U.S. Massacre of ϟϟ-Pz.Gren.Reg. 38 (Götz von Berlichingen)

Zenz Kaiser as SS-Sturmbannführer
Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS POWs
According to Professor and historian Antonio J. Muñoz about two hundred Waffen-SS soldiers were captured near Nürnberg by men of the U.S. 42nd Infantry Division, known as the Rainbow Division, and subsequently massacred on April 19-20 1945. The victims belonged to the 1st Battalion of SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 38 of the German-Latin 17.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Götz von Berlichingen. The fate of these prisoners, including the Reich veteran SS-Obersturmbannführer Vinzenz Kaiser and his adjutant SS-Hauptsturmführer Franz Kukula, had been shrouded in mystery for many years. Eyewitnesses to what happened to these men were not forthcoming. Shortly after the war, some citizens of Nürnberg directed Red Cross officials to what turned out to be a mass grave which yielded some two hundred bodies, all in Waffen-SS uniforms. Nothing was done to identify these men or how they came to be there until 1976, when the remains of one of the corpses was positively identified as that of Franz Kukula, the commander of 1.Battalion of SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 38. Further autopsies on the other bodies soon followed, showing that many of the men in that grave had been beaten to death with blunt instruments, possibly rifle butts. Most had been shot at very close range, suggesting that a massacre had taken place. The presumed massacre of men from Götz von Berlichingen executed in April 1945 by the American Rainbow Division have never been officially investigated and perpetrators have never faced justice. Nevertheless, most high-ranking German officers captured by U.S. forces were subject to interrogation by U.S. Army's intelligence-gathering Ritchie Boys. They were all German-speakers, and importantly they knew German mentality and behavior, better than most American-born soldiers. References: American historian Antonio J. Muñoz and British military historian Gordon Williamson. Left image: the then SS-Sturmbannführer Vinzenz Kaiser pictured on April 20 1943 when awarded the Knight's Cross following the recapture of Kharkov. He wears, among others, the Knight's Cross, the German Cross in Gold, the Infantry Assault Badge and no less than four Single-Handed Tank Destruction Badges on his right arm. This photo also appears on the front cover of Waffen-SS Knights and Their Battles: The Waffen-SS Knight’s Cross Holders Vol. 2 by Irish author Peter Mooney. c. Bundesarchiv. Right image showing a small group of LW and Waffen-SS men who surrendered their strongpoint to the 143rd Infantry of the U.S. 36th Infantry Division when ammunition ran out in Rohrwiller in Feb. 1945. The Kampfgruppe was an ad hoc combined arms formation. Unfortunately, none of the men have been ID'ed so far. (TDA).

45 comments:

  1. Former enlisted veteran17/2/18

    It is a fact, that GI's from the 222.Infantrie-Regiment draw a long blood trace from Heilbronn over Orlach, Jungholzhausen,Webling, Dachau, Haar, Oberpframmern and Utting for example. I don't have to tell you about the so called "Webling Incident", where 47 members of the Waffen-SS were murdered after they had surrendered. The same happened before and after Webling, a lot of unknown young Waffen-SS Soldiers got murdered after they had surrendered on the way of this so called Rainbow-Division on their way through South-Germany.

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    1. Anonymous10/1/20

      Some other war crimes committed by the United States Army in 1945, not to mention the fire bombings of German civilians and deliberately starvation of German prisoners of war: Chenogne massacre; members of the 11th Armored Division murdered 80 Wehrmacht soldiers on 1 January 1945, Jungholzhausen massacre; the 254th Infantry Regiment of the 63rd Infantry Division murdered between 13 and 30 Waffen SS and Wehrmacht prisoners of war on 15 April 1945, Treseburg massacre: the 18th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division captured and murdered 9 unarmed Hitler Youths on 19 April 1945, Lippach massacre; American soldiers from the 23rd Tank Battalion of the 12th Armored Division murdered 24 Waffen SS soldiers who had been taken prisoners of war on 22 April 1945. Members of the same unit are also alleged to have raped 20 women in the town of Lippach.

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    2. pasoleati3/8/20

      This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    3. furytux1/12/20

      US the land of hypocrisy and ignorance.

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    4. TUES/W14/6/21

      The U.S. Army cleaned up the official unit histories. The original narratives, which are now available, are harrowing and sickening to read.

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  2. I read that Kaiser was taken into a room, beaten unconscious and his head stamped on by numerous Military Police until it was no more.

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  3. Anonymous9/12/20

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    1. Anonymous12/12/20

      This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. Toni Maura Oliver29/12/20

    What goes around comes around. Don't forget that Kaiser was an SS officer. I'm just saying think of all those innocent people that he probably killed, so if you ask me he was certainly a villain.

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    1. kervinjacque8/1/21

      The guy in question was a highly decorated frontline regimental commander who might have been beaten to death after taken prisoner. You mix him up with the brutality of the Allgemeine-SS, which was political. Kaiser had nothing to do with them, he was a soldier of the Waffen-SS under Wehrmacht command. If there is a European equivalent of the Greatest Generation, Kaiser merits a distinguished place in its ranks.

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    2. Peter Rätz19/1/21

      As far as Waffen-SS is concerned, the subject is way over his head. If he had done the basic research he would have grasped that the elite Das Reich and Götz von Berlichingen were front-line divisions.

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    3. Barry Cohn4/2/21

      Who cares what they were. The Germans deserved everything they got because they were the ones who started the war in the first place. We should have killed every last one of them.

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    4. So Barry Cohn what makes you better than the vilest of war criminals,especially after reading your post about killing them all.

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    5. Hallo Barry wir schaffen das schon selbst uns zu töten dazu brauchen wir keinen verbohrten alten Mann.Kriege werden von alten Männern wie dir gemacht töten müssen dann junge Kerle die im Glauben an ihr Vaterland gefallen erfroren und verhungert sind. Übrigens hat es noch kein Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten geschafft sich für die Toten durch den Abwurf der Atombomben zu entschuldigen.Reife Leistung, und seit bestehen USA gibt es keinen Präsident der keinen Krieg geführt hat.Ein Land das die Ureinwohner eines kompletten Kontinents fast gänzlich ausgerottet hat muss sich nicht als Maßstab für Freiheit in der Welt ansehen und über die stattgefundenen Kriegsverbrechen anderer regulären Truppen so sie denn begangen worden sein sollten richten viele Grüße aus Deutschland

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    6. Barry, that's one incredibly uneducated, degenerate comment to make. Have you been practicing that skill long, or is it a natural talent from the land of the free?

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    7. N.G.1/6/21

      Vinzenz Kaiser, like many of his compatriots, had nothing to do with war crimes or atrocities. Like many of those who fought in the elite Waffen-SS, he was guilty of nothing but having enlisted in the organization.

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  7. claude wernert16/2/21

    Many German soldiers were murdered by US troops after having lay down their arms. My cousin’s mother convinced a bunch of young SS to surrender who were firing over the river at the US troops from her house. The Americans lined them up against a wall of the village and shot them. They were just 17 or 18 years old. It happened in a small Alsatian village near the Rhine river. She felt herself guilty of their death and couldn’t forget it her whole life.

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  9. Anonymous4/3/21

    Someone mentioned America being the land of hypocrisy and ignorance; Barry Cohn demonstrates this ignorance. Germany did not start the war; England and America started the war. Churchill was their number one provocateur.

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    1. Anonymous16/4/23

      I thought the German invasion of Poland is what started the 1939-45 war0war..

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    2. Anonymous10/6/23

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  12. Well, as SS troopers would well know, war isn't pretty. When soldiers(whoever they are) are involved in combat, emotions can run away with even the most decent.

    It is not right for prisoners to be abused, but for Germans of WWII to cry foul, given their record, is, well....

    I'll quote part of "Bomber" Harris' comments on this subject:

    "The Germans appear to have started this war under the delusion that they could bomb everyone else and no one would bomb them....they have sown the wind, now they will reap the whirlwind."

    Exactly what happened.

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    1. Timothy S.8/4/21

      We have all heard all of these stupid explanations and ridiculous arguments many times before. Any act claimed to be justified as a reprisal completely absolves the Allies from any rules of warfare. Tit-for-tat explanations are not very useful and foil genuine attempts to address problems. "Bomber Harris" who bombed German civilian centers extensively were never held accountable. An untold number of German POWs were killed and mistreated; not one perpetrator was prosecuted on the Allies´side. Even the Allied prevention of humanitarian aid to German civilians was a crime against humanity. The list can go on and on. Of course those with a political agenda or the ones with less knowledge seem to brush it off as not a big deal. As it can be easily seen, international law have no foundation. The question of victors' justice is broad and vague. I saw some other interesting posts here but thought I share my thoughts on this comment.

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    2. Anonymous26/5/23

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  13. Grzegorz Szmaglinski12/4/21

    Ale to byli SS mani takze to hyba dobrze ze ich zabito...

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  14. Mes labai daug nežinom ,nes neskelbia nieks tiesos. Bet viena aišku -karas yra pragaras žemėje ir reiktų kaip nors vengt sukelt vėl karą Europoje-bent jau.

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  16. Europa Erwache!23/5/21

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  17. I wonder why Barry Cohen's vile comment remains posted here??

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  18. Roger Clemons28/5/21

    Kudos to the moderator(s) for cleaning up this thread. Extremist, offensive, ignorant and narrow-minded comments has no place in a history website. I also agree with MrTapman, Barry Cohen's comment should be removed as well. Thanks! /Long time reader, second time poster.

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    1. Anonymous26/5/23

      Couldn’t agree more. However, Cohen does not sound like an “Irish” name and he may have some deep seated resentment about what happened to his forefathers at the hands of the German people…I’m just sayin’…

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  20. Anonymous1/5/22

    The Waffen SS made the mistake of surrendering to the Americans instead of fighting the pigs until the last man. In the French Foreign Legion there is never surrender because they know that the enemy can never guarantee a peaceful surrender. The Waffen SS commander should have known the Americans often don't take prisoners from their long known behavior from 1944 onwards. He was probably very naively thinking he could surrender like this.

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    1. Anonymous9/7/23

      The Foreign Legion , never surrenders you say ? I give you Dien Bien Phu ... and there were a lot of ex- German soldiers , veterans of WW2 who surrendered to the Viet Minh at the end of that battle .

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  21. Anonymous29/10/22

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  22. Anonymous5/11/22

    No sympathy for Nazis or those who fought to support the Nazi regime. But war crimes are war crimes, no matter the provocation or vile nature of the victim.

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  23. Dave Butler15/4/23

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  24. Anonymous19/6/23

    The winner has most of the time right, they write the history, right or wrong. 🫣

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  25. Anonymous28/7/23

    I gues this should shut up the people in america who constantly bring up the malmedy masacre. I wonder how many other us army coverups.

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    1. Anonymous18/10/23

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