On this day in History: The Malmedy Massacre

Germany was on the brink of defeat and collapse during the final stages of World War II. This desperate situation set the stage for the infamous Malmedy Massacre on December 17, 1944. On that day, troops of the 1st SS Leibstandarte “Adolf Hitler” Division, led by SS Obersturmbannführer Joachim “Jochen” Peiper, encountered a convoy of American rear-echelon troops near Malmedy, Belgium.

 After a brief firefight, 113 Americans, mostly from Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion, were captured. These men were not hardened front-line troops, nor did they pose a significant threat. However, Peiper, determined to maintain his rapid advance toward the Meuse River, viewed executing prisoners as a brutal tool of intimidation and efficiency.

What followed is well documented. After conferring with his subordinate, SS Sturmbannführer Werner Pötschke, Peiper moved ahead while the Americans were assembled in a nearby field. At approximately 2:15 PM, German machine gunners opened fire, massacring the prisoners. SS troops moved among the wounded, executing them with shots to the head. A Belgian widow who owned a nearby café was also murdered. Although there was brief discussion of killing local civilians who witnessed the massacre, the Germans seemed unconcerned with concealing their crimes and were eager to move on. This indifference allowed a few Americans to feign death and escape. By Waffen SS standards, the massacre was sloppily executed, but its toll was chilling: eighty-four defenseless American prisoners of war lay dead.

News of the atrocity spread quickly, thanks to the survivors who made it back to Allied lines. The bodies of the slain were not recovered until January 1945, but the massacre enraged American forces in the area, driving them to fight with renewed ferocity. The U.S. Army did not forget. In May 1946, a war crimes trial was held at the site of the former Dachau Concentration Camp, but it was marred by prosecutorial missteps. Worse, SS perpetrators, including Peiper, closed ranks and spread exaggerated claims of torture at the hands of their captors. The result was lenient sentences; Peiper and others served only brief prison terms.

Justice, however, took a long-delayed form. An unrepentant Nazi to the end, Peiper settled in France, openly defiant of his past. On July 14, 1976—Bastille Day—unknown assailants set fire to his home, killing him. The perpetrators were never identified, but the act marked a fittingly grim end to a man who had shown such disregard for human life.

Image by Sgt. Howard Brodie of the last moments before the Malmedy Massacre, based on survivors' accounts. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.