Malmedy massacre
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The Malmedy massacre was a war crime committed by German Waffen-SS troops during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, involving the murder of American prisoners of war.
Kampfgruppe Peiper
On December 17 1944, near the hamlet of Baugnez on the height half-way between the town of Malmedy and Ligneuville in Belgium, the leading element of Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper, named after its leader SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper, encountered the American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion (FAOB). Kampfgruppe (battlegroup) Peiper was the lead unit of the 1st Waffen-SS Panzer Division 'Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler'. The battlegroup consisted of over 100 tanks and 150 armored halftracks. The 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion was mounted in jeeps and trucks, and had no heavy weapons. They were accompanied by several ambulances. The U.S. unit was moving to a new assignment and was not aware that German troops were in the area, although a U.S. combat engineer officer had warned the unit not to take the route they did.
The jeeps and trucks of the 285th encountered several tanks of Kampfgruppe Peiper. The German tanks fired on the U.S. vehicles, which were quickly abandoned by their occupants. With no anti-tank weapons, the Americans surrendered. About 150 of the prisoners of war were disarmed and sent to stand in a field near the crossroads. Peiper and his leading vehicles then continued their advance, which was behind schedule.
A tank pulled up, and a truck shortly thereafter. Witnesses stated that a single SS soldier pulled out a pistol and shot a medical officer standing in the front row. He then shot the man standing next to the medical officer. Other soldiers joined in with machine guns. It is not known why this happened; there is no record of any order by an SS officer. Throughout the massacre, the vehicles and men of Kampfgruppe Peiper continued to proceed through the crossroads.
However, some survivors testified that they had heard the order given to kill all the prisoners: "Macht alle kaputt.". [link]
Other evidence seems to contradict this account in several places. Kampfgruppe Peiper had definitely moved on from the area leaving some vehicles. Several accounts claim the Germans only started shooting after several US soldiers tried to escape into the neighbouring woods. Furthermore, the shooting of prisoners started by an SS officer has never been confirmed, however accounts claim there might have been warning shots fired. What has been confirmed is that the Germans have been shooting the critically wounded after the main shooting, however this was standard pratice in the German army (and thus also happened to German soldiers). This is more or less supported by this recount [link] and what is left open for discussion in the previously mentioned recount [link]
While the criminal shooting of POWs was common on both sides on the Eastern front, such incidents were rare on the Western front.
Four of the Murdered POWS were Jewish: 2nd Lt Soloman Goffman & 3 Ncos/other ranks: George Rosenfeld Max Schwitzgold Robert Cohen
Aftermath
Many prisoners escaped into the nearby woods. Among the soldiers who escaped was actor Charles Durning. Some 72-84 of the prisoners were killed, their bodies left on the field where they fell. An American patrol discovered the massacre that night.
Word of the massacre spread rapidly among American forces
A website with photographs and histories of many places and people related to the Holocaust. No date listed on the web page, so 2006 is inferred.
. As a result, one US unit issued orders that, "No SS troops or paratroopers will be taken prisoners but will be shot on sight." This book is an official US military history of the Battle of the Bulge. [Footnote 5 on page 264] reads, Thus Fragmentary Order 27. issued by Headquarters, 328th Infantry, on 21 December for the attack scheduled the following day says: "No SS troops or paratroopers will be taken prisoners but will be shot on sight.", In this atmosphere there are claims that American forces killed German prisoners in retaliation, e.g. in the "Chenogne massacre" on January 1, 1945.
American forces recaptured the site where the killings took place on January 13 1945. The bodies were recovered on January 14‒January 15, 1945. The memorial at Baugnez bears the names of the murdered soldiers.
The trial
Main article: Malmedy massacre trialSome of the Waffen-SS soldiers of Kampfgruppe Peiper were captured, and were put on trial for the killings. This controversial trial was held in May–July 1946 in Dachau. The highest-ranking defendant was Waffen-SS General Sepp Dietrich. Several members of the unit were sentenced to death, although no death sentences were actually carried out. The trial attracted great attention because of the nature of the crime and the later disputes about its conduct, and is repeatedly brought up by the German extreme right-wing.
Legacy
The massacre was dramatized in two films - the Battle of the Bulge (1966) and Saints and Soldiers (2004).Fox News talk show host Bill O'Reilly implied, during two separate interviews with Wesley Clark, one in October 2005 and one in May 2006, that the Malmedy massacre was perpetrated by American soldiers. A Fox News transcript of the episode was altered to indicate that O'Reilly had said "Normandy" rather than "Malmedy," even though O'Reilly clearly said "Malmedy" on the broadcast. In a later broadcast, O'Reilly indicated that he "was not clear" during his "heated debate with Wesley Clark", and was referring to the reprisal killings, allegedly perpetrated by American soldiers, in response to the Malmedy massacre, not the Malmedy massacre itself. :Further information: O'Reilly "Malmedy massacre" controversies
See also
References
External links
- [Mortuary Affairs Operations At Malmedy – Lessons Learned From A Historic Tragedy], by Major Scott T. Glass. Quartermaster Professional Bulletin, Autumn 1997
- [Malmedy Massacre Trial]
- [Malmedy Massacre Trial (alternate version)]
- [The Battle of the Bulge on the Web, Malmedy Massacre resources]
- [Massacre at Malmedy]
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