Werner Grothmann

Grothmann remade his life as a businessman and granted a few interviews in the 1970s in which he disparaged Himmler's character. He also gave a eulogy at the funeral of Richard Schulze-Kossens. Grothmann died in 2002.

Grothmann was taken to a barracks at Lübeck, where he was extensively questioned. He denied any knowledge of Operation Reinhard. Then he was taken to an SS prison camp. Grothmann served as a prosecution witness against several SS officials between 1946 and 1948, but during the trial of Karl Wolff he denied having any knowledge of the Final Solution. After release from Allied internment, Grothmann was denazified, considered part of category III (Lesser Offenders), by a court in Freising in March 1949.

Werner Grothmann (23 August 1915 – 26 February 2002) was a mid-ranking commander in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany and aide-de-camp to the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, from 1940 until Himmler's death in 1945.

Grothmann was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1915. In his youth he studied economics and carved out a career as an accountant at a bank. In 1933 he joined the SS at 18 years old, and was trained the Junkerschule SS. At the beginning of the Second World War, he was given command of SS-Sturmbann Nº 13, a unit of the SS Standarte Deutschland. He took part in the Battle of France and was wounded in combat in June 1940. At the suggestion of Joachim Peiper, Grothmann was appointed second assistant to Heinrich Himmler until July 1942, when he was promoted to aide-de-camp to Himmler. As Himmler's aide, Grothmann accompanied him on all field visits.