Amazing story of survival. Thanks for the post.
Yet another thing not taught in our public schools.
This same sort of thing is happening all over the Muslim world, and the MSM has its face buried in the bloody dirt.
I saw the monument at Malmedy. The names of our neighbors makes one sick. As an aside the german commander was killed by an explosion in his bookstore circa the 1970's. It was claimed that it was the French underground survivors that did it.
FYI
For more information about the recovery process, see Mortuary Affairs Operations At Malmedy-Lessons Learned From A Historic Tragedy
Thanks to all the WWII veterans! To those who came home, and those who did not.
Thanks for posting this. The contrast between this generation and the one the one that followed them is astounding.
Anyone know where there is a good location to find veterans that are still alive and how to contact them?
These folks should be receiving letters of appreciation from citizens who won't forget what they preserved for us.
The stories of these common men who did uncommon things never cease to amaze me. I have such great respect and admiration for them. Sometimes I wish I was born 35 years earlier.
Eventually all 73 of the convicted German war criminals in the Malmedy Massacre case were released from Landsberg prison, including Col. Peiper who was freed on December 22, 1956, the last of the accused to finally walk out of Landsberg.
Peiper had been born on January 30, 1915, so he was just short of his 30ieth birthday when the Malmedy Massacre happened. If Germany had won the war, Peiper would have been showered with praise and honored as one of his country's greatest heroes, a soldier who had fought honorably for his country. Instead, he ended his military career as a war criminal; he spent 11 of the best years of his life in prison, including 55 months on death row. After he was freed, he could not overcome the stigma of being a convicted war criminal. He took a series of jobs, but was unable to keep any of them. Finally, in 1972, he moved to the French village of Traves.
Just as he was starting to write a book on the Malmedy Massacre, Peiper was killed on July 14, 1976 when his house was firebombed. Peiper had been warned to leave, but he refused; he died as he had lived, with a weapon in his hands, refusing to be driven out of his home. His charred body was found in the ruins of his burned home. The date of July 14th was the French Bastille Day, the equivalent of the American 4th of July. A group of Frenchmen, wearing ski masks were photographed as they announced "We got Peiper." This photo was published on November 7, 1976 in the New York Times Magazine.