Thomas Haller Cooper

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Thomas Haller Cooper

Thomas Haller Cooper (born August 29, 1919 in London , United Kingdom ; † 1987 ) was a member of the Waffen SS and the British Freikorps during World War II . He was the only Briton who received a German combat award during the war.

Life

Cooper's mother was German and his father was a former British soldier and photographer. Due to his German roots, Cooper, who had been a member of the British Union of Fascists since 1938, was denied a career in the police. In the summer of 1939 he accepted a position as a teacher in the Taunus , which he had to quit as an enemy foreigner after the outbreak of war. After another job as a private teacher, he was introduced to Gottlob Berger , the head of the SS main office , who enabled him to join the SS .

From February 1940 Cooper completed basic military training with the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler , which he finished in the SS Totenkopf Division after a dispute with an instructor . From July 1940 to 1941 he served in the SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment 5 of the same division, where he achieved the rank of SS Rottenführer . It is unknown to what extent Cooper was involved in the murders of Jews, communists and partisans in Eastern Europe, but during his service he stayed mainly on the Eastern Front. Cooper also worked as a trainer for the Waffen-SS and with the field gendarmerie . During a front-line deployment in 1943, Cooper was injured in his legs by a shrapnel, for which he was awarded the Silver Wound Badge . He was also awarded the War Merit Cross for his services . This makes him the only Brit who received a German combat award during World War II. After his recovery he was assigned to the British Freikorps, which was under the direction of the Waffen SS. As a recruiter for the unit, he was supposed to encourage British prisoners of war to join the combat force.

In 1945 Cooper, meanwhile with the rank of SS-Oberscharführer , was taken prisoner by the Western Allies . In London's Old Bailey Court in the same year, Cooper was sentenced to death for high treason ; the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. However, Cooper was released in 1953.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gordon Williamson: The SS - Hitler's Instrument of Power. Neuer Kaiser Verlag 1998, p. 252
  2. ↑ Thomas Cooper ( Memento from November 5, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Cooper, Thomas Haller
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British member of the Waffen SS
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH London , UK
DATE OF DEATH 1987