Eberhardt, Erich.

Eberhardt, Erich, born 19-10-1913, in Wiesbaden , joined the Hamburg Police Force. He then was one of the early members of the SS, which he joined in 1934 and was given the SS service number 272.747, Nazi Party Number 4 178 022. His first unit was the 8^th Company, SS Standarte Germania.  In 1936 he was selected to become an officer and sent to the SS-Junkerschule at Braunschweig,

 being promoted to Untersturmführer  upon graduation. As company commander of the 12^th Company, 9^th SS Grenadier Regiment, SS Division Wiking , he participated during the invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa

  and he was awarded the Iron Cross 2^nd class in July 1941. The 3^rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf  under SS Obergruppenführer,  Kommandeu Totenkopf” Division, he murdered Ernst Röhm in 1934 in his prison cell, Theodor Eicke   was called forward by Field Marshall Walter Model, after the Russians had broken the German front ,

   and the army was in retreat. The Army Group now ordered a general push north and five Russian divisions were cut off and destroyed and the front stabilized. For his part in this action Eberhardt was awarded the Knight’s Cross on the 23-08-1944. Here with L’SS-Gruppenführer Artur Phleps   The Totenkopf was in action until the last days of the war, when Eberhardt gave an instruction for the Division to move to the west to surrender to the American forces, rather than enter Soviet captivity. On 27-04-1963, adopted as the successor to Waffen SS Obergruppenführer, Kommandeur 12 SS LSSAH, “Hitlerjugend”, Kurt “Panzermeyer” Meyer .

     Total casualties amongst the Waffen-SS will probably never be known, but one estimate indicates that they suffered 180.000 dead, 400.000 wounded, and 40.000 missing. World War II casualties indicates that the Waffen-SS suffered 314.000 killed and missing, or 34.9 per cent. By comparison, the United States Army suffered 318.274 killed and missing in all theatres of the war.

   Erich Eberhardt died in Lohrheim on the 01-07-1965, at the age of 51 from heart failure. Eberhard is buried on the Lohrheim cemetery in Wiesbaden.

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