21 Facts About Paul Hausser

Paul Hausser, known by his birth name Paul Falk post war, was a German general and, together with Sepp Dietrich, one of the two highest ranking commanders in the Waffen-SS.

Paul Hausser played a key role in the post-war revisionist efforts by former members of the Waffen-SS to achieve historical and legal rehabilitation.

Paul Hausser led Waffen-SS troops in the Third Battle of Kharkov, the Battle of Kursk and the Normandy Campaign.

Paul Hausser wrote two books, arguing the purely military role of the Waffen-SS and advancing the notion that its troops were "soldiers like any other", according to the title of the second book.

Paul Hausser was born on 7 October 1880 in Brandenburg an der Havel into a Prussian military family and entered the army in 1892.

Paul Hausser graduated from the Prussian Military Academy in Berlin in 1911.

Paul Hausser married Elisabeth Gerard in 1912; the couple had one daughter who was born in December 1913.

Paul Hausser was promoted to major in 1918 and was retained in the postwar Reichswehr, reaching the rank of Oberst by 1927.

Paul Hausser retired from the Reichswehr in 1932 with the rank of Generalleutnant, having filled various appointments including chief of staff of Wehrkreis II in Stettin, commander of the 10th Infantry Regiment, and deputy commander of the 4th Infantry Division.

Paul Hausser joined the right-wing World War I veterans' organization Der Stahlhelm, becoming the head of its Brandenburg-Berlin chapter in 1933.

In November 1934 Paul Hausser was transferred to the SS-Verfugungstruppe and assigned to the SS-Junkerschule Bad Tolz.

Paul Hausser became the Inspector of the SS-VT in 1936.

Paul Hausser led the division, later renamed 2nd SS Division Das Reich, through the French campaign of 1940 and in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa.

Paul Hausser led the 1st, 2nd and 3rd SS divisions during the Battle of Kursk.

Paul Hausser was promoted to SS-Oberst-Gruppenfuhrer in August 1944 and subsequently commanded Army Group Oberrhein and later Army Group G until 3 April 1945.

From 1950, Paul Hausser was active in HIAG, a revisionist organization and a lobby group of former Waffen-SS members.

Paul Hausser asserted that its members rejected all forms of radicalism and were "upstanding citizens".

Paul Hausser later wrote another book, published in 1966 by HIAG's imprint Munin Verlag, under the title Soldaten wie andere auch.

Paul Hausser continued to deny that there was any connection between the Waffen-SS and Nazi atrocities.

Paul Hausser did not mention that the guards accompanied prisoners on external labor details and that commanders of concentration camps generally came from the Waffen-SS.

Paul Hausser died at the age of 92, on 21 December 1972 at Ludwigsburg.