Helmut Knochen (March 14, 1910 – April 4, 2003) was the senior commander of the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) and Sicherheitsdienst in Paris during the Nazi occupation of France during the World War II.

Early life

He was born in Magdeburg, Germany. Before joining the Nazi Party in 1932, he worked as a teacher and editor.

Nazi career

In 1936, he joined the SS and became involved in the SD administration. In 1940, he was appointed the senior commander of security in Paris. In 1942, the jurisdiction under his control stretched from northern France to Belgium. He was promoted to the rank of Standartenf hrer in the same year. Knochen was involved in the deportation of French Jews to concentration camps and was responsible for the execution of thousands of Frenchmen.

During the plot to assassinate Hitler of July 20, 1944, together with the top security man in Paris, Karl Oberg, he was arrested by Army troops under the command of Paris military governor, General Carl-Heinrich von St lpnagel. He was released after the coup collapsed. Following the liberation of Paris, Knochen was transferred to the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and he was degraded to the rank of SS Grenadier.

Post-war trials, sentences, and reprieve

In March 1947, a British Military Court sentenced Knochen to death for the murder of a number of British parachute troops on or around 9 August 1944. However, on 16 September 1948, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and further commuted in February 1950 to 21 years imprisonment. He was extradited to France in 1954 and sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. After presidential pardon gotten in 1958, Knochen was released on Nov. 28 1962 by President Charles de Gaulle, simultaneously with his former chief Gal Carl Oberg. Back to Germany he retired to Baden-Baden and died free in 2003. Knochen himself appeared in the documentary film L'oeil de Vichy, (The Eyes of Vichy), directed by Claude Chabrol. ^[1]

Cultural portrayal

Helmut Knochen is a character in Jonathan Littell's Les Bienveillantes, where he has a meeting with the main character Maximilian Aue.

Notes

References

• Brunner, Bernhard, Der Frankreich-Komplex. Die nationalsozialistischen Verbrechen in Frankreich und die Justiz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Wallstein, G ttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89244-693-8
• Klee, Ernst, Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Zweite aktualisierte Auflage, Frankfurt am Main 2005, S. 320.
• Moisel, Claudia, La France et les criminels de guerre allemands. Politique et pratique de la poursuite p nale apr s la deuxi me guerre mondiale, d. Norbert, 2004, ISBN 3-89244-749-7.
• Magazine Historia, N 337, d cembre 1974 par Philippe Aziz.
• Magazine Historia, Hors S rie N 20, 1971, Les SS. 1 - L'ordre noir.
• Magazine Historia, Hors S rie N 26, 1972, par Serge Klarsfeld.
• Magazine Historia, Hors S rie N 27, 1972, La Gestapo en France. 2.
• L'oeil de Vichy, (The Eyes of Vichy), documentary film directed by Claude Chabrol,
• Delarue, Jacques, SS et Gestapo s'imposent la Wehrmacht, in Le Journal de la France de l'occupation la lib ration, les ann es 40, Historia-Tallandier, n 47, p. 1289-1290.

External links

• Jewish Virtual Library
• Biblioth que virtuelle juive du nazi Helmut Knochen
• ARTE-Interview 2004
• Celui qui parle d'Europol, ne peut pas oublier le RSHA
• une interview auto-r paratrice trois ans avant sa mort

cs:Helmut Knochen de:Helmut Knochen fr:Helmut Knochen ko: nl:Helmut Knochen ja: pl:Helmut Knochen ru: ,