• Operation Greif

Date of birth:

July 26th, 1924 (Brooklyn/New York, United States)

Date of death:

December 26th, 1944 (Henri-Chapelle, Belgium)

Buried on:

German War Cemetery Lommel
Plot: 17. Grave: 423.

Service number:

-1002- 2. Stkp.G.Ers.Btl. 106

Nationality:

German

The son of Reichsangestelter der Luftwaffe Wilhelm Weisenfeld was Karlheinz Weisenfeld. He belonged to the team of Manfred Bronny, Hans Reich and Günther Schulz. We also find him in the literature under the name William Charles Weisenfeld or Wiesenfeld. Charles is the English form of Karl and Wilhelm (William) his middle name. Karlheinz Weisenfeld was born in Brooklyn. In 1923 the family left Germany and the family returned in the early 1930s. All members of the family were members of the NSDAP.

1943 Karlheinz Weisenfeld left the Oberschule für Jungen in Hanau (6. Kl.). From his personnel file (Militärachiv Freiburg) it appears that he started at the 2. Stammkompanie Grenadier Ersatz Bataillon 106 on 14 January 1943. He sometimes changes unit but always at the Grenadiere. On March 28 he participates in the 16. Fahnenjunkerlehrgang at the Schule VII für Fahnenjunker der Infanterie. On July 11, 1944 he does the Oberfhanenjunkerlehrgang at the same school. The last notes concerning his career are a bit vague. According to the Deutsche Dienststelle on 17.12.1943 that was the 1. Stammkompanie Grenadier Ersatzbataillon 106, so the unit wherever he started. In connection with him going missing a note has been added to his file showing that a transfer to the 254 Infantry Division was not carried out, that transfer had been pronounced on November 29, 1944. So that was the period that the volunteers were being sought for operation Greif. Karlheinz Weisenfeld was appointed lieutenant on August 1, 1944.

On the site, see below source reference is his full career with a number of battles in which Karlheinz Weisenfeld participated; these are explicitly stated in his file. The battle against the partisans is noteworthy here. Between 2 February 1943 and 6 April 1943, Karlheinz Weisenfeld was wounded in the "Bandengebied der Heeresgruppe Mitte" and received the E.K. II Class. It is not known how serious Karlheinz Weisenfeld's injury was, no stay in a hospital has been registered with the Deutsche Dienststelle. Furthermore, there are no details in his personnel file. There is only one review from Kh. Weisenfeld preserved. Apart from the fact that he is attached to the military profession, the assessment does not mention anything special.

After the war it took years before the parents knew where their son had gone. The father who had also entered the battlefield for Germany had been taken into French captivity. In December 1945, he applied from France to the International Red Cross in Geneva. He knew no better than that his son was in an Infantry Regiment, and that his son was lost on the western front on 12.12.1944. The mother made a second attempt at the end of May 1946 and gave up a Grenadier battalion, indicating that he was missing on the way to the west on 12.12.1944. A third application by a family member (date unknown) mentions "Altneuhaus-Vilseck, Einheit Stielau" as a military unit, missing from 03.12.1944. The official death certificate was not drawn up until 1954, at the request of the Deutsche Dienststelle Berlin. A new investigation at the Bundesarchiv in Berlin revealed that, after the war, another department of the Deutsche Dienststelle held a Death Certificate (RAD 95826) in the name of Charles William Wiesenfeld. As a result, a copy has been preserved at the Bundesarchiv in Berlin. Why the 2010 document did not surface with my application to the Red Cross in Geneva is not clear. Possibly because the data turned out to be incorrect, the document was removed from the file at the time. In addition to the name Charles William Wiesenfeld, the certificate contains the date of death: 26. Dec. 1944, Henri-Chapelle is listed as place of death. The listed unit is the Einheit Stielau, Stab Solar, 150. Panzerbrigade. Musketry was noted as the cause of death. The resting place in the military cemetery in Henri-Chapelle is also mentioned. After it was clear that this was Kh. Weisenfeld, the family was informed. Why the wrong surname appears on both the Death Certificate and the death sentence (US vs. Skorzeny et al M1106, NARA Washington) is unknown. Both documents must have arisen independently of each other. A simple typo now seems unlikely.The date of his death is 23.12.1944 on his burial cross. This is the date on which Karlheinz Weisenfeld was officially registered as missing. The date has never been changed like so many other errors.

What happened in the Ardennes can be found at Lt. Günther Schulz.

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• Photo 1: Wolfgang Stienes
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