Josef Veltjens

WWI German fighter pilot ace (Jagdflieger), arms dealer, Nazi emissary, and generally amazing looking guy.

This is the adorable Lieutenant-General Gerhard “Gerd” Barkhorn (1919–1983), who wasn’t so adorable if you were flying for the Allies in World War II. Gerd was the second most successful fighter ace of all time after fellow Luftwaffe pilot Erich Hartmann, another history crush. Gerd flew 1,104 combat sorties, was credited with 301 victories on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Red Air Force, and survived the war after a brief stint as an Allied prisoner of war in 1945. He then served in the West German air force until 1976. (And he looked damn good while doing it.)

Klaus von Schmeling-Diringshofen. Nazi soldier whom was dismissed for his Jewish lineage. In my opinion, very much resembles Michael Fassbender.

Mildred Fish-Harnack and her husband Arvid Harnack. They are the coolest of the cats and I am in love with both of them!! They attended my own school, University of Wisconsin-Madison, moved to Germany in 1929, and promptly allied with the Soviets, becoming leaders of an underground Nazi resistance group called the Red Orchestra. Mildred was the only American woman ever to be executed on the direct orders of Hitler.

This is Walter Schellenberg (1910-1952). Yes, he was a Nazi and yes he was in the SS, but I still think he is freaking cute. I don’t know why, and yes I am a bad person for it. OH WELL.

Some background info: Schellenberg was the Chief of the Ausland SD, which was a intelligence agency that specialized in foreign intelligence. One of the things he did for this job was take over a brothel and wire tap all the rooms and stuff to find out about all the people who went there (mostly high ranking Nazis and foreign diplomats). Also he was sent to capture some British royals but that didn’t work out. After the war he was captured and tried at Nuremberg, and then he was in prison until 1951.

Random Info: Schellenberg’s desk had two guns on it, which he could fire at will on anyone who came into his office (but he never did, as far as I know). Supposedly his wife poured acid on him (Yes, they did not get along). Also he had a tendency to call people he didn’t like whores.

So there you have it.

SS Standartenfuehrer Joachim Peiper, 1st SS Panzer Division, Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler

You see that BAMF up there gazing soulfully just slightly away from the camera? Dear reader, meet Joachim Peiper, one of the most well respected and highly decorated German officers in WWII. Unfortunately at this point in time Jochen cannot meet you, reader, as he was murdered in his own home in France in 1976, due to the Molotov cocktails some French communist guys threw at him. 

Anyway, Jochen was born in Berlin on January 30th, 1915, and attended to his education at Goethe Oberrealschule, but didn’t have the grades to enter university and thus joined the Hitlerjungend (Hitler Youth). It was only after he gained the attention of Heinrich Himmler that he decided to pursue the position as an active senior SS Officer (he was an SS-Sturmmann at the time). Jochen was admitted into the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler (honour guard regiment) which later became a combat unit of the Waffen-SS. 

He served as an adjutant for Heinrich Himmler’s team, where Himmler took a fondness to him and gave him the necessary encouragement and help to ascend into higher ranks. Jochen was promoted to Standartenfuehrer by the age of 29, the Waffen-SS’s youngest regimental colonel. He was a skilled and charismatic leader, and took part in many of WWII’s Panzer battles. During this time, he met his wife Sigurd Hinrichsen, with whom he had 3 kids, and married her. (Sorry guys, yes he was married)  

A group of captured Jews were sent to him by the Italian government, and because he released them and set them free, a rabbi amongst the group used this incident in his testimony to Jochen’s kindness in the Nuremberg Trials. During said trial, Jochen offered to accept all the blame and punishment for himself on the condition the the court set his men free, which was denied. Found guilty, he and many of his men were sentenced to death by hanging, though many did not end up serving the punishment. He served 11 years in jail and solitary confinement, and was released in 1956, whereupon he left Germany and moved to France, working as a translator. He received multiple death threats and subsequently died due to a Molotov cocktail attack, as mentioned above. 

As you can see, he’s full of attractiveness and BAMFness, so it’s really a shame he was a National Socialist who committed terrible war crimes. Doesn’t make him not fetch  good looking, though. 

Here, have some photos of him: 

(he looks like Joseph Gordon-Levitt here.

I’m guessing since you did Hartmann you’ve already done Hans-Joachim Marseille. a very bold move on your part btw, including people who fought for the obviously and monstrously evil nazi cause as if they could actually still be attractive or even human ;-)

Hans-Joachim Marseille didn’t shoot down as many planes as Hartmann but he was arguably the greatest ace of the war when you consider how rapidly he scored his 158 victories against RAF and Free French pilots. Nobody else did as well against the well-trained and well-equipped western allies. He once attacked a formation of 16 Curtiss Warhawk P-40 fighters and shot down 6 planes one after another. 3 of the P-40s were being flown by British aces but Joachim shot them all down too, with 5 of those planes being shot down in 6 minutes. He made the attack alone with his wingman staying out of his way as planned. His flying skills were such that he invented a way to attack the English pilots that they were completely unprepared for.

To me the stuff that’s coolest about him are his initial (and surprisingly un-Nazi) misgivings about his first kill and the fact that he hadn’t distinguished himself during his first sorties in the Battle of Britain. His CO said of him, “He had girl friends everywhere, and they kept him so busy that he was sometimes so worn out that he had to be grounded.” As punishment for his playboy lifestyle and love of jazz he was transferred to another Jagdgeschwaeder that ended up in Africa shortly.

Wilhelm Adalbert Hosenfeld (2 May 1895 – 13 August 1952), originally a teacher, was a German Army officer who rose to the rank of Hauptmann by the end of the war. He helped to hide or rescue several Poles, including Jews, in Nazi-occupied Poland, and is perhaps most remembered for helping Polish-Jewish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman to survive, hidden, in the ruins of Warsaw during the last months of 1944.

In June 2009 he was posthumously recognized as a Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem.