SS-Kampfgruppe Hansen was one of four task forces of 1.SS-Panzer-Division Leibstandarte SS engaged in the
Ardennes Offensive. The other three was
SS-Kampfgruppe Peiper, Sandig and Schnelle Gruppe
Knittel. Waffen-SS commander
Max Hansen, who terminated the war with the rank of SS-Standartenführer, was regularly letting American and British prisoners escorted to their lines and released to their respective army's. This came out during his trial in 1946. Max Hansen was found not guilty on all charges except one. He was charged with being involved with a
criminal organization of the German Reich by commanding of a Waffen-SS division. Max Hansen was one of the 98 out of the millions who fought for Nazi Germany in World War II who received both the
Knight's Cross and the Close-Combat Clasp in Gold. Left image: a formal portrait of the then SS-Sturmbannführer Max Hansen, probably made in connection with the award of the Knight's Cross on March 28 1943. Credit: Matthias Ruf. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Right image: this is a well-known photograph from a captured SS-PK film roll. It shows a heavily armed unidentified SS-Panzergrenadier pictured after the then SS-Obersturmbannführer Max Hansen's famous clash near Poteau on December 18 1944. The photograph is credited to the talented Waffen-SS war correspondent SS-Unterscharführer Max Büschel. Büschel's cameraman SS-Unterscharführer Schäfer's dispatch rider was captured near Waimes by the Americans the very day after the encounter along with their undeveloped films. The 1st U.S. Infantry Division reports about the capture of the courier carrying Schäfer's newsreel rolls. The report details what is on the film and when it was filmed. Credit: AHF i.a. Image credit: Facundo Filipe. U.S. NARA.
Winter Fritz remains and will for ever remain the Unknown German Soldier of the Ardennes offensive.
ReplyDeleteIt's just such an iconic image of a late-war German soldier and maybe best left unidentified. For me, he is 'everyman' of the Germans who attacked in the Bulge.
Delete76th anniversary, and his identity remains unknown.
DeleteAll names floating around the internet in connection with this famous photo and footage are misidentifications or even pure fantasy.
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ReplyDeleteA total of six Hansen brothers served on the front during the war, plus three sisters. Max older brother Christian, who also served with the Leibstandarte, was awarded the German Cross in Gold in 1943. Andrey.
ReplyDeleteMax Hansen, like many of his compatriots, had nothing to do with war crimes or atrocities. No evidence has ever been found connecting him with war crimes, and like many of those who fought in the elite Waffen-SS, he was guilty of nothing but doing his duty.
ReplyDeleteI think his photo was used alot on recruitment posters throughout Germany.
ReplyDeleteThis Picture is from Dezember 1944, to late for Recruitment Posters i think
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