You fought in Normandy against the western allies, what was your experience like, and how did you view the western allies?

Fritz: I did not find much difference between the Allies, many Germans say the western allies were more European, and thus treated us better than the Russians, but I disagree. I saw the aftermath of war crimes in Normandy as much as in Russia. Allied propaganda inflamed both civilians and soldiers to believe we were all killers of innocents, and when the shooting started, the Allies felt they were on a holy crusade to wipe out the Nazi scourge, and in France, the bandits joined in, led by Allied operatives. Allied soldiers killed surrendered Germans in many instances from the beginning. The HJ Division had a hospital attacked in which Canadians were responsible. I have nothing against the Allies and wished they had had better leaders who would see the war for what it was, the destruction of Europeans, but the acts of cruelty they committed are unforgivable. More so since they lied about them.

On the Eastern Front, the Russians were loose and undisciplined many times; however, there was still a sense of honor in many units. When 'Das Reich' was at Kursk, there was a lull where a Russian captain was shot and our medics were treating him, under a white flag his assistant came out with an interpreter and asked if they could trade him for a wounded officer they had. The German said he was well cared for by the enemy and given a small bottle of vodka to share with us. This happened more than historians care to research. The Russians are always accused of being barbarians, but I did not find that to be the case. Their Jewish political officers were a different story however, and the crimes at the war's end were horrible. We stand accused of being very cruel and hateful towards the Russians, this was not true either. We treated them well, and that is why so many aided us. The homeland often complained about all the Russian prisoners who were allowed to work freely in the fields and felt they were invading them. The Allies in Normandy left a very bad impression on me, they strafed anything moving, many times killing French civilians. They shelled areas without proper scouting, killing many civilians, and were more 'shoot first, see what they were shooting at later'. According to some French I have stayed in contact with, the Allies killed so many French civilians that they never want to be 'liberated' again.

You won the Knight's Cross because of your leadership in Normandy, how did this happen?

Fritz: Normandy was a very hard fight for us; the Allies controlled the air and made movement very hard for our Panzers. Even our march to Normandy was hard, as they used bandits and commandos to slow us. 'Das Reich' came to the battle after it was already too late, and we could not advance far due to the firepower that the Allies could bring to bear on us. Hundreds of ships' guns and artillery batteries that made it ashore, met any thrust to the beach. We fought mostly a defensive battle, trying to contain the Allies. We were outnumbered, and without control of the air, had no real mobility. Our units did an exemplary job of working together and fighting bravely, even when all hope was lost. This is where I won my Knight's Cross, I was in a large group that had been surrounded and many of the Wehrmacht units had just abandoned their vehicles and equipment, trying to sneak out on foot, but were captured. We had an American prisoner who laid out the defensive line. I did not want to be captured, as I knew what might happen, so I gathered a few Panthers and found more armor who joined us. I advised officers of my plan, everyone ended up following me, and then we rode off and punched a hole in the enemy. They were prepared for this, but the guns of the Panthers spoke loudly and silenced all opposition, knocking out many Shermans. This raggedy group turned into a wild battlegroup and fought a superior enemy seizing vital bridges before they could be blown. For me this was just a natural will to survive, I was surprised when told the Knight's Cross was being awarded.

One cannot talk about the Waffen-SS without getting into the atrocities you are accused of committing; may I ask your opinion of the Allied claims, especially Oradour?

Fritz: If we must young man, but I must be careful. You mention Oradour sur Glane; I know it well, as my division was involved. I can state clearly to you that this was no atrocity, it was a reprisal against murderous bandits that went wrong. Most do not know what happened to us and our allies at the hands of these bandits. All they have been told is that SS men for no reason killed men, women and children. The unit involved had been in hard fights with bandits, suffering deaths at the hands of people who never should have been fighting. These men had mothers, wives, and children. Some were found horribly mutilated; I never understood what makes people so depraved to torture a soldier who has surrendered. We found Wehrmacht, SS, and medical people who, among the worst acts, had been set on fire while alive. A man who later fell in Normandy took photos of them as proof, but never had a chance to develop them. Oradour was a town where many communists from all over Europe had settled to avoid occupation. The Allies tapped into this willing mob, urging them to action. The Allies armed them, trained them, and paid them, but they were civilians. An officer had been captured and held for ransom which was very common. We did the same thing, so that we could do exchanges. This time was different, the officer going to seek his return found he had been killed and saw an ambulance that had been attacked with everyone killed. He saw that even the women and children wore the armbands of the bandits, showing they were under their control.

Other units were brought up to find out who was responsible. Everyone was put in the church while the village was searched; they found many weapons, explosives, and money. As people started talking, they began betraying the leaders, who were brought out and interrogated. Later on, the people in the church heard the shots of the leaders being executed, it is surmised someone in the church, trying to get at hidden weapons, triggered explosives and set the church on fire. It burned fast and hot as it contained a type of explosive used to melt rails. Normal fire does not melt church bells or steel, this fire did. This killed everyone inside, and indeed Germans tried to douse the flames and rescue people, but munitions were going off and it was too hot to make an entrance. Afterwards, 'Das Reich' still had a mission to move to the battlefront. This area was abandoned and the communists moved in, they brought in every press person they could find to label this as an SS atrocity. On the outside, it sure looked like one, but like everything the SS is being accused of, deeper examination needs to happen.

There was a trial in France where no German accused was found guilty, or had their charges dropped; that should say something. An English author tricked many of us to speak to him a few years ago, and then twisted and lied about what we told him. Many SS men will not speak about supposed war crimes anymore, as they can easily be sent to prison with lies. People who call themselves investigative reporters or historians are always trying to hound us to talk about supposed crimes, but they all seem to have a hidden agenda and never report what we actually say. In my mind we did nothing wrong on any front, any civilians who were killed by us were legitimate and within the agreed rules of war that we followed. There may be only a couple of times where an overzealous and fatigued officer may have allowed a questionable killing, but I bet there will be more to it than meets the eye.