Original Scarce Postwar Signature on a Photo of Wilhelm Bittrich. SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Wilhelm Bittrich (26.02.1894 † 19.04.1979) earned the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on December 14, 1941 as SS-Oberführer und Kommandeur of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment “Deutschland”, the Eichenlaub on August 28, 1944 as SS-Obergruppenführer und Kommandierender General of the II. SS-Panzerkorps and the Schwertern on May 6, 1945 as SS-Obergruppenführer und Kommandierender General of the II. SS-Panzerkorps. Condition as seen.
Between August 1942 and February 1943, Bittrich commanded the SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer, in rear security operations (Bandenbekämpfung, literally: “bandit fighting”) in the Soviet Union. From July 1944 until the end of the war Bittrich commanded the 2nd SS Panzer Corps in Normandy, during Market Garden and in Hungary.
After his arrest in May 1945, Bittrich was extradited to France on charges of having ordered the execution of 17 members of the French Resistance. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. Following his release from prison, Bittrich became active in HIAG, a revisionist organization and a lobby group of former Waffen-SS members and served as chairman during the 1970s.
