Adolf Diekmann

Adolf Rudolf Reinhold Diekmann (18 December 1914 – 29 June 1944) was a Nazi officer in the Waffen SS during World War II who orchestrated the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre in France on 10 June 1944. Under Diekmann's command, troops from the SS Division Das Reich killed 642 inhabitants in the village, most of whom were women and children. He said he committed the war crime in retaliation to the killing of a fellow SS officer named Helmut Kämpfe by the French Resistance. Adolf Diekmann was born on 18 December 1914 in Magdeburg, Prussia in the German Empire to Heinrich and Anna Diekmann. Adolf was the second of four children, two girls and two boys. Heinrich was a primary school teacher. Despite his father's background as an educator, Adolf left school in 1932 at age 17. On 1 April 1933, Diekmann joined the Nazi Party, one week after the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933, essentially granting Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers. He received membership number 1,752,411. Diekmann completed his Nazi work service between 18 May and 13 November in Burg, approximately 15 miles from his hometown. He then completed his high school education at a Nationalpolitischen Erziehungsanstalt, a Nazi secondary boarding school, in Naumburg, earning his degree on 12 December 1935. At the age of 21, Diekmann joined the SS on 1 March 1936 (SS number 309984) and was assigned to the Signals Corps stationed in the Adlershof neighborhood of Berlin. He was then sent to the SS-Junkerschule, the SS's leadership training facilities, at Bad Tölz in Bavaria in October 1937. He then completed a course for platoon leaders at the Junker School's Dachau branch in August 1938 and was designated a SS-Untersturmführer, the most junior non-commissioned officer rank of the SS, SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT), a mechanized infantry unit at the disposal of the Führer. Diekmann's SS-VT unit was assigned to the Germania Regiment of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich.