The Scout movement in Germany consists of about 150 different associations and federations with about 260,000 Scouts and Guides .
152-634: Joachim Peiper (30 January 1915 – 14 July 1976) was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and war criminal . During the Second World War in Europe, Peiper served as personal adjutant to Heinrich Himmler , leader of the SS, and as a tank commander in the Waffen-SS . German historian Jens Westemeier writes that Peiper personified Nazi ideology , as a purportedly ruthless glory-hound commander who
304-791: A military officer . Horst joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) and served in the SS-Totenkopfverbände as a guard in a Nazi concentration camp . Transferred to active duty as a Waffen-SS soldier, Horst fought in the Battle of France (1940) as part of the 3rd SS Panzer Division , and died in Poland in June 1941 in a never-fully-explained accident; rumour said that his fellow SS-men drove Horst to commit suicide because of his homosexuality . Peiper's eldest brother, Hans-Hasso (b. 1910)
456-845: A "difficult subordinate" or an "arrogant superior" in the course of his career in the SS. In the April 1935 – March 1936 period, Peiper trained as a military officer in the SS-Junker School , from which institution the director, Paul Hausser , graduated ideologically complicit Nazi leaders for the Waffen-SS . Besides military fieldcraft, the SS-Junker School taught the Nazi worldview that centred upon anti-Semitism . The Nazi Party issued Peiper his NSDAP Identity Card Nr. 5.508.134 on 1 March 1938, two years after he became an SS man. In
608-719: A Prussian secret police force, the Geheime Staatspolizei or Gestapo , and appointed Rudolf Diels as its head. Concerned that Diels was not ruthless enough to use the Gestapo effectively to counteract the power of the SA, Göring handed over its control to Himmler on 20 April 1934. Also on that date, in a departure from long-standing German practice that law enforcement was a state and local matter, Hitler appointed Himmler chief of all German police outside Prussia. Himmler named his deputy and protégé Reinhard Heydrich chief of
760-819: A belligerent power of the Rome-Berlin Axis on 3 September 1943 with the signing of the Armistice of Cassibile between the Kingdom of Italy and the Allied Powers. Consequently, Nazi Germany responded on 8 September with Operation Achse , wherein Wehrmacht forces, including the LSSAH, invaded and occupied the north of Italy, in order to forcibly disarm the Italian army in situ . On 19 September 1943, in
912-699: A district of Berlin , part of the German Empire . He was the third son of a middle-class family from German Silesia . His father, Woldemar Peiper, had served as an officer in the Imperial German Army and fought in the 1904 campaign in German South West Africa . He later contracted malaria and received a severe wound which demobilised him from active duty in German Africa. In 1907 Woldemar resumed active duty in
1064-560: A firefight with the Waffen-SS occupiers, partisan guerrillas of the Italian Resistance Movement killed one soldier and captured two others in the vicinity of Boves , in the Piedmont region of north-west Italy. In a later firefight with the partisans, a Waffen-SS infantry company failed to rescue their comrades from the partisans. After this, the armoured units of Kampfgruppe Peiper assumed strategic control of
1216-515: A freelance translator. Throughout his post-war life, Peiper was very active in the social network of ex-SS men centred upon the right-wing organisation HIAG ( Mutual Aid Association of Former Members of the Waffen-SS ). In 1976, Peiper died from asphyxiation after communist arsonists discovered his identity and set his house on fire. Joachim Peiper was born on 30 January 1915 in Wilmersdorf ,
1368-495: A higher casualty rate than the army. Generaloberst Fedor von Bock was quite critical; following an April 1940 visit of the SS-Totenkopf division, he found their battle training was "insufficient". Hitler thought the criticism was typical of the army's "outmoded conception of chivalry." In its defence, the SS insisted that its armed formations had been hampered by having to fight piecemeal and were improperly equipped by
1520-598: A meeting, called the Wannsee Conference , to discuss the implementation of the plan. During battles in the Soviet Union in 1941 and 1942, the Waffen-SS suffered enormous casualties. The LSSAH and Das Reich lost over half their troops to illness and combat casualties. In need of recruits, Himmler began to accept soldiers that did not fit the original SS racial profile. In early 1942, SS-Leibstandarte , SS-Totenkopf , and SS-Das Reich were withdrawn to
1672-472: A month of Peiper's command, the 1st SS Panzer Regiment had only twelve working tanks . In December 1943, because of his destructive leadership of the 1st SS Panzer Regiment in Russia, the division command of the LSSAH relieved Peiper of combat duty and transferred him to staff-officer duty at the division headquarters. Despite his uneven battlefield performance in Russia, his political value for Nazi propaganda
SECTION 10
#17327721632021824-624: A new bodyguard unit, the Schutzkommando (Protection Command). It was tasked with providing personal protection for Hitler at party functions and events. That same year, the Schutzkommando was expanded to a national organisation and renamed successively the Sturmstaffel (Storm Squadron), and finally the Schutzstaffel (Protection Squad; SS). Officially, the SS marked its foundation on 9 November 1925 (the second anniversary of
1976-620: A pagan ceremony invented by Himmler. These pseudo-religious rites and ceremonies often took place near SS-dedicated monuments or in special SS-designated places. In 1933, Himmler bought Wewelsburg , a castle in Westphalia . He initially intended it to be used as an SS training centre, but its role came to include hosting SS dinners and neo-pagan rituals. In 1936, Himmler wrote in the pamphlet "The SS as an Anti-Bolshevist Fighting Organisation": We shall take care that never again in Germany,
2128-516: A point of unit discipline. In 1966, Peiper claimed he knew nothing of it, and the lack of contradictory evidence and witnesses closed the case. As the Allied invasion ( Operation Overlord , 6 June 1944) began, the LSSAH were deployed to the coast of the English Channel to confront the expected Allied invasion at Pas de Calais in northern France; transport to the frontlines was limited, and
2280-416: A prepared casemate, the door of which had a Plexiglas window. After the door was closed, one could see how, in the beginning, the insane still laughed and talked to each other. But, soon they sat down on the straw, obviously under the influence of the gas ... Very soon, they no longer moved. Throughout 1940, Himmler and Peiper made an inspection tour of the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, including
2432-651: A small guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz ("Hall Security") made up of party volunteers to provide security for party meetings in Munich . In 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit, which had by then been reformed and given its final name. Under his direction (1929–1945) it grew from a small paramilitary formation during the Weimar Republic to one of the most powerful organisations in Nazi Germany. From
2584-456: A terrible discovery. All the men in his small rearguard medical detachment who had been left there had been killed and then mutilated. An SS sergeant in Peiper's ration supply company later stated that Peiper responded in kind: "In the village, the two petrol trucks were burnt and 25 Germans killed by partisans and Soviet soldiers. As revenge, Peiper ordered the burning down of the whole village and
2736-404: Is a Waffen-SS tank commander who always is "the master of the situation, in all its phases", that Peiper's "quick decision-making" assured victory in the field through his "bold and unorthodox orders" and that he is "a born leader, one filled with the highest sense of responsibility for the life of every one of his men, but who [was] also able to be hard, if necessary" to complete the mission. In
2888-478: Is also open to girls and women since 1971. The primarily female Catholic organisation Pfadfinderinnenschaft St. Georg decided in 1982 not to merge with the inclusive counterpart. A large number of international Scout and Guide units from different countries are active in Germany. Most of them developed on military bases, but there are also some at international schools or connected to diplomatic missions. The majority of international Scout and Guide groups dates back to
3040-652: The Einsatzkommando Tilsit killed approximately 200 people; and in Grodno , Byelorussia, before Himmler and Peiper, Heydrich berated the leader of the local death squad for having shot only 96 Jews in a day. In July 1941, Himmler and Peiper were in Białystok to witness the progress of the depopulation of that city and of Poland by the Order Police battalions , and met with Bach-Zalewski to discuss
3192-586: The Heer (German Army). However, it never obtained total "independence of command", nor was it ever a "serious rival" to the German Army. Members were never able to join the ranks of the German High Command and it was dependent on the army for heavy weaponry and equipment. Although SS ranks generally had equivalents in the other services, the SS rank system did not copy the terms and ranks used by
SECTION 20
#17327721632023344-594: The SS-Verfügungs-Division . A second SS division, the SS-Totenkopf , was formed from SS-TV concentration camp guards, and a third, the SS-Polizei , was created from police volunteers. The SS gained control over its own recruitment, logistics, and supply systems for its armed formations at this time. The SS, Gestapo, and SD were in charge of the provisional military administration in Poland until
3496-458: The 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" when it was reorganised as a Panzergrenadier division in 1942. In April 1941, the German Army invaded Yugoslavia and Greece . The LSSAH and Das Reich were attached to separate army Panzer corps . Fritz Klingenberg , a company commander in the Das Reich division, led his men across Yugoslavia to the capital, Belgrade , where a small group in
3648-673: The Allied occupation of Western Germany following World War II. The small remainder were started recently. Among the foreign associations in Germany are There are also other foreign Scout associations active in Germany, mostly with single troops (e.g. Organization of Russian Young Pathfinders , Plast ), Scouts et Guides de France in Munich and Hebrew Scouts Movement in Israel in Berlin . The Dansk Spejderkorps Sydslesvig offers Scouting to
3800-552: The Bandenkampfverbände had four principal operational components: propaganda, centralised control and coordination of security operations, training of troops, and battle operations. Once the Wehrmacht had secured territorial objectives, the Bandenkampfverbände first secured communications facilities, roads, railways, and waterways. Thereafter, they secured rural communities and economic installations such as factories and administrative buildings. An additional priority
3952-643: The Buchenwald concentration camp and the Flossenbürg concentration camp . The SS and Police Leader Wilhelm Rediess and the SS official Otto Rasch strove to develop quicker methods for killing civilians in order to depopulate Poland for German colonisation. In May 1940, Globocnik demonstrated for Himmler and Peiper the efficacy of the Aktion T4 programme for the involuntary euthanasia of disabled and crippled people and also discussed Globocnik's work in
4104-771: The Eastern Front and in the Western Front , first as a battalion commander and then as a regimental commander. Peiper fought in the Third Battle of Kharkov and in the Battle of the Bulge , from which battles his eponymous battle group – Kampfgruppe Peiper – became notorious for committing war crimes against civilians and PoWs. Upon release from prison, Peiper worked for the Porsche and Volkswagen automobile companies and later moved to France, where he worked as
4256-520: The Eastern Front , in the vicinity of the Black Sea . As the replacement for an injured company commander, Peiper assumed command of the 11th Company and fought the Red Army at Mariupol and Rostov-on-Don . Noted for his fighting spirit and aggressive leadership in battle, tank commander Peiper's victories came at the cost of many German tanks and casualties among Waffen-SS infantry. The division
4408-548: The Einsatzgruppen reached a total strength of 3,000 men. Einsatzgruppen A, B, and C were attached to Army Groups North , Centre , and South ; Einsatzgruppe D was assigned to the 11th Army . The Einsatzgruppe for Special Purposes operated in eastern Poland starting in July 1941. Historian Richard Rhodes describes them as being "outside the bounds of morality"; they were "judge, jury and executioner all in one", with
4560-531: The Einsatzgruppen took place on 6 September 1939 during the attack on Kraków . Satisfied with their performance in Poland, Hitler allowed further expansion of the armed SS formations but insisted new units remain under the operational control of the army. While the SS-Leibstandarte remained an independent regiment functioning as Hitler's personal bodyguards, the other regiments— SS-Deutschland , SS-Germania, and SS-Der Führer —were combined to form
4712-527: The Freikorps mercenary soldier Woldemar Peiper who were angry that Imperial Germany had lost the Great War . Two of Woldemar's sons, Horst and Joachim, followed the same life path of nationalist ideology and military service to Germany. In 1926, the eleven-year-old Joachim followed his middle brother, fourteen-year-old Horst Peiper, to become a boy scout ; eventually, Joachim became interested in becoming
Joachim Peiper - Misplaced Pages Continue
4864-602: The German Youth Movement , of which the Wandervogel was a part. Another group that, while short-lived, was influential on later German Scouting, was the Deutsche Jungenschaft vom 1.11.1929 founded by Eberhard Koebel ; some specifics of German Scouting derive from Koebel's group. German Scouting flourished until 1934-35, when nearly all associations were closed and their members had to join
5016-888: The Hitler Youth . In West Germany and West Berlin , Scouting was reestablished after 1945, but it was banned in East Germany until 1990 in favor of the Thälmann Pioneers and the Free German Youth . Today it is present in all parts of the unified Federal Republic of Germany . As mentioned above, today about 150 Scouting associations and federations exist in Germany. Most of them are coeducational, but there are also some single-gender organizations - boys-only as well as girls-only. The most important and/or largest associations and federations are: The mainly male Bund der Pfadfinder (BdP) merged in 1976 with
5168-641: The Lublin Reservation programme for the control and confinement of the Jewish populations of the Greater Germanic Reich . In May 1940, Himmler and Peiper followed the Waffen-SS throughout the Battle of France . On 18 May, Peiper became a platoon leader in a unit of the LSSAH motorised regiment. For audacious soldiering in his platoon's capture of a French artillery battery atop the hills of Wattenberg, south of Valenciennes , Peiper
5320-518: The Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler had created a small volunteer guard unit known as the Saal-Schutz (Hall Security) to provide security at their meetings in Munich . The same year, Hitler ordered the formation of a small bodyguard unit dedicated to his personal service. He wished it to be separate from the "suspect mass" of the party, including the paramilitary Sturmabteilung ("Storm Battalion"; SA), which he did not trust. The new formation
5472-791: The Neuengamme concentration camp in the north, and the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in the north-east of the country. In Occupied Poland , Himmler met with Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger , the Higher SS and Police Leader , and his subordinate, Odilo Globocnik , the SS bureaucrat responsible for deporting the Jews from the cities of Warsaw and Lublin and from the Polish territories already annexed as Lebensraum for Germany. In April 1940, Himmler and Peiper continued their camp inspection tour at
5624-625: The Order Police ), Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski (SS and Police Leader in Byelorussia ); and Reinhard Heydrich (head of the Reich Security Main Office ). When Nazi Germany invaded the U.S.S.R., on 22 June 1941, Himmler used a headquarters-train to tour the conquered Russian lands; Himmler and Peiper inspected the work of the Einsatzkommando units who were depopulating the conquered lands. In Augustów , Poland,
5776-678: The Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS were under the command of SS functionary Karl Wolff . As a staff officer, Peiper worked in the anteroom of the SS Main Office in Berlin and became a favourite adjutant of Himmler. Peiper returned the admiration and by 1939, Peiper always was the adjutant of the Reichsführer-SS at every official function. On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland started
5928-446: The SS-Leibstandarte had taken Wormhout , 10 miles (16 km) from Dunkirk. There, soldiers of the 2nd Battalion were responsible for the Wormhoudt massacre , where 81 British and French soldiers were murdered after they surrendered. According to historian Charles Sydnor, the "fanatical recklessness in the assault, suicidal defence against enemy attacks, and savage atrocities committed in the face of frustrated objectives" exhibited by
6080-457: The SS-Oberführerbereich Ost , SS-Oberführerbereich West , and SS-Oberführerbereich Süd . The lower levels of the SS remained largely unchanged. Although officially still considered a sub-organisation of the SA and answerable to the Stabschef (SA Chief of Staff), it was also during this time that Himmler began to establish the independence of the SS from the SA. The SS grew in size and power due to its exclusive loyalty to Hitler, as opposed to
6232-408: The SS-Totenkopf division during the invasion were typical of the SS troops as a whole. At the close of the campaign, Hitler expressed his pleasure with the performance of the SS-Leibstandarte , telling them: "Henceforth it will be an honour for you, who bear my name, to lead every German attack." The SS-VT was renamed the Waffen-SS in a speech made by Hitler in July 1940. Hitler then authorised
Joachim Peiper - Misplaced Pages Continue
6384-430: The Schutzstaffel was independent of the Sturmabteilung (SA) within the Nazi Party. Later that year, Peiper was promoted to SS- Sturmmann at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally , where his reputation attracted the notice of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler , for whom Peiper personified Aryanism , the master-race concept promoted by the Nazism taught at the SS officer school. Despite not being as tall, blond, and muscular as
6536-435: The Second World War in Europe. Adjutant Peiper travelled in the personal train of Reichsführer-SS Himmler. Peiper occasionally was the liaison officer to Hitler , when the Führer travelled by train with Erwin Rommel , and when the Führer met with Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS generals near the front lines of the Eastern Front . On 20 September, in the northern Polish city of Bydgoszcz , Himmler and Peiper witnessed
6688-417: The Waffen-SS consisted of the combat units of the SS, with a sworn allegiance to Hitler. A third component of the SS, the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; " Death's Head Units" ), ran the concentration camps and extermination camps . Additional subdivisions of the SS included the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) organisations. They were tasked with the detection of actual or potential enemies of
6840-412: The Wehrmacht ' s branches. Instead, it used the ranks established by the post-World War I Freikorps and the SA. This was primarily done to emphasise the SS as being independent of the Wehrmacht . In the September 1939 invasion of Poland , the LSSAH and SS-VT fought as separate mobile infantry regiments. The LSSAH became notorious for torching villages without military justification. Members of
6992-443: The Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS encountered resistance from the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the Greek Army . The fighting was intensified by the mountainous terrain, with its heavily defended narrow passes. The LSSAH was at the forefront of the German push. The BEF evacuated by sea to Crete , but had to flee again in late May when the Germans arrived. Like Yugoslavia, the conquest of Greece brought its Jews into danger, as
7144-410: The Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS operations there, including the depopulation of Poland for German colonisation. About his visit to the Łódź ghetto , Peiper wrote that "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 episode in the Łódź ghetto indicates Peiper's awareness of the criminality of
7296-402: The 258,000 Romani . The SS was involved in murdering people viewed as threats to race hygiene or Nazi ideology, including the mentally or physically disabled, homosexuals, and political dissidents. Members of trade unions and those perceived to be affiliated with groups that opposed the regime (religious, political, social, and otherwise), or those whose views were contradictory to the goals of
7448-429: The Allied air forces controlled the skies. From 18 July 1944, the Kampfgruppe Peiper regiment saw action, but Peiper rarely was at the frontlines, because of the uneven terrain and the requisite radio silence. As with the other Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht units in the area, Kampfgruppe Peiper fought defensively until Operation Cobra (25–31 July 1944) collapsed the German front when the U.S. Army destroyed every tank of
7600-436: The Beer Hall Putsch). The new SS protected party leaders throughout Germany. Hitler's personal SS protection unit was later enlarged to include combat units. Schreck, a founding member of the SA and a close confidant of Hitler, became the first SS chief in March 1925. On 15 April 1926, Joseph Berchtold succeeded him as chief of the SS. Berchtold changed the title of the office to Reichsführer-SS (Reich Leader-SS). Berchtold
7752-476: The Berlin Chancellory Guard, the SS security regiment assigned to the Obersalzberg, and a Munich-based bodyguard unit which protected Hitler when he visited his apartment and the Brown House Nazi Party headquarters in Munich. Although the unit was nominally under Himmler, Dietrich was the real commander and handled day-to-day administration. Two other SS units composed the inner ring of Hitler's protection. The SS-Begleitkommando des Führers (Escort Command of
SECTION 50
#17327721632027904-401: The Boves massacre as Peiper's heroic defence against anti-German attacks by Communist partisans in which Waffen-SS soldiers battled, defeated, and killed 17 bandits and partisans, and that "during the fights [with partisans] the villages of Boves and Costellar were burned down. [That] in nearly all [the] burning houses [stores of] ammunition exploded. Some bandits were shot." In November 1943,
8056-449: The British launched an armoured counterattack against the flanks of the 7th Panzer Division and SS-Totenkopf . The Germans then trapped the British and French troops in a huge pocket at Dunkirk . On 27 May, 4 Company, SS-Totenkopf perpetrated the Le Paradis massacre , where 97 men of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment were machine-gunned after surrendering, with survivors finished off with bayonets . Two men survived. By 28 May
8208-464: The Führer), formed in February 1932, served as Hitler's protection escort while he was travelling. This unit consisted of eight men who served around the clock protecting Hitler in shifts. Later the SS-Begleitkommando was expanded and became known as the Führerbegleitkommando ( Führer Escort Command; FBK). It continued under separate command and remained responsible for Hitler's protection. The Führer Schutzkommando ( Führer Protection Command; FSK)
8360-429: The Gestapo on 22 April 1934. Heydrich also continued as head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; security service). The Gestapo's transfer to Himmler was a prelude to the Night of the Long Knives , in which most of the SA leadership were arrested and subsequently executed. The SS and Gestapo carried out most of the murders. On 20 July 1934, Hitler detached the SS from the SA, which was no longer an influential force after
8512-536: The Holocaust. After Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power on 30 January 1933, the SS was considered a state organisation and a branch of the government. Law enforcement gradually became the purview of the SS, and many SS organisations became de facto government agencies. The SS established a police state within Nazi Germany, using the secret state police and security forces under Himmler's control to suppress resistance to Hitler. In his role as Minister President of Prussia , Hermann Göring had in 1933 created
8664-500: The Iron Cross , the most prestigious military decoration of the Third Reich , for which Reichsführer-SS Himmler congratulated him in a live radio broadcast: "Heartfelt congratulations for the Knight's Cross, my dear Jochen! I am proud of you!" In that stage of the Second World War, Nazi propaganda portrayed tank commander Peiper as an exemplary military leader. The official SS newspaper, Das Schwarze Korps (The Black Corps) reported that Peiper's actions in Kharkov demonstrated that he
8816-448: The LSSAH and killed 25 per cent of their force of 19,618 soldiers. After suffering a nervous breakdown during the fighting around Caen, Peiper was relieved of command on 2 August 1944. In September–October 1944 he was hospitalized; initially in Paris, and then to Tegernsee Reserve Hospital in Bavaria near his wife Sigi and children. So Peiper was not in command of the 1st SS Panzer Regiment during Operation Luttich (7–13 August 1944),
8968-430: The LSSAH committed war crimes in numerous towns, including the murder of 50 Polish Jews in Błonie and the massacre of 200 civilians, including children, who were machine-gunned in Złoczew . Shootings also took place in Bolesławiec , Torzeniec , Goworowo , Mława , and Włocławek . Some senior members of the Wehrmacht were not convinced the units were fully prepared for combat. Its units took unnecessary risks and had
9120-597: The LSSAH fought in battles at Zhytomyr , in Ukraine. In the course of battle, although he lacked experience in leading tanks Peiper replaced the regiment's dead commander and so assumed command of the 1st SS Panzer Regiment. In early December, Peiper was nominated for a medal for the successes of the 1st Regiment: the destruction of some Red Army artillery batteries and a division headquarters, having killed 2,280 Red Army soldiers in just two days of action (5-6 December), and delivering only three Red Army Prisoners of War (PoWs) to military intelligence. The recommendation for awarding
9272-439: The Nazi Party government, were rounded up in large numbers; these included clergy of all faiths, Jehovah's Witnesses , Freemasons , Communists , and Rotary Club members. According to the judgements rendered at the Nuremberg trials , as well as many war crimes investigations and trials conducted since then, the SS was responsible for the majority of Nazi war crimes. In particular, it was the primary organisation that carried out
SECTION 60
#17327721632029424-447: The Nazi occupations, yet the anecdotes he wrote – about the Jewish Ghetto Police abusing the Jews – were meant to lessen the degree of his complicity in the war crimes of the Waffen-SS and of the Wehrmacht . In the 11–15 June 1941 period, adjutant Peiper participated in the SS conference wherein Himmler presented plans for killing of 30 million Slavs in eastern Europe, especially Russia; present were Kurt Wolff; Kurt Daluege (head of
9576-423: The Nazi regime became more oppressive, the concentration camp system grew in size and lethal operation, and grew in scope as the economic ambitions of the SS intensified. Intensification of the killing operations took place in late 1941 when the SS began construction of stationary gassing facilities to replace the use of Einsatzgruppen for mass murders. Victims at these new extermination camps were killed with
9728-459: The Nazi state, the neutralisation of any opposition, policing the German people for their commitment to Nazi ideology , and providing domestic and foreign intelligence. The SS was the organisation most responsible for the genocidal murder of an estimated 5.5 to 6 million Jews and millions of other victims during the Holocaust . Members of all of its branches committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II (1939–45). The SS
9880-403: The Nazis immediately took a variety of measures against them. Initially confined in ghettos, most were transported to Auschwitz concentration camp in March 1943, where they were murdered in the gas chambers on arrival. Of Greece's 80,000 Jews, only 20 per cent survived the war. On 22 June 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa , the invasion of the Soviet Union . The expanding war and
10032-612: The Nordic recruits to the SS, Peiper compensated by being a handsome, personable, and self-confident SS officer. The SS formally employed Peiper in January 1935, and later sent him to a military leadership course. As an SS leadership student Peiper received favourable and approving reviews from the SS instructors, yet received only conditional approval from the military psychologists, who noted Peiper's egocentricity , negative attitude, and continual attempts to impress them with his personal connection to Reichsführer-SS Himmler. The military psychologists concluded that Peiper might become either
10184-414: The Polish Silesian Uprisings (August 1919–July 1921) which aimed to annex German Silesia to the Second Polish Republic . In the Weimar Germany of the 1920s, the antisemitic canards of Nazi ideology – the Stab-in-the-back myth , the Protocols of the Elders of Zion , The International Jew , et cetera – had much appeal to the political conservatives and to the political reactionaries such as
10336-444: The Prussian army. He rejoined the colours in the First World War and was for a time deployed to Ottoman Turkey , where he suffered chronic cardiac problems consequent to the previous malarial infection. Poor health then demobilised Woldemar from active duty in Asia Minor . During the European interwar period , Woldemar joined a company of mercenary soldiers within the paramilitary Freikorps and actively participated in suppressing
10488-417: The SA, which was seen as semi-independent and a threat to Hitler's hegemony over the party, mainly because they demanded a "second revolution" beyond the one that brought the Nazi Party to power. By the end of 1933, the membership of the SS reached 209,000. Under Himmler's leadership, the SS continued to gather greater power as more and more state and party functions were assigned to its jurisdiction. Over time
10640-616: The SA. Except in the Munich area, the SS was unable to maintain any momentum in its membership numbers, which declined from 1,000 to 280 as the SA continued its rapid growth. As Heiden attempted to keep the SS from dissolving, Heinrich Himmler became his deputy in September 1927. Himmler displayed better organisational abilities than Heiden. The SS established a number of Gaue (regions or provinces). The SS-Gaue consisted of SS-Gau Berlin , SS-Gau Berlin Brandenburg , SS-Gau Franken , SS-Gau Niederbayern , SS-Gau Rheinland-Süd , and SS-Gau Sachsen . With Hitler's approval, Himmler assumed
10792-401: The SA. Some 500 to 1,000 synagogues were destroyed, mostly by arson. On 11 November, Heydrich reported a death toll of 36 people, but later assessments put the number of deaths at up to two thousand. On Hitler's orders, around 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps by 16 November. As many as 2,500 of these people died in the following months. It was at this point that
10944-602: The SD diamond on the lower left sleeve. The SS was closely associated with Nazi Germany's concentration camp system. On 26 June 1933, Himmler appointed SS- Oberführer Theodor Eicke as commandant of Dachau concentration camp , one of the first Nazi concentration camps. It was created to consolidate the many small camps that had been set up by various police agencies and the Nazi Party to house political prisoners. The organisational structure Eicke instituted at Dachau stood as
11096-494: The SS and SD to work on developing additional anti-partisan tactics and launched a propaganda campaign. Sometime in June 1943, Himmler issued the Bandenbekämpfung (bandit fighting) order, simultaneously announcing the existence of the Bandenkampfverbände (bandit fighting formations), with SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski as its chief. Employing troops primarily from the SS police and Waffen-SS ,
11248-521: The SS answered only to Hitler, the de facto merger of the SS and the police made the police independent of Frick's control. In September 1939, the security and police agencies, including the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; security police) and SD (but not the Orpo), were consolidated into the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), headed by Heydrich. This further increased the collective authority of
11400-624: The SS became answerable only to Hitler, a development typical of the organisational structure of the entire Nazi regime, where legal norms were replaced by actions undertaken under the Führerprinzip (leader principle), where Hitler's will was considered to be above the law. In the latter half of 1934, Himmler oversaw the creation of SS-Junkerschule , institutions where SS officer candidates received leadership training, political and ideological indoctrination, and military instruction. The training stressed ruthlessness and toughness as part of
11552-543: The SS grew in size and importance, so too did Hitler's personal protection forces. Three main SS groups were assigned to protect Hitler. In 1933, his larger personal bodyguard unit (previously the 1st SS-Standarte ) was called to Berlin to replace the Army Chancellery Guard, assigned to protect the Chancellor of Germany . Sepp Dietrich commanded the new unit, previously known as SS-Stabswache Berlin;
11704-406: The SS men did not meet the criteria. Inducements such as higher salaries and larger homes were provided to members of the SS since they were expected to produce more children than the average German family as part of their commitment to Nazi Party doctrine. Commitment to SS ideology was emphasised throughout the recruitment, membership process, and training. Members of the SS were indoctrinated in
11856-402: The SS state began in earnest its campaign of terror against political and religious opponents, who they imprisoned without trial or judicial oversight for the sake of "security, re-education, or prevention". In September 1939, the authority of the SS expanded further when the senior SS officer in each military district also became its chief of police. Most of these SS and police leaders held
12008-499: The SS value system, which helped foster a sense of superiority among the men and taught them self-confidence. The first schools were established at Bad Tölz and Braunschweig , with additional schools opening at Klagenfurt and Prague during the war. The SS was regarded as the Nazi Party's elite unit. In keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany , in the early days all SS officer candidates had to provide proof of Aryan ancestry back to 1750 and for other ranks to 1800. Once
12160-653: The SS-TV, and the SS Cavalry Brigade moved into the Soviet Union behind the advancing armies. At first, they fought Soviet partisans , but by the autumn of 1941, they left the anti-partisan role to other units and actively took part in the Holocaust. While assisting the Einsatzgruppen , they formed firing parties that participated in the liquidation of the Jewish population of the Soviet Union. On 31 July 1941, Göring gave Heydrich written authorisation to ensure
12312-489: The SS. During Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938), SS security services clandestinely coordinated violence against Jews as the SS, Gestapo, SD, Kripo, SiPo, and regular police did what they could to ensure that while Jewish synagogues and community centres were destroyed, Jewish-owned businesses and housing remained intact so that they could later be seized. In the end, thousands of Jewish businesses, homes, and graveyards were vandalised and looted, particularly by members of
12464-604: The West to refit and were converted to Panzergrenadier divisions. The SS-Panzer Corps returned to the Soviet Union in 1943 and participated in the Third Battle of Kharkov in February and March. The SS was built on a culture of violence, which was exhibited in its most extreme form by the mass murder of civilians and prisoners of war on the Eastern Front . Augmented by personnel from the Kripo, Orpo (Order Police), and Waffen-SS ,
12616-465: The actions of the SS to hunt and kill the Polish intelligentsia by ascribing sole command responsibility to Hitler and his superior orders to Himmler. As a participant in the Nazi conquest of Poland for German Lebensraum , Peiper witnessed the administrative refinement of SS policies for more effective methods of killing during ethnic cleansing, designed to depopulate Polish lands for German colonists. On 13 December 1939, in west-central Poland, at
12768-613: The appointment of Hans Frank as Governor-General on 26 October 1939. On 10 May 1940, Hitler launched the Battle of France , a major offensive against France and the Low Countries . The SS supplied two of the 89 divisions employed. The LSSAH and elements of the SS-VT participated in the ground invasion of the Netherlands . Simultaneously, airborne troops were dropped to capture key Dutch airfields, bridges, and railways. In
12920-470: The area of Kursk , in which Kampfgruppe Peiper fought well against the Red Army. After Operation Citadel failed, the LSSAH tank division was redeployed from the Eastern Front in Russia to the north of Fascist Italy . In August 1943, Kampfgruppe Peiper was stationed in the Italian city of Cuneo , six kilometres north of the village of Boves in the commune of Boves. Fascist Italy ceased being
13072-403: The army. After the invasion, Hitler entrusted the SS with extermination actions codenamed Operation Tannenberg and AB-Aktion to remove potential leaders who could form a resistance to German occupation. The murders were committed by Einsatzgruppen (task forces; deployment groups), assisted by local paramilitary groups. Men for the Einsatzgruppen units were drawn from the SS, the SD, and
13224-471: The authority to kill anyone at their discretion. Following Operation Barbarossa, these Einsatzgruppen units, together with the Waffen-SS and Order Police as well as with assistance from the Wehrmacht , engaged in the mass murder of the Jewish population in occupied eastern Poland and the Soviet Union. The greatest extent of Einsatzgruppen action occurred in 1941 and 1942 in Ukraine and Russia. Before
13376-458: The battalion became known for an audacious rescue of the encircled 320th Infantry Division. In a letter home, Peiper described hand-to-hand fighting with a Soviet ski battalion in an effort to lead the division, including its sick and wounded, to safety. The rescue culminated in a fierce battle with the Soviet forces at the village of Krasnaya Polyana. Upon entering the village, Peiper's troops made
13528-468: The body of the SS soldier killed earlier. Despite the successfully negotiated release of the body and prisoners, Peiper ordered the soldiers of Kampfgruppe Peiper to summarily kill 24 men of the Boves village in retaliation for the resistance of the villagers. They also killed a woman when they looted and burned her house. In the after action report to the LSSAH headquarters, Kampfgruppe Peiper described
13680-548: The brutal hazing-and-initiation rituals to which the new soldiers were subjected resulted in five soldiers being executed for not meeting the standards of Kampfgruppe Peiper ; SS-Obersturmbannführer Peiper then ordered the new soldiers to look at the corpses of the failed soldiers. In 1956, the judicial authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany opened a war-crime case to investigate the accusation that Peiper deliberately killed some of his own Waffen-SS soldiers as
13832-518: The camps, partly based on manpower needs, but also to provide easier assignments to wounded Waffen-SS members. This rotation of personnel meant that nearly the entire SS knew what was going on inside the concentration camps, making the entire organisation liable for war crimes and crimes against humanity . Scouting and Guiding in Germany Scouting in Germany started in 1909. After World War I , German Scouting became involved with
13984-692: The command of the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt ( SS Main Economic and Administrative Office ; WVHA) under Oswald Pohl . Richard Glücks served as the Inspector of Concentration Camps , which in 1942 became office "D" under the WVHA. Exploitation and extermination became a balancing act as the military situation deteriorated. The labour needs of the war economy, especially for skilled workers, meant that some Jews escaped
14136-568: The commanders of the LSSAH motorised regiment: "We had to have the toughness – this should be said and soon forgotten – to shoot thousands of leading Poles", and stressed the psychological problems suffered by Waffen-SS soldiers when they are "carrying out executions", "hauling away people", and "evicting crying and hysterical women" in order to clear the lands of Poland for German colonisation. After an official visit to Francoist Spain to meet Generalíssimo Francisco Franco in October 1940, Peiper
14288-452: The cooperation of administrative leaders of various government departments to undertake genocide of the Jews in territories under German control. Heydrich was instrumental in carrying out these exterminations, as the Gestapo was ready to organise deportations in the West and his Einsatzgruppen were already conducting extensive murder operations in the East. On 20 January 1942, Heydrich chaired
14440-407: The daily Einsatzgruppen murder statistics that compared the numbers of people killed against the pre-war projections of the timetable for depopulating the U.S.S.R. Peiper's adjutancy to Himmler ended in the summer of 1941, and Peiper was reassigned to the LSSAH motorised regiment in October 1941. Peiper rejoined the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) whilst they fought in
14592-481: The deployment of units of the Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS ("Command Staff Reichsführer-SS"), which comprised 25,000 Waffen-SS soldiers tasked to execute racial and ideological war against the peoples of Russia. The Kommandostab units were under the authority of the local Higher SS and Police Leaders, who identified the local populations of Jews and "undesirables" to be killed. As
14744-476: The enlistment of "people perceived to be of related stock", as Himmler put it, to expand the ranks. Danes, Dutch, Norwegians, Swedes, and Finns volunteered to fight in the Waffen-SS under the command of German officers. They were brought together to form the new division SS-Wiking . In January 1941, the SS-Verfügungs Division was renamed SS-Reich Division (Motorised), and was renamed as
14896-504: The female Bund Deutscher Pfadfinderinnen (BDP) to form the Bund der Pfadfinderinnen und Pfadfinder (BdP). The three Protestant scout organisations Bund Christlicher Pfadfinderinnen (BCP), Evangelischer Mädchen-Pfadfinderbund (EMP) (both female) and Christliche Pfadfinderschaft Deutschlands (CPD) merged in 1973 to form Verband Christlicher Pfadfinderinnen und Pfadfinder (VCP). The Catholic scout organisation Deutsche Pfadfinderschaft Sankt Georg
15048-491: The first and second adjutants, Peiper and Werner Grothmann were aware of and handled all of Himmler's orders and communications. Peiper delivered the Kommandostab 's daily body-count reports to Himmler. The 30 July 1941 report from Gustav Lombard's SS cavalry indicated that they had shot 800 Jews; the 11 August 1941 report from Lombard indicated that they had shot 6,526 looters (Jews). Peiper likewise delivered to Himmler
15200-523: The five-day campaign, the LSSAH linked up with army units and airborne troops after several clashes with Dutch defenders. SS troops did not take part in the thrust through the Ardennes and the river Meuse . Instead, the SS-Totenkopf was summoned from the army reserve to fight in support of Generalmajor Erwin Rommel 's 7th Panzer Division as they advanced toward the English Channel . On 21 May,
15352-434: The gas chambers and crematoria before being murdered themselves. On Himmler's orders, by early 1942 the concentration camp at Auschwitz was greatly expanded to include the addition of gas chambers, where victims were killed using the pesticide Zyklon B . For administrative reasons, all concentration camp guards and administrative staff became full members of the Waffen-SS in 1942. The concentration camps were placed under
15504-563: The genocide. On 30 October 1942, due to severe labour shortages in Germany, Himmler ordered that large numbers of able-bodied people in Nazi-occupied Soviet territories be taken prisoner and sent to Germany as forced labour . By 1944, the SS-TV had been organised into three divisions: staff of the concentration camps in Germany and Austria, in the occupied territories, and of the extermination camps in Poland. By 1944, it became standard practice to rotate SS members in and out of
15656-488: The heart of Europe, will the Jewish-Bolshevik revolution of subhumans be able to be kindled either from within or through emissaries from without. The SS ideology included the application of brutality and terror as a solution to military and political issues. The SS stressed total loyalty and obedience to orders unto death. Hitler used this as a powerful tool to further his aims and those of the Nazi Party. The SS
15808-514: The impending action; this was done so they could coordinate and control access to the execution grounds. Initially, the victims were shot, but this method proved impracticable for an operation of this scale. Also, after Himmler observed the shooting of 100 Jews at Minsk in August 1941, he grew concerned about the impact such actions were having on the mental health of his SS men. He decided that alternate methods of murder should be found, which led to
15960-419: The introduction of gas vans . However, these were not popular with the men, as they regarded removing the dead bodies from the van and burying them to have been unpleasant. Prisoners or auxiliaries were often assigned to do this task so as to spare the SS men the trauma. In response to the army's difficulties in dealing with Soviet partisans, Hitler decided in July 1942 to transfer anti-partisan operations to
16112-485: The invasion there were five million registered Jews throughout the Soviet Union, with three million of those residing in the territories occupied by the Germans; by the time the war ended, over two million of these had been murdered. The extermination activities of the Einsatzgruppen generally followed a standard procedure, with the Einsatzgruppen chief contacting the nearest Wehrmacht unit commander to inform him of
16264-403: The medal to Peiper described the scorched-earth attacks of the 1st SS Panzer Regiment, wherein tank commander Peiper "attacked with all weapons and flame-throwers from his SPW" armoured fighting vehicle to defeat the Red Army defenders, and then "completely destroyed" the village of Pekartchina. Peiper's over-aggressive style of leadership caused him to disregard tactical common sense in deploying
16416-472: The model for all later concentration camps. After 1934, Eicke was named commander of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV), the SS formation responsible for running the concentration camps under the authority of the SS and Himmler. Known as the "Death's Head Units", the SS-TV was first organised as several battalions, each based at one of Germany's major concentration camps. Leadership at the camps
16568-476: The name was changed to SS-Sonderkommando Berlin . In November 1933, the name was changed to Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler . In April 1934, Himmler modified the name to Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). The LSSAH guarded Hitler's private residences and offices, providing an outer ring of protection for the Führer and his visitors. LSSAH men manned sentry posts at the entrances to the old Reich Chancellery and
16720-420: The need to control occupied territories provided the conditions for Himmler to further consolidate the police and military organs of the SS. Rapid acquisition of vast territories in the East placed considerable strain on the SS police organisations as they struggled to adjust to the changing security challenges. The 1st and 2nd SS Infantry Brigades, which had been formed from surplus concentration camp guards of
16872-578: The new Reich Chancellery. The number of LSSAH guards was increased during special events. At the Berghof , Hitler's residence in the Obersalzberg , a large contingent of the LSSAH patrolled an extensive cordoned security zone. From 1941 forward, the Leibstandarte became four distinct entities, the Waffen-SS division (unconnected to Hitler's protection but a formation of the Waffen-SS ),
17024-591: The outbreak of World War II, the SS had consolidated into its final form, which comprised three main organisations: the Allgemeine SS , SS-Totenkopfverbände , and the Waffen-SS , which was founded in 1934 as the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT) and renamed in 1940. The Waffen-SS evolved into a second German army alongside the Wehrmacht and operated in tandem with them, especially with
17176-479: The police. Some 65,000 Polish civilians, including activists, intelligentsia , scholars, teachers, actors, former officers, and others, were murdered by the end of 1939. When the army leadership registered complaints about the brutality being meted out by the Einsatzgruppen , Heydrich informed them that he was acting "in accordance with the special order of the Führer ." The first systematic mass shooting of Jews by
17328-444: The police. This placed the matter under Himmler's purview. As Hitler had ordered on 8 July 1941 that all Jews were to be regarded as partisans, the term "anti-partisan operations" was used as a euphemism for the murder of Jews as well as actual combat against resistance elements. In July 1942 Himmler ordered that the term "partisan" should no longer be used; instead resisters to Nazi rule would be described as "bandits". Himmler set
17480-614: The populations of the conquered territories, seizing their assets and deporting them to concentration camps and ghettos , where they were used as slave labour or immediately murdered. Chosen to implement the Final Solution ordered by Hitler, the SS were the main group responsible for the institutional murder and democide of more than 20 million people during the Holocaust, including approximately 5.2 million to 6 million Jews and 10.5 million Slavs . A significant number of victims were members of other racial or ethnic groups such as
17632-560: The position of Reichsführer-SS in January 1929. There are differing accounts of the reason for Heiden's dismissal from his position as head of the SS. The party announced that it was for "family reasons". Under Himmler, the SS expanded and gained a larger foothold. He considered the SS an elite, ideologically driven National Socialist organisation, a "conflation of Teutonic knights , the Jesuits , and Japanese Samurai ". His ultimate aim
17784-492: The post-War period, Peiper continually denied having been a member of the Nazi Party, because that fact contradicted his self-promoted image of a common man who was "merely a soldier" in the Second World War. In June 1938, Peiper became an adjutant to Reichsführer-SS Himmler, which tour of duty Himmler considered necessary administrative training for a promotable SS leader. In that time, the officers working within
17936-525: The post-War period, such hyperbolic descriptions of the tactical prowess of the tank commander Peiper glamourised the Waffen-SS man into a war hero of Germany. In the SS hierarchy, Peiper was an SS man and military officer who received, obeyed, and executed orders with minimal discussion, and expected that his soldiers receive, obey, and execute his orders without question. In July 1943, the LSSAH tank division participated in Operation Citadel in
18088-497: The public executions of twenty Polish social leaders who might lead partisan resistance to Nazi occupation. That demonstration of the mechanics of the Holocaust – of ethnic cleansing – was realised by the paramilitary Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz an ethnic-German, self-defence militia commanded by Ludolf von Alvensleben , the local SS and Police leader. In later conversation with the explorer Ernst Schäfer , Peiper rationalised
18240-434: The purge. The SS became an elite corps of the Nazi Party, answerable only to Hitler. Himmler's title of Reichsführer-SS now became his actual rank – and the highest rank in the SS, equivalent to the rank of field marshal in the army (his previous rank was Obergruppenführer ). As Himmler's position and authority grew, so in effect did his rank. On 17 June 1936, all police forces throughout Germany were united under
18392-474: The purview of Himmler and the SS. Himmler and Heydrich thus became two of the most powerful men in the country's administration. Police and intelligence forces brought under their administrative control included the SD, Gestapo, Kriminalpolizei (Kripo; criminal investigative police), and Ordnungspolizei (Orpo; regular uniformed police). In his capacity as police chief, Himmler was nominally subordinate to Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick . In practice, since
18544-456: The racial policy of Nazi Germany and were taught that it was necessary to remove from Germany people deemed by that policy as inferior. Esoteric rituals and the awarding of regalia and insignia for milestones in the SS man's career suffused SS members even further with Nazi ideology. Members were expected to renounce their Christian faith, and Christmas was replaced with a solstice celebration . Church weddings were replaced with SS Eheweihen ,
18696-460: The rank of SS- Gruppenführer or above and answered directly to Himmler in all SS matters within their district. Their role was to police the population and oversee the activities of the SS men within their district. By declaring an emergency, they could bypass the district administrative offices for the SS, SD, SiPo, SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; concentration camp guards), and Orpo, thereby gaining direct operational control of these groups. As
18848-496: The series of failed counter-attacks at Avranches . Schutzstaffel The Schutzstaffel ( German: [ˈʃʊtsˌʃtafl̩] ; lit. ' Protection Squadron ' ; SS ; also stylised with Armanen runes as ᛋᛋ ) was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany , and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II . It began with
19000-720: The shooting of its inhabitants". (The testimony was obtained in November 1944 by the Western Allies .) On 6 May 1943, Peiper was awarded the German Cross in Gold for his achievements in February 1943 around Kharkov, where his unit gained the nickname the "Blowtorch Battalion". Reportedly, the nickname derived from the torching and slaughter of two Soviet villages where their inhabitants were either shot or burned. Ukrainian sources, including surviving witness Ivan Kiselev, who
19152-499: The streets and the roads into and out of the village of Boves, and Peiper then threatened to destroy the village if the partisans did not release their Waffen-SS prisoners. In an effort to avoid the Nazis' destruction of the Boves village, the local spokesmen of the Boves commune, the parish priest Giuseppe Bernardi and the businessman Alessandro Vasallo, successfully negotiated the partisans' release of their Waffen-SS prisoners and of
19304-528: The tanks and infantry forces of the 1st SS Panzer Regiment in battle against the Red Army. Peiper's battlefield victories cost more Waffen-SS casualties (soldiers killed and soldiers wounded) than would have been lost with textbook tactics to achieve the same victory. Attacking without the benefit of prior reconnaissance by scout units, Peiper's tank-and-infantry frontal assaults against entrenched Red Army units killed too many infantry and cost too much lost matériel for an essentially Pyrrhic victory ; thus, after
19456-490: The time of the Nazi Party's rise to power until the regime's collapse in 1945, the SS was the foremost agency of security, mass surveillance , and state terrorism within Germany and German-occupied Europe. The two main constituent groups were the Allgemeine SS (General SS) and Waffen-SS (Armed SS). The Allgemeine SS was responsible for enforcing the racial policy of Nazi Germany and general policing, whereas
19608-546: The use of carbon monoxide gas from automobile engines. During Operation Reinhard , run by officers from the Totenkopfverbände , who were sworn to secrecy, three extermination camps were built in occupied Poland: Bełżec (operational by March 1942), Sobibór (operational by May 1942), and Treblinka (operational by July 1942), with squads of Trawniki men (Eastern European collaborators) overseeing hundreds of Sonderkommando prisoners, who were forced to work in
19760-542: The vanguard accepted the surrender of the city on 13 April. A few days later Yugoslavia surrendered. SS police units immediately began taking hostages and carrying out reprisals, a practice that became common. In some cases, they were joined by the Wehrmacht . Similar to Poland, the war policies of the Nazis in the Balkans resulted in brutal occupation and racist mass murder. Serbia became the second country (after Estonia ) declared Judenfrei (free of Jews). In Greece,
19912-449: The village of Owińska , near Poznań, Himmler and Peiper witnessed the Aktion T4 poison-gas mass killing of mentally ill patients in a psychiatric hospital. In post-war interrogations by U.S. Army JAG and military intelligence interrogators, Peiper was factual and emotionally detached in describing his eye-witness experience of mass murder: The [gassing] action was done before a circle of invited guests ... The insane were led into
20064-563: The war started and it became more difficult to confirm ancestry, the regulation was amended to proving only the candidate's grandparents were Aryan, as spelled out in the Nuremberg Laws . Other requirements were complete obedience to the Führer and a commitment to the German people and nation. Himmler also tried to institute physical criteria based on appearance and height, but these requirements were only loosely enforced, and over half
20216-400: The war, hundreds of camps of varying size and function had been created, holding nearly 715,000 people, most of whom were targeted by the regime because of their race. The concentration camp population rose in tandem with the defeats suffered by the Nazi regime; the worse the catastrophe seemed, the greater the fear of subversion, prompting the SS to intensify their repression and terror. By
20368-537: Was Gustav Lombard , a zealous Nazi, and later a regimental commander in the SS Cavalry Brigade , who were notoriously efficient at the mass murder of Jews in occupied Soviet Union , notably in punitive operations such as the Pripyat Marshes massacres (July–August 1941) in Byelorussia. On 23 January 1934, he was promoted to SS- Mann (SS Identity Card Nr. 132.496), which made Peiper an "SS Man" before
20520-452: Was 14 at the time of the massacre, described the killings at the villages of Yefremovka and Semyonovka on 17 February 1943. On 12 February troops of the LSSAH occupied the two villages, where retreating Soviet forces had wounded two SS officers. In retaliation, five days later, LSSAH troops killed 872 men, women and children. Some 240 of these were burned alive in the church of Yefremovka. In August 1944, when an SS commander, formerly of LSSAH,
20672-754: Was a protection unit founded by Himmler in March 1933. Originally it was only charged with protecting Hitler while he was inside the borders of Bavaria . In early 1934, they replaced the SS-Begleitkommando for Hitler's protection throughout Germany. The FSK was renamed the Reichssicherheitsdienst (Reich Security Service; RSD) in August 1935. Johann Rattenhuber , chief of the RSD, for the most part, took his orders directly from Hitler. The current FBK chief acted as his deputy. Wherever Hitler
20824-575: Was also involved in commercial enterprises and exploited concentration camp inmates as slave labour . After Nazi Germany's defeat, the SS and the Nazi Party were judged by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg to be criminal organisations. Ernst Kaltenbrunner , the highest-ranking surviving SS main department chief, was found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials and hanged in 1946. By 1923,
20976-606: Was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class, and promoted to SS- Hauptsturmführer (captain). On 19 June 1940, Peiper was awarded the Iron Cross 1st class for audacious soldiering. As a further reward and remuneration, Peiper took back to Germany a French sports car for his personal use; Himmler ordered the car be included in the motor-pool inventory of his personal staff. On 21 June 1940, Peiper returned to his role of personal adjutant to Himmler. On 7 September 1940, Himmler thanked
21128-565: Was captured south of Falaise in France and interrogated by the Allies, he stated that Peiper was "particularly eager to execute the order to burn villages". Peiper wrote to Potthast in March 1943: "Our reputation precedes us as a wave of terror and is one of our best weapons. Even old Genghis Khan would gladly have hired us as assistants." On 9 March 1943, Peiper was awarded the Knight's Cross of
21280-423: Was considered more dynamic than his predecessor but became increasingly frustrated by the authority the SA had over the SS. This led to him transferring leadership of the SS to his deputy, Erhard Heiden , on 1 March 1927. Under Heiden's leadership, a stricter code of discipline was enforced than would have been tolerated in the SA. Between 1925 and 1929, the SS was considered to be a small Gruppe (battalion) of
21432-647: Was designated the Stabswache (Staff Guard). Originally the unit was composed of eight men, commanded by Julius Schreck and Joseph Berchtold , and was modelled after the Erhardt Naval Brigade , a Freikorps of the time. The unit was renamed Stoßtrupp (Shock Troops) in May 1923. The Stoßtrupp was abolished after the failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch , an attempt by the Nazi Party to seize power in Munich. In 1925, Hitler ordered Schreck to organise
21584-460: Was divided into five departments: commander and adjutant, political affairs division, protective custody, administration, and medical personnel. By 1935, Himmler secured Hitler's approval and the finances necessary to establish and operate additional camps. Six concentration camps housing 21,400 inmates (mostly political prisoners) existed at the start of the war in September 1939. By the end of
21736-431: Was entrusted with the commission of war crimes such as the murder of Jewish civilians. Himmler once wrote that an SS man "hesitates not for a single instant, but executes unquestioningly..." any Führer-Befehl ( Führer order). Their official motto was " Meine Ehre heißt Treue " (My Honour is Loyalty). As part of its race-centric functions during World War II, the SS oversaw the isolation and displacement of Jews from
21888-520: Was followed by Einsatzgruppe D , who were responsible for killing the local Jews, other civilians, Commissars , Red Army soldiers, and partisans. To facilitate the depopulation of the lands of Russia, SS-General Sepp Dietrich , commander of the LSSAH, volunteered his Waffen-SS infantry to assist the Einsatzgruppe in the massacre of 1,800 people at the Gully of Petrushino . In May 1942, the LSSAH
22040-551: Was greater than his shortcomings as a military officer; thus, on 27 January 1944, Hitler presented the Oak Leaves to Peiper. In March 1944, the LSSAH was withdrawn from the Eastern Front and sent to be reformed in Nazi-occupied Belgium . New and replacement soldiers were integrated into their ranks; most were adolescent boys, unlike the Nazi ideologue, fanatical soldiers from the 1930s. The difficult training and
22192-413: Was in residence, members of the RSD and FBK would be present. RSD men patrolled the grounds and FBK men provided close security protection inside. The RSD and FBK worked together for security and personal protection during Hitler's trips and public events, but they operated as two groups and used separate vehicles. By March 1938, both units wore the standard field grey uniform of the SS. The RSD uniform had
22344-531: Was indifferent to the combat casualties of Battle Group Peiper, and who tolerated, expected, and indeed encouraged war crimes by his Waffen-SS soldiers. As adjutant to Himmler, Peiper witnessed the SS implement the Holocaust with ethnic cleansing and genocide of Jews in Eastern Europe; facts that he obfuscated and denied in the post-War period. As a tank commander, Peiper served in the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) in
22496-495: Was mentally ill, and his suicide attempt resulted in cerebral damage that reduced him to a persistent vegetative state . Interned to a hospital in 1931, Hans died of tuberculosis in 1942. Joachim Peiper was eighteen years old when he joined the Hitler Youth in the company of Horst, his middle brother. In October 1933, Peiper volunteered for the Schutzstaffel (SS) and joined the Cavalry SS , where his first superior officer
22648-414: Was promoted to First Adjutant on 1 November 1940. In February 1941, Reichsführer-SS Himmler informed adjutant Peiper about the upcoming Operation Barbarossa (22 June – 5 December 1941), for the invasion, conquest, and German colonisation of the U.S.S.R: Red Army . Moreover, Himmler and his staff travelled to occupied Poland, occupied Norway , Nazi Austria , and occupied Greece to see the progress of
22800-617: Was securing agricultural and forestry resources. The SS oversaw the collection of the harvest, which was deemed critical to strategic operations. Any Jews in the area were rounded up and killed. Communists and people of Asiatic descent were killed presumptively under the assumption that they were Soviet agents. After the start of the war, Himmler intensified the activity of the SS within Germany and in Nazi-occupied Europe. Increasing numbers of Jews and German citizens deemed politically suspect or social outsiders were arrested. As
22952-456: Was sent to Vichy France for rest, recuperation, and refitting, and were subsequently reorganized into a Panzergrenadier division. Peiper was promoted to commander of the 3rd Battalion. Peiper's battalion left France in January 1943 for the Eastern Front , where the Wehrmacht had begun to lose the initiative, especially in the Battle of Stalingrad . During the Third Battle of Kharkov ,
23104-572: Was to turn the SS into the most powerful organisation in Germany and the most influential branch of the party. He expanded the SS to 3,000 members in his first year as its leader. In 1929, the SS-Hauptamt (main SS office) was expanded and reorganised into five main offices dealing with general administration, personnel, finance, security, and race matters. At the same time, the SS-Gaue were divided into three SS-Oberführerbereiche areas, namely
#201798