When I was a teenager I used to play role-playing games, but usually disliked the board games so many of my fellow role-players enjoyed. But there was one exception; Advanced Squad Leader, or ASL as we used to call it. I purchased everything available and loved it!
The game was very complicated and there were hundreds, and if you had several modules, even thousands of pieces. They were even pretty small, so you had to have rather nimble fingers to play it.
Naturally I saw ASL as a continuation of my childhood toy soldiers, which of course I had a whole plastic bag full of – most of them Germans. I was so fascinated by the Wehrmacht and in particular the Waffen-SS soldiers, their weapons, their uniforms, their camo, their tanks, their collar symbols (the SS runes), their half-tracks. Everything. I went through my childhood dreaming of finding a German steel helmet or even a Schmeisser! Hitler’s Germany felt right. Everything about the «Nazis» just felt right. When I in my teens finally got my by then rather nimble hands on a German steel helmet, a genuine Waffen-SS helmet in perfect shape, very dark green and with the SS-runes on the side, this was like a religious event to me. I held not only an SS-helmet in my hands, but a sacred relic! A source of sorcerous Nordic powers! My meaning and my life!
Whilst playing ASL I learned about a character called Peiper, from a module called Kampfgruppe Peiper (I & II). It turned out his name was Joachim Peiper, and he was an officer in the Waffen-SS.
I looked at his picture and saw a hero; a perfect role model. I admired him greatly for his skill, his experience and his heroic nature, and also envied him for his opportunity to fight for what was right.
Joachim Peiper survived the war, but still met his end in combat. I quote from Wikipedia;
«Residing in France since 1972 Peiper led a quiet and discreet life; however, he continued to use his given name. In 1974 he was identified by a former Communist resistance member of the region who issued a report for the French Communist Party. In 1976, a Communist historian, investigating the Gestapo archives, found the Peiper file. On 21 June tracts denouncing his presence were distributed in Traves. A day later, an article in the Communist publication L’Humanité revealed Peiper’s presence in Traves and he became the subject of death threats.
Upon the death threats Peiper sent his family back to Germany. He himself stayed in Traves. During the night from 13 July to 14 July 1976 Peiper’s home was attacked. Peiper was shot several times and his house was set on fire. In the ruin, Peiper’s charred corpse was found with a .22 caliber rifle, a pistol and with a bullet wound in the chest. The perpetrators were never identified, but were suspected to be either Communists or former members of the French Resistance. Peiper had just started writing a book about Malmedy and what followed.»
Joachim Peiper, a man I never heard about in any history classes in school, or at the university, but whom I got to know of through ASL, a board game, is a man who deserves to be remembered, and remembered well. He was murdered 21 years after the war, by the enemies of Europe. We shall remember that too. Forever. «Never forgive. Never forget». Heil Joachim Peiper! HailaR WôðanaR!
