SS Sturmbannführer

Sturmbannführer

Sturmbannführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party equivalent to major, used both in the Sturmabteilung and the Schutzstaffel...

 (Major) Hans Josef Kieffer {b. December 4. 1900 – d. hanged June 26, 1947} was the senior German intelligence officer in Paris during the German occupation of France in 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...

. In 1944 he was in command of the German troops who killed captured SAS men in Operation Bulbasket

Operation Bulbasket

Operation Bulbasket was an ill-fated operation by 'B' Squadron, 1st Special Air Service, behind German lines in German occupied France, between June and August 1944...

.

During his cross-examination after the war by Vera Atkins

Vera Atkins

Vera Atkins, CBE was a British Intelligence Officer during World War II.-Early life:...

 from SOE

Special Operations Executive

The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...

, he began to cry at his interrogator's description of the death of Noor Inayat Khan

Noor Inayat Khan

Assistant Section Officer Noor Inayat Khan / Nora Baker, GC, MBE , usually known as Noor Inayat Khan was of Indian Muslim origin...

 at Dachau concentration camp. Atkins replied "Kieffer, if one of us is going to cry it is going to be me. You will please stop this comedy."