Joachim Peiper
SS officer and convicted Nazi war criminal (1915–1976)
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1915-01-30
- Died
- 1976-07-13
- Works
- 1
Top works
- Division Das Reich In Photos (Division Das Reich In Bild)
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 2
- Total plays
- 2
<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Joachim+Peiper">Read more on Last.fm</a>
Recent publications · Crossref
Article
Joachim Peiper (30 January 1915 – 14 July 1976) was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) commander and a Nazi war criminal convicted for the Malmedy massacre of US 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.
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 in the Eastern Front and in the Western Front, first as a battalion commander and then as a regimental commander. 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.