Joachim Peiper was born in January 1915 and died in July 1976 at the age of 61. He was the German commander of motorized and mechanized units within the SS and Waffen-SS. He was born into a family with a certain military tradition, as his father served as a captain in German East Africa during the First World War. Joachim Peiper joined the SS at the age of 18, and a year later, in 1934, he was promoted to the rank of SS man and SS-Sturmmann. At the beginning of World War II, he was the personal adjutant of Heinrich Himmler. In May 1940, he obtained Himmler's permission to participate in the fighting in France, where he served in the 3rd Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Battalion. In the course of these fights he showed personal courage, for which he was decorated with the Iron Cross. At the end of 1941, she joined the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler unit fighting on the Eastern Front. In the period 1941-1943 Joachim Peiper participated in the battles in the USSR, fighting between Rostov-on-Don, Kharkiv and the Kursk Arch. In the course of the fights, he showed not only personal courage, commanding talents and a considerable tactical sense, but also bestiality towards the civilian population. After the defeat at the Kursk, he was transferred to Italy, where he massacred the civilian population in the town of Boves. At the end of 1943, he returned to the Eastern Front, fighting near ¯ytomierz. At the beginning of 1944, he was transferred to France, and later - from June this year - he participated in the battles with the Allied forces in Normandy. During the offensive in the Ardennes at the turn of 1944-1945, he participates in the offensive in the Ardennes, commanding his own Kampfgruppe. It is likely that he knew about the crimes of his subordinates committed against the American prisoners of war in Malmedy. After the end of World War II, he was tried for war crimes. Originally sentenced to death, later changed to life imprisonment, he was released from prison in 1956. He worked for the Porsche company for several years, and then moved to France, where in not fully explained circumstances he died in a fire in his own home in 1976.
The first paramilitary unit to have the abbreviation SS (German: Schutz Staffel) in its name was the personal protection of the dictator of the Third Reich called Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, which was officially formed in 1933. From 1934, the SS was an independent formation headed by Heinrich Himmler. With time, further SS units were formed, including the SS-Totenkopfverbände and the SS-Verfügungstruppe. It is worth adding that the latter was trained similarly to regular Wehrmacht infantry units. On a relatively small scale, SS units were used in combat during the fighting in Poland in 1939 and in the French campaign in 1940. The first units intended from the beginning to fight at the front were created in mid-1940, giving them the name of the Waffen SS. Initially, they were recruited on a voluntary basis, also among non-German people, but over time, compulsory recruitment began to apply. Within the Waffen-SS, many divisions of different combat value were formed. Nevertheless, a few of them (e.g. the 1st SS LAH Panzer Division, the 2nd SS Das Reich Panzer Division or the 12th SS Hitlerjugend Panzer Division) can be considered elite units, with very high combat value and often equipped with the best available equipment. They demonstrated their considerable advantages not only on the Eastern Front (1941-1945), especially during the battles near Kharkiv in 1943, but also during the battles in France in 1944. Another thing is that the quality of the commanding staff of these units was in many cases debatable, and many Waffen-SS soldiers committed war crimes during World War II.