Joachim
Peiper was born on January 30th, 1915 as the son of an officer’s family in
Berlin.
He
belonged to the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. In 1938, he became the adjutant
of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. But as the war started, he wanted to serve
at the front line. He commanded the 10th SS Leibstandarte A.H. company in
Poland, Holland, Belgium and in France.
In
1941 he fought in Russia with the 3rd Panzergrenadier battalion of the SS
Panzergrenadier regiment 2. He replaces the 320th infantry division of General
Postel, encircled in Kharkov.
On
March 19th 1943 he takes Bielgorod. In September 1943 he is in Italy. In
November of the same year he fights for the Reich in Jitomir and with the 1st
army breaks through the encirclement at Kamenets Podolsk.
Until
October 1944 he fought at the West Front. On December 16th 1944 – under the
command of Sepp Dietrich’s 6th Panzer army – he is at the spearhead of the
offensive in the Ardennes with his 1st SS Panzer division L.A.H.
He
advanced to La Gleize near Stavelot. Cut off from the rest of the army, he was
encircled. But he could escape with his men, on foot and in icy cold, leaving
back all the war material. Always fighting under Sepp Dietrich’s command, he
battled the Soviets until the end, at the west of the Danube near Vienna. The
same way in the alps at St. Pollen and Krems where he and his men finally
surrendered to the Americans. He made it to SS-Obersturmbannführer and bearer
of the Knight’s Cross with Swords.
After
Germany’s capitulation this flawless, noble-minded and incredibly brave soldier
was imprisoned, beaten and humiliated. He was accused of having ordered the
execution of American POWs at Baugnez near Malmedy during the offensive in the
Ardennes: Caught by the Kampfgruppe J.P., the captured U.S. soldiers were taken
to a meadow to wait there for their transport to the front line. Peiper left
back some of his men as guards. He himself drove at the head of his tanks far
in front of the following troops to Ligneuville. As most of the Kampfgruppe
troops arrived in Baugnez, the troops remained there chatted with their
comrades left behind. A Spähwagen had a breakdown and was repaired. Suddenly a
soldier sitting on a tank startled and noticed that some of the American
prisoners had made use of their inattentiveness and wanted to flee. But a shot
fired from his handgun caused panic among the prisoners who were running away
in all directions. Submachine guns were used and 21 Americans shot while
fleeing.
After
the capitulation the men of the 1st SS Panzer division were tracked down and
taken to the camp Zuffenhausen. 400 were transferred to the prison of
Schwäbisch Hall near Stuttgart. Peiper’s troops consisted of mostly very young
soldiers. One was 16, two were 17, eleven were 18 and eight were 19 years old.
22 of the 72 convicts were thereby below the age of 20; all of them were
tortured in order to force any confessions. Peiper was an example for his crew,
and under his command the team made well. There was never any betrayal among
his units. The men were taken to the KZ Dachau where 72 of the 74 accused were
convicted at a show trial. One commited suicide, one was Alsatian and was
handed over to a French court. 43 – among them Peiper, who was called to
account for his men’s actions – were sentenced to death by hanging, 22 to life
imprisonment, eight to 20, eleven to ten years of prison. The trial was later
newly heard and the sentence to death was replaced by life imprisonment. After
eleven years of custody, J. Peiper was released as the last of his comrades in
December 1956.
In
January 1957 he started to work for Porsche in Frankfurt. Syndicates demanded
his dismissal. Afterwards he worked for VW in Stuttgart, but there he was
dismissed as well because of leftist agitation. With this he realized that he
could not remain any longer in Germany and moved with his family to France.
During the offensive in 1940 he had become acquainted with the region around
the Langres Plateau and already at that time he loved it as a beautiful and
quiet place. He then helped a French POW, a German-friendly nationalist, who
had to work in Reutlingen for some relatives of Peiper like a forced labor
convict in a garage. But there was a regulation between France and Germany,
enabling the release of two French POWs for every voluntary worker willing to
work in Germany. On Peiper’s recommendation that man, Gauthier, was allowed to
return to his family. He had not forgotten Peiper and as he had to leave
Germany in 1957, it was Gauthier who helped him and sold him the watermill of
Traves. That building was in bad condition and Peiper did not have the
necessary financial means to restore the mill. SS-Obersturmbannführer Erwin
Ketelhut has afterwards taken over the water mill and in 1960 Peiper made build
a house in Spannplate, high up on the bank of the Saone, hidden by bushes, not
to see from the streets and like a military fortification. He had lived there –
despite threats and anonymous phone calls – quite peacefully for over sixteen
years.
On
July 11th 1976 he bought some wire for a kennel in a shop in Vesoul, the
capitol of that department. The salesman was an Alsatian: Paul Cacheux, member
of the communist party, recognized through his accent that he was German and
asked him whether he had been in France during the war. Peiper paid with a
check with his name and address on it. Paul Cacheux looked up Peiper’s name in
the "brown list" where all wanted Germans were registered. He passed
his data over to the Resistance. On June 22nd 1976 the French communist
newspaper "L’Humanité" wrote: „What does this Nazi do in
France?". It was demanded to force Peiper to leave France. Flyers showing
Peiper as a war criminal and Nazi were distributed to people in Traves.
"Peiper, we’ll deliver you a 14 July!" was smeared on walls. July
14th is of course the French national holiday.
The
morning of July 13th Peiper sent his wife, suffering from cancer, back to
Germany. He himself did not want to leave his house because he expected it to
be burned down. His neighbor Ketelhut had suggested to pass the night in the
water mill but Peiper rejected that offer. He did not want Ketelhut staying
with him either, since he would have shot any attackers. "No", he
said, "It’s been already killed enough." Joachim Peiper waited
on the veranda of his house from where he could observe the Saone river. Erwin
Ketelhut had lent him his rifle. At 10:30 pm he heard a noise in the bushes and
saw a dozen men climbing up the river bank. He shot in the air to intimidate
the drunk intruders. She called him to come outside. He did that and opened the
door in order to talk to them.
What
happened afterwards can only be told by the culprits.
Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper’s body was found charred and only one
meter in size, he had no hands and feet. He died at about 1:00 am. The house
was burned down, the ceiling broken in. What happened between 11:30 pm and 1:00
am? Was the Obersturmbannführer alive when he was mutilated? Was he still alive
when he was burned? The culprits had poured gas on the floor, lit with a
mixture of petrol and motor oil. Peiper lay in his bedroom, on the left side
with his back to the wall, one arm bowed before his chest. Nothing had fallen upon
him. He died by the immense heat. The body was not cremated but shrunken.
Erwin
Ketelhut and the French having known and liked him shared the opinion that this
knightly man, having defied so many dangers, should not have died this way. The
murderers had driven with their car over a meadow to the river bank where two
barges lay ready. With them they had crossed the Saone and afterwards had to
climb up the steep bank through bushes. After the murder they ran the other way
back over the meadows, in front of the house, to the street. The firemen
searched the river for missing body parts. The French police’s investigation
work took six months. The communists from Vesoul and the Resistance members
were questioned. Nobody knew anything! Then the case was shelved. Nobody was
ever arrested or punished! The area of Traves is not densely populated, there
are only about ten inhabitants per square kilometer. Everybody knows everyone
there and the people know everything about each other.
The
culprits are known to the inhabitants, but the people say nothing. In the night
from 13th to 14th July we have a protest vigil for Obersturmbannführer and
bearer of the Knight’s Cross Joachim Peiper. The injustice made to him
will not remain unpunished! With this cruel death Joachim Peiper has paid
his last respects to his people and his homeland.
Gerhard
Lauck (NSDAP/AO)
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