In Memory of Ion Dragoumis

It was July 31, 1920, when Ion Dragoumis, the Idas (Ida was the literary pseudonym of Iona Dragoumi when he wrote in the journal “Nouma”) of the Macedonian Struggle, was assassinated by the bullets of the Democrats of Venizelos. At the point where the purest blood of an amazing visionary, a fervent preacher of the Great Idea, was spilt, today there is a simple marble column, just as our national poet Kostis Palamas wanted its who wrote about the murder of Dragoumis:

“May a white column be erected where you fell
(And how you did fall, no writing has mentioned it)
A white column with the motherland as its image.
For only fitting is she in making you weep,
May the mute marbled make you cry. "

Just opposite this simple marble column, many years later a building was built, the Hilton Hotel, a building-symbol of post-war Greece of bribery and of financial fraud, of avarice and of ill-gotten gain. Two worlds, one against the other. On the one hand, the pseudo-Romeos (another world for “Greek”) with his get-rich-quick schemes and, on the other hand, the true Greek and Greece that promote the Great Idea! The Greece for which Ion Dragoumis gave his life without second thought. Ion Dragoumis, who some politically correct liberals have adopted as their own.

For all of them I will quote the words he wrote in his book “Hosi Zontani"(AS MANY AS LIVE) in Constantinople in 1908: "Alexus’ soul, fascinated by loathing for the little man, shouted all the day: ‘Down with the Masons, the Jews, the Socialists!’”

ION OF DRAGOUMIS AND CONSTITUTIONAL "PATRIOTISM”

[caption id="attachment_6645" align="alignnone" width="400"] Ion Dragoumis (bottom right) with the official uniform of the Greek diplomats.[/caption]

By abolishing principles, concepts and ideas, the current powers of the very soul of our people try to impose the view that ... a patriot is only he who accepts and thinks according to this "politically correct" system, which dominates public life. Ion Dragoumis answers all of them in 1903 from Macedonia, where he is fighting for the Nation, with the following words:

"If we are a living genus, we will not stick with the political system that they have stuck to us. The constitution and the deputies are an illness. It's not our life. Either it will kill us or it itself will die anyway.  And we will live then with another political system, which is better for us. How, without studying us well, without learning our physical makeup, did they impose on us MPs and a constitution? "

"Let the state be absent, it will be an obstacle or will distort the national soul. If the state upsets the nation, it must necessarily be changed or be gone with. The state that prevents the physiology of the nation is unnecessary and harmful."

A NATIONALIST AND A SOCIALIST

[caption id="attachment_6647" align="alignnone" width="434"] Ion Dragoumis standing near his father[/caption]

Just what were the political beliefs of Ion Dragoumis? Mature and settles in his Corsican exile, he writes in his diary that he must embrace and match Nationalism with Socialism.  A Marxism denier, having clearly articulated in his political articles in the publication "NOUMA” like "THE STATE, THE NATIONAL, THE ONE", surely his socialism has nothing to do with communism.

He writes about the kind of socialism that he desires in the following: "I love man that much to become a narrow socialist. I love that much the man to become a staunch patriot. I love the man that much in order to feel myself as an individual. From a man of a class with certain class interests, I become a socialist in the broad sense, and I want a new economy in my society and in other societies. "

Denying the identity of patriot as per the masses, he declares himself a Nationalist, stressing that one can not even be a man by forgetting his origin and his Nation! He also denies individualism, which is the basis and focus of liberalism, and writes:

"From a narrow patriot, I become a nationalist, with the conscience of my nation and all other nations because the differences of the nations will always exist, and I have their conscience and I am glad that there are these differences, which by their contradictions, with their perceptions, raise human consciousness and energy. From an individual I become a person. "

"One cannot be a man and forget his origins. He should remember where he came from, where he grew up, which nation nurtured him. "

"Nationalism is a form of energy. So all energetic people are nationalists, whether they know it or not. The internationalist is an element of death for his nation. "

ION DRAGOUMIS, THE “CULTURAL” SOCIETY AND THE SLAVES OF FEAR

Today, not only in Greece, but also throughout the world, some people pull the strings to alter the nations and homelands into a vast consumer herd in the name of globalization. However, for Ion Dragoumis, the multicultural society that liberals and Marxists want does not exist and not just that, as he is said, “The internationalist is a death element for his nation." He further declares that only nationalistic can a civilization be and nothing else:

"What is the ultimate destination of the nations? The civilization! Now here’s a project worthy of the nations, one truly humane. Here’s how nations can be useful to mankind. Cultures give birth to the nations and these only. "

Greece in 2017 and living in the country of the memorandums, which have ceded its national sovereignty, we see our people being in a state of nirvana, passivity and subordination, which does not differ much from a deadly snore. Today, therefore, when most Greeks are subordinate, Ion Dragoumis, always so apropos, writes about them:

"What does ragias (subordinate, ραγιάς) mean? It means one who is slave to his fear. The ragias is half a man. He subordinate behavior is called a “necessary wisdom.” You hunt him and he hides. You flog him and he still stoops low. You kill him and he is silent. "

[caption id="attachment_6646" align="aligncenter" width="400"] The marble column in the center of Athens dedicated to Ion Dragoumis, at the point that he was cowardly murdered[/caption]

A marble column in the center of Athens, in the capital of the country of open borders, the country that has delivered its soul to the devil of filthy lucre, the evil power of usury, and you have this marble column symbolizing the blood of man set apart spilt at this very point, the blood of Ion Dragoumis, who, with his life and his state, with the pen and the sword, by his example teaches and tells through the ages that it is not wise for one to be a ragias (subordinate) and slave of his fear. “As many as those that live" may they, finally, fight the battle, a battle for a new Greece without ragiades, those who act like they are wise, but, in fact, are slaves to fear.

Nicholaos G. Michaloliakos



"I wish to die young, because I foresee that the man who reaches old age has not lived enough — he has not lived as intensely as he could or should have lived. And when I say intensely, I mean that he has not asked for death — something which every man must do."

Ion Dragoumis

 

 

Honouring our Ancestors

[caption id="attachment_6637" align="alignnone" width="640"] DOLMEN IN A GERMAN FOREST A BURIAL-PLACE OF AN ANCIENT GERMAN CHIEF[/caption]

By Jürgen Rieger

We state:

"Essentially we thank our parents and our ancestors for being, and we want to preserve their memory for coming generations".

Some may consider this to be self-evident. Does this statement possibly have a religious meaning?

I'm of the opinion that this is a fundamental aspect of our belief. In Europe Christianization and the following numerous political, economical and social alterations of the last three centuries have led to the virtual annihilations of our natural social structure. Tribe and the extended family have lost significance and shrunk to small families without the previous close ties between grandparents and grandchildren. In numerous cases not even the small family develops, since child bearing is intentionally omitted. The loss of the feeling of being related to the whole of a given society has led to the liberal, individualistic perspective of the world and one's position within it. With such a manner of perception it is only logical not to want children anymore, as these contrary to those still in an agricultural environment - are not economical assets but rather costly liabilities. This individualization leads consequently to the collapse of such social entities through extinction.

Our present government will not offer enough money for the family to compensate for the considerable financial disadvantages associated with children, so that without a new attitude of an all encompassing religious magnitude are turn to a favorable attitude towards having children will not be reached.

What was the significance of the community earlier?



The tribe was a community of the living and the dead. The ancestors belonged to the tribe as well. (The German word "Ahne" has the same root as "Hauch" (breath) or "Wind"; referring to the dead the souls - compare P.Herrmann "Deutsche Mythologie", page 6). They bestowed blessings upon the lineage of the tribe. So that they could have a continual effect a type of home was built for them; they were concealed in artificially built mounds, in which there were megalite chambers. There it was believed the relatives would live on.

We find in the sagas the story of Thorstein who during the autumn went out on a fishing voyage. During the evening a shepherd passing the tribal mound "Helgafell" sees that one side of the mound is standing open. In the interior a large fire is burning like the hall of a courtyard. Noise, laughter and the sound of drinking-horns penetrates into the night. He hears voices bidding Thorstein and his comrades welcome and invites him to take a place in the high seat across from his father Thorolf. The shepherd reports this to Thorstein's wife. The next morning the news comes that Thorstein has gone down in the stormy sea.

Likewise in the "Saga of the Voelsungen", Sigrun, the son of King Sigmund, descended into the mound of Helgis to converse with him there. Grave robbery was under the law comparable to the robbery of home. The belief that the dead live on in hills (or mounds) is in my opinion older than the concept of Valhalla, which was conceived of by the entourage of mighty kings, because they threatened to level the mounds of the ancestors.



Wilhelm Groenbech considers the belief that the dead live on until they are forgotten to be a Germanic concept (I, page 232). Jan de Vries emphatizes that "The Germanic tribal feeling reaches its peak in ancestor servitude. Here lies the primeval force from which the tribe lives on. Here streams forth in inconquerable fullness the life of all future clans" (p.48). Therefore the grave mounds on the "Erbhof" - what means a clans court of inheritance - is also a holy and strength giving center. Marriages were performed on the covering stone of the burial mounds; the Swabian dukes were married at the "Gunzenlee in the Lechfield", the burial mound of the duke Cunzo of the 6th century (v. Kienle. p. 130). In Swabia the bridal pair still visits the graves of the parents and other deceased relatives after the wedding and then they offer them barley (P. Geiger, "Deutsches Volkstum in Sitte und Brauch", 1936, p. 114). P. Herrmann believes that in the earliest times the ancestors received the most honouring during a marriage celebration.

Snorri Sturluson says: "Then we would sit on Helgafell, because advice which was obtained there was always the best" (de Vries "The spiritual World of the Germanic Peoples, 1964, p. 46). It is said that some graves in Iceland remained green during winter or at least didn't freeze entirely (Karl Weinhold, Ancient Nordic Living, 1938, p. 342). Norwegian immigrants to Iceland took soil from ancestral graves with them (v. Kienle, p.130).

The dead were also remembered during the course of the year. The Yule-festival not only served the sun cult, but also the death cult. Helm suggests that it was the Goth's most meaningful festival in remembrance of the death (Helm, Ancient Germanic Religious History Vol II,1, 1937 , p. 20). After the death of the leader of the house the obsequies supper in the north was sometimes held during the Yule-festival, instead of as usual 30 days after the death.

[caption id="attachment_6640" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Ancient Germanic burial, historic woodcut, c. 1880[/caption]

Blood vengeance was also a part of the ancestors cult: it was considered to be the duty of the blood relatives towards the soul of the dead (Helm, p.20; Helm in Nollau: Germanic Renaissance, p.323). The clan also lost prestige if no vengeance was taken. Since there was no state which enforced law such clan would be lawless.

It was desirable to give children the name of a deceased ancestor, since it was believed that the child would hence receive increased benefit.

We are much better informed of the ancestor honouring of the Indo Germanic Romans due to the great number of written sources concerning this. The ceremonies for the dead began on noon February 13th and ended on 21th or 22nd of February. The graves were adorned with flowers and offerings and donations were brought forth. Furthermore candles were set up on the graves, and wreaths were laid on the graves on the birthday and the date of death of the deceased. Meals were especially popular at the grave site, since one could take a meal with them while thinking of the deceased. Ancestral pictures were kept in shrines in the Atrium which were opened on ceremonial occasions and occasionally adorned with laurels. The Romans took the concept of the death-mask from the Etruskians. On February 22nd the ancestors were offered salt, flour, and meat on a patella, whereby the food would be thrown into a fire before the beginning of the secund mensa. The Penates embodied in tiny effigies took part of the meal. The patella is a simple earthen vessel, which proves the antiquity of this custom. A small ration would be burned daily on a hearth or a small altar for the protecting spirits of the deceased. This meal offering is a remnant of ancient Roman ancestor veneration, perhaps ancient indogermanic, since the meal of the dead is practiced by all Indogermanic peoples (Franz Boehmer: Ahnenkult und Ahnenglaube im alten Rom, 1943). An echo of this is found among us in the folklore belief that a small bowl with food should be placed daily in a particular place at a particular time for a goblin if he should help (P. Herrmann, p. 149), and P. Herrmann believes that the father of the house among the Germanic peoples also gave the spirits of the ancestors a daily offering in the fire of the hearth (p. 473).

Offerings to the ancestors and the veneration thereof are also the foundation of customs and mores in Greece. " The clan will only die out when no more descendants preserve the memories of their ancestors by offerings to the ancestors on the home altar. The extinction of a family lineage was for the ancient Hellenians the worst possible fate. With the gods of its lineage to whom no offerings are given, with the extinguishing of the hearth flame the dead lose their "Heil" - what means "luck" - and with their name all their ancestors disappear as well" (Walther Darre, The Laws of Life of two Conceptions of Government, 1940, p. 38). Lykurgos wanted to preserve the concept of ancestors veneration for all eternity by forming heritage homes whereby the cult of honouring ancestors were given economical importance.

How far did the tribe extend among the living?

Simply presented, all relatives up to the third (old germanic) rank. Children, siblings, and parents aren't related as family in the first rank, as opposed to the Indo-Arians (Lawbook of the Manu) and Greeks where the death cult also extends to the third rank but includes the great grandparents also (Richard v. Kienle: Germanic forms of Society, 1939, p. 127). The grandparents, siblings of the parents, nephews and nieces belong to the first rank. The greatgrandparents, the siblings of the grandparents and their descendants belong to the second rank. The third rank consists greatgreatgrandparents, siblings of the greatgrandparents and their descendants and so on.

The old germanic clan constitution - unlike many other tribal constitutions who traced their ancestry only through the mother's site or only through the father's site - traced their ancestry through an entirity of relatives within quite a large sphere. The total number of these relatives were called "The Tribe". All members were among themselves "sip" according to frisian judical sources.They were described with the word "friend" ("friund"). Those outside the third relationship rank were designated as "strangers". Inheritance was within the tribal circle. All tribal members were obligated to practice vengeance against other tribes for injuries or killings of their members, and received as compensation - if they settled peacefully - a certain quantity of money. The tribal members were obligated to take oaths before courts, attended to the burials of relatives, and helped relatives in need. We must realize that the megalith graves in which far over a hundred burials took place are tribal graves.

Christianization could only succeed through the demolition of the tribal constitution. In the "Sachsenkapitularien" i.e. "Laws for the Saxons" burying family members in the old tribal graves was punishable by death, and thus they had to turn to the christian cemetery. Furthermore it was punishable by death to carry out certain customs on the graves even Bonifatius forbid offerings for the dead or near by the graves (P. Herrmann, p. 344). From church guidelines for atonement we know that there were symbols presumably made from wood which were associated with the ancestors creed. In the Museum of Berlin there is a clay figure from the 4th or 5th century with the runic inscription "fulgia" i.e. "following spirit" or "tribal spirit" (P.Herrmann, p.48). The church attempted to eliminate all of this, frequently with success. Dismanteling tribal thinking enabled Christianity to spread and create a new link to Christ instead of the ancestors. The ancestors were the saints, and therefore "Indiculus Nr. 25" forbid declaring at random the deceased to saints. This belief was still strong during the transition period as is shown by the story of the Frizians chief Radbod who while he stood before his impending baptism asked whether his ancestors had departed to heaven, to hence he'd go to after his baptism. After it was explained to him that his ancestors being unbaptized obviously went to hell, he withdrew his foot from the batismal basin and declared that he wished to join his ancestors after death regardless of how things were there.

[caption id="attachment_6641" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Saint Boniface fell for the axe of the Frisian warriors[/caption]

The tribe lost further importance - independently from christian attacks, due to the increasing number of functions that the state was taking over from it. The original significance can still be inferred from the old Frisian juducal sources. It was preserved in the "Dithmarsch clan state" until the late medieval ages. Similarly it was preserved even longer in the Scottish clan system. The individualization and urbanization as well as the dissolution of the original settlements of the tribe have during the last century apart from a brief renaissance in the 30's let to a decline of tribal thinking.

Our people have for the large part lost consciousness of the social significance of tribal concepts.

A new consciousness can arise from the simply realization that we wouldn't exist if it weren't for the will of many men and women to have children. To them our veneration is due for their accomplishments, and their struggle for the survival of their descendants. Dead are only those who are forgotten. As long as we remember our ancestors they live on. That has the immediate effect of motivating us to emulate them. Through ancestors worship the ancestral influence is amplified. Genetically their influence has been transferred directly to us, regardless of any ancestor worship. The marxist theory that man is a product of his environment has long since been refuted. The studies of twins show that not only intelligence, but also inborn abilities such as technical, handicraft and musical talents, as well as character traits are heavily influenced by genetic inheritance.

The natural basis of my being are my forefathers.

The natural continuation of my being are my descendants.

Goethe's "William Meister" teaches his students three principals of respect:

* Respect before that which is above us.

* Respect for that which is in us.

* Respect for that which is under us.

To establish natural harmony it is important to teach two of these points differently so that the admonition would read:

* Respect for that which was before us.

* Respect for that which is in us.

* Respect for that which comes after us.

Respect for or - better - saying "yes" (Nietzsche's great Yes) to our ancestors, to our own personality and to our descendants. We cannot feel an "above us" respect for a "God", but rather possibly towards exemplary figures of the present and in history as well as the laws of nature. Ancestor veneration is thus not only directed towards the past, but relates to the future as well. We follow the example of our forefathers when we see their behavior and personalities as precedents to be emulated and finally in that we bring descendants like them into the world. Only so is ancestor veneration continued, and so the way to immortality. There is a continued life in 1) the memories of friends and relatives, 2) a lasting fame ( when one has brought forth great deeds for the race as for instance Armin),and 3) through children. Through 1 and 2 life may be extended by decades, centuries or even millenniums, through descendants however for all eternity.

As Prof. Friedrich Solger ("The Interpersonal Life", 1959 p.78) rightly says: "Life has continuity and meaning only in a transcendent impersonal sense and this exists only as long as (children are born) inherited further". He continues: "The Scientist sees in heredity a great means which enables life, in continual renewal to reach beyond the life span of the individual and to assert itself as a process which continually fights for existence. In this perspective he feels himself elevated to a co-combatant but also burdened by the shared responsibility for this heritage the non-injury thereof being the prize of the struggle. He sees the sense of his individual existence as being in the service of this impersonal transcendent life, comparable to the leafs who's function is to contribute to the life of the tree. On the spiritual level we may waven in the choice of our viewpoint and our companions. In physical reality we know we are placed on the front of an inherited life force, from which we cannot relinquish our ties without rejecting our civil rights in a greatly seen life (F. Solger, "Community and Responsibility for Living", 1972, p. 10). "Thus the concern here is the preservation and strengthening of our impersonal transcending life" (F. Solger 1959, p.91).

Ancestors awareness is being promoted by the latest realizations of genetics. We're learning to recognize which physical, mental or spiritual traits are from which ancestor. Here we will discover that not all ancestors contributed equally to our genetic inheritance, rather one more and the other less. Some may even appear to us as externally or innerly strange. The ancestor worship will certainly be connected to those ancestors which resemble us, who we can accept as an example and a call to obligations. The character or particulness of an individual is identidiable when one examines his family history, his family tree. Ancestor research is therefore a way to self recognition. This also brings us to turn to our ancestors.

We require ancestor awareness, because it represents a connection to the eternal, a mental and spiritual source of strength. We have to consider what can be done in order to awaken a genuine partaking of ancestor worship and tribal thinking, and how we can stabilize this ancestor worship.

This begins by setting up a family tree. Since it was a duty in the "Third Reich" to make a register of ancestors such corresponding documents are available for many families. The youth should ask their elders about this and obtain a listing of their close relatives We should further attempt to question older relatives in our family what they can tell about our ancestors. This should be put down in a book a tribal chronical and passed on and continued. Through this the names of the ancestors would gain life beyond the described occupations and dates of birth, marriage, and death. This practical caring for ancestors has been practiced by Germans for decades who often with great sacrifice were pioneers of tribal thinking and through their own research have little by little expanded this realm. To the point of becoming a regular scientific helpful discipline.

Further it is the custom even today in many families to name a child after an ancestor who resembles him - if this is not given as a first name then as a middle or third name the names of the two grandfathers or grandmothers will be chosen and for further children the names of other ancestors from both sides are given. A family plaque that every citizen can have created if none is already available can awaken one's awareness of his ancestors. A family scale that is always handed down to the child with offspring forms a bridge from the past to the future.

If one possesses private property and the legal possibility exists one should seek permission to have family members buried on ones own property. In some states one is given this possibility whereby cemetarial burial laws are interrupted. Family graves should be kept and expanded in time and naturally cared for. The oldest of the clan is responsible for the family grave.

In preserving the inheritance items of remembrance which our ancestors owned for example documents, medals, letters with important statements even objects and pictures are out in a shrine which hence becomes the ancestral shrine. On the top of the shrine the photographs of the nearest ancestors may be set up or a family tree may be on the wall behind the shrine.

This place will soon become a center for custom, which corresponds to the tradition which will be found step by step. Thus the reawakened awareness of the holiness of the ancestors will take form, which will do justice to the mythical thinking of the clan. The concluding point is the clear realization that we're for the large part determined by our genetic composition which is passed down by our ancestors. For that which we can create out of our genetic inherited strength we thank our ancestors. This thought only becomes obligating by many when it's firmly impressed. Through certain customs this realm of thought is elevated slowly into the mythical and receives thereby a sanctification which is especially impressive for children who experience this. They find appearances in the photographs which reassemble themselves and develop pride for the accomplishments of the ancestors and consider themselves obligated to prove themselves worthy of these accomplishments and strive to follow the examples set for them.

Which practices existed or stil exist with us in connection with ancestor worship?

We know that on the megalith graves wax candles were burned - a custom which has been well preserved in catholic Germany whereby on certain days lights are set on the graves of the deceased. Some old families still light candles on memorial days before pictures of their forefathers. In the 11th century Burchard von Worms criticized the practice of setting the table in one's home in accordance with the pagan custom on the evening of New Year's Eve (P. Herrmann, p.459). In various parts of Germany as well as among the Germans in the Baltic states up through to this century food and drinks were set aside for the ancestors on Christmas, sometimes the meals were served together sometimes separately at night or in a separate room.

Sometimes food was burned or sacrificed in the fire of the hearths since the hearthfire was the center of the ancestors cult. Hollow stones in the megalithic graves contained food for the ancestors, and in the karolingish church statutes every bishop is assigned to ask around if anyone sangs or drank over a corpse or likewise was joyous over his death. Bishop Burchard von Worms endeavored to halt offerings given on the graves of the dead in certain regions as early as the year 1000. In Sweden yule straw was spread on the floor and the family slept on this for the 12 holy nights in order to leave their beds to their deceased ancestors. Especially in this period family tales were told - today one can see the old photo albums or show the cine films in which the deceased family members appear. During a convention I visited the megalite tomb of Visbeck and in a nearby hotel a marriage was being celebrated. The bridal pair went alone to the megalite tomb. I was told that it's a local custom that newly weds go to the megalite tomb. This is based on the time when marriages were performed an top of the grave itself in the immediate proximity of the ancestors, who belonged to the clan and wished to be present when the tribe continued itself with a union. In Dithmarsh the bride is lead to the ancestors in the cemetary (S. Hunke: "Death, what is Your meaning, p.51). I have already indicated the parallel to Swabia. In the house the hearth was the sanctuary of the ancestors, and it was circled three times by newly weds.

However is the preservation of handed down customs, perhaps even the reawakening of lost customs at all possible? Is it not only a romantic pastime?

Well, how far one will go with the performance of customs is left to him. We can't predict with certainty in which way one's own genuine traditions will develop in this realm. The example of China shows that this had a considerable, practical benefit. During times of Confucius (551 B.C. - 479 B.C.) Chinese culture was on the decline. The warlords were constantly battling each other and a moral low point was reached and customs fell into deterioration.

Which solution did Confucius show?

He dealt with religious and supernatural teachings as little as possible and worked ambitiously for the development of a national political morality and the preservation and maintaining of the old traditions. The customs or rites extend from official sacrifices of the king to the rules of conduct for daily activities, whereby it's noteworthy that the entire scale of rites from the great royal offerings to the ancestors down to the straightening of one's mattress, and from the details of one's clothing to behavior at home and in the courtyard were given his undivided attention. A commentator declared - Confucius placed such great value in the rites because he knew what a great value they contained, because he knew of their great regulating power - which however they only had when they were taken seriously, and originated from an inner need (Ernst Schwarz "Conversations of Master Kung", dtv 1985, p.30), and another commentator states Confucius spoke reluctantly about questions which had no practical consequences (Pierre Do-Dinh: "Confucius", rororo-Bildmonografien, 1960, p. 104). His students expressed this in a concise phrase. "That which the master didn't wish to discuss were unusual occurrences, mystical powers, lawlessness and gods" (Lun Yu, book VII, p.20). Hans O.H. Stange concludes: "Thus Confucius doesn't consider questions concerning physics or the philosophy of nature. His teaching is restricted to practical wisdom of this world. Regarding the supernatural he remained cautions, skeptical and reserved, although he was filled with a deep religious humbleness. Providence is not seen as a personal anthropomorphic entity but rather an impersonal force in which the moral relation to change in all things finds it's expression. Among the remaining teachings and customs of religion only ancestor worship is essential for him."

Next to the presentation of moral concepts, whereby love of parents and ancestors plays a central role, his concern is the restoration of the old customs. In the hall of the ancestors at least five generations are venerated. The stone plaques of relatives which no longer receive direct offering are placed in shrines. The offerings to the forefathers can only be brought forth by a son, who doesn't have any physical handicaps and wasn't born out of wedlock. The souls of the deceased really die only when they've been forgotten in this world, therefore offerings and customs are important. The first born son was responsible for ancestor worship. The altar in the ancestors hall is built out of a wall on which pictures of the ancestors are hanging. The head of the family invites the spirits of the forefathers to enjoy the living essence of the offerings. After the ceremony in which incense also plays a role, the food and drink having become fortune bringing is eaten by the family members. Although a child's respect is a central concept in Confusious' thinking, according to Mong Si the youth is released from this obligation should the parents endeavor to prevent a son from marrying. Through a son's childlessness the ancestral offernigs are brought to a standstill. The child's piety is hence expanded from the parents to all the ancestors.

Hazelnut bushes and chestnuts were planted by the temple of the ancestors, because that fruits were offered to the ancestors as gifts. The soul of the ancestors was honored in spring and fall, it takes part in a successfull hunt and fasts by a failed harvest. After a certain number of generations the plaque of an ancestor is taken from it's particular offering place and placed with the plaques of even older ancestors in a stone case, which is kept in the room honoring the oldest ancestors. They will no longer be provided with food.

Feasts in the realm of the ancestor cult are also celebrated with more distant relatives, whereby all participants give a contribution to the cult director, who distributes the food according to set rule. The first born son of the family brings forth the offerings. On the next higher step the oldest uncle directs the cult ceremony for the descendants of a common grandfather. Beyond this there is the group related to a greatgrandfather and beyond this is the group of descendants from a common greatgreatgrandfather. These four types of cults can come together with similar communities to celebrate an even older ancestor (Marcel Granet: "The Chinese Civilisation", 1968, p. 176 etc.). A cult ruler had to have a wife. Should his wife die, then he must remarry, if he's under 70, or step down if he's over 70 years old. The Chinese thus came to a form of ancestor worship which raised the physical sphere of the truly living memories, and is hence bonded with the most inner reality of the clan. By bringing offerings to their ancestors the Chinese felt like links in an eternal chain. With his food and drink offerings he's not honoring death, but rather does so because he knews he will continue to live only as long as he gives his life further. The Chinese are by no means homogenious - in China there are many different peoples with different languages. The unity of this kingdom is next to the writing - which can be read in all languages, and is even used by the Japanese for ceremonial purposes - based in particular on Confusianism. Herewith the feudal state which characterized the Germanic peoples survived in China until the 30's and 40's. China was strong enough by virtue of Confusianism, and the power of literature, that is education to overcome those mental forces, which struck down our naturally developed, old traditional organisation forms. Through this China became the most ethnically wealthy nation in the world. In the realisation of the meaning of Confusianism it's continually preserved in Taiwan and in Japan despite the receptiveness for modern technology and modern life styles. In many families that still applies what F. Eckes, one of the foremost experts of China wrote in 1919: "In China the continual development is never completely broken off, and the link between China of today and that of prehistorc times is never ruptured. Consequently the family and clan life of earlier periods has maintained itself virtually unweakened.

The Chinese are therefor up to now not individuals, but rather a part of the social unity to which he belongs. Thus he lives for his family, his clan, his social class, for himself he can only live however insofar as his interests can be united with those of the whole." And he continues, "The preservation and continuation of the family is the primary duty of the Chinese, and their constant wish is hence to have numerous descendants, above all male descendants. Then only a son can continue, protect, preserve and represent the family, only a son can according to the ancient belief bring offerings to the ancestors, and be responsible for the nourishment of the departed generations."

The Chinese therefore know no church as we know it, since the object of their religiousness is not a God, but rather their own family. Through the belief that life in the hereafter is dependant on the customs and through of their descendants renders the bringing of healthy descendants into the world a duty essential for one's own soul. The grouwth of the clan is hence programmed. On the other hand with a deterioration of the sense of family a destruction of the belief in eternity is threadened, whereby an "after me the great flood mentiality" emerges.

The result of clan-thinking is that there were 60 extended families of Confusious lineage in 1940 with over 30,000 members, and Confusious' grave is cared for by a descendant of the 77th generation. The meaning of Confusianism is even recognized on the communist mainland of China after it was initially attacked as being reactionary. Among typical Chinese these concepts still have much effect as seen in the present state's campaign towards a one child family and how the Chinese only accept this when the first child was a son (whereby they don't seem to realize that it'll be difficult for this son to find a wife in 30 or 40 years, to continue the lineages).

Regardless of how the development in China continues one can draw a lesson from the example of China: Confusious brought principles to a people which underwent an erosion of values as we today are experiencing, and this lead to a growth and prosperity which extends into the modern age. He demonstrated that a renaissance of customs can be initiated among a people on the same cultural level as the modern European. The awakening of feelings that one owes reverence to their ancestors and therefore their memory must be preserved with care, and mustn't be restricted to a purely functional practice. Clan-thinking must be removed from the daily mundance and to some extend elevated to a sacred realm. The church despite it's strict prohibitions wasn't able to eliminate ancestor worship among the Germanic peoples and it had to permit some of these customs. Only the industrialization, technicalisation, decline of farming und the urbanization lead to a decline in the last remnants of ancestor worship in the modern age.

Among todays younger generation there's a recognition of the natural basis of our life. This tendency could certainly - if taken up consequently - lead to a preservation and even a reawakening of old customs.

In closing I wish to make one critical observation concerning clan-thinking. As is shown in the example of China a danger lies in consequently applied clan-thinking, in that the overall unity, the nation may not be seen as significant, and only the development of one's tribe is of concern. Thus China was despite the great number in population was for centuries a very weak state in foreign affairs. Here is a danger. When we observe ancestor worship in particular by our forefathers, this leads unavoidably to a view of our own race, in which ancestor worship reaches it's climax in the veneration of some in mythical prehistorical pair who started the Family lineage. With this however ties are not made with a large number of members of our race, and thus no ties are made to a greater whole.

Hence we again touch upon that which was self evident for our ancestors. According to Jordanes the Goths worshipped half God ancestors "anses", "semidei" (Semi-gods) and traced their tribal lineage back to a Prime ancestor "Gaut" who was revered as a God, likewise the Wandillier went back to their Prime ancestor "Vandill" (Helm, II, p.20), the Saxons revered "Saxnot". The old royal families of the Anglo-Saxons, Goths, Langobardes and Swedes attributed their origins to divine ancestors namely Odin or Frey. For the Norwegians Thor. For all Germanic peoples (Teutons) Tacitus claimed that they with all their tribes originated from "Mannus". Here too the common origins is emphatized.

If we feel obligated to our ancestors who considered the same things to be right or wrong like we do, and which were of the same character as ourselves, so it is only natural that we feel related and obligated towards our contemporaries of the same race. The obligation towards our ancestors expresses itself in our having to show ourselves worthy of their great deeds and like them extend their family lineage through children. Our obligation towards the race is to maintain peace with those of our race and help them if necessary.

Like Friedrich Solger (1959, p.91) I believe that we in our beliefs shouldn't attempt to solve the mysteries which are beyond our comprehension, but rather gain clarity over that which we have to hold in reverence. The realisation of this should serve the implication thereof.

 

 

Joachim Peiper - Waffen SS Hero, Defender of Europe

The simple step of a brave human being is to refuse to conduct oneself according to the ruling Zeitgeist. A single word of truth weighs far more heavily than the big lie.
Alexander Solshenitsyn

His buddies called him simply ´Jochen´. He was born on January 30th.1915 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf as the son of a Prussian Army Captain. A group of French communists overpowered the lonely man during the night of July 14th. 1976 in his house in Traves, France and murdered him.

After graduating from the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Oberrealschule (a sort of upper-level Junior college with an emphasis on languages and the humanities) in 1934 he embarked on a military career, something he had already dreamed of as a child. While attending school, he proved to be a formidable scholar, particularly linguistically. His command of the French language was practically flawless and the only thing which gave him away was his habit of speaking too quickly. As was customary in German education of the times, aside from the language he had emerged himself in the culture of his neighbors. French literature, painting, philosophy and the art of gastronomy were second nature to him. Jochen Peiper had become a Francophile – a person who honors French culture. He was open and tolerant relative to the cultures and habits of other peoples, never overbearing or arrogant, even though he was accused of exactly that by amongst others the great SS General Sepp Dietrich. This impression was based on his superiority in every way. He was intellectually, culturally, physically and appearance-wise (he was blessed with movie star looks) a bit overpowering – in short he simply was a superior man and was consequently looked upon by lesser men as being ´arrogant´.

It didn´t help a bit that he was an individualist – something of an anomaly in the military. He was openly a-political and refused to join the Nazi party, something which was absolutely de rigueur at the times, particularly for a member of the elite SS. But that which was a given for the majority, meant nothing to a man of his character. To be German and to represent the very best German values and characteristics was the only thing that mattered to him – and indeed, he was German! He never doubted, he never gave up, he never wavered, he was always brave, knightly in his behavior – he was an inspiration, a German leader á la Götz von Berlichingen or Marshall Blücher men who also were individualistic to an extreme. In short, he was an officer in the very best Prussian tradition.

[caption id="attachment_6624" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Joachim Peiper (left) with his father, Captain Waldemar Peiper and his brother, Horst Peiper in 1939.[/caption]

His military and personal qualifications brought him into the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, at the time the crème de la crème of the new German Wehrmacht. This is the more astounding when considering that English and American military historians such as Captain Basil Liddell Hart (English), Major General Michael Reynolds (English), Major James Lucas (English), General George Patton (American), A. Korganoff (French), Gordon Williamson (English) – ad infinitum have essentially stated he entire German Wehrmacht, no matter which branch to have been ´elite´.

Whether he was the only member of this elite squad not to have joined the party is not known, even though it is more than likely. Nevertheless, he was picked to become the Adjudant of Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler putting him near the very top of the pyramid of absolute power. This was a dream job. He could have remained at or near the pinnacle of power, safely ensconced at headquarters, but as an honorable man and soldier, he volunteered at once for front line service during the Polish campaign.

This decision started a military career which was extremely varied since he was constantly transferred from one hot spot to the other. This was so because wherever Peiper appeared any precarious, nay disastrous military situation was brought under control due to his decision making powers, his personal courage and his inspiring leadership qualities which caused men followed him into certain hell. Furthermore, his decisions were made on the spot with a minimum of intelligence information but still were uncannily always right. To go into detail as regards to his various exploits is outside the scope of this article – so therefore only a few of the highlights will be mentioned.

Shortly into the Russian campaign, Peiper proved to be on of the more outstanding commanders. General Postel´s 320th. Infantry Division was hopelessly encircled near Kharkow by vastly superior Russian forces. It appeared that the entire division was about to be annihilated for there was way to supply the division with the necessary supplies or replacements. Their tanks and artillery pieces had become useless due to lack of fuel. The troops had been decimated and had had no food for days on end, sometimes a week or more. It seemed to be the certain death of the division.

Enter Peiper. He evaluated the situation and insisted he could save the remnants of the division. He had recognized a weak spot in the Russian encirclement had broken through and led the 320th.to safety. His action had been so rapid, so daring, that the Russian high command had been unable to react in time. He achieved this with a small group of dedicated SS men – men who were willing to follow him into hell. It will always be his legacy, that he saved countless of thousands of German soldiers from a miserable death by torture and deprivation in the depth of Siberia.
On March 19th.1943 he conquered the heavily defended city of Bielgorod. After this exploiut he was transferred to Italy, only to be re-transferred to he eastern front again a few months later. In November 1943 he fought battles near the Ukrainian city of ****omir.

[caption id="attachment_6625" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Joachim Peiper awarding the Iron Cross 2nd Class to one of his men from the 1.SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler"[/caption]

One wonders, whether he had any idea, that outside of this place there were numerous mass graves of German Mennonite settlers who had been murdered en masse by the NKVD in 1936 (!)? What had been their crime? They had been German settlers having lived near ****omir for about 200 (!) years they had been pacifists, unarmed and peaceful. They had tilled the soil and had enriched their new home immeasurably, having been the most productive citizens of the country. But they had been German! Why does the world not know this? Why did this writer have to find about it from a lady who was a child then in the German township whose male members from age 12 to 65 were annihilated by NKVD men with strangely and weirdly spelled German-sounding names, who were however not German?
As a member of the First Army he again proved his mettle during the breakout of the encirclement near Kamenets Podolsk. It was around this time, that a new type of unit was being created by the Germans – the ´Kampfgruppe´. There is no English equivalent to such a military unit, its meaning is: ´Fighting Group´. This simply was an ad hoc group of soldiers composed of stragglers and others who had lost their original units due to their having been wiped out. There simply was not enough manpower left to rebuilt decimated divisions or even regiments. Therefore a Kampfgruppe might have been made up of 1 dozen men or of 2000 men. They were even made up of anti-aircraft (no more anti-aircraft ammunition), naval (no more naval power) or supply personal (no more supplies to be handled) at the end of the war. These Kampfgruppen (plural of Kampfgruppe) were named after their respective commanders.

The very last Kampfgruppe to exist was the one of the Latvian SS Hauptsturmführer Peteris Cevers. This group of brave warriors consisted at the end of 6 men who fought against the Soviet occupation of their homeland until 1951! These brave men were betrayed by a Latvian communist who had infiltrated their ranks. The NKVD murdered them after horrible tortures in the central prison of the city of Riga.
To return to Peiper ---

It was during these trying times, that the Kampfgruppe Peiper was founded. He and his men were transferred from the eastern front to that at the Normandy beaches were the situation had become critical. He was integrated into the 6th.Panzerdivision, led by SS General Sepp Dietrich and with that unit he formed the very tip of the attack during the Battle of the Bulge.

His attack plan was typical Peiper, rush the enemy when and where he least expects it and relentlessly follow through until he has been eliminated or routed. His men attacked furiously and pushed the American troops so far back that it appeared the English Channel might be reached. This is utterly amazing, particularly considering he Americans had access to unlimited supplies, manpower, and fuel. Their supply situation was superb. The Germans conversely had to operate on a shoe string, lacking even the essentials and having to improvise wherever they went. E.g., they had to rely on capturing American fuel depots in order to drive their tanks! Everyone familiar with the genre knows how well the Americans were supplied without ever really understanding what that really meant.

Therefore I want to make very clear exactly how much better the Americans were supplied than the Germans who were at the end of their endurance anyway at this point in time. No matter, they still were ´Men of Steel¨, according to the English Major General Reynolds.
Read on and be amazed – it is of primary importance to consider all the following in order to appreciate and respect the military achievements of Peiper and his men - for those were truly monumental.

The rations of the Americans came in individual packages, one per soldier, per day. There was an almost unlimited amount of these ration packages floating around division headquarters. These packages contained the following provisions, one should actually say delicatessen.



All things were packaged in camouflage color, all tins, all paper items, all canned goods - everything. One package consisted of the following items; canned peaches, pineapple, cherries without pits or apple sauce with cinnamon. An excellent pound cake, even canned bread, Frankfurters – purposefully mislabelled as ´Wieners´, a package of 20 cigarettes – all the diverse makes were represented. (It must not be forgotten that in those days cigarettes were as essential as food since smoking was de rigueur amongst men of all nations). Cocoa, coffee, salt tablets, diverse vegetables, goulash and potatoes, chicken with noodles, canned tuna in oil, water purification tablets, even toilet paper in camouflage color! This writer can attest to the excellent quality and taste of these items from first hand experience. In addition, each package contained a tiny highly ingenious can opener, an example of which I still have.
In contrast the German soldier, if he was lucky received two slices of bread with some salami or liverwurst and once a week a bowl of hot soup. If Ersatzkaffee (an insipid coffe-like brew made of grains) was available, that is what he got to drink. Otherwise, he had to be satisfied with water wherever he could find it. None of this is in any way exaggerated. The author can attest to this, having been a sergeant with the US paratroopers while very young and foolish in1962.
The transport consisted of nothing but the best as well. Brand new Studebaker trucks with all-wheel drive towing 1-2 ton trailers loaded with power generators, gasoline and diverse supplies. There wasn´t an American encampment without electricity! Jeeps frequently towing 1-4 ton trailers, again loaded with supplies, 3-4 ton Dodge Powerwagons (one of the very best trucks ever manufactured anywhere at any time) and heavy duty all-wheel drive Studebaker tractors and tow vehicles.
Literally endless columns of gasoline tankers, also Studebakers or of Studebaker design completed the picture. In short, there was never a shortage of parts or a complication regarding repairs, since most parts were interchangeable. This fabulous system was extended to the Air Force, the Marines and the Navy. Every branch of the military drove the same trucks, no exceptions! This contrasted sharply with the transport situation on the German side which was made up of an ad hoc variety of mostly civilian trucks of every type and description, not to forget the occasional Citroen, Bedford or American vehicle. It was a veritable hodge-podge of transport (including thousands of horses and horse-drawn wagons), occasioned by the fact that no extended war had been planned for, regardless of the dishonorable claims advanced by the allies to this very day.
The Germans in contrast drove mostly totally worn out Borgward, Krauss-Maffei, Mercedes-Benz, Horch, Hanomag, Stöwer, ´The backbone of the Wehrmacht´ - the Opel Blitz with its bullet-proof 6 cylinder engine, Büssing and Magirus trucks from the civilian sector. These were fine vehicles which had done their duty under trying conditions for many years. In addition, one could find captured vehicles, such as the excellent British Bedford truck, Citroen or even the occasional Studebaker. It is easily understandable, that the spare parts supply under these conditions was a nightmare.
Despite this monumental difficulties, the German mechanics in the rear accomplished near-miracles keeping this diverse machinery running. General Sepp Dietrich, a man one with his men, recognized this and awarded numerous Iron Crosses 2nd.Class to mechanics for having labored creatively and tirelessly under the most difficult conditions.
The USA started developing a fabulous military transportation system (as described above) in the 1920´s (!) and one must pay respect to the genius of their military planners. Absolutely everything had been planned for. The minutest detail had been considered – plus they had all the time and resources on earth at their disposal. The only area in which the American transport was inferior was in the motorcycle sector. This however was unimportant since motorcycles played only an insignificant role (occasional courier service, military police duty in occupied towns with proper roads and parades) in the planning of the American military.
The Germans on the other hand had to do with civilian trucks, cars, bicycles and horse-drawn transport, since no military transport had even begun to be developed until the middle of 1938! To make things worse, military management (strangely inefficient for being German) had permitted every manufacture to develop their own vehicles resulting in a hopeless mish-mash of transport. The Americans however had under government control and direction intelligently designed one Jeep, one 1-2 ton truck, one 3-4 ton truck, one tanker truck, one tractor, etc. for usage by all branches of the military services (!) absolutely brilliant, as it turned out.
The MYTH the USA were not prepared for WW-2 is one of the more gigantic forgeries of historical truth which is being circulated to this day where - and whenever the chance presents itself. If anyone was prepared for a long drawn out OFFENSIVE war, it was the USA as well as the British who had designed superior attack weapons systems such as the Lancaster or Blenheim long distance bombers, as early as the middle 1920´s! This type of aircraft was an unknown in the German Luftwaffe – it simply did not exist. The few bombers Germany had, were short distance bombers designed to attack enemy targets directly behind enemy lines.
As an aside, a long distance bomber is an attack weapons system, as are cluster bombs, phosphor bombs, block-buster bombs, time delay bombs, biological warfare agents (such as the potato bug dropped over Germany in 1944) – ALL things the Americans and especially the British designed during the 1920´s (!) and things the Germans DID NOT have and had never planned for. Now the question must arise --- Whom did the English world plan on attacking, already in the 1920´s? Hmmmmm – San Marino perhaps?

The only thing in which German military planning and design was superior was the, in Germany ubiquitous motorcycle. The motorcycle troops were equipped with the finest of the fine, heavy duty BMW and Zündapp bikes coupled to machine gun carrying Steib side cars especially designed for the purpose with side-car drive and reverse gear! The bikes themselves were civilian steeds, modified for heavy duty usage including as of 1943 heated handlebars (the latter modification designed by Victoria). The smaller courier machines were the outstanding DKW 350, Triumph-Nürnberg (TWN), a handful of Victoria Bergmeisters or KR 250´s and a few quasi indestructible Horex 350´s, Tornax 250´s from Wuppertal or UT´s from Stuttgart, the latter machines with Ilo engines. The DKW 350 incidentally furnished the basis for the largest part of the Russian motorcycle industry after the war.
In the 1930´s, Germany was the undisputed world leader in motorcycle design and production having surpassed the English as early as 1935. There were over a million bikes registered as daily transportation as opposed to a bit over 500.000 in England, 500.000 (mostly German models) in France and about 230.000 in Italy. DKW was he largest motorcycle manufacturer of the world which built the most copied bike of all times, the DKW RT125 (copied by the Russians, the Poles, the Americans +Harley-Davidson Hummer+, the English +BSA 125 and 200+ the Japanese +the basis for all Yamaha 2-stroke bikes+ – Yamaha in the 1950´s copying the German Adler SB 250 as the basis for their entire twin cylinder 2-stroke models of the 1970´s, ´80´s and beyond, British Ariel doing exactly the same thing building the most reliable and elegant ´Ariel´ (the Leader which developed into a mainstay of the British postal service) ever produced – frankly ´copying´ is being unjustifiably kind -- ´stealing´ is more appropriate) and the list is quasi endless.
As an aside, one must wonder how it is possible for such a formidable industry to have disappeared even largely from memory. Is it too much of a stretch to say it has been made to disappear? This writer thinks not!

The Americans on the other hand rode unreliable, ancient-age technology Harley Davidson motorcycles. These bikes were entirely too low, had a tendency to overheat aside from handling like a bull in a rodeo. These truly awful machines were abandoned at the side of the roads by the thousands in France by their very unhappy riders who were overjoyed when taking possession of a captured German machine.
Todays Harley Davidson myth is wholly undeserving and is based on the Porsche (German) re-design of their machines in the early 1980´s. Without German engineering, Harley Davidson would be but a bad memory.

The uniforms of he Americans were vastly superior to those of he Germans who more often than not were wearing old uniforms which had been repaired repeatedly. There were no replacements – hence the frequent photographs of German soldiers toward the end of the war wearing civilian sweaters, gloves and in some cases even boots. The Americans on the other hand had all the new uniforms they could have wished for – aside from the fact that they had been especially, superbly designed. Their regular boots were extremely comfortable to wear and made of the finest top cowhide leather. They had water tight thermal boots, uncommonly comfortable jackets (the so-called field jacket) replete with countless, very handy pockets, heavy sweaters, thermal underwear – it was formidable the way in which they had been taken care of, these American troops and one must compliment the American military planners on their intelligent thoroughness.
As far as medical supplies goes, they had every type of bandage, pain killer and hyper-modern field hospital imaginable – truly everything to excess.
In addition and this is very important, the Americans ruled the skies unopposed. The Luftwaffe, much like the Kriegsmarine had for all practical intents and purposes ceased to exist – having given their very lives in the un-even struggle to defend of their beloved fatherland.
Despite all of this Peipers advance through the lines of the Americans was so rapid, so daring that he caused unfettered panic to spread amongst his enemies. It was this very first time during the war, that the superbly equipped and well led Americans streamed back in panic much like the poorly equipped, badly led Italians had at Stalingrad or in Northern Africa, largely causing those disaster. Only brutal methods applied by American officers to stem the flight and the incessant shortages or even total absence of supplies particularly that of gasoline on the German side, prevented the total annihilation of the American troops despite their monumental numerical and material superiority.

Jochen Peipers advance came to a grinding halt near Stavelot, not because of American bravery or military brilliance but because he had irreversibly run out of medication, food stuffs, ammunition and most importantly gasoline. When the enemy noticed his paralysis, he encircled Peiper´s Kampfgruppe which very literally was unable to move in any direction. The dream to throw the Americans back into the sea had come to an end.

Peiper was confronted with a grim, painful choice ---

Destroy all war material in his possession and attempt a break-out on foot, or
Surrender to an enemy who until a few hours before had fled panic stricken from his advance.
For a man like Peiper the answer was harsh but clear – break out at all costs. During the preceding fighting, an American officer had been captured by Peiper´s troops. This American participated in he break-out and related after the war how impressed he had been by this man, by his undaunted courage, by his uncanny ability to instill in his battered troops the will to survive even under circumstances which appeared hopeless and how Peiper had treated him, the American as a gentleman, as a fellow soldier, honorably and decently.

Peiper had ordered all tanks (the pride of his outfit), heavy machine guns, trucks, motorcycles etc. to be dynamited. The iron discipline of his men, the firm, nay religious belief in the justice of their cause and the well documented and often times mentioned leadership capabilities of his non-commissioned officers saved his troops even though the climatic conditions approached those of the horrendously difficult Russian winters.

After the successful break-out, the remnants of Kampfgruppe Peiper rejoined Sepp Dietrich´s 6th.Division to be transferred via rail to the Hungarian front in order to stem he relentless advance of the Soviet forces in that region. The transfer was conducted under the most difficult conditions – incessant air attacks, little food, little shelter and very little rest. The transfer succeeded and Peiper´s men fought desperately against a Soviet superiority which staggers the imagination. Finally, at Sankt Pollen in the Alps the end arrived. Out of ammunition, out of gasoline, out of everything, even hope, they surrendered to American forces.

In the annals of history there are only very few examples of the self sacrifice demonstrated by the Kampfgruppe Peiper – but neither he nor any of his men could possibly imagine what awaited them.

[caption id="attachment_6627" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Joachim Peiper. Arrested.[/caption]

Peiper himself was incarcerated in a hell hole (euphemistically called a POW camp) outside the ancient city of Nürnberg (which itself had been annihilated toward the end of the war in an orgy of insane destruction). This camp contained over 160.000 prisoners of all military branches. It was sheer hell, like so many of Eisenhower´s death camps along the Rhine. There were no barracks or tents. There were no toilets. There was no medical help, not even for the most terribly wounded. Hunger, incessant thirst and utter misery unimaginable in its dimensions ruled. The desperation of the prisoners thusly abused was limitless, for outside the camp food and everything else existed in great quantities for the Americans, but for those who had selflessly defended their fatherland there was only horror and incarceration far worse than that afforded the most horrid child-abuser.

The fundamental difference between these hell holes and German prison camps with terrible conditions is that the German camps were totally overwhelmed with prisoners during the latter stages of the war and during times of incessant air attacks, paralyzing all transport and making supply impossible. The desperate efforts of the German authorities (including those of Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler himself as early as 1942!) to relieve the suffering of the prisoners is well documented (even if deliberately omitted in official literature) whereas these American camps were purposefully created by General Eisenhower during peace time and during times of plenty. These American camps were deliberately designed to kill as many German prisoners of war as possible by neglect, starvation and sometimes cold-blooded murder. This has been meticulously documented by the Canadian historian James Bacque in his book ´Other Losses´. No!! It was not the Germans who deliberately starved or murdered prisoners, but it was the Americans, French and the Soviets who probably hold the world record in this odious activity. It was in this hell that an American agent found Peiper.

(Writers - Translators note); the above highlighted section is an addition to the English translation and does not exist in the original German.

As related previously, his Kampfgruppe had fought in he Ardennes under the most difficult circumstances, not only against an identifiable enemy, but also against brutal Belgian partisans who had specialized in committing heinous acts of cowardly torture-murder on captured, unarmed German soldiers. Aside from this and the incessant shortages, Peiper had also suffered from shortages in personnel. None of his companies had ever been even near company-strength.

Malmédy is a small German town which in 1919 was ceded (Versailles Treaty provision) to Belgium for unjustifiable reasons. It was there that Peipers troops took several hundred Americans prisoner without the means to either keep them contained or to transfer them behind the lines. Jochen Peiper was several kilometers away in his temporary headquarters and nowhere near this particular action. The highest ranking SS man on the scene decided to concentrate the Americans on a large meadow and to have them guarded by a handful of young soldiers manning one machine gun. Had the American prisoners stormed the tiny German contingent, they would have overwhelmed them in minutes by sheer force of numbers. The Germans were fully aware of this possibility and consequently their nerves were stretched to the breaking point.

What happened next is to this day unclear, nay it is totally murky. We do know for a fact that several Americans attempted to escape and that one young SS man opened fire at the escapees. It must be remembered here, that this man did what absolutely every soldier in any army at any time in history did, no more, no less. Had he held his fire, he would have broken his oath he would have failed in his duty and made himself subject to court martial proceedings. What we do not know is whether the Americans attempted to cease their efforts at escape before the SS man opened fire. That several Americans were shot, that is a fact. What has added to the confusion is that it has been claimed that American troops had appeared on the scene and had opened fire on the Germans with the result that hey hit several of their own men, a very real possibility in the heat of battle. Such an incident is called ´Friendly Fire´ and it is well documented that many Americans fell victim to ´Friendly Fire´ throughout the war.

The fly in the ointment called ´circumstances´.

Under what circumstances where these Americans shot? If they were shot trying to escape no blame can be placed on the SS man. Since most people have never been in he military this logic may be difficult to understand, but it is so. Had he held his fire, he would have failed in his assigned duty – to contain the prisoners. This rule applies to all armies at any time in history, crossing even cultural lines.

It was this sad tale which was the reason Peiper had been sought after by the American authorities. He had been accused of war crimes, despite the indubitable fact that rarely has their existed a commander who dealt more fairly with his enemies.

In the meantime all manner of horror-stories were being circulated by Belgian partisans as to the crimes which had allegedly been committed by Peipers men. Suffice it to say, that not a single one of these stories has ever been proved, eau contraire, under legitimate, in-depth investigation they have been found to have been stories, no more, no less. There isn´t a historical writer with a conscious extant today who pays any attention whatsoever to any of these vicious rumors.

Despite this, honorable Belgian and French men interested in the truth are being haunted mercilessly by their respective governments to this day because they have dared to uncover that the official historians are unscrupulous liars. Unconscionable men, disgracefully often times germans, repeat some of these anti-German atrocity stories to this day as if they were historically proven facts.

It must not be forgotten, that directly after he war (even today) every imaginable horror story about the Germans, no matter how grotesque was not only being propagated, but were encouraged to be told, frequently by well-paid ´witnesses´. There existed numerous professional witnesses who traveled from trial to trial to vent their unspeakable hatred in the form of grotesque tales, tales so sick they could only stem from diseased minds, tales in the meantime having been uncovered to have been no more than atrocity propaganda.

In connection to this I would like to remind the reader that the tough, formerly German-hating American general George ´Blood and Guts´ Patton stated in the summer of 1945; ´The only decent people left in Europe are the Germans´.

All officers and non-commissioned officers of the Kampfgruppe Peiper were arrested, imprisoned and tortured horribly by an ´American´ Lt. by the name of Perl in order to obtain confessions. Perl had emigrated shortly before the war from Vienna. The soldiers were uncommonly brave and endured inhuman tortures, but as the former commander of Auchwitz Höss said; ´One will sign anything whatsoever only to get them to stop.´ As an aside, Höss´ confession was written in English, a language he did not command and was splattered with his blood.

The torture methods of Lt. Perl, a man who had never in his life faced an enemy and had never even heard a bullet fly, consisted of amongst many things the following:

The arms of the prisoners were tied. He then kicked the men so long into the groin that their testicles were crushed. This happened to over 170 of the 180 prisoners. The discovery of this inhumanity was made by a shocked American military doctor who reported his findings at once to his superiors in Washington DC. The senate of the USA proceeded to investigate the case. This investigation took place after the verdicts had been handed down!
The prisoners were informed that if they did not sign the required confessions, their families would be handed over to the Soviets to be murdered.
Prisoners were hooded, marched into the court yard of the prison and were subjected to mock executions. The psychological shock such a procedure will inflict on the victim is impossible to fathom.
Prisoners who had lost a leg during the bitter fighting were subjected daily to being tripped up while on their way (shackled of course) to a ´interview´, only to be mercilessly kicked and beaten to a bloody pulp while down and being demeaned as Nazi pigs and worse
Prisoners were forced to stand at attention for 24 hours a day. When this proved to be impossible, they were kicked and beaten until they collapsed. Broken bones were sometimes the result.
Prisoners were refused basic sustenance such as food or water.
´American´ torturers who spoke flawless German (?) appeared dressed as catholic priests offering confession, so hat the men could ´safe their souls´ before being hanged.
Jochen Peiper himself was cooked in the following manner; A) his cell was heated to such a degree that he eventually passed out. B) The heat was turned off. C) Ice water was poured over him to bring him back to life. This hellish procedure was repeated over and over and over without this brave German SS man ever giving his torturers any satisfaction!
Finally, when his men could take it no longer and began signing confessions which were shown him, Peiper offered himself up as a martyr and accepted any and all responsibility for whatever any of his men had been accused of - whether true or untrue.

Colonel Ellis, the prosecuting attorney visited Peiper in his cell. He was polite and militarily correct and gave Peiper to understand that he personally did not believe in any of the accusations, but that he would do his best nevertheless to obtain a conviction and to hang Peiper. A more perverse manner of thinking is quasi impossible to fathom.

The trial itself took place at Dachau. During the trial evidence of innocence was prohibited. Grotesque stories by paid (!) witnesses were patiently listened to and meticulously noted for he record, whereas a defense was made impossible due to the defense not being allowed to call material witnesses. The prosecutions star witness, a certain Sergeant (US Army) Ahrens (disgracefully ethnic German) was later uncovered to have been a shameless liar and his entire damning testimony on which basis dozens of Germans had been executed was discredited.

Confessions obtained under unspeakable torture were accepted at face value and none of he witnesses were ever subjected to cross examination.

Even though the confessions, without an exception, had been made under torture and despite the fact that every one of those who had signed such a confession recanted in open court, 43 of the dishonored and disfigured (remember the crushed testicles) SS men were sentenced to death by hanging. 30 more received long term prison sentences. The date was July 16th.1946.

Peiper himself was sentenced to death as well. His men and he accepted the decision stoically. Peiper however was not executed because the Junior Senator from Wisconsin, McCarthy had proved the courts perfidy and the innocence of Peiper and his men. This did not help those men who had been strangled to death before the inquiry ever began.

McCarthy uncovered and publicized the tortures, the inhuman conditions of the prison, the perfidy of the court, the courts running rough shod over any and all legal principles and he called the trial what indeed it had been – a Lynching party and a disgrace for the United States.



While on death row at Landsberg prison, Jochen Peiper wrote the following:

The defensive frontline positions of Western Civilization form a wide circle, from the Caucasus to the land of he Finns. Representatives of our entire civilization are there to this day, guarding us quietly. Despite their graves being plundered and their fatherlands being ashamed of their most noble sons, we are indebted to this avant-garde of the European idea, for it is because of them, that the descendents of Genghis Kahn have not stationed their tanks on the coast of the Atlantic.

Peiper spent many years on death row, until in 1951 his sentence was commuted to life in prison. In 1956 he was released from prison to make his living the best he could. He began a career as an automobile salesman for a Porsche agency in Frankfurt. Shamefully, he was let go under pressure from disgraceful persons of influence. VW had heard of his plight and offered him a position in Stuttgart, thence he moved with his faithful wife who had believed in him always and had stood by him during the worst possible times. This had been very difficult since the pressure to denounce her ´war criminal ´ husband had been enormous. Soon dishonorable german cowards and the dark forces which controlled them discovered his whereabouts (was he denounced?) and put tremendous pressure on VW via a disgusting, malignant hate-campaign to fire him.

It became clear to Peiper that he had no future in his fatherland. He had defended it to the last breath, had suffered tremendously, had been victimized by dishonorable American military torturers and ´judges´ and instead of honoring him a revolting campaign of biblical hate was unleashed against him - unequalled in its dishonesty and murderous intent.

It must be mentioned here, that the heinous injustice committed during his trial, the tortures and all the rest, have never (until this very day!) been made public in Germany. Very literally no one knows, for the information is not allowed to be published! Most Germans believe (and believe to this day) that this trial and many other similar ones were conducted fairly according to internationally accepted norms of jurisprudence. What is really shocking is that the majority of Germans do not even entertain the idea that something might be wrong. They refuse to accept the documented proof, that they have been lied to and misdirected for the period of over two generations!

In 1940, Peiper had gotten to know and love the area known in French as the Langresplateau. In those years, family acquaintances in Reutlingen had a conscripted French worker on their farm. It was at that time that the Berlin government negotiated an agreement with the Vichy government, that for every one voluntary French worker who came to Germany, two French POW´s would be permitted to go home. The French worker of the family whom Peiper knew was allowed to return to his family in France due to Peiper´s influence and Mr. Gauthier (already a pro-German French nationalist) never forgot the his kindness.

It was this selfsame Mr. Gauthier who when Peiper decided in 1957 to relocate in France with his family sold him a mill in the town of Traves. However, the mill was in urgent need of repairs - a task beyond the financial capabilities of Peiper. The former Obersturmbannführer SS Erwin Ketelhut bought the mill from Peiper, which enabled him to build a homestead well out of view high on the banks of the river Saone. There he and his small family lived in comparative peace for 16 years. There were the occasional threatening anonymous phone calls (are there any other kind?), but essentially he lived unmolested and was known in the small town simply as ´The German´. He used his old passion, his command of the French language to earn his living as a translator of various texts from one language into the other and vice versa.

On June 11th.1976 he went to the provincial capital Vesoul with the intention to buy some wire for a dog-pound he was building. The person who sold him the wire was a Frenchman – Paul Cacheux - from the former German province of Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine).

In 1936 (French control) there lived 1.885.823 people in this region of whom only 202.554 (slightly more than 10%) claimed he French language as their mother tongue. That much for the French nature of the population the history books allege! This undefended (!) province had been invaded and annexed contrary to all international norms by the French emperor Louis the 14th, re-annexed to Germany in 1871 and again stolen from Germany via the so-called Treaty of Versailles of 1919, a treaty which was no more than a go-ahead light to plunder Germany and which was signed by the German delegation under duress and official protest. No treaty or contract of any kind signed under duress is legal anywhere, in any forum, under any legal system anyplace on earth!

(Translator´s note; the above highlighted is an addition to the English translation and does not appear in the German original).

Paul Cacheux, the hardware store clerk, noticed Peipers slight German accent and decided to check the ´Brown List´. This list had been compiled by the communist party of France and had been circulated amongst its members as an aide in identifying alleged German war criminals or Frenchmen who had collaborated (such as the few former members of the SS division Charlemagne who had survived) with the German forces. Peiper had paid by check, a document which identified him clearly by name and address.

Imagine this absurdity! More than 30 years after the war people were (and still 60 years later are!) hunted for alleged having committed war crimes, regardless whether proven or not, regardless of whether they had long ago paid for their misdeeds, and regardless whether or not those alleged misdeeds had in the meantime been thoroughly discredited.

In contrast, the well documented massive crimes committed by the so-called Résistance (about 100.000 cold blooded murders of French men and women within a 6 months period after July 1944) are totally ignored, nay some of the criminal perpetrators have been hailed as French heroes and the crimes have been vehemently denied, all the forensic (!) evidence to the contrary! In the 1980´s a young French filmmaker made a movie about this, a movie shown once in Paris and since having totally disappeared! Unfortunately, this says more about Germany´s neighbors than anyone had ever asked to know!

Cacheux found Peipers name on the list and immediately notified his superiors at the communist party. This resulted in an obscene hate-campaign against a man who had lived peacefully and productively as a citizen in his little home-built house. This infamous action was openly directed by he communist party. Their newspaper L´Humanité (what a name for the official organ of a political party which has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to have been the most murderous in the history of mankind, a political movement unequalled in ferocity, dishonor and disdain for human dignity) printed an inflammatory article asking what this ´Nazi´ was doing in France. The communists printed flyers defaming Peiper as a criminal and promising to prepare him a ´hot July 14th. (French national unity day). These flyers were widely distributed in Traves, the little town which had been home to the long suffering Peiper family. The hatred unleashed had a surreal, Kafkaesque character, it was Old Testament type hatred, the sort which is impossible to fathom by a healthy thinking human being – it was pure irrational hysteria. To make matters worse, it was the Stasi (secret police of communist controlled Germany) which actively supported this infamy. When the DDR fell and the Berlin wall came down, all the Stasi documents relating to the Peiper case either had disappeared, or were destroyed – the latter being the most likely scenario.

The traitors of the Stasi were never called to account. Eau contraire, the German taxpayer supported these monsters via obscene retirement income checks. The injustice screams to high heaven.



One day previous to the attack, the 13th.of July, Peiper decided to send his beloved wife and daughter to their family in Germany. His wife had been suffering from cancer and Peiper was convinced he would be unable to protect his family adequately in case of an attack. He refused to leave his home fearing if empty it would be burned to the ground. The fear his friend Ketelhut would shoot at any attacker caused him to refuse his friend´s offer to spend the night at his house.

´No´, he said. ´There has been already too much killing´. Ahhhhhh, so typically German - to actually believe that honor and decency would ever enter the minds of assassins.

Ketelhut however insisted Peiper at least accept his hunting rifle, which he did in order to appease his good friend. Subsequently Peiper went to the small roof garden of his house from whence he was able to watch over his property. Around 22.30 hours (11.30 pm) he heard men moving through the bush covered approaches from the river. In order to chase the apparently drunk fellows off, he fired several shots into the air. They called out to him to come out of the house – they wanted to talk to him. In an effort to appease (how does one appease assassins bent on murder?) he opened the door to his homestead. This is all we know for sure. What happened next is known only to those responsible for the insidious deed.

When the corpse of Peiper was found, it had been burned to a crisp. He was found lying on his bead – his hands and feet had been hacked off. Allegedly it was impossible to determine whether the poor man had been alive when he was maimed so cruelly. Assassins of this sort never maim anyone when he is dead – that we know for sure! We know that the Greek, Italian, Belgian, French and Russian partisans of WW-2 (communists all, under direct direction from Moscow and actively supported by the USA) all committed such atrocities as a matter of course. These monsters were the same, only of one generation later and we must sadly conclude that this certified honorable war hero died a horrible death.

In the nearby village, shots were heard around midnight emanating from the direction of Peipers house (called ´The Bunker´ by the locals), but the police and the fire department arrived too late. Sadly it must be concluded, that the authorities deliberately took their time in responding, since the time of Peiper´s death has been determined to have been around 1 o´clock in the morning.

The monsters, after inflicting horrible tortures on this war hero until about 1 o´clock in the morning had assured the total destruction of the home by pouring a mixture of heating oil, used motor oil and gasoline on the floors of the house which resulted in heat so intense, that his body did not burn, but rather was carbonized, much like the hundreds of thousands of German women, children and men who died a similar horrible death at the hands of the American and British air forces during their bombing holocaust designed to murder the German nation. The latter observation is not an allegation (like most allegations, presented as historical ´facts´ against the Germans), rather is a well documented truism.



Peipers French friends and of course his good buddy Ketelhut expressed the unanimous opinion his death had been totally unjustified, for had he accepted Ketelhut´s invitation to spend he night at his house, the murder would never had occurred.

The cowardly assassins had crossed a meadow with a wagon to the river front on which two floats lay in waiting, manned by accomplices. It was with these floats hat they crossed the Raone and once arrived at the opposite shore, climbed through the underbrush toward the victim´s house. After the gruesome deed they made their get-away by running in the opposite direction to the street below, where apparently a waiting car picked them up and spirited them away. The fire department dragged the river bed in search of the missing body parts and found nothing. The investigation lasted 6 months during which every known member of the local communist party was interviewed with the predictable result, that no one knew anything.

Subsequently, the investigation was closed and all documents were stored in the ´dead file´ of the local police. What is awful is that the investigation conducted by the police department apparently was haphazard and sloppy. This conclusion is inescapable for the following reasons;

The reaction time of the local authorities during the time of the crime had been unconscionably slow. It had been well known that an attempt on Peiper´s life was going to be made yet the police had taken no precautionary measures and had taken their time in responding.
This area is only slightly populated, having about 10 inhabitants per square kilometer. Each and every inhabitant very literally knows everyone else as well as their respective business, as is common in such sparsely populated rural areas anywhere on earth. Considering these things, any competent police investigation should have resulted in the arrest of the assassins.
The claim to have been unable to find out anything about this well organized, meticulously planned and announced (!) attack is ludicrous. One is left with impression that the police did not want to get to the bottom of the crime. It has also been claimed that possibly out-of-towners had planned and committed the deed. This lacks credibility, since not a shred of evidence has ever been found connecting anyone outside the immediate area to the crime. Therefore this claim appears to be no more than a smoke screen planted by the police.

The district court of Vesoul finally, after many years, declared the murdered man as being dead. However, under pressure (and probably threats) they lacked he decency to acknowledge that he had been murdered. Peipers family requested the return of the remains of their beloved father to Germany. When the coffin arrived it was opened in the presence of representatives for the District Attorney of Munich. It was found that disgracefully only parts of the mutilated, charred body had been returned. The entire head was missing making it impossible for the German authorities to identify the remains due to the missing dentures. Polite inquiries by Peipers family of the French court were left unanswered. The district court in Vesoul handled the matter by simply stating disdainfully that Peiper was dead and that the case was closed. That is the way justice works in one of the modern ´democracies´!

It was the great Mahatma Gandhi, a lawyer himself, who stated succinctly; ´Where law rules, there is injustice.´

Colonel Peiper, murdered – for Germany he had fought bravely, an unforgettable warrior.
In Germany he had suffered many years for an act never committed and it is with Germany that he died in lonely battle assassinated by the forces of evil.
When will the time come again, that you Germany will again become home and safe haven for all those who have fought and died for you?
Jochen , you are unforgettable and remain in our hearts.

Gerry Frederics

“I was a Nazi and I remain one…The Germany of today is no longer a great nation, it has become a province of Europe.”

- Joachim Peiper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWbm_SGHDIw

I have pledged my oath, I have no regrets
If I was given the choice I'd do it all again
A man lives only once, by the standards he sets
His actions through courage and strength
Will set his legacy in stone

Peiper's Last Stand! Now your home is your frontline
Peace has come to its end
Peiper's Last Stand! The beast never sleeps, you'll have to fight again
Peiper's Last Stand! You'd die with honor, shotgun shells in hand
Peiper's Last Stand! You've lived, you'll die, die a Fighting Man

Your day of ascension to the Golden halls
Was coming ever so near
You were a survivor of campaigns
No matter the odds, you'd never show fear
No power, no force, no trials or tribunals
Could ever change your mind
Branded guilty as a war criminal
When loyalty was your only crime

(Chorus)

That day had finally come
You had sent your family away
Your war had not come to an end
You had to face the blazing flames
After the smoke cleared, around your body
Lay every sheel spent from your gun
Your war was finally over
The halls of heroes welcomed its son