Le Paradis

[TH Albright]

Thanks for the insightful and well-documented post ZB37(t)....this atrocity, plus la Paradis and the three incidents of mass murder of civilians at Aubigny-en-Artois, Vandelicourt / Berles-Montchel, and Beuvry strongly implies a division-wide pattern of ruthless, criminal behavior among the infantry combat units of Totenkopf the French campaign that stands as fairly unique among the Heer and Waffen SS at the time. This is a logical outgrowth of these units' experiences in Poland and the extreme ideological nature of many of the key senior leadership of the division, i.e., Eicke, Becker, and Simon.

[j keenan]

Not that unique I suggest you read about the 225 Infantry Division taking part in the massacre in Vinkt, Belgium 25-28.5.40

[TH Albright]

Thanks J keenan....read about it in Wiki...horrendous series of events indeed, but appears to be the only other civilian atrocity "on record" cited during the 1940 campaign, but a major one nonetheless that happened over a four day period, even after Belgium surrender.

[ZB37(t)]

For the record, the treatment of British prisoners in the village of Paradis by 1st Bn., 3 TIR was correct and in accordance with the rules of war, in stark contrast to that meted out by elements of 2 TIR. 1st Bn., 3 TIR was the former SS-Heimwehr Danzig, the regiment being commanded by Col. Goetze, the son of a former Prussian officer. I believe he would never have countenanced incorrect behaviour towards prisoners. Goetze was shot and fatally wounded almost immediately when 1, 3 TIR was ambushed by 1 R. Scots, while on its way to Le Cornet Malo to assist 2 TIR there. After the battle for Paradis village, a number of RS prisoners, including wounded, were taken. L/Cpl. Jimmy Howe, a Band member/stretcher bearer was at the Regimental Aid Post (unmarked) when it was attacked and set on fire, some of the wounded inside being killed by a grenade. The prisoners were lined up on the road and addressed by an SS officer or NCO who told them: "If we had known it was the Aid Post, we wouldn't have attacked it". The SS Battalion went on to take more prisoners in the village who were marched to a collecting point and subsequently to PoW Camps.

At Duriez Farm meanwhile, 99 British went out of the burning building on the west side to their fate. Five R. Norfolk men chose to try to escape via a door on the east side. They included Captain Long, (Battalion Adjutant), RSM Cockaday and Signaller Bob Brown. They didn't get far down the road before being captured by men of 1, 3 TIR advancing from the village after its capture. In the words of Bob Brown: "We were pushed and shoved around a bit but no more than you would expect". Capt. Long was taken to SS HQ, where he was given chocolate and offered parole to go with other prisoners to collect British wounded lying in the fields. Long refused parole but did the job under escort. On learning of the massacre after the war, he could scarcely believe it on account of his own good treatment. If only some elements of 2 TIR had behaved in the same way as their comrades of 3 TIR!

[TH Albright]

Thanks ZB37 (t)..this shows the effect of positive leadership on even ideologically indoctrinated troops..by all accounts I have read, Goetze was an honorable soldier; he did not come from the SS-Totenkopfverbande like Max Simon, Helmut Becker, and Eduard Deisenhofer and other key leaders of the Infantry component of the SS-TKD. The civilian atrocities were committed by 1 TIR and 2 TIR, so it appears that 3 TIR did have a clean record in France.

[michael mills]

The civilian atrocities were committed by 1 TIR and 2 TIR, so it appears that 3 TIR did have a clean record in France.

Which disproves your earlier rather incautious claim that the Totenkopf Division as a whole had an unparalleled record of atrocity.

[TH Albright]

Michael...the multiple atrocities committed by elements of the SS TKD, three mass civilian and two POW mass shootings just reinforces the unprecedented nature of that division's behavior in France..no other German unit, SS or Heer, committed documented multiple mass atrocities in 1940.

[michael mills]

I do not know much about the structure of military units, but I presume the Totenkopf Division consisted of a large number of smaller units, regiments, battalions, companies, platoons etc.

So I would like to know how many platoons there were in the Totenkopf Division, and how many of those platoons are positively documented as having been involved in the commission of war crimes during the 1940 campaign in France.

Was it a case of a large number, perhaps the majority, of Totenkopf Division platoons being involved in war crimes? Or was it a case of all the war crimes attributed to the Totenkopf Division being committed by the same small number of platoons?

[TH Albright]

Charles Trang is our resident expert on the TO&E of the SSTKD and its operations..my guess would be that a relatively small number were involved. It really doesn't take a large number of troops to commit a heinous atrocity..Oradour-sur-Glane was a the work of one company of the Der Fuhrer regiment of SS Das Reich. But two of the three infantry regiments of SS-TKD were involved, plus the Engineering battalion, so the division's involvement was more than an isolated case of one commander, one platoon/and or company, going rogue,i.e. Fritz Knoechlein. A contrast would be the LSSAH and Wormhoudt, where all the evidence at this juncture points to Wilhelm Mohnke as the culprit...while the LSSAH was "trigger happy" and lacked fire discipline during the 1940 campaign, there have been no assertions of any other misconduct against LSSAH in that campaign.