Paul Hausser

Paul Hausser (born October 7, 1880, Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany—died December 21, 1972, Ludwigsburg, West Germany) was a German SS general and field commander during World War II.

A veteran of World War I, Hausser became a leader in the Stahlhelm (“Steel Helmet”), a right-wing veterans’ organization, in the interwar years. He transferred to the SA (Storm Troopers), the Nazis’ paramilitary organization, after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 and soon moved to the SS, the Nazi Party’s elite corps. He helped train and expand the armed SS units that became the nucleus of the Waffen-SS (SS-controlled field armies) in World War II. After commanding Waffen-SS units in France and on the Eastern Front, Hausser was promoted to the SS rank of Oberstgruppenführer (colonel general). In late June 1944, he was given command of the beleaguered Seventh Army, which was being worn down resisting the Allied invasion of Normandy. Hausser was seriously wounded in August during the escape of the Seventh Army from Normandy at Falaise, and he was relieved of his posts near the end of the war. In postwar West Germany, Hausser became the leader of an organization of Waffen-SS veterans.