THE MALMEDY MASSACRE

We are now in Belgium and staying at a beautiful resort called Le Val d’Arimont a few miles away from the town of Malmedy. The resort is in the Ardennes forest, has a small river flowing by and its difficult to believe that such vicious fighting took place here 56 years ago a few kilometers away from the centre of Malmedy.

It was here at Baugnez, at the crossroad to Ligneuville, that an element of Kampfgruppe Peiper massacred some 130 American Artillery GI prisoners of war in a field – this was to become known as the Malmedy Massacre. The field stands vacant to this day and a memorial to the soldiers has been erected nearby.

 

 

 

Below are photos of the field in which the American prisoners of war were executed

 

 

 

After the war Peiper and about 40 of his men were tried at Dachau for war crimes pertaining specifically to this action. Although it could never be proved that Peiper had given the order for the massacre, nor was he at the scene at the time it when it happened, he was considered to be the person in charge of the unit and was sentenced to death. However, on appealing the case, the death sentence was commuted to a prison term and he was released in 1956. After several years of working for Porsche he went to live in a small town in France where he freelanced as a journalist for motoring magazines. On Bastille Day in 1976 his house was firebombed by ex members of the Maquis and he died in the blaze.

We went to visit the museum near the site which was opened only 2 years ago. This is an excellent museum and has many dioramas of the Battle of the Bulge, with the emphasis on the German troops and their equipment. Excellent light and sound presentations are to be seen there. Afterwards a film is shown which fully explains the battle and how it was fought.

At the museum a diarama has been built recreating the massacre

 

and there is a photograph of the bodies being exhumed by the American forces a month later after the Battle of the Bulge