German War Hero - Christen served in the Waffen-SS with the infamous Totenkopf ("Deathshead") Division on the Eastern Front from the first days of the invasion of Russia during Operation Barbarossa by German forces. On the morning of September 24, 1941, Christen and his anti-tank battery were fighting Russian forces north of the Russian village of Lushno. During this fight, all of Christen's comrades had been killed or had left the field of battle while Christen remained. While exposed to artillery and small arms fire, Christen manned his 50mm cannon alone, holding on without supplies or provisions for the next two days. At night, he would sneak from his firing pit out to other gun sites and retrieve ammunition to replenish his supplies to continue his fight. When a counterattack by other Totenkopf troops recaptured Lushno, Christen was credited with having knocked out 13 Soviet tanks and single-handedly killing approximately 100 enemy soldiers. The SS men that relieved him were amazed that a single soldier could hold his position against hundreds of Soviet troops and a formidable armor presence. SS-Obergruppenführer Theodor Eicke, the commanding general of the division, awarded Christen with the Iron Cross, First Class and recommended him simultaneously for the Knight's Cross due to this magnificent act of bravery. Christen was called back to Germany where Adolf Hitler personally awarded him the Knight's Cross, making Christen the first enlisted man in his division to be given the honor. Upon receiving the decoration, Christen returned to his unit and continued to fight bravely throughout the rest of the war. In May of 1945, he was captured after the remainder of the severely diminished Totenkopf Division surrendered to American forces in Czechoslovakia. The Americans turned them over to the Russian Red Army. While in custody of the Russians, the Totenkopf men received especially harsh treatment due to their reputation as an organization that committed outrageous war crimes on Russian soil. As a result, many of these men died while in a Soviet gulag. Christen survived ten years of this brutal treatment and was released to return home in 1955. He died quietly at his home in Bavaria in 1995. He and his wife Maria are buried in Neusorg, Bavaria, Germany.