Helmut Knochen
Helmut Knochen | |
|---|---|
 Knochen c. 1942 | |
| Born | 14 March 1910 |
| Died | April 4, 2003 (aged 93) |
| Conviction(s) | War crimes |
| Criminal penalty |
|
| SS service | |
| Allegiance |  Nazi Germany |
| Service/ |  Schutzstaffel |
| Years of service | 1936–1945 |
| Rank | SS-Standartenführer |
| Commands held | Security Police (Paris) Sicherheitspolizei Sicherheitsdienst |
Helmut Knochen (March 14, 1910 – April 4, 2003) was the senior commander of the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) and Sicherheitsdienst in Paris during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. He was sentenced to death first by a British Military Court in 1947 then by a Parisian military tribunal in 1954, after his sentences were commuted and reduced few times he was pardoned by President de Gaulle and released in 1963.[1]
Early life[]
He was born in Magdeburg, Germany. Before joining the Nazi Party in 1932, he worked as a teacher and editor.
Nazi career[]
In 1936, he joined the SS and became involved in the SD administration. In 1940, he was appointed the senior commander of security in Paris. In 1942, the jurisdiction under his control stretched from northern France to Belgium. He was promoted to the rank of Standartenführer in the same year. Knochen was involved in the deportation of French Jews to concentration camps and was responsible for the execution of thousands of Frenchmen. He was responsible for the arrest and torture of SOE agents.[2]
During the plot to assassinate Hitler of July 20, 1944, together with the top security man in Paris, SS General Carl Oberg, he was arrested by Army troops under the command of Paris military governor, General Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel. He was released after the coup collapsed. Following the liberation of Paris, Knochen was transferred to the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and he was degraded to the rank of SS Grenadier.
Post-war trials, sentences, and reprieve[]
In March 1947, a British Military Court sentenced Knochen, alongside Hans Kieffer, to death for the murder of a number of British parachute troops on or around 9 August 1944. However, on 16 September 1948, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and further commuted in February 1950 to 21 years imprisonment. He was extradited to France in 1954 and sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. After he obtained a presidential pardon in 1958, Knochen was released on November 28, 1962 by President Charles de Gaulle, simultaneously with his former chief Carl Oberg. Back in Germany he retired to Baden-Baden and died a free man in 2003.
In popular culture[]
- The Eye of Vichy, a French documentary film directed by Claude Chabrol where Knochen himself appeared[3]
- Les Bienveillantes, a 2006 historical fiction novel written in French by Jonathan Littell, where Helmut Knochen is featured meeting the main character Maximilian Aue.
- Field Gray, a 2010 fiction novel by Philip Kerr where Knochen featured.
Notes[]
- ^ Wistrich 2013, pp. 152—153.
- ^ Alex Kershaw 2015, p. 91.
- ^ L'oeil de Vichy at IMDb
References[]
- Alex Kershaw (2015). Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family's Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris. Crown/Archetype. ISBN 978-0-8041-4004-1.
- Jeremy Josephs (1 May 2012). Swastika Over Paris. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4088-3448-0.
- (in German) Brunner, Bernhard, Der Frankreich-Komplex. Die nationalsozialistischen Verbrechen in Frankreich und die Justiz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Wallstein, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89244-693-8
- (in German) Klee, Ernst, Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Zweite aktualisierte Auflage, Frankfurt am Main 2005, S. 320.
- (in French) Moisel, Claudia, La France et les criminels de guerre allemands. Politique et pratique de la poursuite pénale après la deuxième guerre mondiale, Éd. Norbert, 2004, ISBN 3-89244-749-7.
- Wistrich, R.S. (2013). Who's Who in Nazi Germany. Who's Who. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-136-41381-0.
- (in French) Magazine Historia, N° 337, décembre 1974 par Philippe Aziz.
- (in French) Magazine Historia, Hors Série N° 20, 1971, Les SS. 1 - L'ordre noir.
- (in French) Magazine Historia, Hors Série N° 26, 1972, par Serge Klarsfeld.
- (in French) Magazine Historia, Hors Série N° 27, 1972, La Gestapo en France. 2.
- L'oeil de Vichy, (The Eyes of Vichy), documentary film directed by Claude Chabrol, L'oeil de Vichy at IMDb
- (in French) Delarue, Jacques, SS et Gestapo s'imposent à la Wehrmacht, in Le Journal de la France de l'occupation à la libération, les années 40, Historia-Tallandier, n° 47, p. 1289-1290.
External links[]
- Jewish Virtual Library
- (in French) Bibliothèque virtuelle juive du nazi Helmut Knochen
- (in French) ARTE-Interview 2004
- (in German) Celui qui parle d'Europol, ne peut pas oublier le RSHA
- (in French) une interview auto-réparatrice trois ans avant sa mort
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- 1910 births
- 2003 deaths
- SS-Standartenführer
- Military personnel from Magdeburg
- Holocaust perpetrators in France
- Nazi Party officials
- People from the Province of Saxony
- People of Vichy France
- People extradited to France
- Prisoners sentenced to death by the British military
- Prisoners sentenced to death by France
- Recipients of French presidential pardons
- German prisoners sentenced to death
- People extradited from the United Kingdom
- Reich Security Main Office personnel
- Waffen-SS personnel