Wereth massacre

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The Wereth Massacre , also Wereth 11 Massacre , was a war crime committed by the Waffen-SS , in which eleven US Army soldiers were killed on December 17, 1944 in the Belgian Ardennes .

History and process

Since December 16, units of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS carried out the last major offensive on the Western Front with the Battle of the Bulge . The Allies had been completely overwhelmed by the German attack. The 333rd Field Artillery Battalion of the US Army was one of the units involved in heavy fighting. The unit had previously participated in the fighting for France since July 1944 and was subordinate to the VIII Corps. The battalion, which consisted only of Afro-American GIs, was to support the 106th Infantry Division from the area around Schönberg in what is now the German-speaking Community of Belgium with their 155-mm howitzers during the fighting on December 16 . On December 17th, however, the Wehrmacht had already occupied Schönberg, as did the bridge to Sankt Vith .

A group of eleven soldiers, including a medic from Battery C of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion, managed to make their way to Wereth , a small village in what is now Amel , a good six kilometers north of Schönberg, after heavy fighting . There she reached Mathias Langer's farm around 3 p.m., who took her in and looked after her. On the same day around 5 p.m., a four-man advance party of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler advanced to Wereth. The soldiers of this squad were subordinate to the Knittel combat group . The American soldiers surrendered to the SS soldiers without resistance. They were taken to a nearby field where they were obviously mistreated and then shot dead that night. Later research found that the men were broken legs, severed fingers and injured with a bayonet before they died . One of the victims was shot trying to bandage a gunned comrade. The bodies were left behind after the Germans left and were found by soldiers of the 99th Infantry Division in January 1945 .

After the massacre

Seven of the eleven victims of the massacre were buried in the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial , the other four were transferred to their homeland after the end of the war and buried there.

The 333rd Field Artillery Battalion later received Presidential Unit Citation for its deployment in the Ardennes .

Immediately after the massacre was discovered, a commission of inquiry was set up to investigate the case, but the perpetrators could never be identified. The investigation was stopped in 1948. Current research by the regional historian Herbert Ruland identifies Gustav Knittel as responsible for the unit involved in the massacre. A team from the US Memorial Wereth VoG association. is currently investigating other parties involved.

Victim

The names of the eleven victims of the massacre:

Surname First name Date of birth place of birth Rank Service number Awards (excerpt) Final resting place
Adams Curtis South carolina Private 34511454 Purple heart Henri-Chapelle , Hallway C, Row 11, Grave No. 41
Bradley Skinny 04/21/1917 Mississippi Corporal 34046336 Purple heart Fort Gibson National Cemetery, Fort Gibson , Oklahoma
Davis George Alabama Private First Class (PFC) 34553436 Purple heart Henri-Chapelle , hall D, row 10, grave no.61
Forte Thomas J. Mississippi Staff sergeant 34046992 Purple heart Henri-Chapelle , Hallway C, Row 11, Grave No. 55
Green Robert Mississippi Technical Corporal 34552457 Purple heart Highland Park Cemetery, Cleveland , Ohio
Leatherwood James L. 03/15/1922 Mississippi Private First Class (PFC) 34481753 Purple heart College Hill Cemetery, Pontotoc , Mississippi
Moss Nathanial Texas Private 38040062 Purple heart Henri-Chapelle , Hallway F, Row 10, Grave No. 8
Moten George W. Texas Private First Class (PFC) 38304695 Purple heart Henri-Chapelle , Hall E, Row 10, Grave No. 29
Pritchett William Edward 03/09/1922 Alabama Technical sergeant 34552760 Purple heart Mc Castar Cemetery, Wilcox , Alabama
Stewart James Aubrey 03/09/1922 West Virginia (Piedmont) Technical sergeant 35744547 Purple heart Henri-Chapelle , Corridor C, Row 11, Grave No. 2
Gymnast Due W. Arkansas Private First Class (PFC) 38383369 Purple heart Henri-Chapelle , Hall F, Row 5, Grave No. 9

Curtis Adams was a medic . Thomas J. Forte was a kitchen sergeant.

memorial

In 1994 Hermann Langer, Mathias Langer's son, erected a memorial at the site of the massacre . After the war crime, which had meanwhile almost been forgotten, gained more and more publicity, a larger, official memorial was finally erected and inaugurated in 2004. Annually commemorative events take place there until today. It is the only memorial in Europe dedicated to colored US soldiers.

US Memorial Wereth VoG.

Logo of the US Memorial Wereth VoG association.

In 2001 the voluntary association US Memorial Wereth VoG was founded by three Belgian citizens . founded. The association, in which three members of the Langer family - including Patrick and Sylvia Langer, Hermann Langer's two children - are active, was able to finance the construction of the larger memorial in 2004 through appeals for donations and charity events.

Every year the association organizes a ceremony at the memorial in Wereth, in which Belgian and American veterans, as well as military officials and politicians as well as interested citizens of both countries take part, and acts as the official contact person and person responsible for the memorial.

In 2017 the US Memorial Wereth organized VoG. in cooperation with the American Embassy in Belgium an exchange project between four Belgian students from the German-speaking Community of Belgium and Afro-American students from Morehouse College in Atlanta. The aim was to conduct bilateral research on the Wereth massacre and to exchange views on current political and social parallels.

“The beginning has been made. So far, films have been made, books written, and the memorial has become a focal point for many African American veterans. We will try to make a further contribution to the propagation of the Wereth Memorial with our historical processing. [...] We will film what we have experienced again and present it when our new US friends return to the memorial ceremony in Wereth. I think that this can be the start of a long collaboration. "(Conclusion of the students involved in the exchange)

The association works with a team of three students for youth work and political education in East Belgian schools and associations. The students are involved in several research projects and are currently producing a documentation under the working title "Open Doors" about the Wereth massacre from the Langer family's point of view and about the exchange with Morehouse College in 2017.

Movie

  • The Wereth Eleven - 2011 American documentary

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Information on the Wereth massacre
  2. a b Gerd Hennen: "The color of blood is always red" . GrenzEcho, Eupen May 15, 2017 ( grenzecho.net [PDF]).
  3. Information on the Wereth massacre
  4. Commemoration: US memorial in Wereth commemorates SS massacre
  5. Gerd Hennen: "Leave clear marks in Atlanta" . GrenzEcho, Eupen March 24, 2017 ( grenzecho.net [PDF]).
  6. Wereth Eleven at the IMBd

Coordinates: 50 ° 20 ′ 55.2 ″  N , 6 ° 13 ′ 52.5 ″  E