Bernhard Siebken

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Bernhard Siebken
Bernhard Siebken.jpg
Birth date 4 April 1910
Place of birth Pinneberg, Province of Schleswig-Holstein, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Death date 20 January 1949 (aged 38)
Place of death Hamelin Prison, Lower Saxony, Allied-occupied Germany
Allegiance  National Socialist Germany
Service/branch Flag Schutzstaffel.png Schutzstaffel
Flag Schutzstaffel.png Waffen-SS
Years of service 1931–1945
Rank SS-Obersturmbannführer
Service number NSDAP #558,752
SS rune.png #44,894
Unit SS Division Leibstandarte
SS Division Hitlerjugend
Commands held SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Regiment 2 "LSSAH"
Battles/wars World War II
Awards Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Bernhard Siebken (1910–1949) was a German officer the SS, finally SS-Obersturmbannführer of the Waffen-SS and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in World War II.

Life

From left to right: Kurt Meyer, Max Wünsche and Bernhard Siebken
HIAG members laying a wreath at Siebken's grave in 1959; photo originally appeared in HIAG's periodical Der Freiwillige ("The Volunteer").

Siebken, a driving and riding instructor, joined the SS and the NSDAP in 1931 and was one of the original members of the SS-Stabswache (March 1933) and it's successor the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler (LAH).

  • August 1933: SS-Truppführer and Platoon Leader (Zugführer) in 2. Sturm/Sonderkommando Berlin
  • October 1933: SS-Truppführer and leader of the mounted platoon
  • 1934: Platoon Leader in the Riding Squadron/SS-Standarte-Regiment "LSSAH"
  • 1935 to 1939: Instruction leader in the staff of the III. Sturmbann/LSSAH
  • 1.9.1939: Commander of the light Infanterie-Kolonne/Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
  • 20.6.1941 to 22.10.1942: Commander of the supply troops of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
  • June 1943: Commander of the 2nd Battalion/SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 26/12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend
  • July 1943 to September 1943: Battalion commander course
  • September 1943 to September 1944: Commander of the 2nd Battalion/SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 26/12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend[1]
The most shocking incident occurred on the morning of 8 June 1944. An armored reconnaissance vehicle from the British regiment "Inns of Court" broke through the German lines and took prisoners at a regimental command post: Colonel Luxenburger of the 103rd Panzer Artillery Regiment, Major Zeissler, Captain Graf Clary-Aldringen and about six non-commissioned officers and enlisted men. When the German officers refused to voluntarily drive through the German lines towards the enemy main battle line (Hauptkampflinie; HKL) while standing on the armored reconnaissance vehicle as a bullet catcher, the seriously wounded Colonel Luxenburger was tied up by two British officers, beaten unconscious and left covered in blood on a British armored reconnaissance vehicle as a bullet trap. After obtaining the appropriate orders, Major Zeisser, Count Clary-Aldringen and the non-commissioned officers and men mentioned were shot down by the rolling British armored reconnaissance vehicle. The armored reconnaissance vehicle on which Colonel Luxenburger was attached as a bullet trap was shot down by a German anti-tank gun. The brave colonel died a few days later as a result of this disregard for the laws of humanity. Men from the Siebken battalion witnessed these war crimes. They fought on with iron determination and disgust at what had happened. Days later, the bodies of two English soldiers were found in the Siebken battle section. We don't know who killed him. It is uncertain whether a grenadier wanted to avenge the death of his slaughtered comrades or whether there was an attempt to escape. One thing is certain: our Bernhard Siebken neither issued an order that violated international law nor did he himself turn against the laws of war. Nevertheless, he fell victim to the blind rage of the victors. This blameless, brave and chivalrous soldier died at the hands of an executioner in Hamelin in 1949. But wherever men from the "Leibstandarte" and "Hitler Youth" divisions stand together, Bernhard Siebken lives.[2]

In October 1944, Siebken was put in charge of the SS Panzergrenadier Training and Replacement Battalion 12 (SS-Panzergrenadier-Ausbildungs- und Ersatz-Bataillon 12). In the spring of 1945, Siebken was appointed commander of the 2nd SS Panzergrenadier Regiment "LSSAH" as the successor to Knight's Cross recipient Rudolf "Rudi" Sandig (1911–1994) and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 17 April 1945.

Show trial and death

At the end of the war, Siebken was taken prisoner by the Allies and was sent to a POW camp. Since he had ended up on a British wanted list of potential war criminals in connection with the alleged shooting of Canadian prisoners (Harold Angel, Frederick Holness and Ernest Baskerville) in late spring (9 June) of 1944 in Le Mesnil Patry, he was finally tracked down there and in the summer of 1948, together with SS-Untersturmführer Dietrich Schnabel and three other SS members, indicted as a war criminal before a British military court in the Curiohaus Hamburg. On 9 November 1948, Siebken and Schnabel were found guilty and executed by hanging in the Hameln prison on 20 January 1949. The co-defendants Heinrich Albers and Fritz Bundschuh had been acquitted.

The death sentence and its execution were very controversial at the time: the British war correspondent Basil Liddell Hart, among others, spoke out against the unjust sentence.[3] Following the reburial of executed Germans in Hamelin in 1954, the cemetery became the focal point for veterans' reunions. In 1959, for example, the convention of the lobby group of former Waffen-SS members, HIAG, concluded with "comrades gathering around [Siebken's] tomb" and laying a wreath.

Promotions

Awards and decorations

References

  1. ↑ Siebken, Bernhard (SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 2)
  2. ↑ Der Freiwillige. Wiking-Ruf. Mitteilungsblatt der HIAG, 4. Jahrgang, 1959
  3. ↑ Samuel Michtam: The Desert fox in Normandy, 1997, p. 100.
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