Le Paradis Massascre

[vibmon]

A good synopsis recounting the murder of 97 British prisoners by the SS-Totenkopf division (May 1940) in northern France. Two survived to tell the tale..

Le Paradis Massacre - 2. KOMPANIE

And several other articles of interest on this site.

[Paul D]

Oh dear Totenkopf reenactors !!

The usual claims that the British were using Dum dum bullets , where is the evidence of this ? Who are the British veterans made these claims ? I stand to be corrected but these excuses came about in the initial report of Theodor Eicke to cover the fact that even other Heer and SS Officers were shocked at what his men had done . Was this just revenge for the death of the Regimental commander SS-Standartenführer (Colonel) Hans Friedemann Götze at the hands of the British ?

[Pauls1970]

You don't often here about this particular action, I've not seen the link yet, but I remember reading about it in Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's book, Dunkirk (highly reccommended), they were Royal Norfolks. The other massacre was of the Warwicks, in a barn at Wormhaudt, seem to think that was carried out by a unit of the Liebstandarte, absolutely tragic.
Paul

[Paul D]

Yes Wormhout was by the LAH , Wilhelm Mohnke was responsible for that massacre but managed to evade justice and died in hid 90's .

[HetzersGonnaHetz]

"Secondly, a French woman, who was an eye-witness to the massacre claimed the man who ordered the execution was a tall slender man, wearing a visor cap, who had a very distinct face twitch. As shown in the photos of Knöchlein from the French campaign, he can be seen in the portrait below wearing an overseas cap, not a visor cap".

Deary me. If this is one of the author's best pieces of evidence from his "own research" as to why it wasn't Knochlein who gave the order then I despair.

[Paul D]

Good point Harvey , most of the SS Officers would have a number of different pieces of headwear with them including whilst in the field so one photo of Knochlein wearing an overseas cap proves nothing .

[HetzersGonnaHetz]

Agreed Paul, ridiculous speculations made in that article. Below are photos showing Knochlein wearing both an overseas cap... and a visor *facepalms*. The other one shows him after the war I believe, looking quite "slender" may I add?

The author's own research can't have even gone as far as a quick search on Google Images, deary me x2!

The worrying thing is that he is probably spreading his claims at events to unsuspecting people.

[HetzersGonnaHetz]

"Nearly nine years elapsed before the guilty Knoechlein went to the gallows, but throughout those nine years his face was never expunged from the mind's eye of a certain wrinkled French peasant, Madame Romanie Castel, whose recognition of the SS criminal was to become an important factor in his conviction.

"On October 12, 1948, this old Frenchwoman stepped from the witness box and hobbled towards the centre of a Hamburg military courtroom. She turned slowly, peering at the faces around her, at the lawyers, interpreters, clerks, court officials and witnesses alike ... Then suddenly, she pointed the forefinger of a thin bony hand at Fritz Knoechlein crying, "That is him, that is the man!"

That is from a book by Lt Col Scotland OBE called "The London Cage". One of its chapters (the one above) talks about Knochlein's trial.

I assume the old Frenchwoman there is the same one that the Reenactor also mentions in his article, but who instead must've morphed her testimony against Knochlein in court into one that somehow aided his own claims. Shocking thing to do but anything to raise a few eyebrows and publicity!! I know we have spoken before about a few others who do that Paul eh?

[Watchdog]

Yes Wormhout was by the LAH , Wilhelm Mohnke was responsible for that massacre but managed to evade justice and died in hid 90's .

I think a lot of people not as attuned to things like unit differences etc as we are here get these two incidents confused because of things like the similarity to the layman of "Norfolks" / Warwicks", the fact that it was "over in Europe" (a difficult thing to grasp for some people even today) and that both attrocities were committed by The SS (that's where the description ends for most"experts" in the pub) which I suppose is a major factor when trying to investigate even immediately afer the war.

Mohnke was captured by the Russians and held until 1955 when he became a successful businessman in Hamburg so there might have been economic motivations at play when the economy needed protecting?

I don't suppose we will ever be certain but I have read that the CIA granted Mohnke immunity from prosecution by US or UK authorities in return for evidence against his former colleagues.

I do recall an edition of "The Cook Report" on UKTV right at the end of the '80s that tried to investigate the Mohnke affair and that as a result the West German authorities were provoked into re-opening a case against him but I don't believe that went very far for "lack of evidence".

I guess we will never know for sure what happened in either of these dreadful cases. I think we just have to be aware that an incorrect answer can actually be worse than no answer.

Regards

Mark

[Paul D]

Mohnke was used by Western Intelligence Agencies following his release from Soviet captivity due to his " knowledge " of the soviets which bought him a get out of jail free card . The issue of Mohnke and his involvement in War Crimes was even raised in Parliament in the early 2000's to pursue further investigations into him for the Wormhout massacre but in reality as Mark has said thE will to prosecute him had been lost despite the fact he features heavily in the War Crimes file at Kew .

In reality Mohnke was a horrible bastard who was disliked even by his own Troops and his list of atrocities spanned the whole war , He was probably a morphine addict as a result of having a foot amputated after being wounded and units under his command were responsible for atrocities in Russia but also in Normandy where he ordered the execution of POW's ( sounds familiar ) and although Jochen Peiper and Werner Poetscke were blamed for the Malmedy massacre of POW'S during the Battle of the Bulge the Commander of the LAH at the time was none other than Wilhelm Mohnke a man with a string of war crimes against POW's !! In a funny way his capture in Berlin and Soviet captivity actually saved him from the Gallows