2-611-862 - Keystone Archives/Heritage Images

Hans Walter Zech-Nenntwich, German Waffen SS deserter, World War II, c1940s(?). Zech-Nenntwich was an officer in the SS who, after witnessing Nazi atrocities on the Eastern Front, deserted and was able to make his way to England via Denmark and Sweden. He offering to help British intelligence make contact with an anti-Nazi faction within the SS and made propaganda radio broadcasts for the Allies. In 1964 he was convicted by a West German court of war crimes against Jews on the Eastern Front. He was sentenced to 4 years impisonment, but escaped, probably with assistance, just 2 days into his sentence. Zech-Nenntwich fled abroad, but returned to Germany several months later and turned himself in to the authorities.