Soldaten

795. SRX 201, 22 March 1941, TNA, WO 208/4158. See also SRN 1013, 1 September 1942, TNA, WO 208/4143.

796. SRA 2378, 9 December 1941, TNA, WO 208/4126.

797. On war crimes committed in France, see Lieb, Konventioneller Krieg, pp. 15–20; on the Totenkopf division, see Charles W. Sydnor, Soldaten des Todes: Die 3. SS-Division “Totenkopf,” 1933–1945 (Paderborn: Schoeningh Verlag, 2002), pp. 76–102; Jean-Luc Leleu, “La Division SS-Totenkopf face à la population civile du Nord de la France en mai 1940,” Revue du Nord 83 (2001), pp. 821–40. On the murder of soldiers from French colonies, see Raffael Scheck, Hitler’s African Victims: The German Army Massacres of French Black Soldiers, 1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

798. See SRM 892, 15 September 1944, TNA, WO 208/4139.

799. SRM 705, 28 July 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

800. SRM 746, 3 August 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138. Both units fought in the same division between October 1943 and January 1944.

801. SRM 746, 3 August 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

802. SRX 1978, 13 August 1944, TNA, WO 208/4164.

803. SRM 726, 30 July 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

804. SRM 1150, 30 December 1944, TNA, WO 208/4140. The anti-Semitic commentary supposedly came from the division commander, SS brigade leader Heinz Lammerding.

805. SRM 899, 15 September 1944, TNA, WO 208/4139. On plunder, see SRM 772, 1 August 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

806. An NCO reported that ten English POWs had been shot in his unit. SRM 741, 4 August 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138. NCO Kaun reported that a Canadian POW was killed with a pickax. The perpetrator could have been a member of the SS division “Hitler Youth” or a regular army soldier. SRM 737, 3 August 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

807. For a general overview, see Lieb, Konventioneller Krieg.

808. SRM 892, 15 September 1944, TNA, WO 208/4139.

809. SRM 855, 29 August 1944, TNA, WO 208/4139.

810. Room Conversation, Hanelt–Breitlich, 3 April 1945, NARA, RG 165, Entry 179, Box 479. The mention of tanks destroying the village makes it seem likely that this incident was part of the battle against “partisans,” carried out by Waffen SS units and not by a Security Service commando.

811. GRGG 225, 18–19 November 1944, TNA, WO 208/4364.

812. See Neitzel, Abgehört, pp. 300–303, 572ff.

813. SRX 1799, 23 June 1943, TNA, WO 208/4162.

814. There is unfortunately only scant research on the topic of war crimes committed by the Waffen SS on the Eastern Front.

815. SRN 3929, 10 July 1944, TNA, WO 208/4153.

816. SRM 1079, 24 November 1944, TNA, WO 208/4139. On massacres of civilians in Belarus, see the statement by Rottenführer Otto Gregor. PWIS (H)LDC/762, TNA, WO 208/4295. Lieutenant Colonel Müller-Rienzburg told as a POW of how Standartenführer Kurt Meyer had bragged at a training session of how he took Charkow with only two casualties and then destroyed the entire village, including “women, children and old people.” SRGG 832, 13 February 1944, TNA, WO 208/4168.

817. SRM 648, 15 July 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

818. SRM 643, 13 July 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138. On the execution of POWs by the SS Division “The Reich,” see SRM 764, 8 August 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138. Untersturmführer Karl-Walter Becker from 12th SS Division “Hitler Youth” recalled comrades telling him about the invasion: “In Russia, the standard operating procedure was that only the POWs who seemed most important would be transported. All others were usually murdered.” TNA, WO 208/4295.

819. SRM 1205, 12 February 1945, TNA, WO 208/4140. On the crimes of the 12th SS Armored Division in Normandy, see Howard Margolian, Conduct Unbecoming: The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998); Lieb, Konventioneller Krieg, pp. 158–66.

820. SRM 753, 3 August 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138.

821. Further crimes are mentioned in SRM 706, 28 July 1944, TNA, WO 208/4138; SRM 367, 9 November 1943, TNA, WO 208/4137 (the murder of hostages in Panevo, Serbia, in April 1941).

822. Leleu, La Waffen-SS, pp. 233–35; 420–41; Jürgen Matthäus, Konrad Kwiet, Jürgen Förster, and Richard Breitman, eds., Ausbildungsziel Judenmord? “Weltanschauliche Erziehung” von SS, Polizei und Waffen-SS im Rahmen der “Endlösung” (Frankfurt/Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 2003).

823. GRGG 262, 18–20 February 1945, TNA, WO 208/4177.

824. SRM 1214, 12 February 1945, TNA, WO 208/4140.

825. SRM 1216, 16 February 1945, TNA, WO 208/4140. The wording of Himmler’s order of 20 February 1943 was nearly identical. See Matthäus et al., eds., Ausbildungsziel Judenmord?, p. 106.