The Malmedy Massacre (Malmedy, Belgium)

This field in Belgium was the site of the Malmedy Massacre. This was a German-committed atrocity and war crime, which occurred on Dec. 17, 1944. The Waffen-SS soldiers of Kampfgruppe Peiper (led by Joachim Peiper, mentioned in previous post, and more below), killed 84 U.S. Army prisoners of war. These men, of the 285th Field Artillery, surrendered after a brief fight with the far superior German force. The Americans were machine-gunned in the pictured field. Survivors were finished with a gunshot to the head. There were soldiers who fled and survived, able to bear witness to the event. Here, in Malmedy, Belgium, is a monument to the killings (pictured as well).

There was a war crimes trial that followed in 1946 (the Malmedy Massacre Trial). These proceedings were part of the larger Dachau Trials which ran from 1945-7. A later U.S. Senate investigation attributed many hundreds of killings to Peiper’s men over the course of the 36 day Battle of the Bulge. Though Peiper received a death sentence as the commander, it was commuted to 35 years in prison. He was paroled in 1956. He relocated to France and lived under an alias until recognized by a former member of the French Resistance. In 1976 his home was burned down in a revenge attack. He was found dead inside, grasping a pistol and rifle. Defiant to the end, Joachim Peiper’s time finally came.