Joachim Peiper
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Joachim Peiper as an SS major. |
Joachim Peiper (
january 30,
1915 -
July 13,
1976) more often known as
Jochen Peiper from the common German nickname for Joachim, was a senior
Waffen-SS officer and commander in the
Panzer campaigns of 1939-1945. By the end of his military career, Peiper was the youngest regimental colonel in the Waffen-SS, officially known as: SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper, 1st SS Panzer Division, Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler.
Peiper was born in
Berlin. His father was a
WW I veteran, and he had two brothers, Hans-Hasso and Horst.
Peiper was recruited into the
SS-Verfügungstruppe in 1935 upon his graduation from college.
Sepp Dietrich reviewed his application and admitted him into the "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler " (
LSSAH) honour guard regiment. Initially he served as an Adjutant on Heinrich Himmler's staff before moving onto command various Panzer units within "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler". While on Himmler's staff, Peiper met and married his wife, Sigurd, with whom he had three children: Heinrich, Elke, and Silke. Himmler was particularly fond of Jochen Peiper and took a keen interest in Peiper's ascension towards command. At age 29 Peiper was a full colonel of the Waffen-SS, well respected and a holder of one of wartime Germany's highest decorations, the Knight's Cross with Swords personally awarded to him by Adolf Hitler.
Peiper was a skilled combat leader and took part in a number of major Panzer battles of the war. His men were fiercely loyal to him, regarded by many as a "charismatic leader." Peiper participated in some of the most notable battles of the war to include the two battles for Kharkov and the Kursk offensive of 1943 on the Eastern Front of Russia. Most notably, he commanded the Kampfgruppe Peiper of the
LSSAH (assigned to the 6th SS Panzer Armee under
Sepp Dietrich) during Operation Wacht am Rhein (
Battle of the Bulge). Kampfgruppe Peiper advanced to the town of
La Gleize,
Belgium, before running out of fuel and coming under heavy fire from American artillery and tanks. Peiper was forced to abandon over a hundred vehicles in the town, including six Tiger II tanks, and made his way back to German lines with 800 men on foot.
Peiper has been accused of, but never prosecuted for, the
Boves Massacre. In 1968 the German Minister of Justice declared that there was no reason to prosecute Peiper, and the case was dismissed on
December 23,
1968.
On another note, while in Italy, Peiper discovered that the Italian government had captured a group of Jews. Peiper had them released to him, and he then set them free. One of the Jews was a rabbi, who later wrote a testimony to Peiper's kindness during his war crimes trial.
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Peiper in the field. |
After the end of
World War II, Peiper and other members of the Waffen-SS were tried for
war crimes in the
Malmedy massacre trial. Peiper volunteered to take all the blame if the court would set his men free: the court refused. Major Harold D. McCown, Battalion Commander of the 30th Infantry Division 119th Regiment of the US Army testified during the trials that he had conversed half the night with Peiper. McCown had heard of the allegations of Peiper's men shooting American POWs and asked Peiper if his men were safe. Peiper gave his word that McCown's men would not be shot; McCown also testified that he had no knowledge that any POWs were shot.Even so, Peiper was found guilty and sentenced to death by
hanging, as were many of his men. Peiper later requested that his men be shot by firing squad and was denied.However, due to issues with the case against them, many confessions had been ludicrously coerced by the use of mock hangings and harsh beatings of the prisoners; the sentences of many of the Malmedy defendants were later commuted to life and then to time served, and Peiper was released on parole from prison at the end of December 1956, after serving 11 and a half years, much in solitary confinement.
After release Peiper eventually went to live in
Traves,
Haute-Saône,
France, and supported himself as a translator. Following explicit death threats, Peiper was murdered in a
fire attack on his house on
July 13,
1976. The attackers were never prosecuted, but were suspected to be
French Communists.
*"I recognize that after the battles of Normandy my unit was composed mainly of young, fanatical soldiers. A good deal of them had lost their parents, their sisters and brothers during the bombing. They had seen for themselves in Köln thousands of mangled corpses after a terror raid had passed. Their hatred for the enemy was such; I swear it and I could not always keep it under control."
*"Imagine yourself acclaimed, a decorated national hero, an idol to millions of desperate people, then within six months, condemned to death by hanging."
*"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 and was punished accordingly." - Jochen Peiper on the Malmedy massacre, excerpted from
A Traveler's Guide to the Battle for the German Frontier by Charles Whitting
*"My men are the products of total war, grown up in the streets of scattered towns without any education. The only thing they knew was to handle weapons for the Reich. They were young people with a hot heart and the desire to win or die: right or wrong â€" my country. When seeing today the defendants in the dock, don't believe them to be the old Kampfgruppe Peiper. All of my old friends and comrades have gone before. The real outfit is waiting for me in
Valhalla."
*"History is always written by the victor, and the histories of the losing parties belong to the shrinking circle of those who were there."
*Agte, Patrick (2000).
Jochen Peiper: Commander Panzerregiment Leibstandarte. J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0921991460
*Reynolds, Michael (2004).
The Devil's Adjutant: Jochen Peiper, Panzer Leader, Casemate Publishers and Book Distributors; Pbk edition. ISBN 1862271569
*Watt, Jim. "Jochen Peiper: Maligned Hero and Selected Campaign Series Notes." November 2001.
.
*Williamson, Gordon (2003). Waffen-SS Handbook 1933-1945, Sutton Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0750929278
*No Author. "Joachim Peiper." .
*No Author. "Malmedy Massacre Trial." .
