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''Obersturmbannführer'' was a paramilitary Nazi Party rank used by both the SA and the SS. It was created in May 1933 to fill the need for an additional field grade officer rank above ''Sturmbannführer'' as the SA expanded. It became an SS rank at the same time. Translated as "senior assault (or storm) unit leader", ''Obersturmbannführer'' was junior to ''Standartenführer'' and was the equivalent to ''Oberstleutnant'' (lieutenant colonel) in the German Army. The insignia for ''Obersturmbannführer'' was four silver pips and a stripe, centered on the left collar of an SS/SA uniform. The rank also displayed the shoulder boards of a Wehrmacht ''Oberstleutnant'' and was the highest SS/SA rank to display unit insignia on the opposite collar. == Notable recipients == Amongst the more notorious holders of the rank of ''Obersturmbannführer'' were Rudolf Höss, Adolf Eichmann, Herbert Kappler, Joachim Peiper, and Otto Skorzeny. Höss was commandant of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp, whilst Eichmann is generally regarded as a key architect of the Nazis' ''Endlösung'' (Final Solution) policy in which Auschwitz played so major a role. Herbert Kappler was the head of German police and security services (''Oberbefehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD'') in Rome who conducted the infamous Ardeatine massacre. Joachim Peiper was the commander of the eponymous Kampfgruppe responsible for the Malmedy massacre during the December 1944 Battle of the Bulge. Eichmann was promoted to ''Obersturmbannführer'' in 1940 and was listed as such in the minutes of the Wannsee Conference that began the ''Endlösung''. During Eichmann's trial for war crimes in 1962, chief prosecutor Gideon Hausner drew attention to the significance and responsibility of Eichmann's ''Obersturmbannführer'' rank when, in response to Eichmann's claim that he was merely a clerk obeying orders, Hausner asked him, “Were you an ''Obersturmbannführer'' or an office girl?” In ''Eichmann in Jerusalem'', however, Hannah Arendt disputes the notion that ''Obersturmbannführer'' was a rank of significance, pointing out that Eichmann spent the war "dreaming" about promotion to ''Standartenführer''. Arendt also points out that "... people like Eichmann, who had risen from the ranks, were never permitted to advance beyond a lieutenant colonel (the rank of ''Obersturmbannführer'' ) except at the front." Another who obtained the rank was Karl Küpfmüller, a German electrical engineer and post-war university lecturer in the fields of communications engineering, measurement and control technology, acoustics, information theory and theoretical electrical engineering. ; Insignia of rank of ''Obersturmbannführer'' of the Waffen-SS: Shoulder-wss-ill-obersturmbannf.jpg|Shoulder mark HH-SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer-Collar.png|Gorget patches ObstLt Cam slv.gif|Military camouflage 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Obersturmbannführer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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