Post by whitehorse on May 3, 2020 20:34:45 GMT
During the fighting in Russia, German General Erich Hoepner was traveling through the Ukraine with his personal bodyguard and elements of the 352nd Wehrmact Infantry Division when he came upon an SS Einsatzgroup rounding up Jewish Children who's parents had been rounded up the day before. After a verbal confrontation with SS Colonel in charge of the Einsatzgroup he ordered his men to drawdown on the SS. The Einsatzgroup left the area temporarily and Hoepner ordered the children to walk east and stay away from German Military vehicles and away from the roads. Hoepner was also not in Hitler's good graces for having ordered a retreat before Moscow later that year even (main reason he was dismissed) though units under his Command were only 20 miles from Moscow and had achieved the furthest penetration of all German units advancing on Moscow during operation Typhoon. This news (with the Jewish Children) eventually reached Hitler and an excuse was found to dismiss
Hoepner after his unsanctioned retreat from Moscow. He was eventually arrested on trumped up charges and later on Implicated in Hitler's assassination attempt and wound up dying in a concentration camp where he would eventually be hung with piano wire whilst being filmed for Hitler's amusement. In another strange twist to this story it was the 352nd Wehrmact Infantry Division that was on the defense opposing the Americans on Omaha Beach some 3 years later, being sent there to rest and refit, within the ranks of the 352nd was a machine gunner named Hienrich Severlot who was on the beach at Omaha during D-Day and is reputed to have expended more then 10,000 rounds from his
