Search Results - Kieffer, Josef

Josef Kieffer

Hans Josef Kieffer (4 December 1900 – 26 June 1947) was a Sturmbannführer (Major) and the head in Paris of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the intelligence agency of the SS during the German occupation of France in the Second World War. Kieffer's headquarters were at 84 Avenue Foch, an address that became well-known because many captured agents of the United Kingdom's clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) were interrogated there after their capture. After their interrogation, captured agents were sent to concentration camps in Germany, where most were executed. Kieffer was successful in penetrating and destroying SOE networks, which had as their objective fostering and supporting the French Resistance to the German occupation. Kieffer deceived SOE headquarters in London for many months in 1943 and 1944 by sending false wireless messages, a tactic known as Funkspiel (the radio game).

In August 1944, Kieffer ordered the execution of five captured Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers under the authority of the Commando Order of the OKW (German military command), which stated that all Allied commandos were to be executed whether or not in uniform. In 1947, Kieffer was hanged by the British. Provided by Wikipedia