Heinrich Kittel

Who was Heinrich Kittel?

Heinrich Kittel was a highly decorated Generalleutnant in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. Heinrich Kittel was wounded and captured by American troops on 22 November 1944 during the Battle of Metz. He was held in captivity until 1947.

According to one review of ‘Soldaten: Secret WWII Transcripts of German POWs’ by Soenke Neitzel & Harald Welzer, Heinrich Kittel's original speech transcripts illustrate his culpable passivity while observing mass executions without intervening at all despite his rank: "Kittel: 'They seized three-year old children by the hair, held them up and shot them with a pistol and then threw them in. I saw that for myself. One could watch it; the SD [Sicherheitsdienst, the Security Service of the SS] had roped the area off and the people were standing watching from about 300 m. off. The Latvians and the German soldiers were just standing there, looking on'." Kittel, according to the reviewer, ignobly, perhaps criminally, failed to act, despite the [reviewer's] presumption that his high rank could have enabled him to do so.†