Helmut Kämpfe


Helmut Kämpfe was a highly decorated Waffen SS Sturmbannführer who was killed by the French Resistance just before the Oradour massacre in occupied France on 10 June 1944. In total 642 men, women and children were murdered in Oradour-sur-Glane by troops from the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich. The SS commander who ordered the massacre said the death of Kämpfe was the reason for the killings.
Kämpfe, who was a commander in 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, was said to be a "pleasant and likeable man." A highly respected combat veteran who had been awarded Nazi Germany's extremely rare Close Combat Clasp in Gold. He was also one of the very few to receive both this bravery award and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

Biography

Kämpfe was born in Thüringen, Germany in 1909. He trained to be a typographer like his father but after Hitler took power in 1933 he became a Leutnant in the Heer before transferring to the Waffen-SS in 1939. On the Eastern Front in Russia, he commanded the 3rd Battalion, 4th SS-Panzergrenadier Der Führer Regiment, the Das Reich Division's reconnaissance group. Kämpfe received the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross for bravery and exemplary leadership during the Zhitomir–Berdichev Offensive in the winter of 1943-44.
In Spring 1944, the Das Reich Division had been withdrawn from Russia and sent to the south of France for refitting in preparation for the anticipated Allied invasion of occupied Europe. While in the southern France, Kämpfe was ordered to begin operations against the Maquis. On 9 June 1944, he was captured east of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat by a group led by a Sergeant Jean Canou from Colonel Georges Guingouin's Brigade, a group in the Maquis du Limousin. Canou handed him over to Guingouin. The following day Kämpfe was executed on the orders of Guingouin or killed during an attempt to escape. His body was then burned.
When it was discovered that the highly decorated officer had been kidnapped, troops from the Das Reich division and members of the Milice began a brutal search of the surrounding area for Kämpfe. Two local men were shot dead east of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat. Later that day the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane was committed by troops from the 1st Battalion, Das Reich.
The commander of the 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment, SS-Standartenführer Sylvester Stadler ordered a court martial into the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane. SS-Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann, the commander of the 1st Battalion, 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment, and a personal friend of Kämpfe, was charged over the killings. He said he found Kämpfe's handcuffed body inside a German field ambulance with the remains of other German soldiers just outside the village of Oradour-sur-Glane. The vehicle had been set alight burning alive everyone inside. After seeing his friend's fate, the village was destroyed on his orders. SS-Brigadeführer Heinz Lammerding, Das Reich's division commander, agreed that Diekmann should face a court martial. All charges were dropped when Diekmann was killed fighting in Normandy on June 29, 1944.