This Date in History: June 27

Dr. Wilhelm Höttl, SS-Hauptsturmführer, born March 19, 1915 in Vienna, Austria, adjutant to Ernst Kaltenbrunner in Vienna, Sicherheitsdienst Director of Intelligence for Southeast Europe and Italy, lived in Altaussee, Austria after the war, author of The Secret Front: The Inside Story of Nazi Political Espionage, died June 27, 1999 at Bad Aussee, Austria, wrote of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris: “Canaris himself was a complex character, by no means easy to understand…He was undoubtedly a true German patriot…But he was an equally convinced and determined opponent of the National Socialist system.”  (2,000 Quotes From Hitler’s 1,000-Year Reich)

**********

Erich Holzer.  Erich Holzer was born in Landshut, Bavaria on August 8, 1925.  A Catholic and single, when he enlisted in the Waffen-SS he stood 5’7” tall.  Holzer was assigned to the 8th (Heavy) Company on June 7, 1943.  During the Kursk Offensive, SS-Panzeroberschütze Holzer served as a loader in a Tiger; he received the Panzer Battle Badge in Silver on August 27, 1943.  Later assigned to the 1st Company of the 102nd SS Heavy Panzer Detachment as the loader in Tiger 111, Erich Holzer was killed in action near Caen, France on June 27, 1944 during an air attack.  He is buried at the German War Cemetery at Noyers-Pont-Maugis, France in an end grave in Block 4 (Grave 1834) among 26,843 German war dead of which 4,880 are from World War II.  (Waffen-SS Tiger Crews at Kursk: The Men of SS Panzer Regiments 1, 2 & 3 in Operation Citadel, July 5-15, 1943)