HIAG was a lobby group and a denialist veterans' organisation founded by former high-ranking Waffen-SS personnel in West Germany in 1951. Its main objective was to achieve legal, economic, and historical rehabilitation of the Waffen-SS.
The 1941 SS tour of the Mauthausen concentration camp headed by Heinrich Himmler (centre). Taking part were Otto Kumm (front row, left), Wilhelm Bittrich, and Paul Hausser, who became key figures in HIAG after the war.
"HIAG Ostsachsen" at the Ulrichsberg meeting at Ulrichsberg mountain in 2003
Otto Kumm commanded two Waffen-SS divisions in the latter stages of World War II and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. At the post-war Nuremberg trials, the Waffen-SS – of which Kumm was a senior officer – was declared to be a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. After the war, Kumm became one of the founders of HIAG, a lobby group and a revisionist organization of former Waffen-SS members.
Otto Kumm
Otto Kumm (front row, left), Heinrich Himmler with other SS officers and Nazi Party leaders during a tour of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, June 1941
