HITLER'S WARRIOR

SS colonel Jochen Peiper was one of the most controversial figures of the Second World War. Handsome, intelligent, and impetuous, he volunteered for the Waffen SS at an early age and dedicated his life to the Nazi cause. Peiper was Heinrich Himmler's ever-present personal adjutant in the early years of the war-- an SS "everyman" witness to momentous events in Hitler's Third Reich. Once on the fighting front with the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, Peiper became known for a flamboyant and brutal style of warfare. After the war, Peiper became the central subject in the bitterly disputed Malmédy war crimes trial, where he was condemned to death but ultimately released due to the efforts of Senator Joseph McCarthy and an Atlanta attorney Willis M. Everett, Jr. After moving to eastern France in 1972, he was harassed by the French Communists and died in a gun battle at his home on July 14, 1976 -Bastille Day. His assassins were never identified.

Historian Danny Parker highlights the fascinating personalities of Peiper's story and raises questions on how an intelligent and capable soldier could decide to embrace the dark side of a genocidal regime. The rich narrative is bolstered by previously unseen archival sources as well as extensive interviews with German veterans, Belgian, Italian and French civilians, and even participants from the Malmédy trial at Dachau . This major new historical work helps us to fathom the world of Hitler's Third Reich, a morally inverted world in which cruelty was good and kindness belied fatal weakness.

Danny S. Parker is an expert on World War II in Europe. He has written extensively about the Ardennes military campaign and the Malmédy massacre, including the highly acclaimed Fatal Crossroads, Battle of the Bulge, and To Win the Winter Sky.