ϟϟ-Obersturmführer der Waffen-SS Kam

Danish Kam brothers; Poul, Søren and Erik

SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 9 Germania

SS-Obersturmführer Søren Kam from København in Denmark volunteered with the Waffen-SS in June 1940. He served with SS-Standarte Nordland before Operation Barbarossa. Søren Kam was shot in the lung while serving in SS-Division Wiking during the battles of Dnipropetrovsk in September 1941. After recovering, he attended SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz in May 1942, from which he graduated in December the same year. SS-Untersturmführer Kam flew into the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket in February 1944 and took part in the bloody breakout. Eight month later, in October 1944 when battalion commander SS-Hauptsturmführer Martin Kruse was wounded near Wieliszew in East-central Poland, Kam took over the command and shattered the enemy's attack in aggressively led counterattacks at Hill 86 and covered the retreat of SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment Germania of the elite 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking. Following this action Kam was awarded the Knight's Cross on Feb. 7 1945. The statement mention that he had been wounded in battle several times and for battlefield bravery been awarded the Iron Cross First and Second Classes, Close Combat Clasp Silver, Infantry Assault Badge Silver and the Wound Badge Silver and that he had seen combat in the battles of Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkov, Cherkassy, Kowel and Warszawa. After the end of the war, Kam avoided being extradited to Denmark by becoming a German citizen. SS-Obersturmführer Søren Kam is still alive in 2011 (90 years of age) and regularly attends Waffen-SS veterans meetings. Top image: a formal studio portrait of the Kam brothers while serving in the Waffen-SS. They all fought in the ranks of the Wiking division. PD. Bottom image: Kam's SS-Regiment Germania counterattacking in Eastern Poland during the Soviet Operation Bagration in 1944. Credit: Julius Jääskeläinen. Commons: Bundesarchiv.