Fritz Knöchlein (27 May 1911 – 21 January 1949) was an SS commander during the Nazi era who was convicted and executed in 1949 for committing war crimes during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, specifically for his responsibility for the

Le Paradis massacre The Le Paradis massacre was a World War II war crime committed by members of the 14th Company, SS Division Totenkopf, under the command of ''Hauptsturmführer'' Fritz Knöchlein. It took place on 27 May 1940, during the Battle of France, at a ...

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 A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

Le Paradis Lestrem (; ; ) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography A small farming and light industrial town, situated some north of Béthune and west of Lille, on the D122, D178 and D975 roads, by ...

in the

Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, " strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...

. Ninety-nine members of the 2nd Battalion of the

Royal Norfolk Regiment The Royal Norfolk Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army until 1959. Its predecessor regiment was raised in 1685 as Henry Cornwall's Regiment of Foot. In 1751, it was numbered like most other British Army regiments and named ...

, 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. According to the historians Williamson Murray and Allan Millet: "The company commander, Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Fritz Knochlein, lined the prisoners up against a barn wall and machinegunned the lot. Any survivors were bayoneted and shot. German military authorities brought no charges against Knochlein." In 1942, the bodies were exhumed by the French authorities and reburied in a local cemetery, which eventually became the Le Paradis War Cemetery.Le Paradis War Cemetery, Lestrem
"

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mi ...

. Retrieved 7 November 2015 Albert Pooley, who was subsequently taken prisoner along with O'Callaghan, made it a personal mission to hunt down Knöchlein and have him charged for war crimes. His story was confirmed when O'Callaghan was freed in 1945.

Trial and execution

In August 1948, Knöchlein was formally charged with committing a war crime, to which he pleaded not guilty.

The accused Fritz Knöchlein, a German national, in the charge of the Hamburg Garrison Unit, pursuant to Regulation 4 of the Regulations for the Trial of War Criminals, is charged with committing a war crime in that he in the vicinity of Paradis, Pas-de-Calais, France, on or about 27 May 1940, in violation of the laws and usages of war, was concerned in the killing of about ninety prisoners-of-war, members of The Royal Norfolk Regiment and other British Units.

His trial began on Monday 11 October 1948 in

Rotherbaum Rotherbaum () is a quarter of Eimsbüttel, a borough of Hamburg, Germany. In 2020 the population was 17,114. In German, "roter Baum" means ''red tree''. The "th", which in general was abolished in the spelling reform of 1900, was preserved in name ...

, and both Albert Pooley and William O'Callaghan were called to testify against him. Knöchlein's defence attorney claimed that Knöchlein had not been present on the day of the battle, and that the British forces had used illegal dum-dum bullets during the battle. Upon being found guilty, Knöchlein asked for leniency, saying he had a wife and four children, who depended on him. He was sentenced to death, and hanged at Hamelin Prison on 21 January 1949.

Awards

* German Cross in Gold on 15 November 1942 *

Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (german: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes), or simply the Knight's Cross (), and its variants, were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. The Knight' ...

on 16 November 1944

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

"Private Pooley's Revenge", an article about the trial, with a photograph of Albert Pooley and William O'Callaghan

Link in memory of the Le Paradise massacre.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knoechlein, Fritz 1911 births 1949 deaths Executed military personnel SS-Obersturmbannführer Recipients of the Gold German Cross Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross Executed people from Bavaria Military personnel from Munich Curiohaus Trial executions People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Perpetrators of World War II prisoner of war massacres Waffen-SS personnel Executed mass murderers