Helmut Knochen (March 14, 1910 – April 4,
2003) was the senior commander of the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) and
Sicherheitsdienst in Paris during the Nazi occupation of France during World
War II.In March 1947, a British Military Court sentenced Knochen to death for
the murder of a number of British parachute troops on or around 9 August 1944.
However, on 16 September 1948, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment,
and further commuted in February 1950 to 21 years imprisonment. He was
extradited to France in 1954 and sentenced to death. The sentence was later
commuted to life imprisonment. After he obtained a presidential pardon in 1958,
Knochen was released on November 28, 1962 by President Charles de Gaulle,
simultaneously with his former chief SS General Carl Oberg. Back to Germany he
retired to Baden-Baden and died a free man in 2003. Knochen himself appeared in
the documentary film L'oeil de Vichy, (The Eyes of Vichy), directed by Claude
Chabrol.
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