On
this date, July 14, 1976, Waffen-SS Field Officer, Joachim Peiper was murdered
by unknown assailants in France. I will post information about this Nazi
Officer from Wikipedia and other links.
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Joachim
Peiper
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Joachim
Peiper
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Nickname(s)
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Jochen
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Born
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30 January 1915
Berlin, Prussia, Imperial Germany |
Died
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14 July 1976 (aged 61)
Traves, Haute-Saône, France |
Buried at
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St Anna's Church
Schondorf am Ammersee, Bavaria, Germany |
Allegiance
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Nazi Germany
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Service/branch
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Waffen-SS
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Years of
service
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1933–45
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Rank
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SS-Standartenführer
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Unit
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1st SS Div. Leibstandarte
SS Adolf Hitler
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Battles/wars
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World War II
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Awards
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Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and
Swords
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Other work
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Executive in Porsche and Volkswagen
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Joachim Peiper
(German
pronunciation: [ˈjoːaxɪm ˈpaɪpɐ]; 30 January 1915 – 14 July 1976), also known
as Jochen Peiper, was a field officer in the Waffen-SS during World War
II and personal adjutant to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler between
November 1940 and August 1941. Peiper fought on both the Eastern Front against
the Red Army and the Western Front against the Western Allies, and he won the
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords for extreme
battlefield bravery and outstanding military leadership. By 1945, he was an SS-Standartenführer
and the Waffen-SS's youngest regimental colonel.
Peiper,
who had three children with his wife Sigurd (Sigi) Hinrichsen, was convicted of
war crimes committed in Belgium and imprisoned for almost 12 years. He was
accused of war crimes in Italy, but Italian and German courts concluded that
there was insufficient evidence to warrant prosecution.
After
his release from prison, Peiper worked for both Porsche and Volkswagen, before
moving to France, where he translated books from English to German under the nom
de plume Rainer Buschmann.
Peiper was murdered in France in July 1976, when he was shot by unknown assailants
who then burned his house to the ground using Molotov cocktails.
Early life and family
Peiper
was born on 30 January 1915 into a middle class family from the Silesian region
of Germany. His father, Captain Waldemar Peiper, served in the Imperial German
Army and fought in the colonial campaigns in East Africa. He was awarded the
military cross in 1904, wounded several times and became infected with malaria.
When World War I broke out, his father resumed service and was sent to Turkey.
In 1915, however, cardiac troubles resulting from his exposure to malaria
forced him to retire from active duty. After the war, he joined the Freikorps
and took part in the Silesian Uprisings.
Peiper
had two brothers, Hans-Hasso and Horst. Hans-Hasso attempted suicide, which
left him in a vegetative state. He died of tuberculosis in 1942. Peiper pursued
a normal academic education at Goethe Oberrealschule, but did not obtain
the grades needed to continue to university. In 1926, Peiper followed his other
brother Horst and joined the Scout movement. It was during this time that he
developed an interest in a military career. Peiper’s brother Horst joined the
Luftwaffe but seeing that his high level of belief in the Nazi Party would not
affect his role there, he joined the SS, eventually reaching the rank of Hauptsturmführer.
Horst participated in the Battle of France with the 3rd SS Division Totenkopf
before being transferred to Poland, where he died in an accident.
Marriage
On
his twenty-fourth birthday, Peiper was promoted to Obersturmführer.
Around this time, he met Sigurd (Sigi) Hinrichsen, a secretary on Himmler’s
personal staff and a close friend of Hedwig Potthast, Himmler’s mistress.
Peiper and Hinrichsen were married on 26 June 1939 in a ceremony following SS
customs. The couple lived in Berlin until the first allied air raids on Berlin,
when Sigi was sent to Rottach, Upper Bavaria, near Himmler's second residence.
The couple had three children: Hinrich, Elke and Silke.
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Gathering: A picture of a Hitler Youth
'Landjahr' training camp taken in 1938 by a 15-year-old boy who was taking part
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Military
career pre-World War II
Peiper
turned 18 years old on the day that Adolf
Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. He volunteered to join
the Hitler Youth (German: Hitlerjugend) together with his oldest brother
Horst.
Peiper
wanted to join Reiterregiment 4, a cavalry division of the German
self-defense forces. To gain skill at horseriding, he followed the advice of a
family friend, General Walther von Reichenau,
and enlisted in the 7th SS Reiterstandarte on 12 October 1933. On 23
January 1934, he was promoted to SS-Mann with SS number 132,496. In 1934,
during the annual Nuremberg Rally, Peiper was promoted to SS-Sturmmann
and later gained the attention of Heinrich Himmler.
Himmler convinced him to enlist in the SS-Verfügungstruppe and,
in his 1935 résumé, Peiper wrote: "As a result of a personal exhortation
by the Reichsführer-SS, Himmler, I have decided to strive for a career
as an active senior SS officer. Even so, he never appeared in the official
listing of all middle and senior SS officers, the SS-Dienstalterslisten.
A
few months later, Peiper considered leaving school before he completed his
final examinations. In January 1935, he was sent to a camp for Hitler Youth, SA
and SS members near Jüterbog, adjoining Germany's largest regular army camp and
artillery school. Peiper joined a course that was already in progress. After he
completed the course, he was promoted to SS-Unterscharführer.
On
24 April 1935, Peiper attended the newly created SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz (English: SS
officer's training school) in Bavaria under the command of Paul
Hausser. Peiper later wrote that the goal of the school was to train
officers for the army and not officers for SS departments.
Peiper
took the SS Oath in November 1935 and completed his education at the Junkerschule
in January 1936. In February and March 1936, he attended more training at the Dachau concentration camp. On 20 April 1936, he
was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer and, after a short leave, reported
for duty with the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
under the command of Sepp Dietrich. He remained with the unit until June
1938.
On
4 July 1938, Peiper was appointed to an administrative post as an adjutant to
Heinrich Himmler, under the command of Karl Wolff.
Peiper worked in Himmler’s anteroom in the SS-Hauptamt at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße.
As a member of the Reichsführer-SS staff, Peiper was close to
many high ranking SS officers. He became one of Himmler's favorite adjutants.
Peiper later served on Himmler's personal staff and accompanied him on a state
visit to Italy.
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| Sepp Dietrich (left, behind Himmler), Heinrich Himmler (center), and Joachim Peiper (right) at Metz in September 1940. |
Poland
and France
On
1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and, 16 days later, the Soviet
Union attacked from the east. As one of his adjutants, Peiper joined
Himmler's entourage on board the Reichsführer-SS's special train. Peiper
was with Himmler on 20 September in Bydgoszcz Blomberg when they
witnessed the execution of 20 Poles. Peiper later wrote that the experience
left Himmler "speechless" for several days. As Peiper later told Ernst
Schäfer, Hitler had previously ordered Himmler to eliminate the Polish
intellectuals.
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Karl Wolff, Jochen Peiper and Heinrich
Himmler are received by Generalísimo Francisco Franco, Spain, October
1940.
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After
Poland was defeated, Peiper worked with Himmler to develop policies and plans
for controlling the Polish population. Later, Peiper accompanied Himmler to Feldherrnhalle
commemorative ceremonies in Munich on 9 October 1939. On 13 December 1939,
Peiper and Himmler witnessed the gassing of a resident of a psychiatric
facility in Owinsk near Poznań. In post-war interrogations, Peiper described the
experience in a detached, factual manner.
On
17 May 1940, Peiper accompanied Himmler as he followed Waffen-SS
troops during the Battle of France. In Hasselt, Peiper obtained permission to
join a combat
unit and became a platoon leader in the 11th Company of 1st SS Division Leibstandarte
SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). He was soon promoted to company commander.
After seizing a British artillery battery on the hills of Wattenberg, Peiper
was awarded the Iron Cross and promoted to Hauptsturmführer.
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Sepp Dietrich (left, behind Himmler),
Heinrich Himmler (center), and Joachim Peiper (right) at Metz in September
1940.
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Karl Wolff, Jochen Peiper and Heinrich
Himmler are received by Generalísimo Francisco Franco, Spain, October
1940.
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Rejoining Himmler’s personal staff
Peiper
returned to his duties as Himmler's adjutant on 21 June 1940. On 10 July 1940,
he accompanied Himmler to the Berghof, where Reich leaders discussed the war
and Hitler's plans.
In
October 1940, Peiper accompanied Himmler to Madrid where
Himmler met with Franco. After passing through Metz, they stopped in Dax,
where Himmler met with Theodor Eicke, the
commander of the SS Totenkopf division. Shortly afterward, on 14 November
1940, Peiper was appointed first adjutant to Himmler. In January 1941, Peiper
accompanied Himmler when he inspected Ravensbrück
and Dachau concentration camps. In March
1941, together with Karl Wolff and Fritz
Bracht, they visited Auschwitz.
Himmler
and his staff then travelled to Norway, Austria, Poland, the Balkans and
Greece. This trip included a visit to the Łódź ghetto, about which Peiper later wrote:
It was a macabre image: we saw how the Jewish Ghetto police, who wore hats without rims and were armed with wooden clubs, inconsiderately made room for us. The Jewish elders also presented Himmler with a bouquet of flowers.
The
Eastern Front and return to France
In
February 1941, Himmler told Peiper about the German plan, Operation Barbarossa, to invade the
Soviet Union. The operation began on 22 June 1941. Behind the front lines, the Einsatzgruppen, under the control of the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich
Main Security Office), conducted a war against "the Untermenschen",
murdering communists,
Jews, gypsies and
partisans. Peiper's duties as first adjutant included providing Himmler with
statistics from the Einsatzgruppen units about the mass killings on the Eastern Front.
During
the later summer of 1941, Werner Grothmann became Himmler's first adjutant.
Although Peiper was transferred to a combat unit, he remained in close contact
with Himmler. In their ongoing correspondence through to the end of the war,
Himmler addressed Peiper as “my dear Jochen”.
Although
no longer Himmler's official first adjutant, Peiper continued to write in
Himmler’s diary until mid-September 1941. Peiper may have been dispatched to
the LSSAH earlier as an observer for the Reichsführer-SS, but available
records show that he formally transferred to the LSSAH before October 1941.
When he rejoined the LSSAH, it was engaged on the Eastern Front near the Black Sea.
Peiper spent several days at its headquarters when an injury to a unit
commander gave Peiper an opportunity to take command of the 11th Company.
The
11th Company fought at Mariupol and Rostov-on-Don.
Peiper was noted for his fighting spirit, although his unit suffered high
casualties as a consequence of his aggressive tactics. The company killed a
number of prisoners of war, a practice in which both the
Soviets and Germans were known to engage.
During
its combat action, the LSSAH was followed by Einsatzgruppe D,
responsible for organising the extermination of Jews and communists. Einsatzgruppe
D continued its operations even when winter weather suspended active
military operations. It shared the same winter quarters at Taganrog on
the Azov Sea
as the LSSAH and, on occasion, the division assisted Einsatzgruppe D
with its operations.
In
May 1942, Peiper learned of the death of his brother Hans-Hasso. During the
same month, the LSSAH was transferred to France for rest and refit. En route to
France, Peiper left his unit and met with Himmler at his headquarters on 1
June. The meeting included a dinner attended by Reichsführer-SS
secretary Rudolf Brandt and Heinz
Lammerding, a member of the staff headquarters SS Totenkopf
division. In July 1942, Peiper again met with Himmler and did not rejoin his
battalion until August 1942.
During
its stay in France, the LSSAH was reorganised into a Panzergrenadier
division and Peiper was promoted to commander of its 3rd Battalion. Peiper took
advantage of the unit's time in France to recruit young officers who matched
his attitude and willingness to fight. At the end of 1942, Peiper received
permission to visit his family. On 30 January 1943, he was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer.
Meanwhile,
on the Eastern Front, the German situation had seriously worsened, especially
in the battle for Stalingrad. Peiper’s battalion left its
quarters in France on 31 January 1943 for Lyubotin, near Kharkov. It was
immediately dispatched to the front.
Rescue
of the 320th Infantry Division
During
the Third Battle of Kharkov, Peiper led the 3rd
Battalion of the 2nd Panzergrenadier Regiment, which broke 48 kilometres
(30 mi) through Soviet lines to rescue the encircled 320th Infantry
Division. Leading the ambulances back to the German lines, he found his route
blocked by a Soviet ski battalion that had destroyed the main bridge across the
Udy River. His unit fought through the city and repaired the bridge, securing an
exit route for the ambulances back to the German lines. The repaired bridge,
however, would not support the unit's heavy-armored half-tracks and assault
guns. Peiper ordered his men back behind the Soviet lines to find another exit,
and they managed to return to the German lines with few casualties. The Soviets
alleged that the Germans set fire to two villages and massacred their
inhabitants during Peiper's attack.
On
6 May 1943, Peiper was awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold for his
achievements in February 1943. He developed the tactic of attacking enemy-held
villages by night from all sides while advancing in his armored half-tracks at
full speed, firing at every building. This tactic often set the building's
straw roofs on fire and contributed to panic among enemy troops. Peiper's unit
gained the nickname the "Blowtorch Battalion" as a result. Another source,
however, reported that the nickname derived from the torching and slaughter of
two Soviet villages where their inhabitants were either shot or burned. The
blowtorch became an unofficial symbol of the unit and was painted on the battalion's
vehicles. It was said to represent Peiper's willingness to advance regardless
of the cost.
On
9 March 1943, Peiper was awarded Germany's highest decoration, the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
The medal's citation described the fierce fighting:
In Stawerowka the battalion was ordered to take Zigderowka. The mission was executed by night against heavy resistance and an enemy battalion was routed, four 7.62 guns, an infantry gun, 10 mortars and many machine guns and hand guns being captured and destroyed. Peiper advanced immediately towards Kasatschij Maidan, encountered an enemy battalion on the march and executed a hasty attack. Here, he inflicted heavy losses on the enemy and took Kasatschij Maidan. From here Peiper prepared his battalion for the attack on Jeremejewka, attacked it at dawn against heavy resistance and took Jeremejewka. Exploiting the confusion among the enemy, the battalion advanced on Leninskij and broke the last resistance. By an immediate advance, he inflicted heavy losses on the enemy which was fleeing through open fields. The battalion destroyed one T-34, six guns 7.62 and captured 300 horses. Three sledge columns were routed. The enemy casualties amounted about to anywhere from 800 to 900. SS-Sturmbannführer Peiper has distinguished himself in all these fights by a sensible command of his battalion and personal bravery and has proven himself worthy of the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold.
During
this period, Peiper developed a reputation in the Nazi press as an outstanding
leader. The official Waffen-SS newspaper, Das Schwarze Korps ("The Black
Corps"), described Peiper's actions in Karkhov thus:
In preparation for the attack on Kharkov, on his own initiative SS-Sturmbahführer Peiper twice seized bridgeheads which proved of decisive importance in the advance of attacking forces. [...] Nevertheless, SS-Sturmbahnführer Peiper was the master of the situation in all its phases. [...] Every officer and man of Kampfgruppe Peiper had the feeling of absolute safety. Here a man was thinking and caring for them, made his decisions quickly, and issued his orders with precision. These decisions and orders were often bold and unorthodox, but they were issued from a sovereign command of the situation. Everyone sensed the intellectual work and the instinctive safety behind this. Of course, the commander also had soldier’s luck. The unconditional trust of his men, however, has it basis in something else, namely the feeling that a born leader is in command, one filled with the highest sense of responsibility for the life of every single one of his men, but who is also able to be hard if necessary. But always the orders and measures stem, not from clever deliberation, but rather from a personality whose heart, brain, and hands are the same.
The
descriptions of his tactical skills propelled Peiper to become an icon of the
Waffen-SS after the war, with former battalion members describing him in
glowing language. Peiper was seen as an officer who obeyed orders without much
discussion and expected the same from his men.
In
spite of the hard fighting, the Germans failed to regain the initiative in the Third Battle of Kharkov. A few months
later, the LSSAH was engaged in Operation
Citadel in the area of Kursk. Although Operation Citadel did not achieve
its goals, Peiper's unit again distinguished itself in the fighting.
Thereafter, on 17 July, the LSSAH was withdrawn from the Eastern Front and
transferred to the area of Cuneo in Northern Italy.
Italy
and the village of Boves
After
Italian forces capitulated to the Allies, the LSSAH was moved to Italy for two
months to assist in disarming the Italian military and prevent them from
attacking German forces. Beginning in August, Peiper’s battalion quarters were
near Cuneo. On 10 September, they received orders to disarm Italian garrisons
in Alessandria
and Asti.
On
19 September, partisans in the village of Boves captured two
of Peiper's men. Faustino Dolmazzo, an advisor to the partisans, reported that
when Peiper arrived in Boves, the Germans appointed two Italians, one the
village priest, to arrange the men's freedom. Peiper promised the Germans would
not engage in any reprisals.
The
two men were freed, but the Germans then set fire to the houses in the village
and killed 22 men when they tried to flee. The burned bodies of the two Italian
intermediaries were found among the victims.
Peiper
insisted his unit massacred no civilians in Boves. He stated that he sent
members of his unit to search for the two kidnapped officers taken by partisans
into the nearby Bisalta mountains. A platoon was ambushed and, while attempting
to rescue it, the Germans came under heavy fire from the partisans. It was the
response of the German artillery to this fighting that triggered the fires
reported in the village. According to Peiper, the artillery section remained in
Boves to destroy the remaining weapons and ammunition.
Peiper
himself reported on the action, now known as the Boves
massacre:
"I am of the opinion that our action to free our encircled comrades in Boves nipped in the bud the Italian army's attack, for the army fell apart and no attack ever took place on Cuneo or Turin. However regrettable the consequences of our action was for the affected residents of Boves, it should not be overlooked that our one-time intervention prevented further immeasurable casualties which would have resulted from continued Italian attacks."
In
1968, an Italian court concluded there was "...insufficient suspicion of
criminal activity on the part of any of the accused to warrant
prosecution". On 23 December 1968, a German District Court in Stuttgart
reached the same conclusion, terminating any potential prosecution of Peiper
for his activities in Italy.
Return
to the Eastern Front
Beginning
November 1943, Peiper’s unit arrived on the Eastern Front, where it took part
in combat in the area of Zhytomyr. On 20 November, Georg Schönberger was killed in action, and
Peiper took his place as commander of the 1st SS Panzer Regiment; a position he
held until the end of the war. He was 28 years old. Under his command, the
regiment fought through the winter and was engaged in numerous night assaults
against the Red
Army. His panzer unit played an essential role in stalling the Soviet
offensive in the area of Zhytomyr. Peiper led actions by attacking the rear of
enemy lines and captured four division headquarters. For this action he was
awarded the Oak Leaves of the Knight's Cross.
Peiper's
aggressiveness and regiment command appointment caused resentment by some
against him. In the mean time, brutal combat involving his unit continued. On 5
and 6 December 1943, the unit killed 2280 Russian soldiers and took only three
prisoners. During heavy fighting, the village of Pekartschina was completely
burned with flamethrowers and its inhabitants killed.
Medical
leave
On
20 January 1944, Peiper was withdrawn from the front and left his unit. He went
directly to the headquarters of Hitler, who presented him with the Oak Leaves
to be added to his Knight's Cross. Shortly afterwards, on his 29th birthday,
Peiper was promoted to Obersturmbannführer. However, Peiper was
physically and mentally exhausted. A medical examination carried out by SS
doctors in Dachau reached the conclusion that he needed rest. Therefore, he
went to see his wife in Bavaria.
Belgium
In
March 1944, the LSSAH was withdrawn from the Eastern Front. The transfer of all
its units was not completed before 24 May. Peiper joined his unit in April. The
battles in the east had caused heavy losses of men and material. The new
recruits were not of the same caliber as the pre-war volunteers, who'd been
recruited according to strict criteria.
In
Belgium, five young recruits accused of stealing poultry and ham from civilians
were sentenced to death by a court-martial. The verdict seemed out of
proportion to the offence, especially when looking at similar cases. Peiper
ordered the five shot on 28 May 1944 and had the other young recruits marched
past the corpses; but the executions actually had a negative impact on the
morale of the regiment. The stay in the Belgian Limburg was devoted mainly to
drills and refit, made more difficult due to the lack of materiel and gasoline.
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Tiger I tanks
of the I SS Panzer Corps Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler close to Villers-Bocage (June 1944)
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The Battle of Normandy
The
Allied landing in Normandy necessitated the return of the
LSSAH to the Western Front. On 17 June, the
division began its move to the area of Caen, but some parts
of the panzer regiment had to stay in Belgium awaiting new tanks. Furthermore,
the move of the division was made under difficult conditions due to the trains
transporting Hungarian Jews to the concentration camps and Allied
air attacks which caused disruptions in the rail traffic. The whole division
did not reach its rally zone before 6 July 1944. On 28 June, the 1st SS Panzer
Regiment of Peiper arrived at the front and was immediately engaged in combat.
As with the other German units of the area, they essentially fought a defensive
battle until the Avranches breakthrough at the end of July and
beginning of August. Having gone to the front with 19,618 men, the LSSAH lost
25% of its men and all its tanks. As with most of the Waffen SS divisions
engaged in Normandy,
the LSSAH lost its operational ability and was described in the official tables
of the available units prepared by the OKW on 16 September 1944
not as a division but as a Kampfgruppe.
Peiper
was not in command of his panzer regiment during the counter-attacks
near Avranches.
Suffering from a nervous breakdown he had been discreetly
evacuated to a military hospital in the area of Sées at
70 km of the frontline. According to the official diagnosis, he was
suffering from jaundice.
He would eventually be dispatched to the rear and from September 1944 forward
was in a military hospital near the Tegernsee in
Upper Bavaria. This was not far from his family home. He stayed there until 7
October.
The Battle of the Bulge
During
the autumn, the German forces had to counter the attempts of the Western Allies
to cross the Westwall,
while Hitler was looking for an opportunity to seize the initiative on the
Western Front. The result was the Operation Wacht am Rhein. In a desperate
attempt to defeat the Allies on the Western Front, the German armies were to
break through the US lines in the Ardennes, to
cross the River Meuse and take Antwerp, cutting
the Allied forces in two.
The
main role in the breakthrough was devoted to the 6th Panzer Army under the
command of Sepp Dietrich. He would have to pierce the American lines between Aachen and the Schnee
Eifel and seize bridges on the Meuse on both sides of Liège. Within
the 6th Panzer Army a mobile striking role was assigned to the 1st SS Division
Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) under the command of SS-Oberführer
Wilhelm
Mohnke. The division was split into four Kampfgruppe with Peiper commanding
the most substantial, which included all the armored sections of the division.
Peiper was given the use of the newest tank, the 70 ton Tiger II or
King Tiger, which would be taking part in its third battle on the western front
since its introduction, and with its 7 inches of armor made it impervious
to allied anti-tank weapons. However, the King Tiger had a high consumption of
fuel (1/2 mile to the gallon) along with mechanical defects (mainly the tank's
suspension system), which would continuously hinder Peiper's ability to reach
his assigned objectives in Operation Wacht am Rhein. His duty was to break
through the U.S. lines along a route designated B through Spa, Belgium and to
take bridges on the Meuse between Liège and Huy.
Assigned route
Peiper's
assigned route, or Rollbahn, had many hairpin
turns and traversed steep hillsides that would delay his already
slow-moving towed artillery and bridging trains. It included narrow,
in many places single-track, roads which forced units of the Kampfgruppe to
tail each other, creating a column of infantry and armor up to 25 kilometres
(16 mi) long. Peiper complained that the road assigned to his Kampfgruppe
was suitable for bicycles, but not for panzers. The tortuous roads prevented
the Germans from concentrating their force in the blitzkrieg
tactics that had served them so well in the past. Fritz
Krämer, Chief of Staff for the 6th Panzer Army answered “I don’t care how
and what you do. Just make it to the Meuse. Even if you’ve only one tank left
when you get there.” Peiper's unit had only a quarter of the fuel that it
needed. The plan counted on the capture of Allied fuel depots and keeping to an
ambitious timetable.
Initial advance stalled
Kampfgruppe
Peiper was initially delayed by more than 16 hours when the 1st Battalion, 9th
Fallschirmjäger Regiment, 3rd Fallschirmjäger Division took
most of 16 December to defeat 18 men of the Intelligence and
Reconnaissance Platoon, 394th Regiment, 99th Infantry Division who
blocked the route near the tiny village of Lanzerath, Belgium in the Battle of Lanzareth ridge.
Peiper’s
mechanized column did not reach his first day's objective until midnight that
same day. As a result, Peiper first attacked shortly before daybreak on 17
December 1944, almost 18 hours later than expected. Hustling through the
remains of the American front lines, he quickly took Honsfeld.
Peiper
had planned to advance through Loseheimergroben, but the 12th and 277th Volksgrenadier Divisions
failed to gain control on the first day as planned. In the early morning of 17
December, they quickly captured Honsfeld and 50,000 US gallons (190,000 l;
42,000 imp gal) of fuel for his vehicles.
Alternative route chosen
Peiper
then advanced towards Büllingen, keeping to the plan to move west, unaware he
could take the town and unknowingly bypassing an opportunity to flank and trap
the entire 2nd and 99th Divisions. Peiper turned south to detour around
Hünningen, interested only in getting back onto his assigned rollbahn. He
continued west on his assigned rollbahn until he had to deflect shortly before Ligneuville because the assigned
road was impassable. This bypass forced him towards the Baugnez crossroads
where his armored units encountered a lightly armed column of U.S. artillery
observers, who were quickly neutralized.
Peiper's
unit became infamous for the murder of U.S. prisoners
of war at the crossroads in what became known as the Malmedy
massacre as noted below. Moving ahead, he crossed Ligneuville and reached the
heights of Stavelot
on the left bank of the Amblève
River at nightfall of the second day of operation Wacht am Rhein. While the
little city was defended only by a few U.S. troops and could have been easily
taken the same day, for reasons unknown he held back and assaulted at dawn of
the next day. Valuable time was lost, allowing the Americans to reorganise.
After heavy fighting, his Kampfgruppe eventually managed to cross the bridge on
the River Amblève, and from there he found the going increasingly difficult.
The
US forces regrouped themselves and blasted the bridges on the Amblève and the River Salm that Peiper needed to cross in order to
continue on a direct road to the Meuse.
On 18 December, United States Army Corps of
Engineers blasted the bridges in front of him that he needed to reach his
objective, trapping him in the deep valley of the Amblève, downstream from Trois-Ponts.
The weather had also improved, permitting the Allied Air Forces to operate.
Several P-47 squadrons attacked his column spread over 20
kilometres (12 mi). The air strikes destroyed or heavily damaged numerous
vehicles of his Kampfgruppe and made some parts of his itinerary impracticable,
slowing down his progression. Peiper was unable to protect his rear, which
enabled American troops to recapture and destroy the bridge on the Amblève in
Stavelot, cutting him off from the only possible supply road for ammunition
and, above all, fuel, which he lacked. In spite of these problems, Peiper
continued his progress towards Stoumont before American resistance forced him to retire to
La Gleize. Short of fuel, men and ammunition he held out during six days of US
Army bombardment and counterattacks. Without supplies and with no contact with
other German units behind him, Peiper decided on 24 December to abandon his
vehicles and march through the woods to escape. He left with the remaining 800
men
and 36 hours later he reached the German lines with 770 men, having covered 20
kilometers by foot in deep snow and freezing temperatures.
The end of the war
In
January 1945, the Swords were added to his Knight's Cross. The proposal was
drafted by Wilhelm Mohnke. The great fame of Peiper as a Waffen SS commander
during the "Battle of the Bulge" was born.
At
the end of January 1945, Peiper was in the Berlin area. On 4 February, he met
for the last time with Heinrich Himmler at his provisional headquarters. Peiper
then went to the Panzergrenadier school in Krhanice until
14 February. From there he joined his unit in the southwest of the area of
Farnad. His unit took part in Operation Frühlingserwachen that
failed, even though Peiper’s unit recorded huge casualties due to his
aggressive style of command. Peiper lost numerous old companions.
On
1 May, as other units of the LSSAH were forced to retreat into Austria, the men
were informed of Adolf Hitler’s death. A few days later, all SS units were
ordered to retreat to the west. On 8 May, the LSSAH received the order to cross
the Enns River and surrender to the American troops.
Accompanied
by Paul Gühl, Peiper tried to escape captivity. On 28 May, Peiper was on his
way to Rottach,
but was captured near Schliersee. This was less than 30 kilometres from his
home. He was interned in the Dachau concentration camp.
Although
he was actively sought by American forces (due to his alleged involvement in
the Malmedy massacre), Peiper was not identified until 21 August 1945. This was
the day after he was transferred to the interrogation camp of the 3rd US Army
in Freising.
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|
Bodies of U.S.
officers and soldiers slain by the Nazis after capture near Malmedy, Belgium.
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War
crimes
Malmedy
Main
article: Malmedy massacre
During
the 1st SS Panzer Division's advance on 17 December 1944, his armored units and
halftracks confronted a lightly armed convoy of about 30 American vehicles at
the Baugnez crossroads near Malmedy. The troops, mainly elements of the
American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion, were quickly overcome and
captured. Along with other American POWs previously captured, they were ordered
to stand in a meadow when for unknown reasons the Germans opened fire on the
prisoners with machine guns, killing 84 soldiers, and leaving the bodies in the
snow. The survivors were able to reach American lines later that day, and their
story spread rapidly throughout the American front lines.
Peiper's
instructions
Author
Richard Gallagher reported that during the briefing held before the operation,
Peiper clearly stated that no quarter should be given nor prisoners taken and
that no pity should be shown towards the Belgian civilians. However, Lieutenant
Colonel Hal McCown, commander of the 2nd Battalion 119 Infantry Regiment,
testified about the treatment his unit was given after being captured on 21
December by Peiper's Kampfgruppe at Froidcour between La Gleize and Stoumont.
McCown said he met Peiper in person and based on his observations, American
prisoners were at no time mistreated by the SS and the food given to them was
nearly as good as that used by the Germans themselves.
Other
murders
Main
article: Wereth
11
Peiper's
men engaged in other murders of prisoners. In Honsfeld, men in Kampfgruppe
Peiper murdered several American prisoners.
Other
murders of POWs were reported in Büllingen,
Ligneuville, Stavelot,
Cheneux, La
Gleize, Stoumont,
and Wereth on 17, 18, 19 and 20 December. On 19 December 1944, in the area
between Stavelot and Trois-Ponts, while the Germans were trying to regain
control of the bridge over the Amblève
River (crucial for allowing reinforcements and supplies to reach the
Kampfgruppe) men of Kampfgruppe Peiper killed a number of Belgian civilians.
Kampfgruppe Peiper was eventually declared responsible for the deaths of 362
prisoners of war and 111 civilians.
Interrogation
and acceptance of command responsibility
After
the surrender of the German armies, some war crimes
during the "Battle of the Bulge" were attributed to Kampfgruppe
Peiper, resulting in American investigative teams searching POW camps
for its men.
Jailed
in Freising, Upper Bavaria, Peiper underwent his first interrogations.
Investigators quickly found that the SS men, including Peiper, although
hardened soldiers, were not trained to withstand interrogation. Some men freely
gave the requested information, while others only did so after having been
subject to various forms of torture such as beatings, threats and mock executions.
Peiper took command responsibility for the
actions of the men under his command.
In
December 1945, Peiper was transferred to the prison at Schwäbisch Hall, where
1,000 former members of the Leibstandarte were assembled. Some reports claimed
that the interrogations included mock trials,
as well as both physical and psychological torture. Peiper and others claimed
to have been repeatedly beaten, and threatened with having their families
handed over to the Russians. On 16 April 1946, approximately 300 prisoners were
moved from Schwäbisch Hall to Dachau, where they were put on trial.
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Bodies of U.S.
officers and soldiers slain by the Nazis after capture near Malmedy, Belgium.
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Trial
Main
article: Malmedy massacre trial
The
trial took place at Dachau from 16 May to 16 July 1946 before a military
tribunal of senior American officers, operating under rules established by
the Nuremberg
International Military Tribunal.
The
74 defendants included SS-Oberstgruppenführer Sepp
Dietrich, 6th SS Panzer Army commanding general, his chief
of staff SS-Brigadeführer Fritz
Krämer, SS-Gruppenführer Hermann
Prieß, I SS Panzer Corps commander, and Joachim Peiper,
commander of the 1st SS Panzer Regiment (the unit to which the crimes were
attributed).
Before
the trial, occupation authorities reclassified the defendants from prisoners
of war to Civilian Internees. The accusations were mainly
based on the sworn and written statements provided by the defendants in
Schwäbish Hall. To counter the evidence given in the men's sworn statements and
by prosecution witnesses, the lead defense attorney, Lieutenant Colonel Willis M.
Everett tried to show that the statements had been obtained by inappropriate
methods.
Everett
called Lieutenant Colonel Hal McCown to testify about Peiper's troops'
treatment of American prisoners at La Gleize. McCown, who, along with his
command, had been captured by Peiper at La Gleize, testified that wounded
American soldiers in Peiper's custody had received equal priority with German
wounded in receiving medical treatment. He testified that during his occupation
of the town, Peiper had at all times behaved in a professional and honorable
manner.
Everett
had decided to call only Peiper to testify. However, other defendants,
supported by their German lawyers, wanted to testify as well. This would soon
prove to be a huge mistake, for when the prosecution cross-examined
the defendants, they behaved like “a bunch of drowning rats (...) turning on
each other.” According to Everett, these testimonies gave the court enough
reason to sentence several of the defendants to death.
The
military court was not convinced by Peiper’s testimony about the murder of the
POWs under the Kampfgruppe's control. During the trial, several witnesses
testified of at least two instances in which Peiper had ordered the murder of
prisoners of war. When questioned by the prosecution, Peiper denied these
allegations, stating that the allegations were obtained from witnesses under
torture. When questioned about the murder of Belgian civilians, Peiper said
they were partisans. Although the court could not prove that Peiper had ordered
the murders, Peiper nonetheless accepted responsibility for his men's actions.
Death
sentence
Together
with 42 other defendants, Joachim Peiper was sentenced to death by hanging on
16 July 1946.
The
sentences generated significant controversy in some German circles, including
the church, leading the commander of the U.S. Army in Germany to commute some of
the death sentences to life imprisonment. In addition, the Germans'
defense attorney, U.S. military
attorney Lt. Col. Willis M. Everett, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming
that the defendants had been found guilty by means of "illegal and
fraudulently procured confessions" and were subjects of mock trial. The
turmoil raised by this case caused the Secretary of the Army, Kenneth
Royall, to create a commission chaired by Judge Gordon A. Simpson of Texas to
investigate. The commission was interested in the Malmedy massacre trial and in
other cases judged at Dachau.
The
commission arrived in Europe on 30 July 1948 and issued its report on 14
September. In this report, it notably recommended that the twelve remaining
death sentences be commuted to life imprisonment. The commission confirmed the
accuracy of Everett's accusations regarding mock trials and neither disputed
nor denied his charges of torture of the defendants. The commission expressed
the opinion that the pre-trial investigation had not been properly conducted
and that the members felt that no death sentence should be executed where such
a doubt existed.
In
response, General Lucius Clay commuted six more death sentences to life
imprisonment. But he refused to commute the six remaining death sentences,
including Peiper's, though the executions were postponed. The turmoil caused by
the commission report and an article by Judge Edward L. Van Roden caused the U.S. Senate to investigate the trial.
In
its investigation of the trial, the Senate Committee on Armed Services
came to the conclusion of improper pre-trial procedures, including a mock
trial, but not torture as sometimes stated, had indeed affected the trial
process. There was little or no doubt that some of the accused were indeed
guilty of the massacre.
Ultimately
the sentences of the Malmedy defendants were commuted to life imprisonment and
then to time served. Peiper himself was released from prison on parole at the
end of December 1956, after serving 11 and a half years.
Return
to civilian life
The
Hilfsgemeinschaft
auf Gegenseitigkeit der Angehörigen der ehemaligen Waffen-SS (HIAG)
(English: Mutual Help Association of Former Waffen-SS Members), a mutual aid
network of former SS troops, had already helped Peiper’s wife find a job near
the Landsberg Prison. They then worked to achieve the
conditional liberation of Peiper himself. To obtain his release from prison,
Peiper had to prove that he could obtain a job. Through the intermediary of Dr.
Albert Prinzing, a former SS-Hauptsturmführer in the Sicherheitsdienst, he got
a job at the car manufacturer Porsche.
Following
his release from Landsberg Prison, Peiper maintained contact, albeit
discreetly, with his old comrades in the SS. He avoided open affiliations with
the HIAG and the Order of the Holders of the Knight's Cross but he was often
seen with their members at the funerals of personalities such as Kurt “Panzer” Meyer, Sepp
Dietrich and Paul Hausser. Peiper assisted the efforts of these
organizations to rehabilitate the Waffen-SS's reputation by hiding the more
ruthless aspects of their past and exalting their military achievements,
claiming that the SS were just like other soldiers. Peiper once told one of his
friends:
“I personally think that every attempt at rehabilitation during our lifetime is unrealistic, but one can still collect material.”
On
17 January 1957, he began work at Porsche in Stuttgart in
its technical division. He would later represent the company at car
exhibitions. He was later put in charge of auto exports to the United
States but his wartime criminal conviction prevented him from obtaining a visa
for travel to the United States. This would not allow him to maintain this new
position.
As
he advanced within Porsche, he was accused by Italian union workers of the Boves
Massacre in Italy during World War II. Ferry
Porsche personally intervened and promised Peiper a senior management
position, but this offer was derailed by the trade
unions, who objected to allowing persons convicted of war crimes to serve
in the upper management of the company. The strong antipathy to Peiper, his
association with Ferry Porsche and the related negative impact on sales in
Porsche's biggest market, the United States, forced Porsche's management to
dismiss him. On 30 December 1960 Peiper filed suit to compel Porsche to fulfil
its promises.
In
court documents Peiper’s attorney stated that Peiper was not a war criminal and
that the Allies had used the trials to defame the German people. He asserted
that the Nuremberg trial and the "Malmedy
massacre" trial were merely propaganda. Citing documents published by the
anti-Communist historian Freda Utley, he asserted that the Malmedy massacre
trial defendants had been tortured by the Americans. At the request of the
court, Porsche and Peiper reached an agreement to terminate the employment
contract, and Peiper received six months of wages as compensation. The magazine
Der Freiwillige, published by SS veterans, capitalized on the award and
wrote that Peiper had been "unfairly sentenced" for war crimes.
Peiper
became a car sales trainer, and utilizing his network of former SS members,
contacted Max Moritz, a former SS mechanic. Moritz had become an authorized Volkswagen
dealer for Germany.
1960s
At
the beginning of the 1960s the perception that the public opinion had of the
Nazi crimes started to change. The German economic recovery did not allow SS
men to hide themselves, and holding a high position in society could raise
questions that people like Peiper preferred to avoid. The Eichmann
and Auschwitz trials in the first half of
the 1960s (which got a large audience in West Germany) put a new light on this
period. The prosecution was now initiated by the West German authorities
themselves, and no longer by the Allies. On the other hand, the statute of limitations for the prosecution
of Nazi crimes had been extended several times, which made those who had been
involved in these crimes uncomfortable.
On
23 June 1964, two Italians filed an accusation against Peiper at the Central
Office of the State Justice Administration for the Investigation of National
Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg to do with the Boves massacre. The plaintiffs
were represented by Robert W. Kempner, who had been a member of the
American council of prosecutors during the Nuremberg trials. The
investigations, led by the Attorney General of Stuttgart, involved Peiper being
accused of having arrested Jews in Borgo San Dalmazzo and of having deported Jews
from Northern Italy. The accusations were endorsed by Simon
Wiesenthal. However, neither Klempner nor Wiesenthal were ever able to
present the evidence claimed by the Attorney General. In 1967, the case was
dismissed for lack of evidence.
Peiper
was later called as a witness during the Werner
Best trial. He did not deny having had close contact with Himmler, but he
managed to avoid being directly implicated in Nazi war crimes by claiming
memory failure.
In
1969, Peiper was a freelance contributor to the magazine Auto, Motor und Sport. In 1972 he moved
to Traves in Haute-Saône, France, where he owned property. At that
time he was a self-employed translator for the publisher Stuttgarter
Motor-Buch Verlag. Under the pen name of "Rainer Buschmann", he
translated books devoted to military history from English to German.
Last
years and death
Residing
in France since 1972, Peiper led a quiet and discreet life; however, he
continued to use his given name. In 1974, he was identified by a former
Communist resistance member of the region who issued a report for the French Communist Party. In 1976, a Communist
historian, investigating the Gestapo archives,
found the Peiper file. On 21 June, tracts denouncing his presence were
distributed in Traves. A day later, an article in the Communist publication L'Humanité
revealed Peiper's presence in Traves and he became the subject of death
threats.
On
receipt of these threats, Peiper, who remained in Traves, sent his family back
to Germany. During the night of 13/14 July 1976, Peiper's home was attacked. In
the ruin, Peiper's charred corpse was found together with a .22 caliber rifle
and a pistol. The perpetrators were never identified, but were suspected to be
either Communists or former members of the French
Resistance. Coincidentally, 14 July was Bastille
Day in France. Peiper had just started writing a book about Malmedy and
what followed.
Reputation
Panzer
commander
Because
of the murders perpetrated by his unit at Malmedy and other locations, his
death sentence and subsequent release, Peiper remained a controversial figure
while he lived and after his death. He was a competent, personally courageous
soldier and highly respected among his peers. His men were fiercely loyal to
him, and he was considered by many to be a "charismatic leader."
After the end of the war, he continued to be held in high regard by his
surviving comrades, many of whom talked of Der Peiper with admiration
and respect. The respect he had garnered among his SS peers helped him to
obtain his release from prison after the war ended and to obtain employment.
Recognition
His
leadership of the Sd.Kfz. 251 armored half-track battalion in the Third Battle of Kharkov earned the unit the
nickname Lötlampenbataillon or "Blowtorch Battalion", which
resulted in his receiving the Deutsches
Kreuz in Gold Three days after his actions on 6 March 1943, he received
the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
Twelve days later, Peiper demonstrated his military skill when he led his unit
at full speed through Russian positions in a surprise attack on Belgorod,
causing the surprised Russians to flee. Oberführer Theodor
Wisch, divisional commander of the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf
Hitler, recommended him for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak
Leaves, which he was awarded on 27 January 1944.
Summary
of SS career
Dates
of rank
Rank
|
Date
|
Age
|
SS-Anwärter
|
16 October 1933
|
18
|
SS-Mann
|
23 January 1934
|
18
|
SS-Sturmmann
|
7 September 1934
|
19
|
SS-Rottenführer
|
10 October 1934
|
19
|
1 March 1935
|
20
|
|
11 September 1935
|
20
|
|
5 March 1936
|
21
|
|
20 April 1936
|
21
|
|
30 January 1939
|
24
|
|
6 June 1940
|
25
|
|
30 January 1943
|
28
|
|
11 November 1943
|
28
|
|
20 April 1945
|
30
|
Notable
decorations
- German Equestrian Badge in Bronze
- Iron Cross (1939)
- 2nd Class (31 May 1940)
- 1st Class (12 July 1940)
- SS-Honour Ring
- German Cross in Gold on 6 May 1943 as SS-Sturmbannführer and commander of the III./SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 12 "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler"
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
- Knight's Cross on 9 March 1943 as SS-Sturmbannführer and commander of the III.(gepanzert)/SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 2 "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler"
- 377th Oak Leaves on 27 January 1944 as SS-Obersturmbannführer and commander of SS-Panzer-Regiment 1 "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler"[128][129]
- 119th Swords on 11 January 1945 as SS-Obersturmbannführer and commander of SS-Panzer-Regiment 1
- Infantry Assault Badge in Bronze (1940)
- Eastern Front Medal (1942)
- Sudetenland Medal (1938)
- Prague Castle Bar (1938)
- Anschluss Medal (1938)
- Close Combat Clasp in Bronze (1943)
- Close Combat Clasp in Silver (1943)
- Tank Destruction Badge (1943)
- SA Sports Badge in Bronze
- SS Long Service Award in 4 and 8 years
- Dress Formal Dinning Award
- Life Saving Award in Gold
- Tank Badge (50 or 75). Though there is no documentation of him receiving this award, there are several formal photographs of him wearing the award as an Obersturmbannfuhrer. (One of Peiper's uniforms, on display at the Virginia War Museum, bears the Tank Badge with "50". This uniform bears the rank insignia of an Obersturmbannführer, so Peiper could have earned a higher grade of the award before the war was over.)
Fiction
& film
Peiper
is a significant character in the Harry
Turtledove alternate history novel, The Man with the Iron Heart, where
he is the successor to Reinhard Heydrich in the partisan fight to drive out the post-war
occupiers of Germany. In the alternate history novel Fox
on the Rhine by Douglas Niles and Michael O'Dobson, Peiper presides
over a massacre of US soldiers by SS troops. In the sequel, Fox
at the Front, Peiper kills Heinz
Guderian as the SS enforces control over Wehrmacht units that lean
towards surrendering to the Allies after the failure of the Battle of the Bulge. He is later evacuated and
joins the Das Reich division in the
defense of a bridge over Kustryn, where he is captured by the Soviets and sent
to a reeducation camp.
In
the 1965 film Battle of the Bulge, the
character Col Hessler, the commander of the German spearhead tank column,
portrayed by Robert Shaw, is loosely based on
Peiper.
INTERNET
SOURCE: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joachim_Peiper
Standartenführer
Joachim Peiper (30 January 1915 – 13 July 1976), more often known as Jochen
Peiper from the common German nickname for Joachim, was a senior Waffen-SS
officer in World War II and a convicted war criminal. By the end of his
military career in 1945, Peiper was the youngest regimental colonel in the
Waffen-SS, holding the rank of SS-Standartenführer. He also served as personal
adjutant to Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, in the period April 1938 to
August 1941.
Sourced
- I was a Nazi and I remain one...The Germany of today is no longer a great nation, it has become a province of Europe.
- Interview with a French writer Peiper spoke with in 1967, quoted in The Devil's Adjutant by Michael Reynolds, page 260.
- It's so long ago now. Even I don't know the truth. If I had ever known it, I have long forgotten it. All I know is that I took the blame as a good CO should have been and was punished accordingly.
- Peiper on the Malmedy massacre, excerpted from A Traveler's Guide to the Battle for the German Frontier by Charles Whitin.
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