The French
Charlemagne SS were the last defenders of Hitler's Führerbunker, remaining at
the bunker until 2 May to prevent the Soviets from capturing it on May Day.
Reduced
from 7,340 to approximately thirty able men, most members of the Sturmbataillon
had been killed or captured or had escaped Berlin either on their own, or in
groups. Most of those who made it to France were denounced and sent to Allied
prisons and camps.
Hauptsturmführer
Henri Joseph Fenet (1919 in Ceyzériat - 2002), one of the last recipients of
the Knight's Cross, was sentenced to 20 years of forced labour, and was
released from prison in 1959. Others were shot upon capture by French
authorities.
General
Leclerc was presented with a defiant group of 11-12 captured Charlemagne
Division men.
The Free
French General immediately asked them why they wore a German uniform, to which
one of them replied by asking the General why he wore an American one (the Free
French wore modified US army uniforms).
The group
of French Waffen-SS men was later executed without any form of due process.
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