#37
Post
by jeweste » 10 Mar 2007, 13:59
Back to the topic,
did Peiper ever ordered personally killings of POWs.
Yes, he did.
The prosecution brought up the killing of an GI, directly ordered by Peiper himself on December 19, 1944, a temporary command post was established by Adjutant SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Gruhle, SS-Obersturmführer Rudi Mäule and SS-Untersturmführer Horst Krause at Stoumont. There, an angry Peiper personally ordered radio operator SS-Unterscharführer Hans Hillig to shoot an U.S. prisoner: “Peiper was talking to the man in a foreign tongue. The prisoner only answered the first sentence which was asked by Peiper. Peiper continued talking to the prisoner, but the prisoner remained mute. At the end of the interview, the prisoner gave a very short answer. Peiper was then very angry and shouted. "Hillig! Shoot this man and lay him next to the anti-aircraft gun." I led the prisoner away towards the location which was indicated to me by Peiper. When I was about 75 meters away from Peiper, he shouted after me, "That is far enough." I had a pistol with me, but one machine pistol and I let someone hand me a machine pistol from my vehicle...I took the machine pistol and fired one shot into the region of the American prisoner’s heart. He collapsed immediately. As he lay on the ground, I shot him once more through the temple to make sure he was dead...I returned to Peiper who was still standing on the same spot, and I reported to him that I had executed his order.”
Most astonishing, when in 1948 all the "Persil Scheine"-- fake affidavits were produced, Hillig insisted, that he told the truth [which was admitted by several of Peipers men] and he is not willing to change the story in favour of Peiper. Danny Parker (his book will be published in 2008 by DaCapo Press, it is already announced) will detailed describ the change of affidavits by pressure of German lawyers.
The other better known case is the killing about the end of December or the beginning of January 1945 by SS-Unterscharführer Otto Wichmann of a captured GI at the Tank Regiment Command Post at Petit Thier, were Peiper, SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Kurt Sickel, SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Gruhle and SS-Sturmbannführer Werner Poetschke have been. The Body was later discoverd 300 meters from the post in a forrest, exactly, were Wichmann had described it.
Nevertheless, as he was the "brillant" leader and "all of his men admired him and loved him", it is strange, that his fans did not find it somehow strange, that Peiper "never had control and never knew anything", when his men killed Russian, Italian and Belgian civilians, as well as US POWs.
A totally agree, that Peiper was in no way an important contemporary history figure- but he is important for HIAG, SS Veterans and revisionists. By white-washing him, they whitewash the SS.
And yes, my Peiper bio from 1996 is totally useless, I still feel very ashamed, how I was duped and not able to see my mistakes. Maybe a reason, why I don´t want to play the wiseass and teacher, but to show others the real sources to avoid the same mistakes I made. To learn more about the Waffen SS, it is worthless to read books of Krätschmer, Hausser, Tiemann or nice SS picture books and to interview Holocaust deniners like Johannes Göhler and other hardcore Nazis. But even my naive book from 1996 was attacked by SS buffs, as it linked Peiper in one chapter to Himmler. Nevertheless, in 1996 I gave the full picture of the SS veterans view. From that book, I had to change nearly every single page. Today, there can be no question for me, specially after having seen the autopsi reports and location of bodies found at Boves, that Boves was a masscre, a case, which I have thougth to the end, that this was unfair accusations from Italian side-- but it is not. The Lötlampen Bn. killed 23 civilians. It is very unlikely, that this happened without knowledge of the commander.
So, did Peiper ordered the killings of POW personally- Yes, he did!
cheers
jens