Otto Kumm
| Otto Kumm | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
1 November 1909 Hamburg |
| Died | 23 March 2004 (aged 94) |
| Allegiance |
 Nazi Germany
|
| Service/branch |
 Waffen SS
|
| Years of service | 1934–45 |
| Rank | SS-Brigadeführer |
| Service number | NSDAP 421,230 |
| Commands held |
SS Division Prinz Eugen SS Division Leibstandarte |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords |
| Other work | Founder of HIAG |
Otto Kumm (1 October 1909 – 23 March 2004) was a German divisional commander in the Waffen-SS during World War II and a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. After the war, he became one of the founders of HIAG, a lobby group and a revisionist organization of former Waffen-SS members.
Born in 1909 into a family of a merchant in Hamburg, Kumm trained as a typesetter and worked at a newspaper. On 1 June 1934, Kumm joined the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS Dispositional Troops) and on 1 July received his first training with the SS-Standarte "Germania" in Hamburg.
Kumm commanded the Der Führer Regiment of the SS Division Das Reich from July 1941 to April 1943. This regiment was nearly destroyed in the Soviet offensive of January 1942, when it was reduced to 35 men out of the 2,000 that had started the campaign in June 1941. Kumm was a commander of the SS Division Prinz Eugen from 30 Jan 1944 until 20 Jan 1945 and then was appointed the new division commander of the SS Division Leibstandarte (LSSAH) as of 15 February 1945, after the division's commander Wilhelm Mohnke was wounded.
As the division commander, Kumm and the LSSAH took part in Operation Spring Awakening (6 March 1945 – 16 March 1945), the last major German offensive launched during World War II. The Germans launched attacks in Hungary near the Lake Balaton area on the Eastern Front. Soviet intelligence identified large German tank formations in western Hungary and developed a successful counterattack strategy. After the failure of Operation Spring Awakening, Sepp Dietrich's 6th SS Panzer Army and the LSSAH retreated to the Vienna area.
After Vienna fell to the Red Army in the Vienna Offensive, the bulk of the LSSAH division surrendered to U.S. forces in the Steyr area on 8 May 1945. Kumm was held at the Dachau internment camp administered by the US Army. Kumm avoided extradition to Yugoslavia to stand trial for war crimes by fleeing over the wall of the camp.
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