Søren Kam

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Birth Date:
02.11.1921
Death date:
23.03.2015
Length of life:
93
Days since birth:
37403
Years since birth:
102
Days since death:
3294
Years since death:
9
Extra names:
Sören Kam, Soeren Kam
Categories:
WWII participant , War criminal
Nationality:
 dane
Cemetery:
Set cemetery

Søren Kam (2 November 1921 – 23 March 2015) was a Danish former Waffen-SS officer wanted for murder in Denmark and one of the most wanted Nazi war criminals.

Early years

Kam was born on 2 November 1921 in Copenhagen, Denmark as the second of six children to agent Rasmus Hansen Kam (b. 1891 in Aunslev, Funen) and wife Inger née Hermansen (b. 1897 in Copenhagen). Both parents were members of the Church of Denmark and the same year on the fourth Sunday of Advent he was baptized in St. Paul's Church, Copenhagen.

Following the parent's marriage in 1919 the family lived in a fourth floor apartment at Sundholmsvej 57-III on Amager. Although the parents at the birth of his older brother was in contact with Frederiksberg's poor relief system they had already in 1921 when Kam was born a telephone.

In 1925 the family moved to a second floor apartment in Skt. Kjeldsgade 4-I in Østerbro with the father working as a merchant.

In 1929 the family moved to a newly built villa at Hans Bruunsvej 20 in Charlottenlund.

The following year the family had a housekeeper living with them at the same address. By that time one of Kam's siblings had died leaving him with four brothers, one older and three younger ones.

The young Kam was a member of the youth faction of the DNSAP (NSU) where he was a close associate of Christian Frederik von Schalburg, one of his socalled "blood boys".

In 1939 Kam was entered in the army levy roll for Copenhagen with the name Sören Kam.

Kam's family stayed in the villa after he moved out until his father sold it in 1947. The same year Kam's older brother delisted his phone phone number from the phone book and two years later his father did the same.

He was a member of the youth faction of the DNSAP (NSU) where he was a close associate of Christian Frederik von Schalburg, one of his socalled "blood boys".

World War II

Kam volunteered with the SS in June 1940 and served with the 5.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking on the Eastern Front.[21] He was transferred to SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz and was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer. The September 1943 issue of De frie Danske proclaimed Kam and Flemming Helweg-Larsen as Schalburg-bandits and the murderers of newspaper editor Carl Henrik Clemmensen. The June 1944 issue denounced a female member of the Nazi Party, along with Carl Henrik Clemmensen's murderers, namely Flemming Helweg-Larsen and Søren Kam.

On 15 February 1945 the newspaper Politiken brought an official statement from Berlin via Reuters that on 7 February Adolf Hitler had named Kam, a company Commander of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment "Germania", the Knight's Cross for "especially decisive action in the battle against the enemy" making Kam the third Dane to receive this award. The statement proceeded to mention that Kam had been wounded in battle several times and for battlefield bravery been awarded the Iron Cross Second and First Class, the Infantry Assault Badge, Close Combat Clasp and the silver Wound Badge and that he had seen combat in the battles of Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Kovel and Warsaw.

Summary of SS career

Dates of rank

  • SS-Sturmmann: 2 September 1941
  • SS-Rottenführer: 30 November 1941
  • SS-Unterscharführer: 20 April 1942
  • SS-Junker: 1 May 1942
  • SS-Standartenjunker: 1 September 1942
  • SS-Standartenoberjunker: 20 December 1942
  • SS-Untersturmführer: 30 January 1943
  • SS-Obersturmführer: 7 February 1945

Notable decorations

  • Close Combat Clasp in Bronze (1944) and in Silver (1945)
  • Infantry Assault Badge in Silver (?)
  • Iron Cross Second (1941) and First (1944) Classes
  • Wound Badge in Black (?) and Silver (1944)
  • Knight's Cross (1945)

After the war

While in 1946 the Danish authorities presumed Kam to be dead they executed Helweg-Larsen for his part in the murder of Clemmensen. According to the evidence presented in the trial, Clemmensen had been killed using three different revolvers firing eight bullets all impacting him while he was standing. A third accomplice in the murder the SS-man Jørgen Valdemar Bitsch managed to escape the Frøslev Prison Camp where he was held after the liberation and his whereabouts remain unknown.

In 1956 Kam lived in West Germany under the name Peter Müller as stateless and he was therefore at risk of being extradited to Denmark on a murder charge. The same year Kam applied for and obtained West German citizenship. In 1968 the public prosecutor in Munich investigated the murder. Kam admitted to have fired at Clemmensen but only as an "act of solidarity" after Helweg-Larsen had shot and killed Clemmensen who was lying dead on the ground. The case against Kam was dropped in 1971 on the principle of in dubio pro reo.

In 1985 Minister of Justice of Denmark Erik Ninn-Hansen confirmed that there is still a warrant for the arrest of Kam. The statement formed part of a response to a question from member of parliament Jørgen Lenger, who has been informed via telephone by Kam personally that Kam has visited his family in Denmark several times. In 1986 Kam and the two other Danish bearers of the Knight's Cross posed for a photograph together with Christian Frederik von Schalburg's widow Helga Schalburg in Ulrichsberg in the Austrian state Kärnten.

In 1998 Kam was interrogated again because his explanation that he shot Clemmensen as he was lying dead on the ground is contradicted by the autopsy report which shows that Clemmensen received all eight shots while standing. Kam changed his explanation and stated that although unarmed Clemmensen attacked Kam and his two associates who thus fired the eight shots in self-defence. 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 a grandson of Clemmensen, Søren Fauli, produced the documentary Min morfars morder (My grandfather's murderer) in which he himself interviewed Kam. During the interview Fauli forgives Kam, but asks him to admit his guilt. The documentary was aired on Danish television in 2004 and 2005. On 21 September 2006 Kam was detained in Kempten, Bavaria in accordance with a European arrest warrant issued by Denmark. 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. 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." As of 1 April 2014 he was number five on Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most wanted Nazi war criminals.

 

Source: wikipedia.org

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