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Battle of the Bulge

Discussion in 'Western Europe' started by TacticalTank, Jan 31, 2011.

  1. Ruimteaapje

    Ruimteaapje Member

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    Hi Jayde, I'm "Harro" who provided the info on Kasimir Liebersbach through AHF forums. Just wondering if you by now estabished whether of not you're related to him.

    For the benefit of this forum:

    Kasimir Liebersbach was a member of the Pionierzug/Stabskompanie/SS-Panzer-Aufklärungsabteilung 1 'LSSAH' who was captured by members of the 117th US Infantry Battalion in the town of Stavelot on the 22nd of December 1944 and implicated in the murder of Belgian civilans in Parfondruy, a hamlet west of the town, on the 19th of December. He was Prisoner of War no. 31G2361672 confined in C.C.K. 26 in Romilly, France where he and the other captured members of his platoon were interrogated on 27th of August 1945 by Lieutenant Edgar A. Pfeil, investigator-examiner for the US War Crimes Branch. The questions were all aimed at establishing the prisoner’s possible involvement in the Malmédy massacre but his platoon had not been part in that crime.

    He was questioned about Parfondruy on the 7th of May 1946: the SS had forced civilians from the surrounding hamlets to walk to the Legrand farm where they were forced into a wooden laundry shed at gunpoint. The SS then fired into the shed with a heavy machine gun and various handguns then set fire to the shed. The list of victims who were slaughtered in the laundry shed that day showed that this killing squad made no distinction between young and old, male or female. The dead included Louis Gaspar (64), Albert Gaspar (22), Henri Dewalque (56), Émile Verdin (60), Alphonse Verdin (58), Léon Hourand (45), Léon Blaise (64), Hubert Delcourt (71), Joseph Glazier, François Legrand (69), Léon Willem (63), Jules Rousseaux (63) and his wife Sylvie (55). The SS also massacred the inhabitants of the farm: 35-year old Josépha Legrand-Sonveau, her elderly mother, Marie Sonveau-Nusbaum, aged 70 and her two sons, 7-year old Freddy and little 4-year old Roger.

    Liebersbach admitted having witnessed the killings in Parfondruy but denied firing the shots, shifting the blame to other members of his platoon who were (conveniently) all killed in action on the 22nd. Liebersbach was called as a witness during the 'Malmédy Trial' and was tried himself in the Belgian town of Liège in July 1948. Sentenced to 10 years imprisonment he, like his co-defendants, was released after a few years. In the 1960s German authorities searched for all defendants for a possible retrial and found all except Liebersbach. The investigators eventually dropped the case because the defendants had already been sentenced in Belgium.

    Liebersbach was also a defence witness for the murder of the Job brothers from Trois-Ponts. From my manuscript:

    [SIZE=10pt]SS-Untersturmführer Dröge arrived at the railroad viaducts in Trois-Ponts with his Pionierzug. Knittel ordered him to dismount his platoon and to park their armoured halftracks along the railroad track. At that moment, two civilians, 59-year old Gustav Job and his 57-year old brother Oscar, [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]came into view, having made the fatal decision to walk[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] down the road [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]in order to [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]pass through the tunnels. They lived in the Liffrange mill, [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]which was situated[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] a hundred meters from the viaduct along the main road to Stavelot. Kasimir Liebersbach, a 20-year old member of the Pionierzug, told his interrogators in 1946 that as they dismounted from their vehicles, he saw how two civilians were shot by [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]SS-Untersturmführer Dröge and SS-Unterscharführer Wolf. [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]He further testified that the two men had not committed any hostile actions against the Germans.[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt][/SIZE] [SIZE=10pt]Another member of the Pionierzug, SS-Rottenführer Gärtner,[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt][ii][/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] and Fallschirmjäger Zagler[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt][iii][/SIZE][SIZE=10pt] added to this, stating [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]that these two men were both elderly and that they had come from the opposite direction, that is, from the direction of their home. The following day, Jean Elias, an electrician from Trois-Ponts who had been on his way to Aisomont on foot, found the bodies of the Job brothers lying between the two tunnels. He testified that one of them had his face holed by a bullet, the second was found, face down in a pool of blood[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt].[iv][/SIZE] [SIZE=10pt]When their bodies were later discovered by the Americans, they reported that both men had received bullet wounds in their heads and chests. Given the fact that the brothers were shot by Dröge moments after Knittel ordered him to dismount his platoon, there can be little doubt that Knittel was a witness to these callous murders[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt].[/SIZE]


    [SIZE=9pt][/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] Statement of Kasimir Lieberbach, dated the 7th of May 1946 (NARA).[/SIZE]


    [SIZE=9pt][ii][/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] Statement of [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Reinhard Gärtner[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], dated the 6st of May 1946 (NARA).[/SIZE]


    [SIZE=9pt][iii][/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] Statement of[/SIZE] [SIZE=9pt]Max Zagler, dated the 7th of May 1946 (NARA). Zagler was a member of 6. Kompanie, II. Bataillon, 8. Regiment, 3. Fallschirmjäger-Division but got separated from his unit during the opening stages of the offensive and was picked up by the Stabskompanie of SS-Panzer-Aufklärungsabteilung 1 LSSAH at noon on the 18th of December 1944.[/SIZE]


    [SIZE=9pt][iv][/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] Statement of Jean Elias (NARA, page 1088).[/SIZE]



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  2. eucmh

    eucmh New Member

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    questi

    question ? ... the bulk of the 1.LSSAH Panzer Division ! what bulk ? the remainder of this twice destroyed unit weren't even enough to get 4 Kampfgruppen in works !
     
  3. Ruimteaapje

    Ruimteaapje Member

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    He's clearly referring to the bulk of what the Leibstandarte could field in the Ardennes.
     

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