Adolf Diekmann

Adolf Rudolf Reinhold Diekmann was a Nazi officer and war criminal in the Waffen SS during World War II who orchestrated the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre in France on 10 June 1944. Under Diekmann's command, troops from the SS Division Das Reich killed 643 inhabitants in the village, most of whom were women and children. He said he committed the war crime in retaliation for the killing of a fellow SS officer named Helmut Kämpfe by the French Resistance. Diekmann died in combat in Normandy a few weeks later, before he could be court-martialled.