Uphoff, Helmut Mein Weg durch die Waffen-SS

Helmut Uphoff was born in Bremerhaven on 29 April 1922 and enlisted as a volunteer for the SS "Totenkopf" units in 1939. Trained on the 5 cm 36 light grenade launcher, he was wounded in Karelia in July 1941 as a member of the 3rd Company/SS Infantry Regiment (mot.) 6 of the SS Combat Group "Nord". After convalescing, he volunteered as a guard at Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg in 1942.

For about six months he served as an SS storm trooper in the 1st Company/SS "Totenkopf" storm troop K.L. Neuengamme and, in addition to guarding the watchtower, also guarded the prisoners in the clinker factory and the large bakery, among other places. Finally he was transferred as a driver to the newly created SS tank corps in Bergen in the Lüneburg Heath. Initially attached to the supply leader of the later II SS Panzer Corps, he took part in the operations in Kharkov and the Mius in 1943, was transferred to Italy, and in the spring of 1944 was once again deployed in the Ukraine. In the 1st Company/SS Supply Troops 102 he experienced area bombardments in Normandy and from 16 December 1944 the fighting in the Ardennes. On 6 March 1945, he was taken prisoner of war in Bonn, from where he was released at the beginning of October 1948.