Otto Kumm
Otto Kumm | |
|---|---|
SS Division Leibstandarte | |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords |
| Other work | Founder of HIAG |
Otto Kumm (1 October 1909 – 23 March 2004) commanded two Waffen-SS divisions in the latter stages of World War II and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. At the post-war Nuremberg trials, the Waffen-SS – of which Kumm was a senior officer – was declared to be a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. After the war, Kumm became one of the founders of HIAG, a lobby group and a revisionist organization of former Waffen-SS members.
SS career
Born in 1909 into a family of a merchant in Hamburg, Kumm trained as a typesetter and worked at a newspaper. On 1 June 1934, Kumm joined the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS Dispositional Troops) and on 1 July received his first training with the SS-Standarte "Germania" in Hamburg.[1]
Kumm commanded the Der Führer Regiment of the
As the division commander, Kumm and the LSSAH took part in Operation Spring Awakening (6 March 1945 – 16 March 1945), the last major German offensive launched during World War II. The Germans launched attacks in Hungary near the Lake Balaton area on the Eastern Front. Soviet intelligence identified large German tank formations in western Hungary and developed a successful counterattack strategy. After the failure of Operation Spring Awakening, Sepp Dietrich's 6th SS Panzer Army and the LSSAH retreated to the Vienna area.[4]
After Vienna fell to the Red Army in the
Activities within HIAG
After the war, Otto Kumm was "denazified" and became a businessman. Kumm was a founder and the first head of the Waffen-SS veterans' organization HIAG, established in 1951 to lobby for the cause of the Waffen-SS historical rehabilitation and restoration of their rights to post-war pensions.[6]
As the organization's chairman and its first spokesperson, Kumm set the tone for the rhetoric that was reflected in its publications and public discourse. In 1952, Otto Kumm published an editorial in the in-house magazine Wiking-Ruf ("Viking Call") outlining the organization's grievances:[7]
Even during the war, and especially after the war, infamous and lying propagandists have been able to make use of all the unfortunate events connected to the Third Reich and also with the SS to destroy and drag through the mud all of what was and is sacred to us. [...] Let us be clear about it: the [Allied] battle was directed not only against the authoritarian regime of the Third Reich, but, above all, against the resurgence of the strength of the German people.
At least through the 1970s, Kumm remained "the ever unreformed Nazi enthusiast" according to researcher Danny S. Parker, who was given access to the previously closed HIAG archives.[8] Perceived by the West German government to be a Nazi organization, HIAG was disbanded in 1992.[9] Kumm died on 23 March 2004.
Works
- Vorwärts, Prinz Eugen! Geschichte der 7. SS-Freiwilligen-Division "Prinz Eugen" ("Forward, Prinz Eugen! History of the 7th SS Volunteer Division Prinz Eugen"). (2007) Dresden, Germany: ISBN 978-3-938392-13-3.
- 7. SS-Gebirgs-Division "Prinz Eugen" im Bild ("7th SS Mountain Division Prinz Eugen in Action"). (1983) Osnabrück, Germany: ISBN 3-921242-54-1
Awards
- Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (30 May 1940) & 1st Class (3 June 1940)[10]
- German Cross in Gold on 29 November 1941 as SS-Obersturmbannführer in the SS-Regiment "Der Führer"[11]
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
- Knight's Cross on 16 February 1942 as SS-Obersturmbannführer and commander of SS-Regiment (motorized) "Der Führer".[12]
- Oak Leaves on 6 April 1943 as SS-Obersturmbannführer and commander SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment "Der Führer"[12]
- Swords on 17 March 1945 as SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of the Waffen-SS and commander of the 7. SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgs-Division "Prinz Eugen"[12]
References
Citations
- ^ Stockert 1997, p. 70.
- ^ Flaherty 2004, p. 168.
- ^ Fischer 2008, p. 41.
- ^ Dollinger 1968, p. 199.
- ^ Kumm 1995, p. 273.
- ^ Large 1987, p. 82.
- ^ Steiner 1975, p. 278.
- ^ Parker 2014, p. 215.
- ^ Levenda 2014, p. 167.
- ^ Thomas 1997, p. 428.
- ^ Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 262.
- ^ a b c Scherzer 2007, p. 484.
Bibliography
- Berger, Florian (1999). Mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern. Die höchstdekorierten Soldaten des Zweiten Weltkrieges [With Oak Leaves and Swords. The Highest Decorated Soldiers of the Second World War] (in German). Vienna, Austria: Selbstverlag Florian Berger. ISBN 978-3-9501307-0-6.
- Dollinger, Hans (1968). The Decline and Fall of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. New York: Crown Publishers. OCLC 712594.
- Fischer, Thomas (2008). Soldiers of the Leibstandarte. Winnipeg: ISBN 978-0-921991-91-5.
- Flaherty, T. H. (2004) [1988]. The Third Reich: The SS. Time-Life. ISBN 1-84447-073-3.
- Kumm, Otto (1995). Prinz Eugen: The history of the 7. SS-Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen". Winnipeg: J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing. ISBN 0-921991-29-0.
- Large, David C. (1987). "Reckoning without the Past: The HIAG of the Waffen-SS and the Politics of Rehabilitation in the Bonn Republic, 1950–1961". The Journal of Modern History. 59 (1). University of Chicago Press: 79–113. S2CID 144592069.
- ISBN 978-0892542109.
- Parker, Danny S. (2014). Hitler's Warrior: The Life and Wars of SS Colonel Jochen Peiper. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306821547.
- Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.
- Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
- Steiner, John Michael (1975). Power Politics and Social Change in National Socialist Germany: A Process of Escalation Into Mass Destruction. De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-9027976512.
- Stockert, Peter (1997). Die Eichenlaubträger 1939–1945 Band 3 [The Oak Leaves Bearers 1939–1945 Volume 3] (in German). Bad Friedrichshall, Germany: Friedrichshaller Rundblick. ISBN 978-3-932915-01-7.
- Thomas, Franz (1997). Die Eichenlaubträger 1939–1945 Band 1: A–K [The Oak Leaves Bearers 1939–1945 Volume 1: A–K] (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7648-2299-6.
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