Heinz Lammerding

{{Infobox criminal

| name = Heinz Lammerding

| birth_date = {{birth date|1905|8|27|df=y}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|1971|1|13|1905|8|27|df=y}}

| image = Lammerding.jpg

| image_size = 160

| caption =

| birth_place = Dortmund, German Empire

| death_place = Bad Tölz, West Germany

| trial =

| known_for = Tulle murders
Oradour-sur-Glane massacre

| conviction_penalty = Death (in absentia)

| conviction_status = Deceased

| module = {{Infobox military person |embed=yes|embed_title=SS career

|allegiance=Nazi Germany

|branch=Waffen-SS

|serviceyears=1933–1945

| rank = SS-Gruppenführer

|commands=SS Division Das Reich

|unit=

|battles=World War II

|awards=Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

}}

| conviction = War crimes

}}

Heinz Lammerding (27 August 1905 – 13 January 1971) was a German SS officer convicted of war crimes during the Nazi era. During World War II, he commanded the SS Panzer Division Das Reich that perpetrated the Tulle and the Oradour-sur-Glane massacres in occupied France. After the war, Lammerding was convicted in absentia for having ordered the murder of approximately 750 French civilians, but remained protected by Germany after serving a prison sentence there.

War-crimes trial

In 1953, Lammerding was tried in France for war crimes, for ordering two massacres in 1944: at Tulle and at Oradour-sur-Glane. He was sentenced to death in absentia by the court of Bordeaux, but he was never extradited from West Germany[http://www.leparisien.fr/home/info/politique/articles.htm?articleid=276175395 Le maire d'Oradour-sur-Glane : « Il était dénué de toute humanité »]{{Dead link|date=April 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Le Parisien, 14 August 2007 {{in lang|fr}} nor was he ever sentenced by a German court. According to Danny S. Parker, Lammerding had already been tried in West Germany, convicted of war crimes and had served a prison sentence. He, therefore, was not subject to extradition under the Bonn constitution, much to the consternation of the French. They threatened to send in a commando unit to seize him, as the Israelis did in the case of Adolf Eichmann. However, before this could occur, Lammerding died in 1971 from cancer.{{sfn|Parker|2014|p=386}}

Funeral

His funeral in 1971 turned into a reunion of over 200 former SS personnel.{{Cite web|title=Oradour: Ort des Schmerzes, 09.06.2014 (Friedensratschlag)|url=http://www.ag-friedensforschung.de/themen/Kriegsgeschichte1/oradour.html|access-date=2020-11-03|website=www.ag-friedensforschung.de}}

Awards

German Cross in Gold on 24 April 1943 as SS-Standartenführer and commander of SS-Regiment "Thule"Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 266.
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 11 April 1944 as SS-Oberführer and commander of Kampfgruppe "Das Reich"Scherzer 2007, p. 490.