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| Jochen Peiper on the witness stand during the Malmedy massacre trial |
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| Jochen Peiper when receiving his death sentence by hanging |
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| Mistreated German prisoners of war in American custody |
Knight's Cross with Oakleaves and Swords holder
Joachim Peiper was sentenced to death by hanging and accepted the decision stoically. He waited every day for five years for execution while in solitary confinement. However, he was not executed because U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy from Wisconsin proved the courts perfidy. This did not help those men who had been killed before the inquiry ever began. After eleven years of custody Peiper was released as the last of his comrades in December 1956. No formal investigations or prosecutions were ever made concerning American and British abuse and massacres of
German POWs (due to lack of political will or other practical and political reasons). Allied Forces committed similar atrocities
both before and after the Malmedy massacre. According to American historian Professor Stephen Edward Ambrose, who interviewed around 1,000 U.S. combat veterans, roughly 30 percent told him they had seen U.S. troops kill German prisoners of war. U.S. Army Major-General Raymond F. Hufft of 180th Infantry Regiment of the
45th Infantry Division had instructed his troops not to take prisoners when they crossed the Rhine in 1945. Hufft admitted when reflected on the war crimes he authorized
: If the Germans had won, I would have been on trial instead of them. General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. 3rd Army, describes the mind-set of the Allies in his wartime diaries. The following quote is from January 4 1945:
also murdered 50 odd German med. I hope we can conceal this. The typed transcript "cleans it up" a bit: There were also some unfortunate incidents in the shooting of prisoners. (I hope we can conceal this). Top image: Prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Burton L. Ellis with former Waffen-SS officer Joachim Peiper on the witness stand on June 21 1946. Middle image: Joachim Peiper when sentenced to death by the American Military Tribunal on July 16 1946. Bottom image: weariness and defeat etch the faces of a line of German POWs in a prison camp of the U.S. 3rd Army in 1945. According to the original cutline the men belonged to Waffen-SS units taking part in the
Battle of the Bulge and therefore suspected of having shot U.S. POWs in Malmedy. Stills: Archive No:
111 ADC 5965. Photo: U.S. NARA.
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The fact is that any of the accused men who inadvertently said anything about American soldiers breaking the rules of the Geneva Convention were promptly silenced and these comments were stricken from the record.
ReplyDeleteThe kid gloves where off when Colonel Ellis made his appearance to tell the committee about the mock trials held at Schwaebisch-Hall to make the prisoners confess, McCarthy took from is bulging briefcase a letter from James Bailey, who had been the court recorder to the nine man interrogation team. In it Bailey claimed the evidence against the Germans had been obtained by starvation and brutality. Eventually he could not stomach the treatment of the prisoners and asked for a transfer to an other unit. McCarthy stated “this is a mockery of justice, so brutal as to be repulsive.” He then went on to describe the smashing of testicles and other inhuman methods used to obtain confessions. And so it went on with McCarthy relentlessly breaking down the prosecution team’s case. Joachim Peiper undoubtedly owed his life to the rabble-rouser Senator from Wisconsin.
DeleteAwkward for the prosecutors when they knew the Allies had killed surrendering Germans in larger numbers than at Malmedy. And unlike the prisoners in Malmedy, prisoners who didn't try to escape. Victors write the history books.
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ReplyDeleteJames Bacque's book, 'Other Losses', offers a documented account of widespread war crimes carried out by the US military, after the war. American military has ignored the Geneva Conventions since day. 1.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet the US WW2 veterans are still called "the greatest generation". Everything you think you ever knew was a lie.
DeleteBiscari massacre; US troops of the 45th Infantry Division killed roughly 75 prisoners of war on 14 July 1943, Audouville-la-Hubert massacre; 30 disarmed and wounded Wehrmacht prisoners were killed by the 101st Airborne Division on 6 June 1944, Chenogne massacre; members of the 11th Armored Division executed 80 Wehrmacht soldiers on 1 January 1945, Jungholzhausen massacre; the 254th Infantry Regiment of the 63rd Infantry Division killed 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 killed 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, and the list could go on and on in this regard.
DeleteEn la guerra ocurren muchas barbaridades, realmente la ley la tiene el que gana el combate.
DeleteAre there any company, battalion, regiment or division that has not committed any war crimes?
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ReplyDeleteI remember speaking to an American infantry vet a few years back about his experiences in Europe. In one particular story he described shooting Waffen-SS soldiers who wanted to surrender. It's just hilarious how people in 2021 are so dumb and know so little about what was going on back then. Ignorance is bliss.
ReplyDeleteThe death sentence on Mr. Peiper was commuted, he was murdered in 1976. Now, after we disposed them all, lets proceed to the My Lai incident.
ReplyDeleteVictor's justice (or lack thereof).
ReplyDeleteThe double standard applied by the U.S. Army to comparable war crimes committed by its own members and those done by its adversaries is striking. The truism that the wrongs that one suffers generally seem more reprehensible than the wrongs that one inflicts is an inadequate explanation.
ReplyDeleteThe victor will always be the judge, and the vanquished the accused. Greetz from Copenhagen!
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