Joachim Peiper

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Joachim Peiper
30 January 1915 - 13 July 1976
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Nickname Jochen
Place of birth Berlin
Place of death Traves
Allegiance Germany
Years of service 1933-1945
Rank Standartenführer
Awards Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern


Joachim Peiper (January 30, 1915 - July 13, 1976) more often known as Jochen Peiper from the common German nickname for Joachim, was a war criminal. He 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. His official title was SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper.

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[edit] Biography

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 1933. 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 battles of the war. His men were fiercely loyal to him, and he was regarded by many as a "charismatic leader." Peiper participated in several major battles including the two battles for Kharkov and the Kursk offensive of 1943. On the East front Peiper and his men got among the German army a reputation of merciless soldiers since they had burned several Russian villages and killed their inhabitants.

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.

During its move from Lanzerath, Belgium to La Gleize, the Kampfgruppe Peiper killed at several places disarmed US POWs, the most known of these massacres being the Malmedy massacre. Moreover, in the area of Stavelot, more than 80 Belgian civilians (including women and children) were killed by units under Peiper’s command.

Peiper in the field.
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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. 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.

After the trial, the sentences created a big turmoil in some German circles, including the Churches, leading the commander of the US army in Germany to commute some of the death sentences in life imprisonment. Moreover, this turmoil would soon be relayed in the United States were the Senate would eventually investigate on the case.

In its investigation on the trial, the Senate’s Subcommittee of Committee on armed services came to the conclusion that unproper pre-trial procedures (including mock trial, but not torture as sometime stated) had harmed the process and, although in some cases there was little or no doubt that the accused were indeed guilty of the massacre, the death sentences could hardly be applied.

At the end, the sentences of the Malmedy defendants were 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.

Peiper has also 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.

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.

[edit] Quotations

C-Port

  • "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 – 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."

[edit] Summary of SS career

[edit] Dates of rank

[edit] Notable decorations


[edit] References

  • Agte, Patrick (2000). Jochen Peiper: Commander Panzerregiment Leibstandarte. J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0-921991-46-0
  • Reynolds, Michael (2004). The Devil’s Adjutant: Jochen Peiper, Panzer Leader, Casemate Publishers and Book Distributors; Pbk edition. ISBN 1-86227-156-9
  • Watt, Jim. "Jochen Peiper: Maligned Hero and Selected Campaign Series Notes." November 2001. <http://www.warfarehq.com/articles/cs_articles/maligned_hero.shtml>.
  • Williamson, Gordon (2003). Waffen-SS Handbook 1933-1945, Sutton Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7509-2927-8
  • Malmedy massacre Investigation – Report of the Subcommittee of Committee on armed services – United States Senate – Eighty-first Congress, fist session, pursuant to S. res. 42, Investigation of action of army with respect to trial of persons responsible for the massacre of American soldiers, battle of the Bulge, near Malmedy, Belgium, December 1944, published October 13, 1949.
  • No Author. "Malmedy Massacre Trial." <http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/DachauTrials/MalmedyMassacre03.html>.
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