Who Murdered Joachim Peiper? The Strange Death of Himmler’s Favourite Warrior (Ep.1) 

[Music] SS Ordan Furer or Lieutenant Colonel Ukim Piper, holder of the Knights Cross with oak leaves and swords and one of the most famous and some would say infamous Panza officers of World War II, died pistol in hand fighting his enemy. enemies to his last breath. The only problem with this picture is the fact that Piper didn’t die in World War II in such a manner, but in 1976 and was fighting for his life in his own living room.

 And even more bizarrely, that house wasn’t in Germany, but in France. This is the story of the strange demise of one of the most famous soldiers of World War II. A Nazi poster boy and a fearsome and relentless warrior whose reputation was deeply sullied by war crimes and of course a long prison sentence.

 In this episode, we will look at who Yurkim Piper was, what was his war record, why was he so famous, and what sort of mentality did he have? Ukim Piper was born in Vilmersdorf, Germany on the 30th of January 1915 from a middle-class family. His father had been an officer in the German Imperial Army in Africa and in World War I served in the Ottoman Empire or Turkey.

 After World War I, Piper’s father had been very active in Frycore paramilitary groups, including taking part in the suppressing of the Polish Sillesian uprisings of 1919 to 21. Yurkim Piper determined to become an army officer like his father. He had two older brothers. The middle brother of the three named Host joined the SS and served as a concentration camp guard in the SS Torton Copibanda later serving in the third SS Panza division in France in 1940.

 Horpiper died in Poland in June 1941. believed to have taken his own life due to his homosexuality. Piper’s eldest brother, Hans Hassel, was mentally unstable and also attempted to end his own life. He eventually died of tuberculosis in 1942. Ukim had joined the SS in October 1933, serving in the cavalry branch. He was promoted and in 1934 came to the attention of Reichkes Furer SS Henrik Himmler himself.

Sent on a leadership course, some rather unsavory aspects of Piper’s personality were noted by his instructors. He was egocentric and constantly named dropped his relationship with Himmler. SS psychologists concluded that Piper was a difficult man. As a subordinate, he might prove troublesome and as a superior, probably arrogant.

However, he wasn’t binned, probably due to his relationship with Himmler. And in March 1936, Piper completed his officer training was commissioned as an unashm furer or second lieutenant. And of course, after going to SS officer school was thoroughly versed in the anti-semitic worldview of the SS. He would also join the NSDAP in 1938, contradicting his later contention that he had been an a-olitical soldier in World War II.

 He was certainly during the war a fully paid up Nazi. In June 1938, Piper was promoted onto the personal staff of Himmler as an agitant. He became in fact Himmler’s favorite agitant and accompanied him everywhere he went. During the invasion of Poland, Piper was with Himmler aboard his armor train and also sometimes acted as an agitant to Hitler during his front visits or at Fura headquarters.

Piper first saw the true face of the regime. He served on the 20th of September 1939 when he was present alongside Himmler at the execution of 20 Polish socialist leaders by ethnic German defense militia commanded by SS officer Ludolfph von Alvin. On the 13th of December 1939, Piper accompanied Himmler to a village near Pausnan in Poland and witnessed the gassing of mentally ill patients in a hospital there.

 This was part of the Octium T4 euthanasia program. He also accompanied Himmler on inspection tours of concentration camps including Nuan Gama and Zakenhausen and in 1940 Bookenvald and Flossenborg including witnessing another Action T4 gassing demonstration. All of this information is often lost in the retelling of Piper’s SS service with most people concentrating on com grouper Piper and his activities in the Arden offensive in 1944.

 that these early activities should be weighed against his later military service in action. The man knew what he was fighting for and for whom. During the invasion of France in May 1940, Piper was released to get some combat service, commanding a platoon of the Liandata SS Adolf Hitler, the most prestigious unit in the SS, serving in the motorized regiment.

 for his actions in capturing a French artillery battery. Piper was awarded the iron cross second class and promoted to Hobdom Fura or captain. Soon after Piper was awarded the iron cross first class. Then in June he returned to his post as Himmler’s agitant. In the months before the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarasa in June 1941, Piper accompanied Himmler and his staff to Poland, Norway, Austria, and Greece, inspecting army and SS units and so on.

He then took part in an SS conference during which Himmler outlined his plan to exterminate 30 million Slavs. Once the invasion was launched, Himmler and Piper visited Enzat Groupen mobile death squads operating behind the German front line, including watching actual mass executions.

 One of Piper’s jobs was to deliver the daily death counts to Himler, giving him intimate knowledge of the SS murder machine operating on the Eastern Front. Piper was next assigned to the first SS Panza division, LSSH. He commanded a tank company and was noted for his aggressive leadership style and for the high casualties among his own men.

 The LSSH also assisted the Anzat groupin in murdering Soviet Jews, commisars, Red Army prisoners of war and partisans. In May 1942, the LSSH was sent to France. Piper becoming a battalion commander. Back east. In January 1943, Piper’s unit was highly commended during the third battle of Karkov, rescuing a trapped German infantry division.

[Applause] [Applause] At the conclusion of the battle, Piper’s troops discovered that a small SS medical detachment of 25 men who had been left behind in the village of Kranoya, Polana had been killed and some of them mutilated by Soviet forces. Piper ordered the village burned down and all of the inhabitants shot or burned alive, earning Piper’s unit the nickname of the Blowtorrch Battalion.

awarded the German cross in gold for his actions at Karkov. Piper was involved in further massacres. The village of Yframovka and also at Seamonovka. LSSH troops under his command killed 872 men, women, and children, including burning alive 240 people in the Ephraimovka church. Piper received the Knight’s Cross on the 9th of March, 1943.

The German press was quick at Himmler’s urgings to lord Piper as the ideal German officer, handsome, brave, and a born leader. This Nazi propaganda actually had a very long life and has contributed to how Piper was viewed postwar and indeed even today in certain quarters. An a-olitical soldier of exceptional abilities who happened to be in the Vafaness.

 The reality was, as we have seen, a little different. After fighting at the battle of Kursk in July 1943, the LSSH was transferred to northern Italy, taking part in Operation Axa, the German military takeover of Italy following Mussolini’s fall from power. Shortly after this, Piper was involved again in a massacre.

 during a gun battle with Italian partisans at Bouves in Pedmont the 19th of September 1943 during which two SS men were taken prisoner and one was killed. Piper threatened to destroy the village if the men were not released immediately. After desperate negotiations, the SS men were indeed set free, but Piper nonetheless ordered his men to kill 24 Italian men from the village in retaliation.

 One woman was also murdered. Piper’s command methods have been questioned, particularly his poor use of tactics and his apparent disinterest in German casualties. During battles at the Ukrainian city of Zitmir, Piper commanded the first SS Panza regiment. His aggressive way of leading led to very heavy casualties amongst his own men.

 He also caused so much damage to his equipment that he was transferred to a staff position immediately afterwards. However, on the 27th of January 1944, Hitler awarded Piper the Oak Leaves to his Knights Cross. Redeployed to the West, the LSSH saw extensive action in the Battle of Normandy. The division would lose every tank it possessed and 25% of its men during the weeks of fighting there.

And from the fighting around the city of Co, Piper suffered a nervous breakdown and was evacuated and hospitalized for a long time. rejoining his regiment in October 1944. Piper is of course most famous for the activities in the Arden and the Battle of the Bulge when his battle group Comf Grouper Piper led the sixth Panza army’s attack making the deepest penetration in that sector until surrounded the village of Laglaz in Belgium.

 Forced to abandon all of his vehicles and tanks, Piper and 717 of his men, out of 3,000 who started off, managed to fight their way out of the encirclement and get back to German lines. During the campfer’s advance on the 17th of December, 1944, a convoy of 30 US vehicles were confronted at the Bonet Crossroads near the village of Malmade.

 Over a hundred Americans were taken prisoner and once Piper and the Punza regiment moved off, firing broke out. The US prisoners then being under guard by SS pioneers of the LSSH and 84 US soldiers were killed by the SS. This is the Malmade massacre. The cause of the firing has never been fully established. However, men under Piper’s command killed many US prisoners of war in the Arden and also lots of Belgian civilians.

 It has been estimated that KF grouper Piper murdered 362 US Ps and 111 civilians dur Hitler awarded Piper the swords to his Knights Cross in January 1945. Towards wars end, Piper fought in Hungary until on the 1st of May 1945, then in Austria, the LSSH was informed of Hitler’s death the day before in Berlin.

 Keen, for obvious reasons, not to surrender to the Soviet Union, Piper was ordered to surrender his unit to US forces on the 8th of May. However, Piper had no reason to be taken prisoner by the Americans either, and he made himself scarce and walked all the way home, but was apprehended by US military police on the 22nd of May, 1945.

 The US Army investigated the Malmade massacre in great detail and scoured P camps to find LSSH soldiers who had been involved. And Piper and many of his subordinates were placed on trial for war crimes. Piper was a devout Nazi. Under US interrogation in July 1945, when asked about the Poles and Jews during the war, Piper became angry and said the following.

 Quote, “All Jews are bad and all Poles are bad. We have just cleansed our society and moved these people into camps, and you let them loose.” End quote. Well, how close were you to these people that were firing from the wind? I was driving right past these houses and underneath the windows. I had to get my head down several times. And I saw these people shoot.

 Did you see the people? How are they dressed? These were people which one could see only for an instant. They usually wore civilian headgear and the civilian jacket. But of course, I can’t give any details. Did you see any 80year-old women firing at you from the windows there in Bullingham? In those short moments, I had no occasion to determine the age of the person firing.

 Well, did you see any one-year-old babies firing at you from the windows in Bulling? No, not even in Russia did I see any one-year-old babies spiring. Piper took command responsibility for the crimes committed by his men. tried at Dao alongside 73 other defendants including Piper’s old sixth Panza army commander Zep Dietrich Dietrich’s chief of staff Fritz Kramer and the first SS Panza commander Herman Priest Piper and the others were sentenced on the 16th of July 1946.

The American military tribunal was determined to extract justice for their dead soldiers at Malmay. Piper was found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death. He had a slight smile on his face as he received the sentence and as he marched away from the court. In March 1948, the US authorities reviewed 43 death sentences of the 74 men who were tried at Dhaka and upheld 12, including Pipers.

 The rest were commuted to terms of imprisonment. However, in 1951, Piper’s death sentence was also commuted after some pressure from various high-level sources, and instead he was given 35 years imprisonment. However, Piper was suddenly released early on the 22nd of December 1956. Searching for work, he used the Vafaness Mutual Aid Community Organization or Hyag to help find such work.

 Piper going to work for Porsche in Stuttgart in 1957 as a salesman. He would keep in contact with his SS subordinates and superior officers and attended many reunions of Knights Crossholders, though he tended not to attend SS reunions. However, then in the late 1960s, Piper took the rather extraordinary step of moving to France, placing in train the events that led to his unlikely and violent end.

 And in episode two, we will find out why Piper moved to France, what happened when he was living there, and possibly who killed him and why. Many thanks for watching. Please subscribe and share, and also visit my audio book channel, War Stories with Mark Felton. You can also help to support both of my channels at PayPal and Patreon.

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