Thomas Haller Cooper (29 August 1919 – 1987 or late 1990s), also known as Tom Böttcher, was a member of the German

Waffen-SS The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...

British Free Corps The British Free Corps (german: Britisches Freikorps; BFC) was a unit of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II, made up of British and Dominion prisoners of war who had been recruited by Germany. The unit was originally known as the ...

and former member of the British Union of Fascists.

Biography

Early life

Thomas Cooper was born on 29 August 1919 in Chiswick to a British father, Ashley Cooper, and a German mother, Anna Maria (née Simon). His father was a photographer and commercial artist who had met Thomas' mother in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. Cooper attended

Latymer Upper School (Slowly Therefore Surely) , established = , closed = , sister_school = Godolphin and Latymer School , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , head_label = H ...

, Hammersmith, and upon leaving in 1936 attempted to find work. He was rejected by the Metropolitan Police, the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

and the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

; on each occasion the reason given was that he had a German mother. Extremely resentful of his treatment, Cooper joined the British Union of Fascists in September 1938. A fluent German-speaker, Cooper contacted the German Academic Exchange Organisation in

Russell Square Russell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, built predominantly by the firm of James Burton. It is near the University of London's main buildings and the British Museum. Almost exactly square, to the ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. After a short period, he was offered a place at the

Reich Labour Service The Reich Labour Service (''Reichsarbeitsdienst''; RAD) was a major organisation established in Nazi Germany as an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on the German economy, militarise the workforce and indoctrinate it with Naz ...

(RAD) office in Stuttgart during summer 1939. Finding himself in Germany during the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

on 3 September 1939, Cooper was arrested as an enemy alien. However, he was released after producing a certificate that his mother had obtained classifying him as an ethnic German, or '' Volksdeutscher''.

Military life

Cooper was offered an opportunity to join the SS, which he eventually accepted. He was ordered to return on 1 February 1940 at the Berlin Lichterfelde Barracks, the home of the ''

1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler The 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler or SS Division Leibstandarte, abbreviated as LSSAH, (german: 1. SS-Panzerdivision "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler") began as Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard unit, responsible for guarding ...

''. While at this camp, Cooper told his superiors that his father was now serving with British armed forces, and that he thought it was no longer appropriate to be serving with the SS. After being placed under arrest, Cooper reconsidered his position and announced that he would remain with the SS. In July 1940, Cooper was transferred to the 8th Company, 5th ''Totenkopf'' Infantry Regiment based at

Oranienburg Oranienburg () is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel. Geography Oranienburg is a town located on the banks of the Havel river, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin. Division of the town Oranienburg ...

to the north of Berlin, tasked with training recruits in the use of machine guns. He remained with this regiment until February 1941. At this time, Cooper had been moved to

Płock Płock (pronounced ) is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by GUS on 31 December 2021, there were 116,962 inhabitants in the city. Its full ceremonial name, according to th ...

, near the River

Vistula The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...

, in

German-occupied Poland German-occupied Poland during World War II consisted of two major parts with different types of administration. The Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany following the invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II—nearly a quarter of the ...

. Promoted to SS-''

Rottenführer ''Rottenführer'' (, ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in the year 1932. The rank of ''Rottenführer'' was used by several Nazi paramilitary groups, among them the '' Sturmabteilung'' (SA), the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) a ...

'', he left the regiment to go to the SS NCO School at

Lauenburg Lauenburg (), or Lauenburg an der Elbe ( en, Lauenberg on the Elbe), is a town in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the northern bank of the river Elbe, east of Hamburg. It is the southernmost town of Schleswig-Holstein ...

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

, for training which finished in May 1941. Cooper was then moved to a subunit based at the Dębica training area near

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

. His detachment centred on the security and administration of the training area. Cooper was also promoted to SS-''

Unterscharführer ''Unterscharführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between 1934 and 1945. The SS rank was created after the Night of the Long Knives. That event caused an SS reorganisation and the creation of ...

'' in November 1941. It has been stated that "the circumstantial case is compelling" that Cooper was involved in the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. According to fellow BFC members, Cooper had bragged about committing atrocities in Poland.

Adrian Weale Adrian Weale (born 9 February 1964) is a British writer, journalist, illustrator and photographer of Welsh origin. He was educated at Latymer Upper School, University of York, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the Joint Services Command and ...

. ''Renegades: Hitler's Englishmen''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2nd edition, 2014 Roy Futcher said Cooper claimed that "he had been in the parties that had rounded up Jews in Poland and thrown women out of top storey buildings." Another BFC member, Francis Maton, discussed a "purge" supposedly conducted by Cooper in the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

"One story which always stands out in my mind, told by Cooper, is one he told me about Warsaw. He said he was at that time in charge of a squad of Ukrainian volunteers and they were conducting a purge through the ghetto. His attention was drawn to a house by reason of loud screams issuing from the back of it. On going inside the house he found in the top flat a bunch of these Ukrainians holding at bay with pistols some twenty Jews. On asking them what the noise was about they told him in broken German that they had found a new way of killing Jews. This was done simply by opening the window wide and two men each grabbing an arm and a leg and flinging the Jew through the open window. The small children and babies followed their parents because they said they would only grow into big Jews."

Thomas Freeman, a commando who had joined the BFC in order to disrupt it, said Cooper claimed that "He had himself shot over 200 Poles and 80 Jews in one day - by merely lining them up against a wall and shooting them down. This was in Warsaw." While Cooper was in the city of Dębica, one of duties of his unit was supervising Jewish and Polish slave laborers in SS-Truppenübungsplatz Heidelager, a concentration camp which was attached to an SS training area. Although these statements were numerous enough that

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...

mentioned them in their report about his case, the claims were not investigated further. Cooper was badly wounded in both legs fighting the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

during February 1943. He was carried back by his men to Schablinov. From there he was evacuated via

Narva Narva, russian: Нарва is a municipality and city in Estonia. It is located in Ida-Viru county, at the eastern extreme point of Estonia, on the west bank of the Narva river which forms the Estonia–Russia international border. With 54 ...

, Riga and

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...

Bad Muskau Bad Muskau (; formerly ''Muskau'', hsb, Mužakow, pl, Mużaków, cs, Mužakov) is a spa town in the historic Upper Lusatia region in Germany, at the border with Poland. It is part of the Görlitz district in the State of Saxony. It is located ...

, a small town located near Görlitz. Cooper was awarded the

Wound Badge The Wound Badge (german: Verwundetenabzeichen) was a German military decoration first promulgated by Wilhelm II, German Emperor on 3 March 1918, which was first awarded to soldiers of the German Army who were wounded during World War I. Between ...

in Silver, becoming the only Englishman to receive a German combat decoration during the Second World War. He was transferred to the

and was soon promoted to ''

Oberscharführer __NOTOC__ ''Oberscharführer'' (, ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between 1932 and 1945. ''Oberscharführer'' was first used as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and was created due to an expansion of the enlisted positions ...

'', assigned to a transit camp for new recruits at a villa in the Grunewald, Berlin. In November 1944 he was dismissed from the British Free Corps, arrested for "various heinous anti-Nazi crimes", and taken to the depot of the ''

Panzergrenadier ''Panzergrenadier'' (), abbreviated as ''PzG'' (WWII) or ''PzGren'' (modern), meaning '' "Armour"-ed fighting vehicle "Grenadier"'', is a German term for mechanized infantry units of armoured forces who specialize in fighting from and in conjun ...

'' training battalion of the ''Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler'', where he spent the next six months working for the '' Feldjägerkorps''. After the war, Cooper was tried for

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

at the Central Criminal Court in January 1946 and sentenced to hang. An appeal failed, but days before his scheduled execution, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment "on the grounds that ehad been followerin treason rather than leader" The trial is covered in

Rebecca West Dame Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed books ...

's ''The Meaning of Treason''. The depositions from Cooper's trial are held at the National Archives under reference CRIM 1/484 and his pardon is held under reference CRIM 1/585/142. The Home Office and Security Service files on Cooper are held by the National Archives under references HO 45/25805 and KV 2/254 1939 Nov 01-1946 Jul 20 respectively.

Later life

Cooper was released in January 1953 and is believed to have emigrated to Japan. He reportedly settled in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, converted to

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...

and became a language teacher. Author Adrian Weale states that he subsequently returned to England and died in early 1987, aged 67. Another book, ''Hitler's Bastard'', claims he died in the late 1990s.Hitler's Bastard, Through Hell and Back in Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia, pg. 228
/ref>

Biography

Early life

Military life

Later life

See also

References

Further reading