SS, Kampfgruppe Peiper of the 1st SS  Division, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (German for "Adolf Hitlers  Bodyguard Regiment") that was responsible for the Malmedy massacre  of American prisoners depicted in the earlier film  _Battle of the Bulge (1965)_ (qv) (where a character directly based  on Peiper was played by Robert Shaw (I) (qv). After the War, he  was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death. The sentence was  commuted by the American Occupation Force as the trial had been  fraught with illegalities, and he served only 11 years in prison,  despite having perpetrated war