Malmedy Massacre

Thoughts on WWII » Battle of the Bulge, European Theater (ETO), Tribunals » Malmedy Massacre

May 17th, 2009 | Add a Comment

I wrote the below essay for a class I just finished on the Battle of the Bulge. Very interesting class and I hope to visit the bulge battlefields in June or July.

The Malmedy Massacre is a very hard event to look at with an open mind, at least from the American viewpoint, due to the massive amounts of information that portray the Germans as merciless and murderers. The little bit that I have seen on documentaries or movies have shown that the PWs (Prisoners of War) that were shot were done so without cause and without provocation. However, in preparing for this class and this paper I have reviewed several sources of information about the Malmedy incident and Lt. Col. Peiper. Peiper was considered an honorable and bold soldier by the German High Command and the soldiers under his command and I will not dispute this fact. However, Peiper is a war criminal for the murder of American PWs. The units under Peiper’s control are the ones that executed American PWs at the Begnauz crossroads. There are also cases of PW shootings near Buellingen, Honsfeld, and Ligneuville; all areas through which Peiper advanced. Peiper’s battalion was nicknamed the “Blowtorch Battalion” after his actions on the Eastern Front. Peiper was also accused of atrocities during his short time in the Italian campaign.

The biggest case proving that Lt. Col. Peiper is a war criminal comes from the infamous Malmedy Massacre. Peiper and 72 other men were convicted of the murder of 84 American soldiers, 42 of those convicted were sentenced to death by hanging.[1] Peiper’s Battlegroup attacked Battery B, 285 Field Artillery Observation Battalion at the Begnauz crossroads, just south of Malmedy on December 17, 1944. The men of the field artillery were outgunned and caught by surprise. After several minutes of fighting, 125 men of the battalion surrendered to Peiper’s Battlegroup. Peiper was at the scene of the attack and is the one that actually stopped the attack. His men were wasting valuable ammunition on an enemy that was not fighting back. Moreover, Peiper needed the American vehicles to help in his own advance. After the prisoners were taken, Peiper left the crossroads and continued the advance with his lead element.[2] There is no evidence that Peiper gave any orders as to what to do with the prisoners. However, it is agreed by some that Hitler himself gave the order on December 12 that no PWs were to be taken.[3] Hitler issued the orders and Peiper, along with many other SS men followed those orders. Some of the PWs managed to escape and tell their story to the American authorities. Their stories were very similar even though they had virtually no time to discuss with others that survived. A pistol was fired, some say as a warning shot and others say it was a deliberate shot that killed an American soldier. Then another shot rang out and it was immediately followed by automatic gunfire that raked the American PW lines in the field. The shooting did not end for 15 minutes. The German soldiers then walked the field, kicking bodies in the head and groin, making sure they were dead. Some even spoke and promised medical help. If any of the American soldiers reacted, they were finished off with a bullet to the head. One German engineer was quoted to say, “I was sure I killed each man at whom I fired.”[4] Some argue that some of the PWs tried to escape and that accounts for the gunfire. It was legal to shoot PWs who were trying to escape. However, it is not legal to shoot at PWs who are not trying to escape. If only a few were trying to escape then why were all shot down? The Malmedy incident and subsequent trial is the most famous atrocity committed by Peiper and his men, however there were other incidents that show their merciless tactics in their quest for victory.

Peiper’s Battlegroup was the spearhead of the German advance and his orders were to advance west as fast as possible to gain bridgeheads over the Meuse River. All along Peiper’s route, there were shootings of American PWs. Although these shootings are not well known they offer proof that Peiper’s men were committing war crimes. In Buellingen, Peiper used fifty PWs as manpower to refuel the vehicles of his Battlegroup. These same Fifty PWs were later found shot to death. Another nineteen PWs where killed at Honsfeld, where Peiper made a breakthrough. Eight more were shot by Peiper’s men at Ligneuville. His Battlegroup had to move fast, they had no extra personnel to guard prisoners. Peiper did not want the prisoners to re-arm and attack his Battlegroup from behind. Furthermore, he did not want them to march back to one of his tailing units, as was a common practice. The roads behind Peiper’s force were already clogged with his own troops and vehicles; he did not want the PWs to clog them up even more. It was not a mere coincidence that the killing of PWs was always in Peiper’s route. Peiper’s men were killing them. The Ardennes Offensive is not the only incidents of Peiper’s atrocities.

The units under Peiper’s leadership had already established themselves as ruthless killers in other campaigns. His battalion got the nickname “Blowtorch Battalion” for their ruthless burning of Russian villages and the annihilation of all inhabitants.[5] In 1964, West Germany opened an investigation that Peiper played a significant role in the destruction of the town of Boves, Italy and executed its entire population in Sept 1943.[6] Other members of the SS were tried and convicted of similar war crimes.

Mass executions of PWs and civilians followed Peiper wherever he went. Peiper was convicted for the Malmedy Massacre. He was investigated in other crimes throughout war torn Europe. He was part of the Nazi elite SS and he was a ruthless killer. Peiper may have been a great leader but the evidence shows that the atrocities that his men committed were crimes. Lt. Col. Joachim Peiper is a war criminal.