Arms and Armour
Joachim Peiper
Joachim "Jochen" Peiper (30 January 1915 – 14 July 1976) was a German battalion commander in the Waffen-SS. He was known as a Nazi war criminal found guilty of the Malmedy massacre of U.S. Army prisoners of war. During the Second World War in Europe, Peiper served as personal adjutant to Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, and as a tank commander in the Waffen-SS. Peiper fought in the Third Battle of Kharkov and in the Battle of the Bulge, from which battles his eponymous battle group—Kampfgruppe Peiper—became notorious for committing war crimes against civilians and POWs. As adjutant to Himmler, Peiper witnessed the SS implement the Holocaust with the genocide of Jews in Eastern Europe, facts that he obfuscated and denied in the post–War period. As a tank commander, Peiper served in the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler on the Eastern Front and on the Western Front, first as a battalion commander and then as a regimental commander. In the Malmedy Massacre Trial, the US military tribunal established Peiper's command responsibility for the Malmedy massacre (1944) and sentenced him to death, a sentence later commuted to life in prison, then 35 years. In Italy, Peiper was accused of having committed the Boves massacre (1943); that investigation ended for lack of war-crime evidence that Peiper ordered the summary killing of Italian civilians. Upon release from prison, Peiper worked for the Porsche and Volkswagen automobile companies and later moved to France, where he worked as a freelance translator. Throughout his post-war life, Peiper was active in the network of ex–SS men, including the right-wing political group HIAG (Mutual Aid Association of Former Waffen-SS Members). In 1976, Peiper was murdered in France when his house was set afire after the publication of his identity as a war criminal. Despite having been only a minor combat leader, Peiper's idolization by fans of the Second World War who romanticise the Waffen-SS in popular culture developed a cult of personality that views Peiper as a war hero of Germany. According to the historian Jens Westemeier, Peiper personified Nazi ideology as a ruthless glory-hound commander who was indifferent to the combat casualties of Battle Group Peiper, and who encouraged, expected, and tolerated war crimes by his troops.
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Crusades.
Chastelet.
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