Sylvester Stadler

Sylvester Stadler (30 December 1910 – 23 August 1995) was a high-ranking commander of the Waffen-SS (member of the SS since 1933), a commander of the SS Division Das Reich, SS Division Hohenstaufen and a recipient of the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves.

While Stadler was commander of the Panzer-Grenadier regiment Der Führer, part of the SS Division Das Reich, a subordinate unit under his command committed the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre. On 10 June 1944, part of Der Führer regiment, led by SS-Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann, killed 642 inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane. Stadler ordered a court martial for Diekmann; the latter was killed in action before he could face trial.

On 10 July 1944, Stadler was appointed commander of the SS Division Hohenstaufen; it fought on the Eastern Front, in Normandy, at the Falaise pocket, at Arnhem ("Operation Market Garden"), in the Ardennes offensive and in Hungary. He surrendered his division to the U.S. Army in Austria in May 1945.

• Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (25 September 1939) & 1st Class (26 June 1940)
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
  • Knight' Cross on 6 April 1943 as SS-Sturmbannführer and commander of the II./SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment "Der Führer"
  • 303rd Oak Leaves on 16 September 1943 as SS-Obersturmbannführer and commander of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment "Der Führer"
  • Swords in 1945 as commander of the SS Division Hohenstaufen (?) No evidence of the award can be found in the German Federal Archives. Stadler claimed that Sepp Dietrich proposed him on 22 March 1945, even though the SS Division Hohenstaufen was not subordinated to the 6th Panzer Army.