Ludwig Heidler

Ludwig Hiedler (13 February 1915 - 16 September 1943) was a German SS officer during anden verdenskrig, which participated in Operation Barbarossa and the German annexation of Austria in 1938.
Heidler was born and grew up in Nuremberg, the son of the German army officer Friedrich Heidler and his wife Gretel Heidler. The father died at the Battle of the Somme, which meant that the family did not have much money, and that the mother had to take a job doing laundry for the wealthy, and that young Ludwig at the age of seven began working at a local printing house as a stooge.
In 1934, Heidler joined the National Socialist Party of Germany and enlisted simultaneously in the SS, where he steadily rose in rank. In 1942, Heidler was send to the Eastern Front, where he received the Iron Cross with oak leaves. He died fighting in the Battle of Smolensk in 1943. In Konrad Edelbach's autobiography "The life of Konrad Edelbach", Konrad Edelbach wrote: "Ludwig, showed true bravery that day. He was not only a great German but a great man too. Sadly he died".
Anschluss
The young SS-Rottenführer took part in the annexation of Austria in 1938. He marched as part of a 240 man strong SS-elite force, accompanied by a larger Wehrmacht army, from a German army base in Munich to the east to the city of Linz. Ludwig and a group of SS officers of 13 men had to stop in the village of Andorf, and fight a group of Austrofacists, who held their ground in the posthouse and at the school in the city. Here most of the SS unit was killed, but Heidler and his friend Konrad Edelbach, who he could share his faith with later on in the war, survived and killed 36 Austrofacists. Also 2 Jewish inhabitants of Andorf were killed. As a result of their actions in Andorf, both Heidler and Edelbach were promoted to Obersturmbannführers.

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