1944 DOCUMENT, SIGNED BY LSSAH DEFENDER OF THE REICHSKANZLEI MOHNKE

Original document, dated 16 June 1944, signed by (then) SS-Obersturmbannführer Wilhelm Mohnke, at the time commander of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 26. He was accused (but never prosecuted) of involvement of the killing of 80 British and French POWs and was also implicated in the killing of 35 Canadian POWs as part of the Normandy Massacres but was never prosecuted for that either. Mohnke’s SS Division Leibstandarte was the spearhead of the last German offensive in the Ardennes. When everything came to an end in the spring of 1945, Mohnke was personally appointed by Hitler as the Kommandant (Battle Commander) for the defense of the centre government district of Berlin (Zitadelle sector), which included the Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker. He formed the Kampfgruppe Mohnke and surrendered to the Soviets on 2 May 1945 when all German forces still n Berlin surrendered. He spent the next ten years in Soviet custody and lived the rest of his life as a free man in West Germany. He died in 2001.