Joachim Peiper

Who was Joachim Peiper?

Joachim Peiper, also known as Jochen Peiper, was a field officer in the Waffen-SS during World War II and personal adjutant to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler between November 1940 and August 1941. He saw combat on both the Eastern Front against the Red Army and the Western Front against the Allies. By 1945, he was an SS-Standartenführer and the Waffen-SS's youngest regimental colonel. Peiper was convicted of war crimes committed in Belgium and accused of war crimes in Italy. However, in 1968, both Italian and German courts concluded that there was insufficient evidence to warrant prosecution. At that time, he was translating books from English to German under the name of Rainer Buschmann.

Peiper was murdered in France in July 1976 when his house was attacked with Molotov cocktails.