Josef Kieffer

Who is Josef Kieffer?

Waffen SS Sturmbannführer Hans Josef Kieffer {b. 4 December 1900 – d. 26 June 1947} was the senior German intelligence officer in Paris during the German occupation of France in World War II. In 1944 he was in command of the German troops who murdered captured SAS men during Operation Bulbasket. These murders of POWs were a flagrant breach of the Geneva Convention, which Germany had signed.

During his cross-examination after the war by Vera Atkins from SOE, he began to cry at his interrogator's description of the death of Noor Inayat Khan at Dachau concentration camp. Atkins replied "Kieffer, if one of us is going to cry it is going to be me. You will please stop this comedy."

Kieffer was subsequently charged with war crimes. After being found guilty at his trial he was sentenced to death by hanging and executed on the gallows at Hamelin prison by Albert Pierrepoint.