Heinz Lammerding (27 August 1905 – 13 January 1971) was an SS-Brigadefuehrer during World War II. As commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich in October 1943-July 1944 and October 1944-January 1945, Lammerding carried out numerous war crimes.
Biography[]
Heinz Lammerding was born in Dortmund, German Empire on 27 August 1905, and he joined the SS and the Nazi Party in 1933. He served in the Waffen-SS during World War II, earning the German Cross in 1943 while serving with the Thule Regiment as an SS-Standartenfuehrer. In October 1943, he took command of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, and he was responsible for the massacres at Tulle and Oradour-sur-Glane in France, massacring 117 civilians at Tulle from 7 to 9 June 1944 (another 101 residents perished at Dachau) before having 642 French civilians massacred at Oradour-sur-Glane the next day. Lammerding was captured by the British Army at the end of the war, and he was not extradited to France, instead being sentenced to death in absentia by France. He escaped justice, never facing trial in West Germany. Instead, he ran a successful company in Dusseldorf until his death in 1971; his funeral would serve as a reunion for his SS comrades.