Many men, soldiers, and supporters of Hitler and his politics, helped Germany do the damage it did during World War II. One of those men was Joachim Peiper.

A young teenager when Hitler first rose to power in his home nation of Germany, Peiper joined the SS after serving as a member of the Hitler Youth. His rise to prominence within the Nazi Party occurred quickly, and he held important positions as a member of the SS by the ages of 18 and 19 years old. Peiper spent his adulthood rising through the ranks of the SS, and in doing so, racked up many accomplishments — and many deaths of his nation’s enemies.

Post-World War II, Peiper spent his years in prison and sitting on trial for his actions, leaving behind a legacy of war crimes. Yet Joachim Peiper lived a life filled with interesting moments and facts beyond his work as an SS official. These are ten facts about Peiper that offer insight into the man, the SS legend, and the war criminal. Post-World War II, Peiper spent his years in prison and sitting on trial for his actions, leaving behind a legacy of alleged war crimes. Yet Joachim Peiper lived a life filled with interesting moments and facts beyond his work as an SS official. These are ten facts about Peiper that offer insight into the man, the SS legend.

Post-World War II, Peiper spent his years in prison and sitting on trial for his actions, leaving behind a legacy of war crimes. Yet Joachim Peiper lived a life filled with interesting moments and facts beyond his work as an SS official. These are ten facts about Peiper that offer insight into the man, the SS legend, and the war criminal.

1. Medals

Peiper earned more than 20 military awards and honors during his service as a member of the Nazi regime’s SS — and many of those achievements were accomplished before Peiper reached his mid-twenties in age. Almost as quickly as his career in the SS began, Peiper was earning both the admiration of his superiors and military awards.

He was honored for his skill and expertise in leading Nazi troops upon the battlefield, earning awards that included the Eastern Front Medal in September of 1942; the Infantry Assault Badge in Bronze in the fall of 1940; the Close Combat Clasp; and the prestigious Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. Peiper also earned accolades for his success as an SS member, achieving accomplishments like the Sudetenland Medal in 1938; the SS-Honour Ring; two SS Long Service Awards for four and eight years of service; and the Panzer Badge.

The list of his honors and awards is lengthy, and it is clear he was among the most highly decorated SS officials by the war’s end.

2. Himmler’s Right Hand Man

Peiper acted as high-ranking SS official Heinrich Himmler’s right-hand man for many of his years. During his very early years within the Nazi Party, Peiper formed a relationship, if not friendship, with Himmler that served him well during his years of service as an SS officer.

Soon after officially becoming a full-fledged member of the SS, Peiper was placed in the post of adjutant to Himmler, working in his anteroom alongside the highest ranking members of the SS. Himmler liked Peiper and took him under his wing. Once Germany invaded Poland in September of 1939, Himmler began to bring Peiper everywhere he went on official SS business. This allowed Peiper to be present at the execution of 20 Polish citizens just weeks later in Bydgoszcz Blomberg, an event that was part of Hitler’s special assignment for Himmler to “eliminate intellectuals.”

In the months that followed, Peiper took on, even more, power under Himmler’s watch as he began to assist in the creation and implementation of policies intended to control the Polish populace. Peiper was present at the gassing of Polish psychiatric facilities; alongside SS troops at the Battle of France; and meetings of Reich leaders, during which Peiper was privy to Hitler’s plans for war.

As Germany’s quest for power intensified, Peiper opted to join the forces on the battlefront, and Himmler gave his young mentee permission to fight as a company commander in the 11th Company of 1st SS Division. Once the fighting died down, Peiper returned to Himmler’s side and accompanied his superior on meetings with international politicians and figureheads, and on inspections of Hitler’s concentration camps.

It wasn’t until the war with the USSR began that Peiper left Himmler’s employ for good, once again choosing to see combat.

3. Fanatical Nazi

Peiper never rescinded his support of Hitler, or his adherence to the Nazi mindset, and kept close ties to his former SS allies and friends despite undergoing mandated rehabilitation. Although Peiper faced great accusations, and significant judgment, for his actions while a member of the SS, he did not waver in his political stance or associations — he remained a man of the SS throughout his entire life.

Joachim Peiper Trial By Fel King

After serving out his post-war sentence in a Belgium prison, Peiper was required to secure a job to prove that he was working towards rehabilitation. With the help of the SS allies, Peiper earned his first job at a car manufacturer. This, however, was not his last contact with his former SS friends. In his life after prison, and after the war, Peiper maintained regular contact with those in the SS whom he was close with, top-ranking SS officials like Kurt “Panzer” Meyer, Sepp Dietrich, and Paul Hausser.

Peiper even tried to help restore glory to the SS by hiding information about its dirtiest deeds. Perhaps most indicative of Peiper’s mindset, though, was a remark he once shared with a friend: “I personally think that every attempt at rehabilitation during our lifetime is unrealistic.”

4. Blowtorch Battalion

Peiper was the man responsible for developing a particular enemy attack: he was the first to attack enemy-controlled villages from all sides during the dark cover of nightfall while simultaneously advancing his armored tanks at full speed and firing at all visible buildings. Thanks to this innovative battle tactic, which he first used in February of 1943, Peiper was awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold award in May of that same year.

When Peiper and his troops began to use this new strategy on a regular basis, they became known as the “Blowtorch Battalion” — they were recognized for setting large-scale fires in villages, torching them in their entirety and murdering the residents. This attack-on-all-sides method also became Peiper’s calling card and was believed to represent his “win at all costs” mentally in combat.

5. War Crimes

When World War II ended, Peiper was accused of a variety of war crimes committed in Germany, Italy, and Belgium. However, he escaped sentencing for many of these and served time in prison for only the crimes he committed while in Belgium.

Luckily for Peiper, the courts of Italy and Germany decided that the charges against him lacked enough evidence to allow for fair prosecution, and he escaped those trials unscathed.

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6. When standing trial for war crimes, he denied almost nothing

Instead, he welcomed the charges — or, as he did in his older years, claimed he could not remember the facts of what, exactly, it was that he did. Over the course of his post-wartime trials, Peiper faced accusations of war crimes in the vein of POW murders, violations of wartime treaties, and even playing witness to some greater war crimes. He did not outright deny any of these charges; in fact, he took responsibility for both his actions and those of the men under his command.

Though he faced much questioning, and even torture tactics, by those conducting the investigation, Peiper admitted that he accepted all responsibility for the actions of the men under his command — even if it was brutal and uncalled for. In his later years, Peiper was called before trials and juries who wanted to convict other SS officials; instead of offering details or admonitions of guilt, Peiper claimed that his failing memory prevented him from recalling specifics, which the courts believed.

7. Sentenced to Death

Peiper was sentenced to death by hanging, but the sentence was never carried out. Truthfully, and with great fortune, Peiper evaded death; though he was convicted by a jury, controversy befell the court proceedings. Because of this, United States’ officials changed Peiper’s sentence from immediate death to lengthy imprisonment. It was thought that Peiper and other defendants had earned their “guilty” verdicts due to a flawed judicial process, so all of Peiper’s war crimes were commuted in their sentencing.

By the end of these trials and the time period, Peiper was required to serve 12 years in prison for his war crimes in Belgium alone.

8. Freelance writer and book translator

His work was published under the pen name, or nom de plume, Rainer Buschmann. After trying his hand as an automobile salesman and other professions, Peiper decided to publish written works under a fake name. Kali kali bol rasana lyrics. He wrote for the French magazine Auto, Motor und Sport, and became a self–employed translator for French book publisher Stuttgarter Motor-Buch Verlag.

During his time as a translator and writer, Peiper published a number of works translated from German to English.

9. After the War

When his prison sentence ended, and he rejoined the civilian world, Peiper worked for both Porsche and Volkswagen. That’s right — the former Nazi, the former high-ranking SS officer, took an average job within the production facilities of Porsche. Once released from prison and tasked with finding employment to prove he was on the path to rehabilitation, Peiper enlisted the help of his former SS friends to secure a job at Porsche.

He began his new career in January of 1957, in the company’s technical department. Much like the years of his involvement with the SS, Peiper quickly rose through the ranks at Porsche — however, because he was a criminal during wartime, he was never allowed to travel beyond European borders when he was promoted and required to travel. In his later years, after parting ways with Porsche, Peiper became an auto salesman for another German car company, Volkswagen.

10. Peiper did not die of old age

He was murdered by attackers who, to this day, are still unnamed and unknown. Though he was initially sentenced to death by hanging, as mentioned above, Peiper evaded this fate and lived a long, fruitful life after World War II. He met his end not by hanging during the outcome of his military tribes, but instead at the hand of unknown assailants.

While living in France in the later years of his life, Peiper was shot in July 1976 by strangers. Once certain Peiper was dead, his attackers took their vengeance a step further by setting his residence and home alight with fire. It was in that blaze, with a gunshot wound, that Peiper finally met his end.

Joachim Peiper led quite an eventful life — not only was he a high-ranking member of the SS and renowned military leader during the years of Hitler’s reign, but he also spent his lifetime rubbing elbows with even more notorious and powerful men within the Nazi Party.

However, he was a man with many murders attributed to his name, such as those American soldiers he massacred at Malmedy, and the civilians he killed in Belgium, and it is that reputation that he is remembered by today. Despite these crimes and the horrors that occurred during World War II, Peiper was certainly an intriguing figure in history.

Controversial even today, he was also a courageous and dedicated member of the German military, and highly respected by those whom he worked alongside. Piper left behind a complex legacy, one mixed with both good and evil, a product of the regime that he both supported and worked within.

The Malmedy massacre trial (U.S. vs. Valentin Bersin, et al.) was held in May–July 1946 in the former Dachau concentration camp to try the GermanWaffen-SS soldiers accused of the Malmedy massacre of December 17, 1944. The highest-ranking defendant was the former Waffen-SS general Sepp Dietrich.

Malmedy massacre[edit]

The Malmedy massacre was a series of killings committed by members of Kampfgruppe Peiper, part of the 1st SS Panzer Division, against American prisoners of war and Belgian civilians during the Battle of the Bulge. Although the killing of over 80 American POWs near Baugnez was the primary subject of the eventual trial, it was only one of a series of war crimes committed by Kampfgruppe Peiper between mid-December 1944 and mid-January 1945.^[1] In total, over 750 POWs were murdered, mostly executed at close range by gunshots to the head (though the eventual U.S. Senate investigation would tally the official total at 362 POWs and 111 civilians).^[1]

Most of the testimony provided by the survivors stated that about 120 Americans from the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion (FAOB), were surprised by the German armored advance on Baugnez, and surrendered.^[2][3] They were then gathered in a field near the Baugnez crossroads, at which time the SS troops fired on their prisoners with machine guns.^[2][3] Several SS prisoners later testified that a few of the prisoners had tried to escape. Others claimed that a few of the prisoners had recovered their previously discarded weapons and fired on the German troops as they continued their progress toward Ligneuville.^[4][5] Of the 84 bodies recovered a month later, most showed wounds to the head, seemingly much more consistent with a deliberate massacre than with self-defense or with injuries inflicted on prisoners who were attempting to escape.^[6]

As soon as the SS machine gunners opened fire, the American POWs panicked. Some tried to flee, but most were shot where they stood. A few sought shelter in a café at the crossroads. The SS soldiers set fire to the building, and shot all who tried to escape the flames.^[3] Some in the field had dropped to the ground and pretended to be dead when the shooting began.^[3] However, SS troops walked among the bodies and shot any who appeared to be alive.^[3][4]

On January 13, 1945, American forces secured the areas where the killings occurred. The bodies were recovered on January 14 and January 15, 1945, with the cold weather preserving the evidence and keeping the bodies and their wounds mostly intact.^[7] The autopsies revealed that at least twenty of the victims had suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the head, inflicted at very close range.^[6] These were in addition to wounds made by automatic weapons. Another 20 showed evidence of small-calibre gunshot wounds to the head without powder-burn residue;^[6] 10 had fatal crushing or blunt-trauma injuries, most likely from rifle butts.^[6] Some bodies showed a single wound, in the temple or behind the ear.^[8] Most of the bodies were found in a very small area, suggesting the victims had been gathered just before they were killed.^[9]

Trial proceedings[edit]

The trial – Case Number 6-24 (US vs. Valentin Bersin et al.) – was one of the Dachau Trials, which took place from May 16, 1946 to July 16, 1946. The defendants appeared before a military court of senior American commissioned officers. The defendants were 73 former members of the Waffen-SS, mostly from the SS Division Leibstandarte. Highest in rank were SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Sepp Dietrich, commander of the 6th Panzer Army, his chief of staff, SS-Brigadeführer Fritz Krämer, SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Priess, commander of the I SS Panzer Corps and SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper, commander of the 1st SS Panzer Regiment - the core element of Kampfgruppe Peiper, which conducted the massacre.

The counts of indictment related to the massacre of more than three hundred American prisoners of war 'in the vicinity of Malmedy, Honsfeld, Büllingen, Ligneuville, Stoumont, La Gleize, Cheneux, Petit Thier, Trois Ponts, Stavelot, Wanne and Lutrebois', between December 16, 1944 and January 13, 1945 during the Battle of the Bulge, as well as the massacre of about one hundred Belgian civilians in the vicinity of Stavelot.^[10] The defense was directed by Colonel Willis M. Everett Jr., a lawyer from Atlanta, assisted by other American and German lawyers. The prosecution was led by Colonel Burton L Ellis.

Six defendants, including Peiper, complained to the court that they had been victims of physical violence or threats of violence meant to force them to provide extrajudicial confessions.^[10] The defendants were invited to confirm the statements they had made under oath.^[10] Of the nine who testified, three had claimed mistreatment they had suffered.^[11] For most of the accused, the defense argued that they either had not participated, or had done so by obeying a superior's orders.^[7] The court ruled that all but one of the defendants were guilty in some degree. Forty-three were sentenced to death, including Peiper; the rest were sentenced to from ten years to life in prison. Dietrich received a life sentence and Priess 20 years imprisonment.

Verdicts[edit]

On July 16, 1946 the verdict was delivered on 73 members of the Kampfgruppe Peiper.

• 43 sentenced to death by hanging, including Peiper
• 22 sentenced to life imprisonment
• 2 sentenced to 20 years imprisonment
• 1 sentenced to 15 years
• 5 sentenced to 10 years

Review procedure[edit]

Pursuant to procedure, an in-house review was undertaken by the American Occupation Army in Germany; the trial was carefully examined by a deputy judge. Taking into account doubts which surrounded the investigation phase, he issued in several cases recommendations of free pardon or commutation of the death sentences^{[further explanation needed]}, which were often followed by General Lucius Clay,^[when?] the Commander of the American zone in occupied Germany.^[7]

Other appeals[edit]

Colonel Everett was convinced that a fair trial had not been granted to the defendants: in addition to alleged mock trials, he claimed that 'to extort confessions, U.S. prosecution teams 'had kept the German defendants in dark, solitary confinement at near starvation rations up to six months; had applied various forms of torture, including the driving of burning matches under the prisoners' fingernails; had administered beatings which resulted in broken jaws and arms and permanently injured testicles'.'^[12]

Approximately sixteen months after the end of the trial, almost all the defendants presented affidavits repudiating their former confessions and alleging aggravated duress of all types.^[13]

Joachim Peiper Killed

The Simpson Commission[edit]

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. Apparently,^{[according to whom?]} the Commission was interested not only in the facts of the Malmedy massacre trial, but also had to deal with other cases judged by the International Military Tribunals in Europe.^{[example needed]}

The commission supported Everett's accusations regarding mock trials^[specify] and neither disputed nor denied his charges of torture of the defendants.^[12] 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.^[14] One of the members of the commission, Judge Edward L. Van Roden of Pennsylvania, made several public statements alleging that physical violence had been inflicted on the accused.

All but two of the Germans in the 139 cases we investigated had been kicked in the testicles beyond repair. This was standard operating procedure with our American investigators.^[15]

Furthermore, under his signature, an article denouncing the conditions under which the assumed guilt of Malmedy defendants and of other questionable cases was going to be published in February 1949 with the assistance of the National Council for Prevention of War.^[16] He refused to commute the six remaining death sentences, including Peiper's, but the executions were postponed.

The Senate subcommittee[edit]

Eventually, the United States Senate decided to investigate. Ultimately, the case was entrusted to the Committee on Armed Services over the Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments. The investigation was entrusted to a subcommittee of three senators chaired by Raymond E. Baldwin. The subcommittee was set up on March 29, 1949. Its members went to Germany and during its hearings, the commission heard from no fewer than 108 witnesses.^{[citation needed]}

Joseph McCarthy had obtained from the subcommittee's chairman authorization to attend the hearings. McCarthy's state, Wisconsin, had a large population of German heritage, spurring allegations that McCarthy was politically motivated in his work on behalf of the Malmedy defendants.^[17] He used an aggressive questioning style during the proceedings.^[18] McCarthy's actions further inflamed a split between the American Legion, which took a hardline position after Malmedy and generally supported upholding the death sentences, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, who supported more lenient penalties for the Waffen-SS members under Peiper.^[19] The last clash took place in May 1949 when he asked that Lieutenant Perl to be given a lie detection test. Since this had been rejected by Baldwin, McCarthy left the session claiming that Baldwin was trying to whitewash the American military.^[20]

While on the one hand McCarthy was far from impartial, two of the members of the three-man subcommittee, the chairman Senator Raymond Baldwin and Senator Lester Hunt have been accused by historian David Oshinsky of being 'determined to exonerate the Army at all costs'.^[21] Oshinsky also alleges that the third member of the committee, Senator Estes Kefauver, displayed a lack of interest in the case, attending only two of the first fifteen hearings.^[22] McCarthy sought to denounce Baldwin in front of the whole Senate,^{[according to whom?]} but his efforts were repudiated by the Commission on Armed Forces, which clearly showed its support for Baldwin^[how?] and eventually adopted the report of the subcommittee.^{[citation needed]}

The subcommittee report[edit]

In its report, the subcommittee rejected the most serious charges, including beatings, torture, mock executions and starvation of the defendants.^{[page needed]} In addition, the subcommittee determined that commutations of sentences pronounced by General Clay had occurred because of the U.S. Army's recognition that procedural irregularities could have occurred during the trial.^{[page needed]} The commission did not exonerate the defendants or absolve them of guilt and it endorsed the conclusions General Clay issued in the particular case of Lieutenant Christ. In summary, Clay had written that 'he was personally convinced of the culpability of Lieutenant Christ and, that for this reason his death sentence was fully justified. But, to apply this sentence would be equivalent accepting a bad administration of justice, which led [him], not without reserve, to commute the death penalty to life imprisonment'.^[23]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abMalmedy massacre Investigation–Report of the Subcommittee of Committee on Armed Services. United States Senate Eighty-first Congress, first 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. 13 October 1949.
2. ^ ^abCole, Hugh M. (1965). 'Chapter V: The Sixth Panzer Army Attack'. The Ardennes. United States Army in World War II, The European Theater of Operations. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Military History.
3. ^ ^abcdeMacDonald, Charles (1984). A Time For Trumpets: The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge. Bantam Books. ISBN0-553-34226-6.
4. ^ ^abReynolds, Michael (February 2003). Massacre At Malmédy During the Battle of the Bulge. World War II Magazine. Archived from the original on 2007-03-07.
5. ^Wholesale Slaughter at Baugnez-lez-Malmedy, Willy D. AlenusArchived 2007-05-05 at the Wayback Machine
6. ^ ^abcdGlass, MAJ Scott T. 'Mortuary Affairs Operations At Malmedy—Lessons Learned From A Historic Tragedy'.
7. ^ ^abc'Review and recommendation of the deputy judge advocate for war crimes, 20 October 1947'. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29.
8. ^Roger Martin, L'Affaire Peiper, Dagorno, 1994, p. 76
9. ^Glass, Lt Col Scott T. (1998-11-22). 'Mortuary Affairs Operations at Malmedy'. Centre de Recherches et d'Informations sur la Bataille des Ardennes. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-03-22.
10. ^ ^abcWar Crimes Office (1948). 'Case Number 6-24 (US vs. Valentin Bersin et al.)'. U.S. Army Trial Reviews and Recommendations. United States Department of War. Archived from the original on 2007-02-17. Retrieved 2006-12-18. This is a web transcription of microfilmed archives of the original US Army documents. See the site's introductionArchived 2006-12-19 at the Wayback Machine for more information. The URL is to a HTML frame, you must select 'US011' in the left pane to get to case '6-24'. The direct URL to the case page is hereArchived 2007-07-23 at the Wayback Machine.
11. ^Malmedy massacre Investigation – Report of the Subcommittee of Committee on armed services – United States Senate – Eighty-first Congress, first 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. October 13, 1949 p. 27
12. ^ ^abClemency, Time magazine, Jan. 17, 1949 (registration required).
13. ^Malmedy massacre Investigation, p. 4
14. ^Malmedy massacre Investigation, p. 28
15. ^Utley, Freda (1948), The High Cost of Vengeance(PDF), Chicago: Henry Regnery Companyp. 186 (From a speech to the Chester Pike Rotary Club on December 14, 1948)
16. ^American atrocities in Germany, by Judge Edward L. Van Roden, The Progressive, février 1949.
17. ^The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate, Robert Griffith, University of Massachusetts Press, 1987, p. 22
18. ^The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy, Fred J. Cook, Random House, 1971, p. 133
19. ^Bitburg in moral and political perspective, Geoffrey H. Hartman, Indiana University Press, 1986 at pp. 68-73.
20. ^The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy, cité ci-dessus, p. 133
21. ^'Throughout the hearings, McCarthy bullied witnesses, made scores of erroneous statements, exaggerated his evidence, and turned almost every session into a barroom brawl. At the same time, however, he demonstrated that Baldwin and Hunt were no more interested in an impartial investigation than he was. Their manners were better, their tone more subdued, but they were determined to exonerate the Army at all costs, just as Joe was determined to prove its culpability.' David M. Oshinsky 'A conspiracy so immense: the world of Joe McCarthy' pp. 76-77
22. ^David M. Oshinsky 'A conspiracy so immense: the world of Joe McCarthy' pp.76
23. ^Malmedy massacre Investigation, p. 31

Further reading[edit]

• Steven P. Remy, The Malmedy Massacre: The War Crimes Trial Controversy (Harvard University Press, 2017), x, 342 pp.

External links[edit]

• Dachau Trial, Review and Recommendations of the Deputy Judge Advocate, Jewish Virtual Library
• Malmedy Massacre Trial, Jewish Virtual Library
• 'Clemency', (Jan. 17, 1949), Time magazine(registration required)
• Utley, Freda, (November 1954) 'Malmedy and McCarthy', Printed in The American Mercury

Joachim Peiper Pics

Coordinates: 48°16′13″N11°28′05″E / 48.27028°N 11.46806°E

Joachim Peiper Murder Scene