Sylvester Stadler was a high-ranking Austrian commander of the Waffen-SS, a commander of the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen, previously having been the commander of the SS regiment whose 3rd Company was responsible for the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre. Only 34 years old at the end of the war, he held the rank of SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of the Waffen-SS and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves.