Otto Paetsch

Otto Paetsch (3 August 1909 – 16 March 1945) was a Standartenführer (Colonel) in the Waffen SS who was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves during World War II.

Career

Paetsch was born on the 3 August 1909, at Rheinhausen. In his early life he studied Theology at Tübingen Evangelical college.

In 1931 he volunteered for the SS and was posted to the Germania Regiment, promoted on 20 April 1936 to Untersturmführer (Second Lieutenant) and made a Zugführer (platoon leader) in the 15th Company, Germania Regiment, and promoted again in April 1940 to Hauptsturmführer (Captain) and given command of the 15th Company.

After the Battle of France the Germania Regiment was used as the basis of a new SS division 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, which from June 1941 fought in Operation Barbarossa the invasion of the Soviet Union, when he was given command of the Reconnaissance Battalion in December 1941.

On 20 April 1942, he was promoted to Sturmbannführer (Major) and awarded the German Cross in Gold for bravery. He was made the commander of the 10th SS Panzer Regiment and promoted to Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel), 3 November 1943. From June 1944 he led his regiment in Normandy, and distinguished himself in the fighting in the Avranches area and the breakout from Falaise (Falaise Pocket) for which he was awarded the Knight's Cross.

Anne Frank

Annelies Marie Frank (German pronunciation: [ʔanəliːs maˈʁiː ˈʔanə ˈfʁaŋk]; Dutch pronunciation: [ʔɑnəˈlis maːˈri ˈʔɑnə ˈfrɑŋk]; 12 June 1929 – February or March 1945) was a German-born diarist and writer. She is one of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Her diary, The Diary of a Young Girl, which documents her life in hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II, is one of the world's most widely known books and has been the basis for several plays and films.

Born in the city of Frankfurt, Germany, she lived most of her life in or near Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Born a German national, Frank lost her citizenship in 1941 and thus became stateless. The Frank family moved from Germany to Amsterdam in the early 1930s when the Nazis gained control over Germany. By May 1940, they were trapped in Amsterdam by the German occupation of the Netherlands. As persecutions of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in some concealed rooms behind a bookcase in the building where Anne's father worked. In August 1944, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Anne and her sister, Margot, were eventually transferred to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they allegedly died (probably of typhus) in February or March 1945, just weeks before the camp was liberated in April.