Heinz Lammerding

Heinz Lammerding
Born	27 August 1905 Dortmund, Province of Westphalia, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died	13 January 1971 (aged 65–66) Bad Tölz, Bavaria, West Germany
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Waffen SS
Years of service	1933–45
Rank	Brigadeführer
Commands held	2nd SS Division Das Reich
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Heinz Lammerding (born 27 August 1905, Dortmund, Germany – d. 13 January 1971, Bad Tölz, Germany) was a Brigadeführer (Brigadier General) in the Waffen-SS, a commander of 2. SS-Division Das Reich and a convicted war criminal who ordered the murder of approximately 750 civilians.

Post-war

In 1953, he was tried for war crimes for ordering two massacres; the massacre of Tulle and the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre. He was sentenced to death in absentia by the court of Bordeaux, but he was never extradited by West Germany^[1] nor was he ever sentenced by a German court.

According to Danny S. Parker, Lammerding had been tried in West Germany, convicted of war crimes and served a prison sentence. He therefore was not subject to extradition under the Bonn constitution, much to the consternation of the French. They threatened to send in a commando unit to seize him as the Israelis did in the case of Adolf Eichmann. Before this could transpire, Lammerding died.^[2]

Lammerding worked as a civil engineer in Düsseldorf until his retirement and died of cancer at the age of sixty-six in 1971.

In the afterword of "The hanging garden", Ian Rankin claims that the British were involved in his capture:

General Lammerding was the commanding officer. On 9 June, he'd ordered the deaths of ninety-nine hostages in Tulle. He also gave the order for the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre. Later on in the war, Lammerding was captured by the British, who refused his extradition to France. Instead, he was returned to Düsseldorf, where he ran a successful company until his death in 1971.^[3][4][5]

His funeral in 1971 turned into a large reunion of former SS 'comrades'^[6] .

Awards

• SS Honour Ring
• Sword of honour of the Reichsführer-SS
• Iron Cross (1939)
  • 2nd Class (23 May 1940)
  • 1st Class (22 June 1940)
• German Cross in Gold on 24 April 1943 as SS-Standartenführer and commander of SS-Kradschützen-Regiment "Thule"^[7]
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 11 April 1944 as SS-Oberführer and commander of Panzer-Kampfgruppe "Das Reich"^[8][9]
• Infantry Assault Badge in Silver

See also

• Tulle massacre
• Oradour-sur-Glane massacre
• French Resistance
• The Maquis
• Waffen-SS
• SS Division Das Reich
• Heinz Barth

References

Citations

1. Le maire d'Oradour-sur-Glane : « Il était dénué de toute humanité », Le Parisien, 14 August 2007 (French)
2. Parker 2014, p. 386.
3. the hanging garden, °1998 by Ian Rankin
4. The "assassin of Oradour-sur-Glane" died at the age of 86, The World of 14 August 2007.
5. L'"assassin d'Oradour-sur-Glane" est mort à l'âge de 86 ans, Le Monde (with AFP), 14 August 2007 (French)
6. http://www.ag-friedensforschung.de/themen/Kriegsgeschichte1/oradour.html Florence Hervé, Oradour, Ort des Schmerzes, AG Friedensforschung, 2014
7. Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 266.
8. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 282.
9. Scherzer 2007, p. 490.

Bibliography

• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
• Parker, Danny S. (2014). Hitler's Warrior: The Life and Wars of SS Colonel Jochen Peiper. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306821547.
• Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.
• Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Miltaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.