The worst atroc­i­ty expe­ri­enced by Amer­i­can sol­diers in Europe dur­ing World War II was the exe­cu­tion of eighty-four Amer­i­can pris­on­ers of war by Bat­tle Group Peiper, a Waf­fen SS unit head­ed by Lieu­tenant Colonel Joachim Peiper. The mas­sacre occurred on Decem­ber 17, 1944, the day after the Ger­mans launched an offen­sive which result­ed in the Bat­tle of the Bulge, near the Bel­gian vil­lages of Baugnez and Malm­e­dy. The atroc­i­ty was not sur­pris­ing in view of the behav­ior of Waf­fen SS units else­where in Europe and the orders that the SS troops had received from Peiper and oth­er SS offi­cers to be as ruth­less as pos­si­ble. The Malm­e­dy Mas­sacre was the most famous in a series of atroc­i­ties com­mit­ted by Ger­man forces in gen­er­al, and by Bat­tle Group Peiper in par­tic­u­lar, dur­ing the Bat­tle of the Bulge. This event is fea­tured in the Hol­ly­wood film The Bat­tle of the Bulge.After the War, sev­en­ty-four SS sol­diers involved in the mas­sacre were tracked down by the Amer­i­can mil­i­tary and put on tri­al. Forty-three were sen­tenced to death and twen­ty-two to life in prison. Because of doubts raised regard­ing the fair­ness of the tri­als and changes in geopol­i­tics, not one defen­dant was exe­cut­ed, not even Peiper.

1. Joachim Peiper Family
2. Joachim Peiper Wife

All of the defen­dants served dras­ti­cal­ly reduced sen­tences. In an engross­ing and dis­turb­ing account of the Malm­e­dy Mas­sacre and its after­math, Steven P. Remy, a promi­nent his­to­ri­an at Brook­lyn Col­lege and the City Uni­ver­si­ty of New York, focus­es on how such a mis­car­riage of jus­tice could have occurred despite the irrefutable evi­dence of the cul­pa­bil­i­ty of the defendants.Crit­ics of the Malm­e­dy Tri­als described them as vic­tors’ jus­tice pos­ing as impar­tial judi­cial pro­ceed­ings.

Among the crit­ics were a small num­ber of Amer­i­can politi­cians, most notably fresh­man Sen­a­tor Joseph R. McCarthy of Wis­con­sin and the anti-Semit­ic Con­gress­man John Rankin of Mis­sis­sip­pi, Ger­mans and Amer­i­cans fear­ful that the war crimes issue would hin­der Ger­man-Amer­i­can uni­ty in the face of the post­war threat of the Sovi­et Union, and anti-Semi­tes in Ger­many and Amer­i­ca who accused Jews of seek­ing a venge­ful ​ “Mosa­ic jus­tice” and orches­trat­ing a lynch mob men­tal­i­ty at the tri­als. War­ren Magee, an Amer­i­can lawyer who served as a defense coun­sel in the Nurem­berg tri­als, claimed it was impos­si­ble for the war crimes tri­als to be objec­tive because Jews lacked the Chris­t­ian tenets of ​ “humil­i­ty and char­i­ty” and were moti­vat­ed by ​ “vin­dic­tive­ness, per­son­al griev­ances, and racial desires for revenge.”In his care­ful recon­struc­tion of the Malm­e­dy Tri­als, Remy refutes the var­i­ous claims of the tri­als’ crit­ics. The tri­als were, in fact, fair, none of the defen­dants were tor­tured or threat­ened, their con­fes­sions were not coerced, they were ably rep­re­sent­ed by coun­sel and had every oppor­tu­ni­ty to defend them­selves, and, most impor­tant, they were guilty as charged. Unfor­tu­nate­ly the sen­sa­tion­al­ist claims of the tri­als’ crit­ics were dis­sem­i­nat­ed by a gullible Amer­i­can press, and by Jan­u­ary, 1957 all of the Malm­e­dy defen­dants had been released from prison.

St Anna's Church,AllegianceService/ branchYears of service1934–45RankSS- (colonel)SS #132,496Unit1st SS Panzer Regiment,Battles/warsAwardsOther workTechnical and Sales Manager at, Sales Trainer atJoachim Peiper (30 January 1915 – 14 July 1976), also known as Jochen Peiper, was a in the during and personal to between November 1940 and August 1941.Peiper fought on both the against the and the against the, and was awarded by the.Peiper was convicted of committed in and imprisoned for almost 12 years. He was accused of war crimes in, but Italian and German courts concluded that there was insufficient evidence to warrant prosecution.After his release from prison, Peiper worked for both and, before moving to France, where he translated books from English to German under the 'Rainer Buschmann'. Peiper was murdered in in July 1976. Peiper and are received by, October 1940.Peiper returned to his duties as Himmler's adjutant on 21 June 1940. On 10 July 1940, he accompanied Himmler to the, where Reich leaders discussed the war and Hitler's plans.In October 1940, Peiper accompanied Himmler to where Himmler met with Franco. After passing through, they stopped in, where Himmler met with, the commander of the SS division.

Shortly afterward, on 14 November 1940, Peiper was appointed first adjutant to Himmler. In January 1941, Peiper accompanied Himmler when he inspected and concentration camps. In March 1941, together with Karl Wolff and, they visited.Himmler and his staff then travelled to, Poland, the. This trip included a visit to the, about which Peiper wrote: 'It was a macabre image: we saw how the Jewish Ghetto police, who wore hats without rims and were armed with wooden clubs, inconsiderately made room for us. The Jewish elders also presented Himmler with a bouquet of flowers.' Invasion of the Soviet Union In February 1941, Himmler told Peiper about the German plan, to invade the. The operation began on 22 June 1941.

Behind the front lines, the death squads, under the control of the (RSHA), committed mass murder against the so-called ', which included, gypsies and partisans. Peiper's duties as first adjutant included providing Himmler with statistics from the Einsatzgruppen units about the mass killings on the.During the later summer of 1941, Peiper was transferred to a combat unit of the LSSAH, which by this time was part of the Waffen-SS. Peiper remained in close contact with Himmler as shown by their ongoing correspondence through to the end of the war.

Himmler addressed Peiper as 'my dear Jochen'.Although no longer Himmler's official first adjutant, Peiper continued to write in Himmler's diary until mid-September 1941. Peiper may have been dispatched to the LSSAH earlier as an observer for Himmler, but available records show that he formally transferred to the LSSAH before October 1941. When he rejoined the LSSAH, it was engaged on the Eastern Front near the. Peiper spent several days at its headquarters when an injury to a unit commander gave Peiper an opportunity to take command of the 11th Company. Transfer to combat unit The 11th Company fought at. Peiper was noted for his fighting spirit, although his unit suffered high casualties as a consequence of his aggressive tactics. The company killed a number of.During its combat action, the LSSAH was followed by Einsatzgruppe D, responsible for organising the extermination of Jews and communists.

Einsatzgruppe D continued its operations even when winter weather suspended active military operations. It shared the same winter quarters at on the as the LSSAH and, on occasion, the division assisted Einsatzgruppe D with its operations.In May 1942, Peiper learned of the death of his brother Hans-Hasso. During the same month, the LSSAH was transferred to France for rest and refit. En route to France, Peiper left his unit and met with Himmler at his headquarters on 1 June. The meeting included a dinner attended by Himmler's secretary and, a member of the staff headquarters of the SS Division Totenkopf.

In July 1942, Peiper again met with Himmler and did not rejoin his battalion until August 1942.During its stay in France, the LSSAH was reorganised into a division and Peiper was promoted to commander of its 3rd Battalion. At the end of 1942, Peiper received permission to visit his family.

On 30 January 1943, he was promoted to SS-. Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, the German situation had seriously worsened, especially in the. Peiper's battalion left its quarters in France on 31 January 1943 for Lyubotin, near. It was immediately dispatched to the front. Relief of 320th Infantry Division.

E tanks (with roadwheels) of the I SS Panzer Corps Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler close to (June 1944)The Allied necessitated the return of the LSSAH to the. On 17 June, the division began its move to the area of, but some parts of the panzer regiment had to stay in Belgium awaiting new tanks.

The whole division did not reach its rally zone before 6 July 1944. On 28 June, the 1st SS Panzer Regiment of Peiper arrived at the front and was immediately engaged in combat. As with the other German units of the area, they essentially fought a defensive battle until the by the US Army at the end of July and beginning of August. Having gone to the front with 19,618 men, the LSSAH lost 25% of its men and all its tanks.

Joachim Peiper Family

As with most of the Waffen-SS divisions engaged in, the LSSAH lost its operational ability and was described in the official tables of the available units prepared by the on 16 September 1944 not as a division but as a.Peiper was not in command of his panzer regiment during the near. Suffering from a he had been discreetly evacuated to a military hospital in the area of at 70 km of the frontline. According to the official diagnosis, he was suffering from. He would eventually be dispatched to the rear and from September 1944 forward was in a military hospital near the in Upper Bavaria. This was not far from his family home. He stayed there until 7 October.

Battle of the Bulge. The bodies of the, covered by snow, were found on 14 January 1945.During the 1st SS Panzer Division's advance on 17 December 1944, his armored units and halftracks confronted a lightly armed convoy of about 30 American vehicles at the Baugnez crossroads near. The troops, mainly elements of the American, were quickly overcome and captured.

Along with other American POWs previously captured, they were ordered to stand in a meadow before the Germans opened fire on the prisoners with machine guns, killing 84 soldiers, and leaving the bodies in the snow. The survivors were able to reach American lines later that day, and their story spread rapidly throughout the American front lines.Author Richard Gallagher reported that during the briefing held before the operation, Peiper clearly stated that no quarter should be given nor prisoners taken and that no pity should be shown towards Belgian civilians.

However, Lieutenant Colonel Hal McCown, commander of the, testified about the treatment his unit was given after being captured on 21 December by Peiper's unit at Froidcour between La Gleize. McCown said he met Peiper in person and based on his observations, American prisoners were at no time mistreated by the SS, while the food given to them was nearly as good as that used by the Germans themselves. It was noted by the prosecution that by the time Col. McCown was captured on 21 December, Peiper was aware that his tactical situation had deteriorated substantially and that he and his men were in danger of becoming POW's themselves.

Joachim Peiper Wife

On 17 December at Malmedy, Peiper's unit was advancing aggressively and still had hope of reaching its objective, whereas by 21 December the unit found itself nearly cut off at La Gleize and out of fuel, having suffered over 80% casualties. Peiper's shifting attitude towards POW's was calculated, as he held Col. McCown and others as his unit fled La Gleize on foot, intending to use them as bargaining chips in the event of capture. Other murders.