Waffen-SS Commander (1910?1995)
Sylvester Stadler
(30 December 1910 ? 23 August 1995) was a high-ranking Austrian commander of the
Waffen-SS
, a commander of the
SS Division Hohenstaufen
, previously having been the commander of the SS regiment whose 3rd Company was responsible for the
Oradour-sur-Glane massacre
. Only 34 years old at the end of the war, he held the rank of SS-Brigadefuhrer and generalmajor of the Waffen SS and was a recipient of the
Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Stadler was born in Austria, the son of a Styrian miner, who learned the profession of electrical engineer after elementary and state school in Judenburg but joined the Nazi party and the
SS
in May 1933.
At the beginning of the Second World War, he led a company of the SS-Verfugungstruppe. He then fought with the SS-Verfugungsdivision in France in 1940, where he was wounded near Arras. He also took part in the Balkan campaign in 1941. After being wounded again in the Battle of Moscow in 1941, he was briefly employed as a tactics teacher at the SS-Junker School in Braunschweig .
From March 1, 1942 he commanded the 2nd Battalion of the Panzer Grenadier Regiment
Der Fuhrer
belonging to the
SS Division Das Reich
. In May 1943 he was appointed commander of the entire
Der Fuhrer
regiment with which he fought in Russia. For repelling an intrusion by the Red Army near Kharkov, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on April 6 1943.
To recuperate, the
Der Fuhrer
regiment, which had been severely decimated in Russia, was relocated to France in the Toulouse area at the beginning of 1944 - just like the remaining 2nd SS Panzer Division “Das Reich”. The division was ordered north to combat the Allied landing forces in Normandy in June 1944.
While Stadler was commander of the
Der Fuhrer
, a subordinate unit under his command committed the
Oradour-sur-Glane massacre
. On 10 June 1944, part of the regiment, led by SS-Sturmbannfuhrer
Adolf Diekmann
, killed 642 inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane. Stadler ordered a court martial for Diekmann, albeit the latter was killed in action before he could face the ordered trial.
On 10 July 1944, Stadler was appointed commander of the SS Division Hohenstaufen; it fought on the
Eastern Front
, in
Normandy
, at the
Falaise pocket
, at
Arnhem
("Operation Market Garden"), in the
Ardennes offensive
and in Hungary. He surrendered his division to the U.S. Army in Austria in May 1945. Stadler was interned until 1948.
Awards
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]
References
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]
Citations
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Bibliography
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- Scherzer, Veit (2007).
Die Ritterkreuztrager 1939?1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbundeter Streitkrafte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives
[
The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939?1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives
] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag.
ISBN
978-3-938845-17-2
.
- Thomas, Franz (1998).
Die Eichenlaubtrager 1939?1945 Band 2: L?Z
[
The Oak Leaves Bearers 1939?1945 Volume 2: L?Z
] (in German). Osnabruck, Germany: Biblio-Verlag.
ISBN
978-3-7648-2300-9
.
- Westemeier, Jens
(2013).
Himmlers Krieger: Joachim Peiper und die Waffen-SS in Krieg und Nachkriegszeit
[
Himmler's Warriors: Joachim Peiper and the Waffen-SS during the War and Post-War Period
]. Paderborn, Germany: Ferdinand Schoningh.
ISBN
978-3-506-77241-1
.
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