Søren Kam
Encyclopedia
SS-Obersturmführer
Søren Kam (born 2 November 1921) is a former Danish
Waffen-SS
officer, an SS-foreign volunteer, who served with the 5.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking during World War II
rising to the rank of Obersturmfuhrer (First Lieutenant). Born in Copenhagen
, he was a member of the DNSAP, the Danish Nazi Party. Also during World War II, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
, which was awarded to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership by Nazi Germany
during World War II. He obtained West German
citizenship in 1956.
, Bavaria
in accordance with a European arrest warrant issued by Denmark
. Kam is wanted in his native country in connection with the murder of newspaper editor Carl Henrik Clemmensen in Lyngby
, a suburb of Copenhagen
during World War II. In 1946, a Danish court sentenced one of Kam's associates, Flemming Helweg-Larsen, to death in the same case and citing the same evidence material. Helweg-Larsen was executed the same year. According to the evidence presented in the 1946 trial, Clemmensen had been killed by eight bullets fired from three different revolvers. Danish police were unable to apprehend Jørgen Valdemar Bitsch, identified in the 1946 trial as the third person involved in the shooting, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
In 1999, Danish Minister of Justice Frank Jensen
requested an extradition
of Kam. This was refused by Germany. This request was later repeated by Jensen's successor Lene Espersen
. In 2004, one of Clemmensen's grandchildren, Danish actor Søren Fauli, interviewed Kam in a documentary about the killing, titled Min morfars morder (My grandfather's murderer). In this programme, Fauli forgives Kam, but asks him to admit his guilt. The documentary was aired on Danish television in 2004 and 2005.
On 4 February 2007, Germany denied his extradition to Denmark, after a German court claimed that the killing of Clemmensen was not murder
but manslaughter
— thus falling under the statute of limitations
which had expired. Kam has stated that he admits having taken part in the abduction and killing of Clemmensen, but that he considers the case to be under the statute of limitations and the killing an accident.
In February 2008, BBC World Service
presented a radio program titled The Danish Nazi which listed Kam as "the eighth most wanted Nazi War Criminal." The reporter was able to contact Kam, giving the only recorded interview with him, including a statement by Kam in which he says in English, "I am a good man, I never did anything wrong."
According to the Daily Telegraph, while in Germany, Kam "has regularly attended veterans' rallies of SS men. He has also been closely associated with Heinrich Himmler
's daughter Gudrun Burwitz and her network Stille Hilfe
(Silent Aid), set up to support arrested, condemned or fugitive former SS men."
Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the SS and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Assault Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of the Sturmabteilung and the need for an additional rank in...
Søren Kam (born 2 November 1921) is a former Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
Waffen-SS
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
officer, an SS-foreign volunteer, who served with the 5.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
rising to the rank of Obersturmfuhrer (First Lieutenant). Born in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, he was a member of the DNSAP, the Danish Nazi Party. Also during World War II, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was a grade of the 1939 version of the 1813 created Iron Cross . The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was the highest award of Germany to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership during World War II...
, which was awarded to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership by Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
during World War II. He obtained West German
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
citizenship in 1956.
Alleged war crimes
On 21 September 2006 the 85-year-old ex-member of the SS was detained in KemptenKempten im Allgäu
Kempten is the largest town in Allgäu, a region in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. The population was ca 61,000 in 2006. The area was possibly settled originally by Celts, but was later overtaken by the Romans, who called the town Cambodunum...
, Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
in accordance with a European arrest warrant issued by Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. Kam is wanted in his native country in connection with the murder of newspaper editor Carl Henrik Clemmensen in Lyngby
Kongens Lyngby
Kongens Lyngby is the main city in the affluent Danish municipality of Lyngby-Taarbæk. Just north of Copenhagen, the city lies in the northern part of Denmark's largest island, Zealand...
, a suburb of Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
during World War II. In 1946, a Danish court sentenced one of Kam's associates, Flemming Helweg-Larsen, to death in the same case and citing the same evidence material. Helweg-Larsen was executed the same year. According to the evidence presented in the 1946 trial, Clemmensen had been killed by eight bullets fired from three different revolvers. Danish police were unable to apprehend Jørgen Valdemar Bitsch, identified in the 1946 trial as the third person involved in the shooting, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
In 1999, Danish Minister of Justice Frank Jensen
Frank Jensen
Frank Jensen is a Danish politician, member of the Danish Social Democrats, and has been Lord Mayor of Copenhagen since 1 January 2010...
requested an extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
of Kam. This was refused by Germany. This request was later repeated by Jensen's successor Lene Espersen
Lene Espersen
Lene Espersen is a Danish politician and member of parliament who has been Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs since 23 February 2010 and was leader of the Conservative People's Party and Deputy Prime Minister from 9 September 2008 to 13 January 2011...
. In 2004, one of Clemmensen's grandchildren, Danish actor Søren Fauli, interviewed Kam in a documentary about the killing, titled Min morfars morder (My grandfather's murderer). In this programme, Fauli forgives Kam, but asks him to admit his guilt. The documentary was aired on Danish television in 2004 and 2005.
On 4 February 2007, Germany denied his extradition to Denmark, after a German court claimed that the killing of Clemmensen was not murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
but manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
— thus falling under the statute of limitations
Statute of limitations
A statute of limitations is an enactment in a common law legal system that sets the maximum time after an event that legal proceedings based on that event may be initiated...
which had expired. Kam has stated that he admits having taken part in the abduction and killing of Clemmensen, but that he considers the case to be under the statute of limitations and the killing an accident.
In February 2008, BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
presented a radio program titled The Danish Nazi which listed Kam as "the eighth most wanted Nazi War Criminal." The reporter was able to contact Kam, giving the only recorded interview with him, including a statement by Kam in which he says in English, "I am a good man, I never did anything wrong."
According to the Daily Telegraph, while in Germany, Kam "has regularly attended veterans' rallies of SS men. He has also been closely associated with Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
's daughter Gudrun Burwitz and her network Stille Hilfe
Stille Hilfe
Die Stille Hilfe für Kriegsgefangene und Internierte abbreviated Stille Hilfe is a relief organization for arrested, condemned and fugitive SS members, similar to the veterans' association, set up by Helene Elizabeth Princess von Isenburg in 1951...
(Silent Aid), set up to support arrested, condemned or fugitive former SS men."
Dates of rank
- SS-SturmmannSturmmannSturmmann was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in the year 1921. The rank of Sturmmann was used by the Sturmabteilung and the Schutzstaffel ....
: 2 September 1941 - SS-RottenführerRottenführerRottenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in the year 1932. The rank of Rottenführer was used by several Nazi paramilitary groups, among them the Sturmabteilung , the Schutzstaffel and was senior to the paramilitary rank of Sturmmann.The insignia for Rottenführer...
: 30 November 1941 - SS-UnterscharführerUnterscharführerUnterscharführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party used by the Schutzstaffel between 1934 and 1945. The SS rank was created after the Night of the Long Knives...
: 20 April 1942 - SS-JunkerJunkerA Junker was a member of the landed nobility of Prussia and eastern Germany. These families were mostly part of the German Uradel and carried on the colonization and Christianization of the northeastern European territories during the medieval Ostsiedlung. The abbreviation of Junker is Jkr...
: 1 May 1942 - SS-Standartenjunker: 1 September 1942
- SS-Standartenoberjunker: 20 December 1942
- SS-UntersturmführerUntersturmführerUntersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the German Schutzstaffel first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of Sturmführer which had existed since the founding of the SA in 1921...
: 30 January 1943 - SS-ObersturmführerObersturmführerObersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the SS and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Assault Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of the Sturmabteilung and the need for an additional rank in...
: 7 February 1945
Notable decorations
- Close Combat ClaspClose Combat ClaspThe Close Combat Clasp is a German military award instituted on 25 November 1942 for achievement in hand to hand fighting in close quarters. The Close Combat Clasp was worn above the upper left uniform pocket...
in Bronze (1944) and in Silver (1945) - Infantry Assault BadgeInfantry Assault BadgeThe Infantry Assault Badge was a German war badge awarded to Waffen SS and Wehrmacht Heer soldiers during WWII. This decoration was instituted on December 20th 1939 by the Oberstbefehlshaber des Heeres, Generalfeldmarschall von Brauchitsch...
in Silver (?) - Iron CrossIron CrossThe Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
Second (1941) and First (1944) Classes - Wound BadgeWound BadgeWound Badge was a German military award for wounded or frost-bitten soldiers of Imperial German Army in World War I, the Reichswehr between the wars, and the Wehrmacht, SS and the auxiliary service organizations during the Second World War. After March 1943, due to the increasing number of Allied...
in Black (?) and Silver (1944) - Knight's CrossKnight's Cross of the Iron CrossThe Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was a grade of the 1939 version of the 1813 created Iron Cross . The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was the highest award of Germany to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership during World War II...
(1945)
External links
- Former SS officer sheltering in Germany, Daily Telegraph, 29 November 2007
- Additional information on his alleged war crimes
- Youtube.com segment about Kam