published 05/05/2002 at 12:01 AM BST by Daniel Foggo
HUNDREDS of SS veterans who fought for Germany during the Second World War are living quietly in
Britain and attending secret reunions to celebrate their time under the Third Reich.
Evidence of the network's existence has been uncovered by The Telegraph following interviews with ex-soldiers from Hitler's elite divisions, many of whom have lived in this country since being brought here as prisoners of war after
Germany's defeat in 1945.
SS veterans sing old Nazi songs at the gatherings, which have also been attended by members of the British National Party. At least one BNP member has been given honorary membership of the
Hilfsgemeinschaft auf Gegenseitigkeit der Ehemaligen Soldaten der Waffen-SS (Mutual Aid Association for Soldiers of
the Former Waffen-SS), the SS
veterans' association.
The existence of SS reunions was confirmed by Werner Volkner, a former corporal with the Totenkopf, or Death's Head division of the SS, part of which guarded the concentration camps. Mr Volkner,
78, said: "We are notified of when the reunions are to happen but the information must be kept secret."
He said that he knew of other veterans in England, Wales and Scotland but refused to give their identities. "The average age of those attending is 83," he said.
Mr Volkner added that the meetings allowed old comrades who had "shared their last crust of bread together during the war" simply to keep in touch and were not used to discuss politics.
The singing of Waffen-SS marching songs was done out of nostalgia, he said. "The texts and words go back to 1700, some of them," he said.
The SS - short for Schutzstaffel, or Protection Force - was formed in 1925 to guard Hitler, and was regarded as
the most ruthless and loyal fighting force in the Third Reich.
The Telegraph investigation into former Nazis has established that SS veterans have infiltrated British society to a previously unimagined extent. Mr Volkner actually joined the British Army
after the war. He has two sons who have also served in the British forces.
Another former SS member was Janis Lipe, who served in Latvia as a medic with the rank of second lieutenant.
After the war his membership of the SS went unnoticed and he worked during the 1950s at the Jewish Home and
Hospital in Tottenham High Road, North London.
Mr Lipe later worked as a nursing orderly at a Jewish old people's home in Balham, south London, and became a dental officer for London County Council in 1958. Mr Lipe, who lived in Balham, died
in 1992, aged 73.
Documents confirming his true past, which were taken from his home in a house clearance following his death, have only now come to light. Copies of them are in the possession of this
newspaper.
The SS reunions are also attended by elements within British neo-Nazi groups. Keith Beaumont, who according to information obtained by this newspaper is a BNP member, attends many reunions of
Waffen-SS. Some are held in Britain, although Mr Beaumont denies this.
His close friend, Andy Jones, who owns the Crime Through Time museum in Newent, Gloucestershire and buys Nazi militaria from Mr Beaumont, said: "Keith has definitely been to Waffen-SS reunions in Britain because he has told me."
Mr Beaumont, who says his wife Linda is a Metropolitan police officer, buys and sells Waffen-SS memorabilia. His home in Holland-on-Sea in Essex is adorned with Nazi paraphernalia. His hallway
contains a golden bust of Hitler next to a photograph of his wife in her police uniform.
His alsatian dog is called Blondie, after Hitler's German Shepherd. Mr Beaumont told The Telegraph that the Russians built the gas ovens at Auschwitz to make the Nazis look guilty.
He describes David Irving, the Holocaust-denying writer, as "the greatest historian Britain has ever had". Mr
Beaumont has attended so many reunions that he has been awarded honorary membership of the SS veterans' association.
"Across Great Britain as a whole there are hundreds of Waffen-SS veterans," he said. Mr Beaumont denied being a current member of the BNP.
The BNP leader, Nick Griffin, said last night: "I have no time for this kind of historical necrophilia. If he is a member then we will be questioning whether he should remain one."