed during the war before extraordinary people's court. In his defense he relied on his disability, difficult circumstances in his youth, or his originally left-wing orientation. He didn't forget to express his alleged sympathy for the struggle of the Czech nation and opposition to executions, as well as an allegedly complicated relationship with members of the Gestapo. However devotional, his defense did not help him in the court. Michael Kneissl, according to the judgment no. Lsp 227/47 of March 29, 1947, was found guilty of crimes against the state, persons and property. He was sentenced to death and executed on the same day.

Source :
https://forum.axishistory.com/search.php?keywords=michael+kneissl&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sr=topics&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search
https://www.pamatnik-terezin.cz/search?q=michael+kneissl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx7A6DcuU3A

Bio of SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff

SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Karl Wolff (Höhere SS und Polizeiführer Italien und Bevollmächtigter General der deutschen Wehrmacht in Italien) in Northern Italy, late 1944. The picture was taken by Walter Frentz.

Karl Friedrich Otto Wolff (13 May 1900 – 17 July 1984) was born the son of a wealthy district court magistrate in Darmstadt on 13 May 1900. During World War I he graduated from school in 1917, volunteered to join the Imperial German Army (Leibgarde-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 115) and served on the Western Front. He rose to the rank of lieutenant and was awarded both the Iron Cross second class and first class.

After the war, Wolff was forced to leave the army because of the reduction of the German armed forces following the terms imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. Wolff was in the paramilitary Freikorps from December 1918 to May 1920. He started a two-year apprenticeship at the Bethmann Bank in Frankfurt and married Frieda von Römheld in 1923. The couple moved to Munich, where Wolff worked for Deutsche Bank. In June 1924 he was laid off and joined a public relations firm. Wolff may also have studied law, but never took any state exams. In 1925 he started his own public relations company which he operated in Munich until 1933.

Wolff joined the Nazi Party with card number 695,131 and the SS in October 1931. His SS membership number was 14,235 and he was commissioned as an SS-Sturmführer in February 1932.

From March 1933, after the Nazi Party had obtained national power, Wolff served as an adjutant to Franz Ritter von Epp, then-governor of Bavaria. Here he came to the attention of the head of the SS Heinrich Himmler who appointed Wolff his personal adjutant in June 1933. In 1936 Wolff became a member of the Reichstag. The same year Himmler named him chief of Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS to coordinate all contact and correspondence within the SS at both party and state levels.

By managing Himmler's affairs with the SS, the Nazi Party, state agencies and personnel, the eloquent and well mannered Wolff rose to become one of the key figures in Himmler's power regime. In addition, Wolff oversaw the economic investments made by the SS, was responsible for saving funds among Himmler's circle of friends and for connections to the SS organizations Ahnenerbe and Lebensborn. In 1939 he retroactively became head of the Main Office and SS liaison officer to Hitler. In 1936, Wolff left the Protestant Church. On 30 January 1937, he was promoted to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer (major general).

As was later revealed in the 1964 trial, during the early part of the Second World War, Wolff was "Himmler's eyes and ears" in Hitler's headquarters. He would have been aware of significant events or could easily have access to the relevant information. Apart from the information passing across his desk, Wolff received (as Chief of Himmler's Personal Staff) copies of all letters from SS officers, and his friends at this point included Odilo Globocnik, the organiser of Operation Reinhard. His later denial of knowledge of Holocaust activities may be plausible only at the detailed level, but not of the extent of atrocities by the Nazi regime.

Incriminating letters show that Wolff was involved in the Holocaust. On 8 September 1939, shortly after the invasion of Poland, Wolff wrote to the Gestapo office in Frankfurt (Oder) and ordered the immediate "arrest of all male Jews of Polish nationality and their family members" and the confiscation of any wealth. In 1942 Wolff oversaw the deportation transports during "Grossaktion Warschau", the mass extermination of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. When rail transport bottlenecks occurred, Wolff communicated repeatedly with Reich Railway Director Albert Ganzenmüller. In a letter sent from the Führer Headquarters, dated 13 August 1942 and referring to transports of Jews to Treblinka extermination camp, Wolff thanked Ganzenmüller for his assistance:

"I note with particular pleasure from your communication that a train with 5,000 members of the chosen people has been running daily for 14 days and that we are accordingly in a position to continue with this population movement at an accelerated pace. I have taken the initiative to seek out the offices involved, so that a smooth implementation of the named measures appears to be guaranteed. I thank you once again for the effort and at the same time wish to ask you to continue monitoring these things. With best wishes and Heil Hitler, yours sincerely W."
    — Karl Wolff to Albert Ganzenmüller, 13 August 1942 —

In August 1941, Himmler and Wolff attended the shooting of Jews at Minsk which had been organized by Arthur Nebe who was in command of Einsatzgruppe B, a mobile killing unit. Nauseated and shaken by the experience, Himmler decided that alternative methods of killing should be found. On Himmler's orders, by the spring of 1942, the camp at Auschwitz had been greatly expanded, including the addition of gas chambers, where victims were killed using the poison gas Zyklon B.

After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in June 1942, Wolff developed a strong rivalry with other SS leaders, particularly with Heydrich's successor at the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt), Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and with Walter Schellenberg of the foreign intelligence service in the RSHA. His position was weakened by his frequent absence from Berlin, in part due to his suffering from pyelitis and renal calculus (kidney stones), which required surgery. Wolff fell out of favour with Himmler and was dismissed as his chief of staff. In April 1943, he was relieved of his duties as liaison officer to Hitler. Himmler announced he would temporarily take over Wolff's duties. A new replacement as liaison officer to Hitler's HQ did not occur until the appointment of Hermann Fegelein, who assumed the duty in January, 1944. Wolff had particularly angered Himmler by his divorce and remarriage in March 1943. Himmler, who believed the family to be the nucleus of the SS, had denied Wolff permission to divorce, but Wolff had turned directly to Hitler. Himmler still appears to have considered Wolff a loyal member of the SS, for in September 1943 Wolff was transferred to Italy as Supreme SS and Police Leader.

In that position, Wolff shared responsibility for standard police functions such as security, maintenance of prisons, supervision of concentration camps, and forced labor camps as well as the deportation of forced laborers with Wilhelm Harster, who was the Commander in Chief of the Security Police. When Wolff became Plenipotentiary General of the German Wehrmacht in July 1944, he also became responsible for anti-partisan warfare in occupied Italy. By now Wolff commanded the police and the entire rear army in Italy. So far Wolff's involvement in war crimes in Italy remains largely unclear, partially because source material on the degree to which SS units participated in Nazi security warfare is lacking. Although it seems as if US investigators were in possession of incriminating material in 1945, that indicated Wolff's approval of the executions that became known as the Ardeatine massacre, this evidence was deemed not sufficient for criminal charges. On 9 December 1944, Wolff was awarded the German Cross in Gold for using Italian units, with secondary German units, to destroy partisans and for the "maintenance of war production in the Italian territory". During this period he approved the project of the Marnate's Bunker, close to the German command of Olgiate Olona. By 1945 Wolff was acting military commander of Italy.

In 1945, Wolff, under Operation Sunrise, took over command and management of intermediaries including the Swiss Intelligence officer, Captain Max Waibel, in order to make contact in Switzerland with the headquarters of the US Office of Strategic Services, under Allen W. Dulles, as to the surrender of German forces in and around Italy. After initially meeting with Dulles in Berne on 8 March 1945, Wolff negotiated the surrender of all German forces in Italy, ending the war there on 29 April, before the war ended in Germany on 2 May 1945. Wolff's capitulation of Italy to the Allies upset Admiral Karl Dönitz who had otherwise planned a staged series of surrenders designed to give the troops and refugees more time to make their way west.

Arrested on 13 May 1945, he was imprisoned in Schöneberg. During the Nuremberg trials, Wolff was allowed to escape prosecution in exchange for the early capitulation in Italy and by appearing as a witness for the prosecution at trial. Although released in 1947, he had been indicted by the post-war German government as part of the denazification process. Detained under house arrest, after a German trial, Wolff was sentenced in November 1948 and served four years' of imprisonment. After his release, Wolff worked as an executive for an advertising agency.

He took up residence with his family in Starnberg. In 1962 during the trial in Israel of Adolf Eichmann, evidence showed that Wolff had organized the deportation of Italian Jews in 1944. Wolff was again tried in West Germany and in 1964 was convicted of deporting 300,000 Jews to the Treblinka extermination camp, which led to their murder. Sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment in Straubing, Wolff served only part of his sentence and was released in 1971 following a heart attack.

After his release, Wolff retired to Austria. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Wolff returned to public life, frequently lecturing on the internal workings of the SS and his relationship with Himmler. This resulted in his appearing in television documentaries including The World At War saying that he witnessed an execution of twenty or thirty partisan prisoners in Minsk in 1941 with Himmler.

In the early 1970s, Wolff promoted the theory of an alleged plot to kidnap Pope Pius XII. Most other allegations of such a plot are based on a 1972 document written by Wolff that Avvenire d'Italia published in 1991, and on personal interviews with Wolff before his death in 1984. Wolff maintained that on 13 September 1943, Hitler gave the directive to "occupy Vatican City, secure its files and art treasures, and take the Pope and Curia to the north". Hitler allegedly did not want the Pope to "fall into the hands of the Allies".

Wolff's reliability has been questioned by Holocaust historians, such as István Deák, a professor of history at Columbia University. Reviewing A Special Mission by Dan Kurzman, a promoter of the theory, Deák noted Kurzman's "credulity" and that the latter "uncritically accepts the validity of controversial documents and unquestioningly believes in the statements made to him by his principal German interlocutor, the former SS General Karl Wolff". He further criticized the book's "modest documentation" containing "a great number of vague or inaccurate references".

In the late 1970s Wolff also became involved with Stern journalist Gerd Heidemann. Together with Heidemann, he travelled through South America, where he helped to locate, among others, Klaus Barbie and Walter Rauff, with whom Heidemann conducted interviews for a series of articles. Wolff served as a consultant for the alleged Hitler Diaries and was upset when they turned out to be forgeries by Konrad Kujau. Asked to attend the trial of Heidemann and Kujau, Wolff declined; on 17 July 1984, he died in a hospital in Rosenheim. He was buried in the cemetery at Prien am Chiemsee on 21 July 1984.

SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Karl Wolff (Höhere SS und Polizeiführer Italien und Bevollmächtigter General der deutschen Wehrmacht in Italien) in Northern Italy, late 1944. The officer behind him is his adjutant, SS-Sturmbannführer Eugen Wenner. The picture was taken by Walter Frentz.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Wolff
https://twitter.com/nickfshort/status/1213392477144698880/photo/1

U-boat Ace Wolfgang Lüth with SS Officer

Agfacolor color slide of U-Boot Korvettenkapitän Wolfgang Lüth with an unknown officer of the Waffen-SS

Wolfgang Lüth (15 October 1913 - 14 May 1945) was the second most successful German U-boat captain of World War II. His career record of 46 merchant ships plus the French submarine Doris sunk during 15 war patrols, with a total displacement of 225, 204 gross register tons (GRT), was second only to that of Korvettenkapitän (Lieutenant Commander) Otto Kretschmer, whose 47 sinkings totaled 273,043 GRT.

Lüth joined the Reichsmarine in 1933. After a period of training on surface vessels, he transferred to the U-boat service in 1936. In December 1939 he received command of U-9, which he took on six war-patrols. In June 1940 he took command of U-138 for two patrols. In October 1940 he transferred again, this time to the ocean-going submarine U-43 for five war-patrols. After two patrols on U-181, the second being his longest of the war, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. He was the first of two U-boat commanders to be so honored during World War II, the other recipient being Albrecht Brandi.

Lüth's last service position was commander of the Naval Academy Mürwik near Flensburg. He was accidentally shot and killed by a German sentry on the night of 13/14 May 1945. On 16 May 1945, Lüth was given the last state funeral in the Third Reich.

 

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Lüth
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=427652551836908&set=gm.1661641007354649

Ritterkreuzträger SS-Hauptsturmführer Bruno Hinz

 

 

Bruno Hinz was born on August 25 1915 in Petersdorf, Sachsen. In 1933, he joined the SS and became a member of the SS-Standarte "Deutschland" / SS-Verfügungstruppe. He participated in the Polish Campaign and in the Campaign in France. In October 1941, now an SS-Untersturmführer, Hinz reached SS-Division Wiking at the Eastern Front. He was designated a platoon leader in SS-Regiment Westland, fighting alongside many Scandinavian and West-European volunteers of the Waffen-SS. By that winter, Bruno Hinz had already earned the Eisernes Kreuz I.Klasse (Iron Cross First Class) and the Infanterie-Sturmabzeichen in Silber (Infantry Assault Badge in Silver) for his bravery. Demonstrating decisiveness at the head of his soldiers, defensive prowess when needed and bravery in close combat, Hinz was always involved in critical situations. Hinz experienced some difficult months during the offensive through the southern Ukraine, the fighting in the Caucasus and the bloody withdrawal from Grozny. In the spring of 1943, the constantly attacking SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking took some heavy casualties but Hinz was able to demonstrate his capabilities in the weeks that followed. He received the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold (German Cross in Gold) for his successful command and accumulated so many close-combat days in such a short period that he was not given the Nahkampfspange in Bronze (Close Combat Clasp in Bronze), instead, Hinz started with the Nahkampfspange in Silber! His company had showed its combat expertise in countless assaults, bouts of house-to-house and street fighting, patrols and hunting down enemy armor. Wounded several times in the fighting around Kharkov, Hinz was awarded the Wound Badge in Silver. He rallied his men through several crises as a result of his own initiative and bravery. In September 1943 his company was in a defensive position on the Dnieper which allowed the Wiking to cross the Dnieper River. Hinz held the position but was badly wounded by a rifle round through the lung. It was only weeks later, after Hinz had regained some strength and had escaped death by the narrowest of margins, that he was informed of his award of the Ritterkreuz (Knight's Cross). On November 9 1943, he was promoted SS-Obersturmführer. In February 1944 Hinz was given command of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 38 of the newly formed 17.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Götz von Berlichingen. Involved in heavy fighting in Normandy and separated from his battalion, the veteran of the Eastern Front railed his company, incorporated elements from other companies into his own force and formed a Kampfgruppe. In the space of two days, Hinz led his men around enemy strongpoints. Often involved in intense firefights and without any sort of rations, he, and 100 of his combat effectives and a few wounded made it back to the German lines by exploiting terrain. For his actions, Hinz was awarded the Eichenlaub (Oakleaves) to his Ritterkreuz as one of the lowest-ranking individuals to receive that award in the entire German armed forces! A few days after receiving the award, Hinz was wounded for the ninth time. In the military hospital, the news reached him that he had been awarded the Nahkampfspange in Gold. At his own request, the SS-Hauptsturmführer, who had been promoted on November 9 1944, was sent back to the field in January 1945. He participated in hard fighting in the Alsace and Franconia during the withdrawals. His regimental commander was the Austrian Knight's Cross Holder SS-Obersturmbannführer Vinzenz “Zenz” Kaiser. Hinz lost almost his entire battalion as a result of Allied air attacks and became prisoner of U.S. Army in late March 1945, Götz von Berlichingen could only muster some 800 men at the time. The remaining Kampfgruppen surrendered in southern Germany in May 1945. As well as being awarded the Oakleaves to the Knight's Cross and Wound Badge in Gold, Hinz was awarded the very rare Close Combat Clasp in Gold, which was only awarded 631 times during World War II! Only 98 received both the Knight's Cross and the Close-Combat Clasp in Gold. Bruno Hinz rebuilt his life after the war and died aged 52 on February 28 1968 in München

Source :
Book "The Face of Courage" by Florian Berger
https://ritterkreuztraeger.blogspot.com/2020/06/ss-hauptsturmfuhrer-bruno-hinz-in-color.html
http://stabswache-de-euros.blogspot.com/2013/04/hauptsturmfuhrer-der-waffen-ss-bruno.html

Hitler's Adjutant Otto Günsche

SS-Hauptsturmführer Otto Günsche was born on 24 September 1917 in Jena. He was an early volunteer in the “Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler”, joining the regiment in 1934 at the age of 17. By 1936 he was serving in the Führer’s personal escort commando in which he would stay until the war started. He would then participate in all of the military campaigns of the “LSSAH” until 1942 when he was sent to a war time officer’s training class at the SS-Junkerschule “Tölz”. After becoming an SS-Untersturmführer, Günsche was posted to Adolf Hitler’s personal adjutant staff in January 1943, taking over the position of an adjutant who had fallen ill. He held that position for a few weeks before he was reassigned to the “Liebstandarte” and returned to front line service. After receiving, among other decorations, the Iron Cross, Ist Class, thus proving his “military” capabilities and courage, he returned to the Führer’s personal staff in February 1944. He would now remain Hitler’s personal adjutant until the end of the war. Günsche became probably most noted for having to cremate the bodies of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun during the battle of Berlin. The now SS-Hauptsturmführer Günsche was captured by the Soviets in early May 1945 while trying to breakout of Berlin. He became a “prime” captive of the Reds and spent a number of years in the NKVD/KGB Lubiyanka Prison in Moscow undergoing numerous rounds of torture and interrogation. In 1956 he was released from Soviet captivity and turned over to the tender mercies of the East German communists who promptly jailed him again. After much effort and some diplomacy, he was finally allowed to immigrate to West Germany. Despite his horrible travails, Günsche was able to build a successful new life for himself. He remained active in Waffen-SS veteran’s affairs and due to his unique position as an “eyewitness to history” was constantly sought after by historians and history buffs, whom he graciously accomodated for the rest of his life. Otto Günsche passed away on 2 October 2003 at around 90 years of age.

Source :
'Siegrunen 80' by Richard Landwehr

SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny

  

 

SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny (12 June 1908 - 5 July 1975) was an extraordinary military man who specialized in guerrilla warfare and commando-style raids during World War II. He mounted numerous operations with varying degrees of success that involved either the rescue, kidnapping, assassination, or defense of numerous wartime leaders in Europe. As a result, he became Hitler’s favorite commando and dubbed “the most dangerous man in Europe” by the Allies. Skorzeny certainly looked the part. He was an imposing figure at 6’ 4” that sported a deep scar on his left cheek from a fencing duel. Though loyal to Hitler and a staunch Austrian Nazi, Skorzeny would ultimately turn on his former compatriots and become a hitman for Israel at the end of the war.

Source :
https://allthatsinteresting.com/otto-skorzeny
http://www.historicalwarmilitariaforum.com/search/?q=skorzeny&type=forums_topic

SS Officer Wearing Army Eagle

Russia 1941. An unidentified SS-Hauptsturmführer from SS-Totenkopf-Division (motorisiert), wearing Heer Adler (eagle) in his crusher cap, usually to distinguished the wearer as one of the participants of the first military training of the Waffen-SS by the Heer officers. From his red waffenfarbe, we know that this officer - who wore a ledermantel (leather jacket) - comes from artillery unit, the same thing with all other Army officers behind him. Too bad there is no information whatsoever about his identity or his unit.

Source :
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=146826&p=2173100#p2173100

Hitler and Himmler Walking in the Snow

Adolf Hitler (Führer und oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht) walking in the snow alongside Heinrich Himmler (Reichsführer-SS und Chef der Deutschen Polizei) with aid of a walking stick at Berghof Berchtesgaden (Münich), 3 April 1944. Behind them were, from left to right: SS-Obersturmbannführer Fritz Darges (persönlicher SS Adjutant bei Adolf Hitler), SS-Hauptsturmführer Josef "Sepp" Kiermaier (persönlicher leibwächter bei Heinrich Himmler), unidentified, and SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Hermann Fegelein (Verbindungsoffizier der Waffen-SS zum Führerhauptquartier). This picture was taken during the daily walk to the Mooslahnerkopf Teehaus (teahouse), a small building right across Hitler's Berghof mansion (this teahouse should not be mistaken with the official teahouse on top of the Kehlstein mountain), then the car took him back to the Berghof. The Mooslahnerkopf Teehaus was built in 1937 on the northern boundary of the area, just below the Mooslahnerkopf hill, overlooking the Berchtesgaden valley below. Most of Hitler's stays at the Berghof included a daily afternoon walk to the Teehaus. This pleasant walk often became the scene for important political decisions, but Hitler preferred to relax, and even nap, in the Teehaus itself, surrounded by his closest friends and associates. The so-called Eagles Nest is often called "Hitler's Tea House," but this is technically incorrect. Hitler did not treat the Kehlsteinhaus as a tea house, and the location he visited daily for afternoon tea was actually the Mooslahnerkopf Teehaus. The picture was taken by Walter Frentz and it maybe the only set of photos with Hitler wearing sunglasses! In the last few years, an enormous number of official color photographs of Germany during the war years has been released. Virtually all such photographs emanate from Russia. Such signifies that the Russians seized one or more German photographic archives in the final days of the war, transferred the archives to Moscow, sat on the archives for decades—and, in recent years, have finally begun to release such photographs... on a piecemeal basis.

Source :
http://joshuaandandrew.blogspot.co.id/2012/12/hitler-and-himmler-in-color.html
https://picasaweb.google.com/109781830724590960368/TeehausMooslahnerkopf?gsessionid=itkWts3pcXPRhBCo1c0uCg#6050077023740687730
http://www.ww2incolor.com/german_leadership/Hitler_and_Himmler_taking_a_snowy_walk_near_the_Berghof_sometime_in_early_1945.jpg.html

Panzer Ace Michael Wittmann

 

Michael Wittmann is born on 22 April, 1914 in Vogelthal, Oberplatz. On 1 February, 1934, Wittmann steps into the Reichsarbeitdienst where he works for six months. On 30 October of the same year he volunteers for the German army, at 10.Kompanie / III.Bataillon / Infanterie-Regiment 19. On 30 September 1936 he leaves the service as Unteroffizier. On 5 April, 1937 Wittmann assigns to the 1.Sturm / 92.Standarte / Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). Later in the year he starts training on a light four wheel armoured car, the Sd.Kfz.222, before he goes for the six wheeled Sd.Kfz.232. Wittmann gets an assignment with the Panzer reconnaissance unit in the LSSAH. In September 1939 war starts for SS-Unterscharführer Wittmann when he is commander of the reconnaissance unit that is invading Poland. It is for a short while, however, because in October Wittmann starts training at the SS-Sturm-Batterie of the LSSAH with the Sturmgeschutz Ausf A. In the fall of 1940 the Panzer career of Wittmann starts in Yugoslavia and Greece. Here he gets his own command over a platoon of Sturmgeschutz III Ausf A.

On 11 June 1941 the LSSAH and Wittmann leaves for the east, to prepare for Operation Barbarossa, which would start on 22 June. In July Wittmann receives the Eisernes Kreuz II.Klasse when he destroyed six Russian tanks. When he is wounded he refuses to leave his unit. On 8 September of the same year he receives the Eisernes Kreuz I.Klasse when he destroyed another six Russian tanks during one fight near Rostov. He is promoted to SS-Oberscharführer. Because of his great achievements, Wittmann is granted a officers education in June 1942. On 5 September of the same year he leaves the school as a Panzer instructor (SS-Panzerausbildungs und Ersatz-Abteilung). In the fall of 1942, the status of LSSAH is graded up to a Panzergrenadier Division. With the addition of 13. Kompanie, which is equipped with the PzKpfw VI Tiger. On 21 December Wittmann is promoted to SS-Untersturmführer and becomes a platoon commander with 13. Kompanie where he gets a platoon Panzer III Ausf L/M which operates beside the Tiger company. After training, the LSSAH leaves in January, 1943 for the East front. In the spring Wttmann finally gets his own Tiger I in 13. Kompanie.

On 5 July, 1943 Wittmann destroyed during Operation Zitadelle 13 T-34 tanks and 2 anti-tank guns. A couple of days later, on 7 and 8 July, he destroyed another 7 Russian tanks (2 T-34, 2 SU-122 and 3 T-60/70 tanks). On 12 July he destroys 8 Russian tanks plus 3 anti-tank guns and a fieldbattery. When the operation comes to a closure on 17 July, Wittmann's score is 30 Russian tanks and 28 guns. On 29 July, 1943 the 13 Kompanie is reformed to become the Schwere SS Panzer Abteilung 101 which is connected to the LSSAH. In August the LSSAH is deployed to Italy. In October the SS-Panzergrenadier-Division LSSAH becomes the 1. SS-Panzer-Division LSSAH. In the same month, the division leaves again for Russia. On 13 October, Wittmann scores 20 T-34 tanks and 23 other cannons.

On 13 January, 1944 Michael Wittmann receives the Ritterkreuz (Knights Cross) for his devotion. According to the propaganda machine, that announces it over the radio, Wittmann's score was then; 88 tanks and selfpropelled guns destroyed. A couple of days later, his gunner, SS-Rottenfuhrer Balthasar (Bobby) Woll, receives the Eisernes Kreuz I.Klasse for his great marksmanship, even when the tanks is in motion! On 20 January 1944 Wittmann is promoted to SS-Obersturmfuhrer. Two weeks later, on 30 January, Wittmann receives a telegram from Hitler with the announcement, that he had become the 380th German soldier, who gets the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes. On 20 February he receives the additions, in the Wolfsschanze, from Hitler himself.

From 29 February till 2 March 1944, the largest portion of the company is moved to Mons, Belgium. Around this period, Wittmann gets the command over 2.Kompanie / sSSPzAbt 101 / LSSAH. On 2 March Michael Wittmann marries Hildegard Burmester, witness is Bobby Woll. Meanwhile Wittmann becomes a hero to the German people through an extensive propaganda. In April he visits the Henschel und Sohn factory in Kassel where the Tiger I is produced. Here he is shown the latest version of it, the Ausf. E. In May, Wittmann returns with to his sSSPzAbt 101, LSSAH. These are then stationed near Lisieux in Normandy. Around this time, Bobby Woll, his faithful gunner, is given his own command over a Tiger I (de ‘335’). He would fight in Normandy and get wounded near Bayeux after an attack of fighterbombers. Woll would see action again during the Battle of the Bulge, end of 1944, in a Tiger II (Woll passed away in 1996).

During the invasion on 6 June 1944, the Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 101 were a reserve unit connected to the Panzer Lehr Division (which had also the command over the 12. SS Panzer Division ‘Hitler Jugend’). sSSPzAbt 101 was at that moment under command of Heinz von Westernhagen (Tiger ‘007’). Commander of 1. Kompanie was SS-Haubtsturmführer Rolf Möbius, of 2. Kompanie SS-Obersturmführer Michael Wittmann and of 3. Kompanie, SS-Obersturmführer Hanno Raasch was the commander. On 6 June (D-Day) Wittmann received a new Tiger, the ‘205’ in which he moved of towards the front. During the deployment he lost six of his original twelve Tiger tanks that were under his command in 2. Kompanie. This was due to Allied fighter bombers and technical failure of the tanks. On 12 June, they went into a bivouac for the night, north-east of Villers-Bocage. The next day, Wittmann went definitely into the history books.

On 13th June 1944, a week after D-day, following a drive from Beauvais under repeated air attack, 2. Kompanie of sSSPzAbt 101 led by Michael Wittmann had 6 Tigers located in the area of Hill (Point) 213 ahove Villers Bocage. His orders were to stop the advance of the 22nd Armored Brigade of the British 7th Armored Division (the famous ‘Desert Rats’) from advancing through the township, outflanking the German line and gaining the road to Caen. Wittmann’s company hidden behind a hedgerow spotted the enemy column, which passed him at a distance of 200 meters.

At about 8:00am, Wittmann attacked the British column on the main road, while the rest of his company (4 Tigers as one brokedown) attacked the British forces around Hill 213. Soon after, Wittmann destroyed Sherman Firefly and Cromwell IV and headed south to attack the rest of the enemy transport column. After knocking out 8 half-tracks, 4 Bren Carriers and 2 6 pdr anti-tank guns, Wittmann reached the crossroad with the road to Tilly-sur-Seulles.

At the crossroad, he destroyed 3 Stuart tanks from recon unit and reached the outskirts of the town of Villers-Bocage. While in town, Wittmann destroyed 4 Cromwell IV tanks and single half-track and turns into Rue Pasteur. Following up the street, he knocked out Cromwell IV and Sherman OP tank, reaching the main street of Villers-Bocage. At the end of Rue Pasteur, Wittmann’s Tiger was hit by Sherman Firefly from B Squadron and he decided to turn back as being too far forward without any infantry support and in a build-up area.

He turned in the direction of Caen to join the rest of his company. On his way back, Wittmann’s Tiger was attacked by another Cromwell IV, which he destroyed as well. Back at the Tilly crossroad, British soldiers from 1st Rifle Brigade opened fire at Wittmann with their 6 pdr anti-tank gun, immobilizing his Tiger. Wittmann and his crew managed to escape on foot towards the Panzer Lehr positions 7km away near Orbois. The rest of his company at the Hill 213, destroyed the rest of the A Squadron of 4th County of London Yeomanry Regiment ("Sharpshooters") including 5 Cromwell IV and Sherman Firefly, while capturing 30 men. During this short engagement, Wittmann’s company destroyed 4 Sherman Firefly, 20 Cromwell, 3 Stuart, 3 M4 Sherman OP, 14 half-tracks, 16 Bren Carriers and 2 6 pdr anti-tank guns. Wittmann’s attack was followed by another one by Tigers of Hauptsturmfuehrer Rolf Moebius’ 1st Kompanie of sSSPzAbt 101 and Panzerkampfwagen IV tanks from Panzer Lehr but was repulsed by anti-tank guns from 22nd Armored Brigade. Following day, British withdrew from the town leaving it to the Germans, who occupied it for next two months. The British drive on Villers Bocage and Caen was stopped cold by Wittmann’s attack and following actions!

On 22 June, 1944, after the success in Villers-Bocage, Wittmann received the Swords to his Knights Cross with Oakleaves (after recommendation of the commander of Panzer Lehr, Generalleutnant Fritz Bayerlein), from the hands of SS-Obergruppenfuhrer und Panzergeneral der Waffen SS Josef ‘Sepp’ Dietrich, commander of the LSSAH. On 25 June the ceremony was repeated, when Wittmann received the same Swords from Hitler. With these, Wittmann became the most decorated tanker of the Second World War! He also was promoted to SS-Haupsturmfuhrer.

Wittmann was given the post of instructor, but he choose the front instead of a school, and went back to Normandy. During the month of July, 1944 he fought in the Battle for Caen. Early August, Wittmann received as Abteilungskommandant, again a new Tiger I, the ‘007’ in which he operates on 8 August in the area of Cintheaux. At 12.55 hours, the Tiger from Wittmann is hit in a field next to the road of Caen- Cintheaux, near Gaumesnil. The explosion blows the turret clean of the hull and all of the crew is killed. After the fighting, the bodies are buried in a pit next to the remnants of Tiger ‘007’. In March 1983, while working on the new N 158, human remains are found. After research it is concluded that these belonged to Wittmann and his crew.

For years it was uncertain where the body of Wittmann was buried. Also was unclear what the cause for the destruction was of ‘007’. One of the options was that the Tiger was destroyed by a rocket from a fighterbomber. After investigation by Serge Varin, who had found ‘007’, he concluded that it was struck by a HE rocket from a RAF Typhoon. He did not find penetration holes of grenades, but there was just one big hole in the thin (25mm) engine top cover. On 8 August Typhoons where responsible for the destruction of 135 German tanks. But there were also different tank units which claimed the destruction of ‘007’, such as the 1st Polish Armoured Division and the 4th Canadian Armoured Division.

Today, most accepted opinion is that Wittmann and his crew were killed from a shot of a Sherman Vc Firefly, from 3 Troop, A Squadron, Northamptonshire Yeomanry. This Firefly, the ‘Velikye Luki’, under command of Sergeant Gordon was operating with other Fireflies when they encountered three Tigers. They fired on these Tigers which were all three destroyed in a couple of minutes. The first Tiger was destroyed at 12.40 hours and the second, which returned fire, exploded at 12.47 hours. The third Tiger, probably the ‘007’, was put out of action with two shells, fired by gunner Trooper Joe Ekins from the Firefly of Sergeant Gordon. This was written down in the official daily journal of A Squadron.

After the remains were found of Wittmann and his crew, they were reburied at the German war cemetery at La Cambe, where it is attracting many visitors. Unfortunately there are people who think it is necessary to bring extreme right wing and fascistic items to their grave. Wittmann was an SS (he was known as a fanatic ‘heel clicker’) and fought for a rotten regime. But his heroism may in that context not be forgotten. He was very popular among his comrades and showed sometimes, during the dirty fighting at the Eastern front, his human side. One day, crewmembers who jumped burning from their destroyed T-34 had their flames put out by blankets from Wittmann and his crew and were handed over to the medical service. But Wittmann was a cold blooded tanker who seemed unstoppable and which was ultimate leading to his death. The German cemetery at La Cambe can be found on the N 13 (global central between Bayeux and Carentan). Wittmann and his crew are buried in lot 47, row 3 and grave 120.

The total score of victories for Wittmann till 8 August, 1944 was 141 tanks and 132 anti-tank guns. Most of these victories were made on the Eastern front.

Source :
http://www.achtungpanzer.com/michael-wittmann.htm
http://www.historicalwarmilitariaforum.com/topic/6937-ritterkreuztr%C3%A4ger-photos-in-color-thread/page-3
http://www.strijdbewijs.nl/uitbraak/wittmanneng.htm