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Hi wai tw.The Past Catches Up WithBUTCHERS y MALMEDYBy Maurice Bawd.AN UNKNOWN MEDIC at a U. S. Army Ud Ration at Malmedy, Blt;1W. “f fun one lo hear tha «ory. He heard It. but Karcev believed It It -» K» 51 d. too fantastic. 7h* mcdlc bed li*tencd to the almost tttbhcrenl babbling of sfawk case* before,- but“a°fm‘ moments earlier the dozing med* hud b~u awakened by a shuffling and scraping at tin lt;tox. H- lad opened It and into the balf Iwbi of the aid station had .tumbled a wounded man. tictnbiini with the cold, obnotaly shaken and in great u*in. Even in tr*- poor light olt; the room the medic could me that 10s eye* were wild and (taring and that his /ac. -a. a pasty white. He locked like a man from the dead.Eight boum tallies, with some 150 other captured American prisoners. he had teen led Into a held near a small crossroads a mite* south of Malmedy. Than, as they ... d there dcferweles* and unarmed, their captors haa trained machine RUM lt;e U-m and. at a *ignal «hn from a peatol, turned the fury «t their guns l«ee on the prisoners In one of the troet ahcekiag and wanton maw murders of the war. Later the Germans had gone into the field and killed the dying and pumped more bullets mtn the bodies of the dead This was the ••Malmedy MassacreIt happened on Doc. 17.1944. the second dayof yield Marshal Gerd von Rundstedls lU-f.ted offemdvc. II was the fiendish work of German SS troops who that afternoon made the (ratal entry in a new chapter in the took of their atnciti« and brutalities But It was only the beginning. For 24 days, until they were beaten and .utrcunded at L* Claizc. Belgium, they carried on a reign of terror and killing that was unmatched in the war.At HcosfeM they murdered wen* 10 captured Americans, and added another W to their total at Buellingen. where they also lulled nine Belgian civilians. At LiRncuv.ll-tber killed between 4» and 58 American prrtonars. and at Suvetoc they wtprd out 131 Belgian dvtliarw. including wscnen and children whose pretest offense wa* getting in the way of the rampaging SS troops. But it was at La Glen* that their buthery reached Its peak They celebrated their advance there by lining up some 300 American prironera and shooting them.By Jan. 13. tha German offensive had proved itmlf a failure, but if the attack lad failed, there lad been no slackening tn the SS lust for kr.llr-r On that day a frozen and starving American soldier, who had been hiding in the wocds for two weeks, gave himself up. He was taken to the Chateau, where the regimental and the regimental commander woreIn cccference. The surgeon bristly noted Ha frmra condition and -uggrated that ne be takea out and shot The commander did not dec and the suggestion was earned nut.In leas thin a month the SS troops racked up a known wore of 94 incident! volvtng the murder of some B» Amcr pHuinec* of war and more than 1®0 Belgian civiliansTODAY 74 of It* SS men wb» participated n the killings are facing a NUltary Government court at Dachau on murder charges. In til-fitting uniforms they march into tlut cuul and listen as the prosecution staff of the Army War Crimes Branch unfolds the evidence wits which it hopa to hang them all In Uw pruwoer s dock they are not Impressive. Three gccetals. one colonel, plus 21 lesser officers ad 4 the halance of EM who make up their numbmtj They do not appear capable of the brutalities charged agairwt them. Thar looks are d«a»-inc. Faimcrt clerks, lawyer*, students, yoew* boys ard old men make up tbetr lot. They seen to bare little in common, but that too, ts a deception. Each tn hi* own way feasted at tie trough of Nariam and came away a gorged aid bloated fanatic. .The story of the SS u old by now. It Be forever made Its Mack mark on the pagt* lt;* history. But a sample crocs section of lh*»
Newspaper Details
Southern Germany Stars and Stripes
Altdorf, Bavaria, DE
Sun, Jun 02, 1946
Page 14
Full Page
Clipped by
Dylan S.
USA 20 Sep 2016
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Southern Germany Stars and Stripes
