Joachim Peiper

Joachim Peiper
30 January 1915(1915-01-30) – 14 July 1976(1976-07-14) (aged 61)
Nickname	Jochen
Place of birth	Berlin, Prussia, Germany
Place of death	Traves, Haute-Saône, France
Resting place	St Anna's church, Schondorf am Ammersee, Bavaria
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Waffen-SS
Years of service	1933–1945
Rank	Standartenführer
Unit	1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords

Joachim Peiper (German pronunciation: [ˈjoːaxɪm ˈpaɪpɐ]; 30 January 1915 – 14 July 1976) more often known as Jochen Peiper from the common German nickname for Joachim, was a field grade Waffen-SS officer in World War II, convicted of war crimes in Belgium and accused of war crimes in Italy. He was Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's personal adjutant (April 1938 – August 1941). In 1945, he was an SS-Standartenführer, the Waffen-SS's youngest regimental colonel. He was murdered in France in July 1976, after his house was attacked with molotov cocktails.

Contents 1 Early life and family 2 Military aspirations 2.1 Officer training 2.2 Himmler's adjutant 3 Wedding and family 4 The Battle of Poland 5 The Battle of France 6 Rejoined Himmler’s personal staff 7 The Eastern Front and France 8 Back to the Eastern Front 8.1 Rescues 320th Infantry Division 9 Operations in Italy 9.1 German officers captured 9.2 Village homes burned 9.3 Local Jews deported 10 Last stay at the Eastern Front 11 The Battle of Normandy 12 The Battle of the Bulge 12.1 Assigned route 12.2 Initial advance stalled 12.3 Alternative route chosen 12.4 The end of the war 13 The Malmedy massacre and other murders 13.1 Peiper's instructions 13.2 Other murders 13.3 Interrogation and confession of Peiper 13.4 The trial 13.5 Death sentence 14 Return to civilian life 14.1 The last years 14.2 Death 15 Reputation 15.1 Panzer commander 15.2 Recognition 15.3 Post-war reputation 16 Summary of SS career 16.1 Dates of rank 16.2 Notable decorations 17 Fiction 18 See also 19 References

Early life and family

Peiper was born on 30 January 1915 into a middle class family from the Silesian region of Germany and Poland. His father was an officer in the German Imperial Army and fought during 1904 in East Africa, where he was awarded the military cross after he was wounded several times and becoming infected with malaria. When World War I broke out, his father resumed service and was sent to Turkey. However, cardiac troubles resulting from his exposure to malaria forced him to retire from active duty in 1915. After the war, he joined the Freikorps and took part in the Silesian Uprisings.^[1]:15-16

Peiper had two brothers, Hans-Hasso and Horst. Hans-Hasso attempted suicide but was left in a vegetative state.^[1] He died in 1942 from tuberculosis in a Berlin hospital.^[2] Peiper pursued a normal academic education. In 1926 he followed his other brother, Horst, and joined the scout movement. During his experience with scouting he developed an interest in a military career.^[3]. until

Military aspirations

Peiper turned 18 years old on the day Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. During the same year, before it became mandatory, he volunteered to join the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) together with his oldest brother Horst.^[4]

Peiper wanted to join Reiterregiment 4, a calvary division of the German self-defense forces. To gain skill at horseback riding, he followed the advice of a family friend, General Walther von Reichenau,^[5] and first enlisted on 12 October 1933 in the 7th SS Reiterstandarte.^[6] On 23 January 1934 he was promoted to SS-Mann with SS number 132,496.^[7] In 1934, during the annual Nuremberg Rally, he was promoted to SS-Sturmmann. In 1934 he drew the attention of Heinrich Himmler who convinced him to enlist in the SS-Verfügungstruppe.^[6] In his 1935 resume Peiper wrote: "As a result of a personal exhortation by the Reichsführer SS, Himmler, I have decided to strive for a career as an active senior SS officer.^[7]

A few months later Peiper considered leaving school before he completed final examinations.^[8] In January 1935 he was sent to a camp for Hitler Youth, SA and SS members near Jüterbog, adjoining Germany's largest regular army camp and artillery school. Peiper joined a course that was already in progress in November 1934, apparently with the assistance of Himmler and Sepp Dietrich.^[8] After he completed the course, he was promoted to SS-Unterscharführer, which put him in line for promotion to higher ranks within the SS.^[9]

Officer training

On 24 April 1935, Peiper attende the newly created SS officer's training school in Braunschweig under the command of Paul Hausser.^[9] Peiper later wrote that the goal of the school was to train officers for the army and not officers for SS departments.^[10]

Peiper took the SS Oath in November 1935 and completed his education at the Junkerschule in January 1936. In February and March 1936, he attended more training at the Dachau concentration camp which was guarded by SS-Totenkopfverbände, a section of the Schutzstaffel.^[11] On 20 April 1936 he was promoted to SS-Unterführer and after a short leave, he reported for duty with Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler under the command of Sepp Dietrich.^[10] He remained with the unit until June 1938.

While active as an SS officer, Peiper never joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The official listing of all SS of all middle and senior SS officers officers, SS-Dienstalterslisten, never listed Peiper.^[12]

Himmler's adjutant

On 4 July 1938, Peiper was appointed to an administrative post as an Adjutant to Heinrich Himmler,^[13] under the command of Karl Wolff.^[14] Himmler considered this a necessary step for a promising officer seeking further advancement.^[14] Peiper worked in Himmler’s anteroom in the SS-Hauptamt at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße. As a member of the Reichsführer-SS staff, Peiper was close to many high ranking SS officers. He became one of Himmler's favorite adjutants. Peiper later served on Himmler's personal staff and accompanied him on a state visit to Italy.^[15]

Wedding and family

Peiper was promoted to Obersturmführer on his 24th birthday, and around this time he met Sigurd (Sigi) Hinrichsen, a secretary on Himmler’s personal staff.^[16] Sigurd was a close friend of Hedwig Potthast, Himmler’s mistress,^[16] and her two brothers enlisted in the SS. The oldest later died in the sinking of the Bismarck.^[17] Peiper and Sigurd Hinrichsen were married on 26 June 1939 in a ceremony in keeping with SS customs. The pair lived in Berlin^[17] until the first allied air raids on Berlin, when she moved to Rottach in Upper Bavaria, near the second residence of Heinrich Himmler and several people close to Himmler.^[17] The couple had three children: Heinrich, Elke and Silke.

Around the time they married, Peiper’s brother Horst joined the SS, eventually reaching the rank of Hauptsturmführer. He participated in the Battle of France with the 3rd SS Division Totenkopf before being transferred to Poland, where he died in an accident.^[2]

The Battle of Poland

On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and 16 days later the Soviet Union attacked from the east. Peiper continued to serve as adjutant to Himmler and joined his entourage aboard the Reichsführer-SS's special train. Peiper worked closely with Himmler,^[18] and was with him on 20 September in Blomberg when they witnessed the execution of twenty Poles.^[18] Peiper later wrote that the experience left Himmler speechless for several days.^[19] Hitler had previously ordered Himmler to eliminate the Polish intellectuals, as Peiper later told Ernst Schäfer.^[19] Peiper’s Waffen-SS Leibstandarte arrested and detained Poles in the Burzeum area.^[18]

After Poland was defeated, Peiper continued to work with Himmler as he developed policies and plans for controlling the Polish population.^[20] Peiper accompanied Himmler to Feldherrnhalle commemorative ceremonies in Munich on 9 October 1939. On 13 December 1939, Peiper and Himmler witnessed the gassing of a resident of a psychiatric facility in Poznan. In post-war interrogations, Peiper described the experience in a detached, factual manner.^[21]

The Battle of France

On 17 May 1940, Peiper accompanied Himmler as he followed Waffen SS troops during the Battle of France. In Hasselt he obtained permission to join a combat unit.^[22] He became a platoon leader in the 11th company, 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH), undergoing his baptism of fire. He was soon promoted to company commander. After seizing a British artillery battery on the hills of Wattenberg, Peiper was awarded the Iron Cross and promoted to Hauptsturmführer.^[13][22][23]

On 21 June 1940, less than a month later, Peiper returned to his duties as Himmler's adjutant. On 10 July 1940 he accompanied Himmler to the Berghof, where Reich leaders discussed the war. The resistance of Great Britain under Winston Churchill was thwarting Hitler's plans.^[22]

Rejoined Himmler’s personal staff

After rejoining Himmler’s staff, Peiper accompanied him to Madrid in October 1940 where Himmler met with Franco. After passing through Metz, they stopped in Dax where Himmler met with Theodor Eicke, the commander of the SS Totenkopf division. Shortly afterward, on 14 November 1940, Peiper was appointed first adjutant to Himmler.^[24] In January 1941, Peiper accompanied Himmler when he inspected Ravensbrück and Dachau Nazi concentration camps.^[25] In March 1941, together with Karl Wolff and Fritz Bracht, they visited Auschwitz.^[26]

In February 1941 Himmler told Peiper about the German plan to invade the Soviet Union.^[25] Himmler and his staff travelled to Norway, Austria, Poland and the Balkans in Greece.^[27] This trip included a visit to the Lodz Ghetto, which Peiper later wrote about:

It was a macabre image: we saw how the Jewish Ghetto police, who wore hats without rims and were armed with wooden clubs, inconsiderately made room for us. The Jewish elders also presented Himmler with a bouquet of flowers.^[27]

Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941. The Einsatzgruppen under the control of the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Main Security Office) or RSHA, conducted a war against Untermensch behind the front lines, where SS led units were in charge of liquidating Jews, Communists and partisans.^[28][29] Peiper's duties as first adjutant included presenting statistics provided by Einsatzgruppen about the mass killings on the Eastern Front to Himmler.^[30]

During the later summer of 1941, Peiper transferred his duties as Himmler's first adjutant Werner Grothmann. Himmler apparently instigated a transfer for Peiper to a combat unit, at least in part to protect him from rumors about the death of his brother Horst, including that he was homosexual.^[31] Peiper remained in close contact with Himmler. In their ongoing correspondence through the end of the war, Himmler addressed Peiper as “my dear Jochen”.^[28]

The Eastern Front and France

The information relating to the exact date of transfer of Peiper to the "1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler" (LSSAH) is not known. It seems it would not have been before October 1941. Indeed, until mid-September 1941 one can still find Peiper's handwriting in Himmler’s diary entries; one cannot exclude that Peiper could have been dispatched to the "LSSAH" earlier as an observer of the Reichsführer-SS.^[31] Once back with the "LSSAH", which was engaged on the Eastern Front near the area of the Black Sea, Peiper spent several days at the headquarters. However, an injury to a unit commander gave him the opportunity to take command of the 11th company.^[31]

With his company Peiper took part in the fighting at Mariupol and Rostov-on-Don. He was distinguished because of his fighting spirit but his unit also suffered high casualties. Furthermore, the killing of some prisoners of war foreshadowed what the war in the East would be like (on both sides).^[32]

During its progress the Leibstandarte was followed by Einsatzgruppe D which organised the extermination of Jews and Communists. The Einsatzgruppe continued its operations even when the winter provisionally suspended the military operations. The "LSSAH" and the Einsatzgruppe shared the same winter quarters at Taganrog on the Azov Sea and sometimes elements of the division provided assistance to Einsatzgruppe D in its operations.^[33]

In May 1942 Peiper was informed of the death of his brother Hans Hasso. Beginning in June the division was transferred for rest and refit in France.^[33] While heading to France Peiper made a bypass through Himmler’s headquarters and met the latter on 1 June 1942. The meeting was lengthened by a dinner in which the attendees also included: Rudolf Brandt, secretary of the Reichsführer SS and Heinz Lammerding, a member of the staff headquarters SS "Totenkopf" division.^[33] Peiper met with Himmler again in July 1942 and did not rejoin his battalion before August 1942.^[34]

During its stay in France the "LSSAH" was reorganised into a Panzergrenadier division, which implied a redefinition of the roles within the division. For Peiper this translated into a promotion to the rank of commander of the 3rd battalion. Peiper used his stay in France to try and create a corps spirit in his battalion by recruiting young officers as driven as he was himself.^[35]

Back to the Eastern Front

At the end of 1942 Peiper received permission to visit his family. On 30 January 1943 he was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer.^[35]

On the Eastern Front, the German situation had seriously worsened, especially in the battle for Stalingrad. Peiper’s battalion left its quarters in France on 31 January 1943 and arrived in the area of Lyubotin, near Kharkiv, and was immediately dispatched to the front.^[36] The entire German Army was engaged in a defensive battle.

Rescues 320th Infantry Division

During the Third Battle of Kharkov, Peiper led the 3rd battalion, 2nd Panzergrenadier Regiment which punched 48 kilometres (30 mi) through the Soviet lines to rescue the surrounded 320th Infantry Division, who had more than 1500 casualties. Leading the ambulances back to the German lines, he found his route across the River Udy blocked by a Soviet ski battalion who had destroyed the main bridge across the river. His unit fought through the city house to house and repaired the bridge, securing an exit route for the ambulances back to the German lines.^[37]:53 However, the repaired bridge would not support his heavy armored halftracks and assault guns. Peiper ordered his men back behind the Soviet lines to find another exit and they returned to the German lines with few casualties. The Soviets alleged that during Peiper's attack it set fire to two villages and massacred their inhabitants.^[38]

Peiper was awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold on 6 May 1943 for his achievements in February 1943. Peiper developed a tactic of attacking enemy-held villages by night from all sides while advancing in his armored half-tracks at full speed, while firing ar every building. The method set the building's straw roofs on fire and contributed to panic among enemy troops. Peiper's unit gained the nickname the Blowtorch Battalion as a result.^[39] The symbol of blowtorch became an unofficial symbol of the unit, painted on the battaltion's vehicles,^[37]:53 representing Peiper's willingness to advance regardless of the cost.^[40]

On 9 March 1943 Peiper was awarded the German's highest decoration, the Knight's Cross. The medal's citation described the fierce fighting:

In Stawerowka the battalion was ordered to take Zigderowka. The mission was executed by night against heavy resistance and an enemy battalion was routed, four 7,62 guns, an infantry gun, 10 mortars and many machine guns and hand guns being captured and destroyed. Peiper advanced immediately towards Kasatschij Maidan, encountered an enemy battalion on the march and executed a hasty attack. Here, he inflicted heavy losses on the enemy and took Kasatschij Maidan. From here Peiper prepared his battalion for the attack on Jeremejewka, attacked it at dawn against heavy resistance and took Jeremejewka. Exploiting the confusion among the enemy, the battalion advanced on Leninskij and broke the last resistance. By an immediate advance, he inflicted heavy losses on the enemy which was fleeing through open fields. The battalion destroyed one T-34, six guns 7,62 and captured 300 horses. Three sledge columns were routed. The enemy casualties amounted about to anywhere from 800 to 900. SS Sturmbannführer Peiper has distinguished himself in all these fights by a sensible command of his battalion and personal bravery and has proven himself worthy of the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold.^[41][42]

During this period Peiper developed a reputation in the German press as an outstanding leader. The official Waffen-SS newspaper, Das Schwarze Korps (The Black Corps), described Peiper's actions in Karkhov:

In preparation for the attack on Kharkov, on his own initiative SS-Sturmbahführer Peiper twice seized bridgeheads which proved of decisive importance in the advance of attacking forces. [...] Nevertheless, SS-Sturmbahnführer Peiper was the master of the situation in all its phases. [...] Every officer and man of Kampfgruppe Peiper had the feeling of absolute safety. Here a man was thinking and caring for them, made his decisions quickly, and issued his orders with precision. These decisions and orders were often bold and unorthodox, but they were issued from a sovereign command from the situation. Everyone sensed the intellectual work and the instinctive safety behind this. Of course, the commander also had soldier’s luck. The unconditional trust of his men, however, has it basis in something else, namely the feeling that a born leader is in command, one filled with the highest sense of responsibility for the life of every single one of his men, but who is also able to be hard if necessary. But always the orders and measures stem, not from clever deliberation, but rather from a personality whose heart, brain, and hands are the same.^[43]

The descriptions of his tactical skills propelled Peiper to an icon of the Waffen-SS after the war.^[44] Former men of Peiper's SPW battalion described him in similar glowing language.^[44] Peiper was seen as an officer who obeyed orders without much discussion and expected the same from his men.^[40]

The Germans failed to regain the initiative in the Third Battle of Kharkov. A few months later the "LSSAH" was engaged in Operation Citadel in the area of Kursk. Although Operation Citadel did not achieve its goals, Peiper's unit distinguished itself.^[45] The "LSSAH" was withdrawn from the east front on 17 July and transferred to Northern Italy in the area of Cuneo.^[46]

Operations in Italy

After Italian forces capitulated to the Allies, the LSSAH was moved to Italy for two months to assist in disarming its military and prevent them from attacking German forces. Beginning in August, Peiper’s battalion quarters were near Cuneo. On 10 September it was ordered to disarm Italian garrisons in Alessandria and Asti.^[47].

German officers captured

On 19 September partisans in the village of Boves captured two of Peiper's men.^[48] Faustino Dolmazzo, an advisor to the Italian partisans, reported that when Peiper arrived in Boves the Germans appointed two Italians, one the village priest, to arrange for the officers freedom. Peiper promised the Germans would not engage in any reprisals.

Village homes burned

The two men were freed around 1500, and the Germans set fire to all the houses in the village. The Germans killed 22 men when they tried to flee. The badly burned, unrecognizable, bodies of the two Italian intermediaries were found among the victims. They were identified by because of the dentures worn by one man and because vestry keys were found on the body of the second man.^[49]

Peiper insisted his unit did not take part in the civilian massacre in Boves. He reported that he sent members of his unit to search for the two kidnapped officers who had been taken by the partisans into the nearby Bisalta mountains. A German platoon was ambushed, and when attempting to rescue the unit, the Germans came under heavy fire from the partisans. The German artillery responded, which triggered the reported fires. The artillery section remained in Boves, according to Peiper, to destroy the remaining weapons and ammunition.^[50]

Local Jews deported

In the same time period, local Jews were arrested and prepared for deportation to the extermination camps. Simon Wiesenthal accused Peiper of assisting with the arrest and deportation of Jews in Northern Italy, an accusation that Peiper refuted until he died. Peiper in turn accused Wiesenthal of destroying his post-war private life.^[51] Peiper claimed that under his own authority he had released a group of Jews from a concentration camp managed by Italians not because he sympathized with the Jews but because their leader, a rabbi, was from Berlin like himself.^[52] Peiper's story cannot be corroborated. Records do prove that among the Jewish families arrested near Cuneo, one family came from Berlin. This family was initially transferred to Drancy before being dispatched to Auschwitz where its members were gassed as were most of the Jews arrested in the Cuneo area.^[51]

At the end of its stay in Italy the division was reorganised into a panzer regiment.^[51] With the worsening situation on the Soviet front, the "LSSAH" was sent back to the eastern front.^[46]

Last stay at the Eastern Front

Beginning November 1943 Peiper’s unit arrived on the Eastern Front, where it took part to the combat in the area of Zhytomyr. On 20 November, Georg Schönberger was killed in action, and Peiper took his place as head of the 1st SS Panzer Regiment that he commanded until the end of the war. He left his position of commander of an armoured infantry battalion for the leader of a panzer regiment. He was only 28 years old.^[53] Under his command the regiment had to fight during the winter and numerous times at night against the Soviets. His panzer unit played an essential role in retarding the Soviet offence in the area of Zhytomyr. Peiper led actions by attacking the rear of enemy lines and taking four division headquarters.^[54] For this action he was awarded the Oak Leaves of the Knight's Cross.^[55]

However his commanding style, which was efficient with infantry on board of armoured vehicles like SdKfz 250 or 251, reached its limits. Attacks led without taking into account the tactical situation triggered heavy losses in men and material.^[56] After one month at this pace, the operational force of the 1st SS Panzer Regiment was reduced to twelve tanks still working.^[57] This strengthened resentment felt against Peiper by some officers.^[58] On the other hand, brutal combat involving his unit continued: on 5 and 6 December 1943 it killed 2,280 Russian soldiers and took only three prisoners.^[55] The village of Pekartschina was completely burned with flamethrowers and its inhabitants killed.^[55]

On 20 January 1944 Peiper was withdrawn from the front and left his unit. He went directly to the headquarters of Hitler, who presented him with the Oak Leaves to be added to his Knight's Cross. A little bit later, on his 29th birthday, Peiper was promoted to Obersturmbannführer.

Peiper was however in bad physical and mental condition. A medical examination carried out by the SS physicians in Dachau reached the conclusion that he needed rest. He went to see his wife in Bavaria.^[59]

In March 1944 the "LSSAH" was withdrawn from the East front. The transfer of all its units was not completed before 24 May. Peiper joined his unit in April. The battle in the east had caused heavy losses of men and material.^[60] The new recruits called in to replace the casualties were not of the same caliber as the pre-war volunteers, who were recruited according to strict criteria.^[60] It is within this context that a new revealing incident happened.

Five young recruits, indicted of having looted Belgian civilians, were sentenced to death by the martial court of the unit. During their trial they admitted to have stolen food, poultry and ham. The martial court verdict, one might argue, seemed out of proportion to the seriousness of the offences they committed, especially when looking at other similar cases. Peiper ordered the five executed on 28 May 1944 and made the other young recruits march past the corpses. It seems the execution had a rather negative impact on the morale of the regiment at that time.^[60] The stay in the Belgian Limburg was devoted mainly to drills and refit, which was not an easy task because of the lack of material and gasoline.^[61]

The Battle of Normandy

The landing in Normandy necessitated the return of the "LSSAH" to the Western Front. On 17 June the division began its move to the area of Caen, but some parts of the panzer regiment had to stay in Belgium waiting for new tanks. Furthermore, the move of the division was made under very difficult conditions because, on one hand, the trains needed for the transport were devoted to the transport of the Hungarian Jews to the concentration camps and, on other hand, the air attacks of the Allied forces caused huge disruptions in rail traffic. The whole of the division did not reach its rally zone before 6 July 1944.^[61] On 28 June, the 1st SS Panzer Regiment of Peiper arrived at the front and was immediately engaged.^[62] As all the German units of the area (notwithstanding some partial victories) they essentially had to fight a defensive battle until the Avranches breakthrough end of July and beginning of August. Having gone to front with 19,618 men the "LSSAH" lost 25% of its staff and all its tanks.^[63] As with most of the Waffen-SS divisions engaged in Normandy, the "LSSAH" lost its operational capacities and was no longer mentioned in the official tables of the available units prepared by the OKW on 16 September 1944 as a division but as a Kampfgruppe.

Peiper was not in command of his panzer regiment during the counter-attacks in the area of Avranches. Suffering from a nervous breakdown he had been discreetly evacuated to a military hospital in the area of Sées at 70 km of the frontline. According to the official diagnostic he was suffering from a jaundice. He would eventually be dispatched to the rear and at the beginning of September 1944 was in a military hospital near to the Tegernsee in Upper Bavaria, not far from his family home.^[64] He stayed there until 7 October.^[65]

The Battle of the Bulge

During the autumn the German forces had to counter the attempts of the Western Allies to cross the Westwall while Hitler was looking for an opportunity to seize the initiative on the Western Front.^[66] The result was the Operation Wacht am Rhein. In a desperate attempt to defeat the Allies on the Western Front, the German armies were to break through the US lines in the Ardennes, to cross the River Meuse and take Antwerp cutting the Allied forces in two.^[67]

The main role in the breakthrough was devoted to the 6th Panzer Army under the command of Sepp Dietrich. He would have to pierce the American lines between Aachen and the Schnee Eifel and seize bridges on the Meuse on both sides of Liège.^[68] Within the 6th Panzer Army a mobile striking role was assigned to the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler under the command of SS-Oberführer Wilhelm Mohnke.^[68] The division was split into four Kampfgruppe with Peiper commanding the most substantial which included all the armored sections of the division.^[69] His duty was to break through the U.S. lines along an rollbahn B through Spa, Belgium and to take bridges on the Meuse between Liège and Huy.^[69]

Assigned route

Peiper's assigned route, or Rollbahn, had many hairpin turns and traversed steep hillsides that would delay his already slow-moving towed artillery and bridging trains.^[70] It included narrow, in many places single-track, roads which would force units of the Kampfgruppe to tail each other, creating a column of infantry and armor up to 25 kilometres (16 mi) long. Peiper complained that the road that was assigned to his Kampfgruppe was suitable for bicycles, not for panzers.^[69] The roads would prevent the Germans from concentrating their force in blitzkreig fashion which had served them so well in the past.^[70] Fritz Krämer, Chief of Staff for the 6th Panzer Army answered “I don’t care how and what you do. Just make it to the Meuse. Even if you’ve only one tank left when you get there.”^[71] Peiper's unit had only one-quarter the fuel they needed. Their plan counted on the capturing Allied fuel depots and keeping to an ambitious timetable.

Initial advance stalled

Kampfgruppe Peiper was initially delayed by more than 16 hours when the 1st Battalion, 9th Fallschirmjaeger Regiment, 3rd Fallschirmjaeger Division took most of December 16 to defeat 18 men belonging to the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon, 394th Regiment, 99th Infantry Division who blocked the route near Lanzerath, Belgium.

Peiper’s mechanized column did not reach his first day's objective until midnight that same day. As a result, Peiper first attacked shortly before daybreak on 17 December 1944, almost 18 hours later than expected.^[72] Hustling through the remains of the American front lines he quickly took Honsfeld).

Peiper had planned to advance through Loseheimergroben, but the 12th and277th Volksgenadier Divisions failed to gain control of on the first day as planned. In the early morning of December 17 they quickly captured Honsfield and50,000 US gallons (190,000 l; 42,000 imp gal) of fuel for his vehicles.^[73][74]

Alternative route chosen

He then advanced towards Büllingen, keeping to the plan to move east, apparently unaware he had nearly taken the town and unknowingly bypassing an opportunity to flank and trap the entire 2nd and 99th Division.^[70]:31 Peiper suddenly turned south to detour around Hünningen, interested only in getting back onto his assigned Rollbahn.^[70] He continued east on his assigned rollbahn until he had to deflect shortly before Ligneuville because the assigned road to his northeast was impassable. This bypass constrained him to go through the Baugnez crossroads where his armored units and halftracks slammed into an lightly armed column of U.S. artillery observers who were quickly neutralized.^[75]

Peiper's unit gained notoriety for their murder of U.S. prisoners of war at the crossroads in what became known as the Malmedy massacre as noted below. Moving ahead, he crossed Ligneuville and reached the highs of Stavelot on the left bank of the River Amblève at nightfall of the second day of operation Wacht am Rhein. While the little city was defended only by a few U.S. troops and could have been easily taken the same day for reasons unknown he held back and assaulted at dawn of the next day, valuable time was lost, allowing the Americans to reorganise.^[76] After heavy fight his Kampfgruppe eventually managed to cross the bridge on the River Amblève, and from there he found the going increasingly difficult.

The US forces regrouped themselves and blasted the bridges on the Amblève and the River Salm that Peiper needed to cross in order to continue on a direct road to the Meuse. On 18 December, United States Army Corps of Engineers blasted the bridges in front of him he needed to reach his objective, trapping him in the deep valley of the Amblève, downstream from Trois-Ponts.^[76] The weather had also improved permitting the Allied Air Forces to operate. Several P-47 squadrons attacked his column spread over 20 kilometres (12 mi). The air strikes destroyed or heavily damaged numerous vehicles of his Kampfgruppe and made some parts of his itinerary impracticable, slowing down his progression.^[76] Peiper was unable to protect his rear, which enabled American troops to recapture and destroy the bridge on the Amblève in Stavelot, cutting him off from the only possible supply road for ammunition and, above all, fuel, which he lacked.^[77] In spite of these problems, Peiper continued his progress towards Stoumont before American resistance forced him to retire to La Gleize. Short of fuel, he held out during six days of US Army counterattacks. Without supplies and with no contact with other German units behind him, Peiper decided on 24 December to abandon his vehicles and march through the woods to escape capture. He left with the remaining 800 men^[78] and 36 hours later he reached the German lines with 770 men, having covered 20 kilometers by foot in freezing temperatures^[79].

The end of the war

In January 1945 the Swords were added to his Knight's Cross.^[80] The proposal was drafted by Wilhelm Mohnke. The great fame of Peiper as a Waffen SS commander during the "Battle of the Bulge" was born.^[81]

At the end of January 1945 Peiper was in the Berlin area. On 4 February he met for the last time with Heinrich Himmler at his provisional headquarters. Peiper then went to the Panzergrenadier school in Krhanice until 14 February. From there he joined his unit in the southwest of the area of Farnad.^[82] His unit took part in the Lake Balaton counter-attack that failed even though Peiper’s unit recorded huge casualties due to his style of command. Peiper lost numerous old companions.^[83]

On 1 May, as other units of the LSSAH were forced to retreat into Austria, the men were informed of Adolf Hitler’s death. A few days later all SS units were ordered to retreat to the west. On 8 May, the SS Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler received the order to cross the Enns River and surrender to the American troops.^[84]

Accompanied by Paul Gühl, Peiper tried to escape captivity. On 28 May, Peiper was on his way to Rottach, but was captured near Schliersee. This was less than 30 kilometres from his home. He was interned in the Dachau concentration camp.^[6][85]

Although he was actively researched by American forces (due to his alleged involvement in the Malmedy massacre) Peiper was not identified until 21 August 1945. This was the day after he was transferred to the interrogation camp of the 3rd US Army in Freising.^[86]

The Malmedy massacre and other murders

During the 1st Panzer Division's advance on 17 December 1944, his armored units and halftracks confronted a lightly armed convoy of about thirty American vehicles at the Baugnez crossroads near Malmedy. The troops, mainly elements of the American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion, were quickly overcome and captured.^[75] Along with other American POWs previously captured, they were ordered to stand in a meadow when for unknown reasons the Germans opened fire on the prisoners with machine guns, killing 84 soldiers, and leaving the bodies in the snow. The survivors' were able to reach American lines later that day, and their story spread rapidly throughout the American front lines.

Peiper's instructions

According to some sources, during the briefing held before the operation, Peiper clearly stated that no quarter should be given nor prisoners taken and that no pity should be shown towards the Belgian civilians.^[87] Lieutenant Colonel Hal McCown, Commanding Officer 2/119 Infantry, testified about the treatment his unit was given after it was captured on 21 December by Peiper's Kampfgruppe at Froidcour between La Gleize and Stoumont. He said he met Peiper in person and based on his observations, American prisoners were at no time mistreated by the SS and the food given to them was nearly as good as that used by the Germans themselves.^[88]

Other murders

Peiper's men engaged in other murders of prisoners. In Honsfeld, men in Kampfgruppe Peiper murdered several American prisoners.^[89][90][91] Other murders of POWs were reported in Büllingen,^[89][90] Ligneuville,^[92][93] Stavelot,^[94], Cheneux, La Gleize and Stoumont on 18, 19 and 20 December. On 19 December 1944, in the area between Stavelot and Trois-Ponts, while the Germans were trying to regain control of the bridge over the Amblève River (crucial for allowing reinforcements and supplies to reach the Kampfgruppe) men of Kampfgruppe Peiper killed a number of Belgian civilians. Kampfgruppe Peiper was eventually declared responsible for the death of 362 prisoners of war and 111 civilians.^[95]

Interrogation and confession of Peiper

After the surrender of the German armies, the Americans searched POW camps for the men of Kampfgruppe Peiper. They were said to have left a “bloody track along their way”. Some war crimes during the "Battle of the Bulge" were attributed to the Kampfgruppe Peiper.^[89]

Jailed in Freising in Upper Bavaria, Peiper underwent his first interrogations.^[96] Investigators quickly found that the SS men, including Peiper, although hardened soldiers, were not trained to withstand interrogation.^[96] Some men freely gave the requested information while others only did so after having being subject to beatings, threats and mock executions.^[96] Peiper took personal responsibility for the actions of the men under his command.

In December 1945 Peiper was transferred to the prison at Schwäbisch Hall, where 1,000 former members of the Leibstandarte were assembled.^[96] Some reports suggested afterward that the interrogations included mock trials, both physical and psychological torture. Peiper and others claimed to have been repeatedly beaten and threatened with having their families handed over to the Russians.^[97] On 16 April 1946 approximately 300 prisoners were moved from Schwäbisch Hall to Dachau, where they were put on trial.^[96]

The trial

The trial took place at Dachau from 16 May to 16 July 1946 before a military tribunal of senior American officers, operating under rules the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal had established.

The 74 defendants included SS-Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich, 6th SS Panzer Army commanding general, his chief of staff SS-Brigadeführer Fritz Krämer, SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Prieß, I SS Panzer Corps commander, and Joachim Peiper, commander of the 1st SS Panzer Regiment (the unit to which the crimes were attributed).

Before the trial, occupation authorities reclassified the defendants from prisoners of war to Civilian Internees.^[98] The accusations were mainly based on the sworn and written statements provided by the defendants in Schwäbish Hall. To counter the evidence given in the men's sworn statements and by prosecution witnesses, the lead defense attorney Lt Col Willis M. Everett tried to show that the statements had been obtained by inappropriate methods.^[99]

Everett called Lieutenant Colonel Hal McCown to testify about Peiper's troops treatment of American prisoners at La Gleize. McCown, who, along with his command, had been captured by Peiper at La Gleize, testified that wounded American soldiers in Peiper's custody had received equal priority with German wounded in receiving medical treatment. He testified that during his occupation of the town, Peiper had at all times behaved in a professional and honorable manner.

Colonel Everett had decided to call only Peiper to testify. However other defendants, supported by their German lawyers, wanted to testify as well. This would soon prove to be a huge mistake, for when the prosecution crossexamined the defendants they behaved like “a bunch of drowning rats (...) turning on each other.”^[99] According to Everett, these testimonies gave the court enough reason to sentence several of the defendants to death.^[99]

The military court was not convinced by Peiper’s testimony about the murder of the POWs under the Kampfgruppe's control.^[99] During the trial, several witnesses testified of at least two instances in which Peiper had ordered the murder of prisoners of war.^[100] When questioned by the prosecution, Peiper denied these allegations, stating the allegations were obtained from witnesses under torture.^[101] When questioned about the murder of Belgian civilians, Peiper said they were partisans.^[102] Although the court could not prove that Peiper had ordered the murders, Peiper nonetheless accepted responsibility for his men's actions.^[50]

Death sentence

Together with 42 other defendants, Joachim Peiper was sentenced to death by hanging on 16 July 1946.

The sentences generated significant controversy in some German circles, including the church, leading the commander of the U.S. Army in Germany to commute some of the death sentences to life imprisonment. In addition, the Germans' defense attorney, U.S. military attorney Lt. Col. Willis M. Everett, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming that the defendants had been found guilty by means of "illegal and fraudulently procured confessions" and were subjects of mock trial. 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. The commission was interested in Malmedy massacre trial and other cases judged at Dachau.

The commission arrived in Europe on 30 July 1948 and issued its report on 14 September. In this report, it notably recommended that the twelve remaining death sentences be commuted to life imprisonment. The commission confirmed the accuracy of Everett's accusations regarding mock trials and neither disputed nor denied his charges of torture of the defendants. 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.

In response, General Clay commuted six more death sentences to life imprisonment. He however refused to commute the six remaining death sentences, including Peiper's, but the executions were postponed. The turmoil caused by the commission report and an article by Judge Edward L. Van Roden caused the U.S. Senate to investigate the trial.

In its investigation of the trial, the Senate Committee on Armed Services came to the conclusion of improper pre-trial procedures, including a mock trial, but not torture as sometimes stated, had indeed affected the trial process. There was little or no doubt that some of the accused were indeed guilty of the massacre.^[103]

Ultimately the sentences of the Malmedy defendants were commuted to life imprisonment and then to time served. Peiper himself was released from prison on parole at the end of December 1956, after serving 11 and a half years.

Return to civilian life

The mutual aid networks of former SS which had already helped Peiper’s wife to find a job near the Landsberg Prison also worked for the conditional liberation of Peiper himself. To obtain release from prison, Peiper had to prove that he would obtain a job. Through the intermediary of Dr. Albert Prinzing, former SS-Hauptsturmführer in the Sicherheitsdienst, he got a job at Porsche.^[104]

On 17 January 1957 he was employed by Porsche in Stuttgart in its technical division. He later represented the company at car exhibitions.^[105] He was later in charge of exports to the United States. However, his war criminal conviction hindered his work, as he could not obtain a visa for travel to the United States.^[106][107]

As he advanced within Porsche, he was accused by Italian union workers of the so-called Boves Massacre in Italy during World War II. Ferry Porsche personally intervened and promised Peiper a senior management position, but this offer was derailed by the trade unions, who objected to allowing persons convicted for war crimes to serve in upper management. The strong antipathy to Peiper and the disturbance his presence caused by his association with Porsche, including the negative impact on sales to Porsche's biggest market in the United States, forced Porsche management to dismiss him. On 30 December 1960 Peiper filed suit to compel Porsche to fulfill its promises.^[108] In a court document, Peiper’s attorney stated that he was not a war criminal, and that Allies had used the trials to defame the German people. He asserted that the Nuremberg trial and the "Malmedy massacre" trial were merely propaganda. Citing documents published by the anti-Communist historian Freda Utley, he asserted that the Malmedy massacre trial defendants had been tortured by the Americans.^[109] At the request of the court, Porsche and Peiper reached an agreement to terminate the employment contract, and Peiper received six months' wages as compensation.^[109] The magazine Der Freiwilige, published by SS veterans, capitalized on the award and wrote that the Peiper had been “unfairly sentenced” for war crimes.^[109]

Peiper became a car sales trainer, and utilizing his network of former SS members, contacted Max Moritz, a former SS mechanic. Moritz had become an authorised Volkswagen dealer for Germany.^[110]

Since his release from the Landsberg Prison, Peiper had kept up many albeit discreet contacts with his old comrades of the SS. If he clearly avoided affiliation to the HIAG^[111] or to the Order of the Holders of the Knight's Cross, he was often seen with them at the funerals of personalities like Kurt “Panzer” Meyer, Sepp Dietrich or Paul Hausser^[112]. He engaged himself in actions undertaken by these organisations in order to rehabilitate the Waffen-SS while hiding the more ruthless aspects of their past by exalting their military achievements and putting forth that the SS were like other soldiers.^[112] According to Westemeier, Peiper once told one of his friends

I personally think that every attempt at rehabilitation during our lifetime is unrealistic, but one can still collect material.^[113]

At the beginning of the Sixties the perception that the public opinion had of the Nazi crimes started to change. The German economic recovery did not allow SS men to hide themselves, and holding a high position in society could raise questions that people like Peiper preferred to avoid.^[114] The Eichmann and Auschwitz trials in the first half of the 1960s (which got a large audience in West Germany) put a new light on this period.^[114] The prosecution was now initiated by the West German authorities themselves, and no longer by the Allies. On the other hand, the statute of limitation for the prosecution of Nazi crimes had been extended several times, which made those who had been involved in these crimes uncomfortable.^[114]

Peiper was caught by his past when on 23 June 1964 two Italians filed against him an accusation at the Central Office of the State Justice Administration for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg because of the Boves massacre.^[114] The plaintiffs were represented by Robert W. Klempner, who had been member of the American council of the prosecutors during the Nuremberg trial. The investigations led by the Attorney General of Stuttgart proved to be troublesome for Peiper, since he was accused of having arrested Jews in Borgo San Dalmazzo and of having deported Jews in Northern Italy. The accusations were furthermore endorsed by Simon Wiesenthal.^[114] However, both Klempner and Wiesenthal were never able to present the evidence claimed by the Attorney General. Thus, in 1967, the case was dismissed for lack of evidence.

Peiper was again confronted by his past when he was called as witness during the Werner Best trial. he did not deny his close contact to Himmler, but he managed to prevent any direct implication in the Nazi crimes, claiming memory failure.^[115]

In 1969 he was a free-lance collaborator for the magazine Auto, Motor und Sport. In 1972 he moved to Traves in Haute-Saône (France), where he owned property. At that time he was a self-employed translator for the editor Stuttgarter Motor-Buch Verlag and, under the pen name Rainer Buschmann, he translated books devoted to military history from English to German.^[115]

The last years

Residing in France since 1972 he had a quiet and discreet life. In 1974 he was identified by a former Communist resistance member of the region who issued a report for the French Communist Party. In 1976 a Communist historian, investigating the STASI archives, found the Peiper file.^[115] On 21 June tracts denouncing his presence were distributed in Traves. A day later, an article in the Communist publication L'Humanité revealed Peiper's presence in Traves and he became the subject of death threats.

Death

On 14 July 1976 Peiper was murdered when his home was attacked and set on fire. The perpetrators were never identified, but were suspected to be former French Resistance members or Communists. Peiper had just started writing a book about Malmedy and what followed.^[116]

Reputation

Panzer commander

Because of the murders perpetrated by his unit at Malmedy and other locations, his death sentence and subsequent release, Peiper remained a controversial figure while he lived and after his death. He was a competent, personally courageous soldier and highly respected among his peers. His men were fiercely loyal to him, and he was considered by many to be a "charismatic leader." After the end of the war, he continued to be held in high regard by his surviving comrades, many of whom talked of Der Peiper with admiration and respect.^[117] the respect he had garnered among his SS peers helped him to obtain his release from prison after the war ended and to obtain employment.^[104]

Recognition

His leadership of the Sd.Kfz. 251 armored half-track battalion in the Third Battle of Kharkov earned the unit the nickname Lötlampenbataillon or " Blowtorch Battalion", ^[118] which resulted in him receiving the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold^[41] Three days after his actions on 6 March 1943, he received the Knight's Cross.^[119] Twelve days later, Peiper demonstrated his military skill when he led his unit at full speed through Russian positions in a surprise attack on Belgorod, causing the surprised enemy to flee.^[120] Oberführer Theodor Wisch, divisional commander of the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, recommended him for the Oak Leaves for Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, which he was awarded on 27 January 1944.^[121]

Post-war reputation

Before his murder in Traves, France in 1976, Peiper described how his unit's tactics in rapidly attacking Russian villages was distorted after the war:^[50]

“

For a long time I commanded III Battalion, Panzergrenadier Regiment 2 of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. This unit made quite a name for itself for its night attacks in Russia and was known in divisional and corps areas as the "Blowtorch Battalion". Our troops used this highly practical tool in the winter to pre-heat the engines in our vehicles, to heat water quickly for cooking and many other things. There was also a saying among the soldiers in those days when they were given a task: 'we will soon torch that.' The vehicles even used a blowtorch as their tactical symbol. During post-war interrogations, however, this name was twisted from the "Blowtorch Battalion" to the "Arson Battalion". It was suggested that the blowtorches were used to burn down houses. In action our armoured personnel carriers were in the habit of going into the attack at full speed with guns blazing. As the Russian houses mostly had thatched roofs, it was inevitable that they would catch fire during the battle. It would certainly be unnecessary for troops to dismount from their vehicles and use blowtorches to set houses on fire when they would almost certainly have already been set on fire as a result of the shooting that was going on, but it was one more allegation with which to blacken the image of the Waffen-SS troops.

”

Summary of SS career

Dates of rank

• SS-Anwärter: 16 October 1933
• SS-Mann: 23 January 1934
• SS-Sturmmann: 7 September 1934
• SS-Rottenführer: 10 October 1934
• SS-Unterscharführer: 1 March 1935
• SS-Standartenjunker: 11 September 1935
• SS-Standartenoberjunker: 5 March 1936
• SS-Untersturmführer: 20 April 1936
• SS-Obersturmführer: 30 January 1939
• SS-Hauptsturmführer: 6 June 1940
• SS-Sturmbannführer: 30 January 1943
• SS-Obersturmbannführer: 11 November 1943
• SS-Standartenführer: 20 April 1945

Notable decorations

• German Equestrian Badge in Bronze (?)
• Iron Cross Second (1940) and First (1940) Classes
• SS-Honour Ring (?)
• Knight's Cross (1943)
• Oak Leaves (1944)
• Swords (1945)
• German Cross in Gold (1943)
• Infantry Assault Badge in Bronze (1940)
• Eastern Front Medal (1942)
• Sudetenland Medal (1938)
• Prague Castle Bar (1938)
• Anschluss Medal (1938)
• Close Combat Clasp in Bronze (1943)
• Close Combat Clasp in Silver (1943)
• Tank Destruction Badge (1943)
• SA Sports Badge in Bronze (?)
• SS Long Service Award in 4 and 8 years (?)
• Dress Formal Dinning Award (?)
• Life Saving Award in Gold (?)
• Tank Badge 50 or 75 Though there is no documentation of him receiving this award there are several formal photographs of him wearing the award as an Oberstrumbannfuhrer (One of Peiper's uniforms, on display at the Virginia War Museum, bears the Tank Badge with "50." This uniform bears the rank insignia of an Obersturmbannführer, so Peiper could have earned a higher grade of the award before the war was over.)

Ribbon bar of Iron Cross, Eastern Front, Sudetenland, Anschluss and SS Long Service.

Fiction

Peiper is a significant character in the Harry Turtledove alternate history novel, The Man with the Iron Heart, where he is the successor to Reinhard Heydrich in the partisan fight to drive out the post-war occupiers of Germany. In the alternate history novel Fox on the Rhine by Douglas Niles and Michael O'Dobson, Peiper presides over a massacre of US soldiers by SS troops. In the sequel, Fox at the Front, Peiper kills Heinz Guderian as the SS enforces control over Wehrmacht units that lean towards surrendering to the Allies after the failure of the Battle of the Bulge. He is later evacuated and joins the Das Reich division in the defense of a bridge over Kustryn, where he is captured by the Soviets and sent to a re-education camp.

See also

• Trois-Ponts

References

Citations

Bibliography

Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords Ernst-Günther Baade · Franz Bäke · Hermann Balck (Diamonds)  · Heinrich Bär · Erich Bärenfänger · Gerhard Barkhorn · Wilhelm Batz · Otto Baum · Werner Baumbach · Fritz Bayerlein · Hermann-Heinrich Behrend · Wilhelm Bittrich · Johannes Blaskowitz · Georg Bochmann · Alwin Boerst · Georg Freiherr von Boeselager · Albrecht Brandi (Diamonds)  · Hermann Breith · Josef Bremm · Kurt Bühligen · Karl Decker · August Dieckmann · Eduard Dietl · Josef Dietrich (Diamonds)  · Helmut Dörner · Hans Dorr · Alfred Druschel · Maximilian Reichsfreiherr von Edelsheim · Karl Eibl · Hermann Fegelein · Fritz Feßmann · Walter Fries · Adolf Galland (Diamonds)  · Waldemar von Gazen · Herbert Otto Gille (Diamonds)  · Gordon Gollob (Diamonds)  · Walter Gorn · Hermann Graf (Diamonds)  · Fritz-Hubert Gräser · Robert Ritter von Greim · Franz Griesbach · Anton Hackl · Heinz Harmel · Josef Harpe · Erich Hartmann (Diamonds)  · Walter Hartmann · Paul Hausser · Richard Heidrich · Ludwig Heilmann · Gotthard Heinrici · Joachim Helbig · Traugott Herr · Hajo Herrmann · Otto Hitzfeld · Hermann Hogeback · Hermann Hohn · Hermann Hoth · Hans Hube (Diamonds)  · Herbert Ihlefeld · Hans Jordan · Arthur Jüttner · Hans Källner · Albert Kesselring (Diamonds)  · Friedrich Kirchner · Otto Kittel · Ewald von Kleist · Günther von Kluge · Otto von Knobelsdorff · Alfons König · Wolfgang Kretzschmar · Otto Kretschmer · Hans Kreysing · Hans Kroh · Walter Krüger · Otto Kumm · Ernst Kupfer · Friedrich Lang · Heinz-Georg Lemm · Helmut Lent (Diamonds)  · Wolfgang Lüth (Diamonds)  · Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz · Smilo Freiherr von Lüttwitz · Günther Lützow · Hellmuth Mäder · Erich von Manstein · Hasso von Manteuffel (Diamonds)  · Hans-Joachim Marseille (Diamonds)  · Karl Mauss (Diamonds)  · Johannes Mayer · Egon Mayer · Eugen Meindl · Kurt Meyer · Walter Model (Diamonds)  · Werner Mölders (Diamonds)  · Dietrich von Müller · Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller · Werner Mummert · Joachim Müncheberg · Walther Nehring · Hermann Niehoff · Horst Niemack · Theodor Nordmann · Walter Nowotny (Diamonds)  · Hans von Obstfelder · Walter Oesau · Hermann von Oppeln-Bronikowski · Max-Hellmuth Ostermann · Joachim Peiper · Dietrich Peltz · Hans Philipp · Georg-Wilhelm Postel · Hermann Prieß · Josef Priller · Günther Rall · Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke (Diamonds)  · Hermann Recknagel · Ernst-Wilhelm Reinert · Alfred-Hermann Reinhardt · Georg-Hans Reinhardt · Lothar Rendulic · Erwin Rommel (Diamonds)  · Hans-Ulrich Rudel (Diamonds & Golden Oak Leaves)  · Erich Rudorffer · Gerd von Rundstedt · Max Sachsenheimer · Dietrich von Saucken (Diamonds)  · Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein · Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer (Diamonds)  · Fritz von Scholz Edler von Rarancze · Ferdinand Schörner (Diamonds)  · Werner Schröer · Hinrich Schuldt · Adelbert Schulz (Diamonds)  · Friedrich Schulz · Karl-Lothar Schulz · Gerhard Graf von Schwerin · Sylvester Stadler · Rainer Stahel · Leopold Steinbatz · Felix Steiner · Johannes Steinhoff · Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz von Gross-Zauche und Camminetz (Diamonds)  · Werner Streib · Reinhard Suhren · Karl Thieme · Theodor Tolsdorff (Diamonds)  · Erich Topp · Erich Walther · Wilhelm Wegener · Otto Weidinger · Helmuth Weidling · Maximilian Wengler · Wend von Wietersheim · Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke · Theodor Wisch · Günther-Eberhardt Wisliceny · Michael Wittmann · Josef Wurmheller · Isoroku Yamamoto · Werner Ziegler in alphabetical order see also: List of Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients

Persondata
Name	Peiper, Joachim
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	30 January 1915
Place of birth	Berlin, Prussia, Germany
Date of death	14 July 1976
Place of death	Traves, Haute-Saône, France