SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Peiper - Naive, Desperate or Suffering from Battle Fatigue ?

Ruimteaapje
If "the killings in Belgium" is Malmédy then indeed he was not guilty of that. But mind you, he had his share in killing pow's and civilians during that week in the Ardennes.

The SS certainly did leave many dead civilians behind them , I can't say definitely that JP ordered their deaths but murder is murder.
Agate's book didn't really do much for me I found him too much in love with "the man and the myth"
Whilst I do find some of the waffen SS officers interesting in their own right I try to balance the men , their actions and the regime they fought for.
As "Von Poop" said it is not all black and white.
70 years on answers are still hard to find.

 

My belief is Peiper is a honorable man. I believe he felt McCowan was too.
That is quite the statement considering the very same fellow was a personal adjutant to Himmler (the previous Adj. To Peiper was fully aware of the extent of the crimes against the jews so how can Peiper claim ignorance?) as well as reportedly having witnessed a gassing.

One could argue he was a efficient commander/soldier but a man of honour? I would call that a stretch.

 

This is an interesting thread and good to see that it hasn't gone too far off the rails....

Going back to the original question, I've just re-read Rynolds' Peiper book and was interested to note that Peiper 'disappears' from most German records between 26/12/44 and 6/2/45, and that on 30/1/45 SS Major Dr Kurt Sickel certified that Peiper had suffered a 'commotio cerebri', which can refer either to concussion or in some cases mental breakdown.

Or maybe just a severe case of combat fatigue.....

 

The interrogation methods used on the SS POWs were severe and protracted, and some descriptions seem akin to gratuitus torture - thus the true facts of what actually happened will probably never be known, as for Pieper his state of mind was probably that of trying to concentrate on the battle, many of his troops were 'green' replacements who were an unknown quantity in combat.

 

Great Topic...

 

The story is told in 'Nazi Hunters' on Yesterday today - repeated again at midnight.

Roxy

 

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