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Operation Market Garden. Wilhelm Bittrich. Wilhelm Bittrich (February 26, 1894 – April 19, 1979) was an SS-Obergruppenführer and Waffen-SS General during World War II.

Wilhelm Bittrich

Overview[edit] Born in Wernigerode in the Harz mountains of Germany, Bittrich served as an army officer and fighter pilot during World War I and was also a member of the Freikorps.[1] He joined the SS-Verfügungstruppe in 1934 and the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler in 1939. He was in command of the Deutschland Regiment during the fighting in Poland (1939) and France (1940). Later he assumed command over the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich and the II. SS-Panzerkorps (Hohenstaufen & Frundsberg Divisions). Bittrich survived the War and died in a local hospital in Wolfratshausen, Bavaria on April 19, 1979.

Postwar Prosecution[edit] After his arrest on May 8, 1945 he was extradited to France on charges of having ordered the execution of 17 members of the Resistance in Nîmes. Opposition of the Nazi Party[edit] In media[edit] Summary of his SS career[edit] Ranks[edit] Notes[edit] Emil Maurice. Emil Maurice (19 January 1897, Westermoor – 6 February 1972, Munich) was an early member of the National Socialist German Workers Party and one of the founders of the SS.

Emil Maurice

Together with Erich Kempka, he also served as one of Hitler's personal drivers—despite having Jewish ancestry. Early life and association with Hitler[edit] A watchmaker by trade, Maurice was a close associate of Adolf Hitler; their personal friendship dated back to at least 1919. With the founding of the Sturmabteilung in 1920, Maurice became the first Oberster SA-Führer (Supreme SA Leader). In 1923, Maurice also became the SA commander of the newly established Stabswache, a special SA company given the task of guarding Hitler at Nazi parties and rallies.

In 1925, two years after the failed Beer Hall Putsch, Maurice and Hitler refounded the Stabswache as the Schutzstaffel (SS). When the SS was reorganized and expanded in 1932, Maurice became a senior SS officer and would eventually be promoted to the rank SS-Oberführer. Marek Edelman. Marek Edelman (Yiddish: מאַרעק עדעלמאַן, born 1919 in Homel[3] or 1922 in Warsaw – October 2, 2009 in Warsaw)[1] was a Jewish-Polish political and social activist and cardiologist.

Marek Edelman

Before his death in 2009, Edelman was the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Before World War II, he was a General Jewish Labour Bund activist. During the war he co-founded the Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB). He took part in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, becoming its leader after the death of Mordechaj Anielewicz. He also took part in the city-wide 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Early life[edit]