Waffen-SS
Joachim Peiper, (1915–1976)
German Waffen-Schutzstaffel (Waffen-SS) officer. Born in Berlin on 30 January 1915, Joachim Peiper came from a military family. He was well educated and was fluent in both English and French. Peiper joined first the Hitler Youth, then the SS. Commissioned in the SS in 1936, he served on Heinrich Himmler’s personal staff but sought a combat command. He was a…
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“Das Reich”
The SS-Verfügungstruppe, combat support force, or SS-VT was created in 1934 from the merger of various Nazi and right-wing paramilitary formations. Two regiments were formed, in northern Germany the SS-Standarte “Germania”, and in southern Germany SS-Standarte “Deutschland”. In Berlin-Brandenburg they were incorporated into the SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. SS-Verfügungstruppe was considered…
‘Berlog’
The so-called “Battle of Berlin” was the last major land battle in the European theater during World War II. It was also more of a campaign to occupy central and eastern Germany than a fight over or inside the poorly defended, sprawling, smoldering wreck of the German metropolis. On one…
The SS and the Secret Weapons
Himmler visits the Peenemünde rocket research site, June 1943. Behind him is SS-Sturmbannfuhrer (SS-Major) Wernher von Braun in his SS uniform. In summer 1943 it looked as if the SS would succeed after all in moving beyond the hiring-out of prisoners and a modest amount of production to becoming involved…
12th SS Panzer Division in the Ardennes
SS Colonel Hugo Kraas was born in Witten/the Ruhr in 1911, the eldest of seven sons. He studied to be a teacher but had to drop out and go to work when his father died. He joined the Brownshirts in 1934 and transferred to the army in 1935.…
Neu Das Heer I
Albert Schnez as Bundeswher General. Schnez played a central part in the plan to create a secret army. Schnez was born in 1911 and served as a colonel in World War II before ascending the ranks in the Bundeswehr, which was founded in 1955. For nearly six decades, the 321-page…
Neu Das Heer II
Reinhard Gehlen Contemporaries described Schnez as an energetic organizer, but also self-confident and aloof. He maintained contacts with the League of German Youth and its specialized organization, the Technischer Dienst (Technical Service), which were preparing themselves for a partisan war against the Soviets. The two groups, secretly funded by the…