German 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend: Encyclopedia II - German 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend - War Crimes

German 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend - War Crimes

In all, over 100 Canadian soldiers were executed by their captors in the 12th SS "Hitlerjugend" Panzergrenadier Division. Their murders, and the consequent search for justice, is well documented in the book Conduct Unbecoming: The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy by Howard Margolian (ISBN 0802083609) (University of Toronto Press, 1998).

When the division was first engaged in action in June 1944, there were several cases of atrocities being committed. On June 8, thirty-six Canadians were executed by Wilhelm Mohnke's SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 26. That same day the Division's reconnaissance company killed over a dozen more.

Between June 7 and June 8, 1944, Canadian prisoners were executed by elements of Kurt Meyer's SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25 at the Abbey Ardennes south of Caen. As this was Meyer's command post, he, along with several subordinates, was charged with this crime after the war. Testimony at his war crimes trial also indicated that Meyer later made it clear he expected no prisoners to be taken during subsequent fighting.

It is noteworthy that all the allegations against the 12th SS take place between June 6th and the 17th. By that time the outcome of the fighting was already obvious to the German combat troops.

The ferocity of the fighting near Carpiquet, Authie and Buron, their brutal disicipline and the political indoctrination and fanaticism of the young HJ grenadiers created an environment where the murder of prisoners might well have been seen to have been encouraged, although there are instances of 12 SS officers opposing the killings, and within two weeks their views would prevail.

After the war, Meyer was tried and condemned to death by a Canadian military court for collusion in the shooting of Canadian and British prisoners. In January 1946, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Canadian Major General Christopher Vokes, who considered all evidence against him circumstantial. Vokes recognized that in the heat of battle it was often difficult to decide who had killed an enemy and who had murdered a prisoner. There was no proof Meyer ordered the murder of Canadian prisoners but it was clear from physical evidence collected after the fighting that dozens of unarmed Canadians had been murdered and as the commander, Meyer, while not guilty of the murders was at least fully responsible. The circumstances surrounding the shooting of the prisoners with the grounds of Meyer's HQ in the Abbey d'Ardennes was especially damning. Vokes well realized that in the heat of battle men were often killed while trying to surrender. However the physical evidence and testimony from German soldiers that Canadians were executed inside Meyer's HQ after being interogated could not be ignored.

On September 7, 1954, with the support of several Canadian and British officers who had faced him in Normandy, he was released from prison.

The case of Wilhem Monke is difficult to understand. Charges were brought against him several years after the war by Britain, Canada and the United States for separate incidents during the war. In the first case, after an attack during the invasion of Belgium in 1940, elements of LSSAH's II.Battalion, under the command of SS-Hauptsturmführer Wilhelm Mohnke, were mistakenly informed that their divisional commander Sepp Dietrich had been killed in the fighting. In what is known as the Wormhoudt Massacre, about 80 British POWs of 2nd Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment were executed in retaliation for the supposed death of Dietrich. Although it is unarguable that the massacre occurred, Mohnke's level of involvement is impossible to know, and as such he was never brought to trial to face the allegations (see [1]).

Some members of his 26th Regiment of the 12 SS were responsible for dozens of killings on the 8th of June again, after he took up duties with the 1st SS in time for the Battle of the Bulge, his men committed what has come to be known to Americans as the Malmady Massacre. In spite of these charges no nation was ever successful in having German courts present him for trial.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "War Crimes", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki