Fritz Knoechlein Fritz Knöchlein ( May 27 , 1911 , Munich – January 28 , 1949 ) was an SS - " Obersturmbannführer " ( Lieutenant Colonel ) during the Second World War who was subsequently convicted and executed for war crime s . Biography . Fritz Knöchlein joined the SS in 1934 . Upon the formation of the 3rd SS Division ( " " Totenkopf " " ) ( then organized as a motorized infantry division ) at the SS training area near Dachau he was promoted to the rank of " Hauptsturmführer " ( Captain ) and appointed to the command of No . 3 " Kompanie " , I . " Abteilung " ( of which he was also the deputy commander ) , 2 . Regiment ( " Brandenberg " ) of the " Totenkopf " Division and fought as part of the division during the Battle of France in May – June 1940 . Massacre . It was in his capacity as a company commander that he gained notoriety , being responsible for the 27 May 1940 massacre of British prisoners - of - war at Le Paradis in the Pas - de - Calais . Ninety - nine members of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment who had surrendered to his unit in a cattle shed were stood in front of the barn wall , and Knöchlein ordered two machine - guns turned on them , followed by bayoneting and shooting any apparent survivors . Two of the prisoners , privates Albert Pooley and William O ' Callaghan , managed to escape the massacre , but the remaining 97 were hastily buried along the barn wall . In 1942 , the bodies were exhumed by the French authorities and reburied in a local cemetery which eventually became the Le Paradis War Cemetery . During this time , Albert Pooley made it a personal mission to hunt down Knöchlein and bring him up on charges of war crimes after the war . Eastern Front . After the French campaign Knöchlein was appointed commander of 5 . " Kompanie " , and to command of an antiaircraft Artillery battery in the " Totenkopf " Division flak battalion . He served in this capacity on the Russian Front until the summer of 1942 , when he was promoted to " Sturmbannführer " ( Major ) , and appointed commander of the I . " Abteilung " of the 3 . Regiment , " Totenkopf " Division . In October 1943 he became commander of I . " Abteilung " , No . 36 Regiment , of the newly formed 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division ( " " Reichsführer - SS " " ) . He was promoted to " Obersturmbannführer " ( Lieutenant Colonel ) and appointed commander of a Norwegian SS volunteer unit , the No . 23 Panzergrenadier Regiment ( " " Norge " " ) of the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division ( " " Nordland " " ) from March 14 , 1944 to January 1 , 1945 . Knöchlein received the following decorations during the war : the Iron Cross First and Second Class ; the German Cross in Gold ( 15 November 1942 ) , and the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross ( November 1944 ) . Trial and execution . In August 1948 , he was formally arraigned on charges of war crimes , to which he pleaded not guilty . His trial began in No . 5 Court of the Curiohaus , Rotherbaum , on Monday 11 October 1948 , and both Albert Pooley and William O ' Callaghan were called to testify against him . Knöchlein ' s defence attorney , Dr . Uhde , claimed that Knöchlein had not been present on the day of the battle , and challenged that the British forces had used illegal dumdum bullets during the battle . At his war crimes trial Knöchlein claimed that he was tortured during his detention in the " London Cage " , which the head of the " London Cage " Alexander Scotland dismisses in " London Cage " as a " lame allegation " . According to Knöchlein , he was stripped , deprived of sleep , kicked by guards and starved . He said that he was compelled to walk in a tight circle for four hours . After complaining to Alexander Scotland , Knöchlein alleges that he was doused in cold water , pushed down stairs , and beaten . He claimed he was forced to stand beside a hot gas stove before being showered with cold water . He claimed that he and another prisoner were forced to run in circles while carrying heavy logs . " Since these tortures were the consequences of my personal complaint , any further complaint would have been senseless , " Knöchlein wrote . " One of the guards who had a somewhat humane feeling advised me not to make any more complaints , otherwise things would turn worse for me . " Other prisoners , he alleged , were beaten until they begged to be killed , while some were told that they could be made to disappear . Scotland said in his memoirs that Knöchlein was not interrogated at all at the London Cage because there was sufficient evidence to convict him , and he wanted " no confusing documents with the aid of which he might try to wriggle from the net . " During his last nights at the cage , Scotland states , Knöchlein " began shrieking in a half - crazed fashion , so that the guards at the London Cage were at a loss to know how to control him . At one stage the local police called in to enquire why such a din was emanating from sedate Kensington Palace Gardens . " Upon being found guilty , Knöchlein applied for clemency , arguing that he had a wife and four children that depended on him , but was sentenced to be hanged , a verdict that was carried out on January 28 , 1949 . Summary of his military career . Dates of rank Notable decorations