Jochen Peiper: Battle Commander, SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler
Author Charles Whiting, who died in 2007, was a respected historian and accomplished author. Most important of all, when it comes to works of this type, he was a dedicated researcher and, as such, has collected all known information relating to the life and death of Jochen Peiper in this excellent book. There is no doubt that Peiper was both a natural born leader of men and also a hardened Nazi. His eventual death, however, raised more questions than answers and, for that reason, the definitive truth is unlikely ever to be known. In December 1944 he was some 12 miles away from his unit when the men under his command executed some 70 American soldiers at Malmedy. At the resultant war crimes trial after the war, Peiper stood up and accepted responsibility for those murders and was initially sentenced to death - even though many Americans believed him to be completely innocent. Was Peiper responsible for those American deaths or was he simply demonstrating that fine quality of leadership by accepting the actions of his men as being his own? One could argue they were either obeying his standing orders or doing what they believed he would have done - were he present! Nobody was more surprised than Peiper himself to learn his sentence was commuted to a period of imprisonment and he was eventually released from incarceration in 1957. Seeking a quiet life under an assumed name in an obscure village in France, he lived quietly with his wife and translated accounts about the war until his past was revealed by a vengeful local inhabitant. On Bastille day 1976, his house caught fire and his charred body was found amongst the ashes. Was this the long arm of those intent on seeking out and punishing all whom they perceived as former War Criminals - even if they had served their sentence? Or was it the drunken revelry of those who, celebrating France's most important day, had been reminded of her recent past and, knowing they had a convicted German war criminal in their midst, things simply got out of hand? In this work, Charles Whiting does take a rather sympathetic view of Peiper and, whilst that might run against the natural perception that all Nazis were bad and, therefore, deserved everything they got (not a view to which I subscribe!), by taking this gentler approach, I believe Whiting presents a fair and balanced account of the life and death of someone who, in another army - serving a different cause, might have become one of the greatest leaders of all time. But then again, perhaps not. Peiper really is that enigmatic. Altogether, an excellent account, produced in a most readable style, and one which will get the reader thinking about Peiper in a balanced light. --Ned Middleton HALL OF FAME TOP 50 REVIEWERThis book tells the story of a much maligned German officer who shouldered the responsibility for crimes he did not commit in order to protect his men. A true soldier, in every sense of the word, who lead from the front and earned the respect of his soldiers. The book caused in me a feeling of anger at the great injustice done to this man at his post war trial where he was convicted despite the evidence not because of it. This is a book one cannot wait to finish and then having done so one regrets not having the book to read any longer. I shall doubtless read this book on more than one occasion. The author is clearly pro Peiper but at least he lays out the evidence to support his views and the reader cannot help but reach the conclusion that this man's life was blighted to serve a nation's post war need for vengence. --S. JenkinsonThis is a highly readable account of Jochen Peiper's life, which focuses mainly on his role in the "Battle of the Bulge" and his alleged command responsibility for the notorious "Malmedy incident", which tainted Peiper's whole life and eventually also led to his as yet unsolved murder. Whiting's work appears to be well researched, although the history purist may be disappointed by the lack of references and documentary footnotes. The narrative features some startling parallels to Will Berthold's German "faction" work "Malmedy - The Victor's Justice" and one wonders what the relationship between the two books might be. Whiting does not endeavour to solve what really happened at the Baugnez crossroads on the afternoon of 17 December 1944, but he gives the reader plenty of food for thought to come to his own conclusions. The editing could have benefited from some German spellchecking and the correct assignment of Peiper's final rank, but otherwise this is a good summary of a sad yet complex subject. --A Customer