The Malmedy Massacre Photo

[ian]

steve very moving ....................................undrstandable human reaction after what they had bin through
i think i would have bin driven to revenge my self
revenge is not a good human trait ...............BUT??????
cheers ian

[ahrtal]

steve very moving ....................................undrstandable human reaction after what they had bin through
i think i would have bin driven to revenge my self
revenge is not a good human trait ...............BUT??????
cheers ian

It is strange that man constructs rules for the most uncivilized human behavior: the conduct of war. If anything, modern warfare destroys the thin veneer of humanity we have nurtured over the centuries. This same officer personally observed the sanctioned execution of German POWs captured after Malmedy was publicized.

[NickD]

alot of bad things happen during war conditions people are asked to do stuff that they wouldn't normally do under normal circumstances no amount of training can prepare them for these conditions & everyone is affected differently & some act out in the heat of the moment or under emotional stress. for us that have never been in this situation we'll never be able to fully understand what they go through or what affect it really has on them i for one can never imagine what it would be like to see the people you come to call friends dying around you in battle & how seeing this would affect me.

you can never put an excuse on these moments in war but you've got to ask your self do you really know how you would have reacted ?????

[HJ-Collector]

sad but a nice piece of history there nick , i only just the other night watched a 1 hour program on this massacre very eye opening and moving!! i also watched a program on the other it told one story that after dachau libaration the inmates were killing german gaurds two men beat a camp guy to death with shovels while the g.i's watched but the german did castrait one of the jewish guys a week before the g.i's got there! was on national geographical channel. as had been said unless you have been in a combat type situation a dont think anyone would know how they would react.

cheers ewan

[oradour]

To the victor go the spoils.......both German and Japs prosecuted for war crimes, but no allied personel to my knowledge.

[ahrtal]

alot of bad things happen during war conditions people are asked to do stuff that they wouldn't normally do under normal circumstances no amount of training can prepare them for these conditions & everyone is affected differently & some act out in the heat of the moment or under emotional stress. for us that have never been in this situation we'll never be able to fully understand what they go through or what affect it really has on them i for one can never imagine what it would be like to see the people you come to call friends dying around you in battle & how seeing this would affect me.

you can never put an excuse on these moments in war but you've got to ask your self do you really know how you would have reacted ?????

Absolutely true. I'd like to think I'd take the high road, but war forever changes a person. One just doesn't come back and take up where one left off. I can't judge what any of these people did. These are the terrible things that happen in war.

[philip]

It's a statement , every war has it's own "black page" , crimes committed by both sides mostly , when the heart takes over contol of the mind , every sense of reality gets lost . It has always been like that and will be for ever to eternity;

[navyman]

Hello Nick and all that have joined in this thread,
When I read your first post about the Malmedy massacre, I confused the picture with others I have seen which were of soldiers laying dead in the snow on the Eastern Front, (equally tragic), but you inspired me to hunt through my heaps of reference books and I came up with a copy of John Pimlott's excellent book, "Battle of the Bulge", and the Ardennes Offensive. (ISBNo 861240316).
I've copied three pictures from there and hopefully can upload them.
As an ex-serviceman myself I've found the whole story very sad and I was close to tears when reading it again, but think it's no good hiding the truth about life and death in a war situation. Though it's a difficult subject to address there's always a chance that it may make someone who finds him or her self in a situation like this to think twice before taking such drastic action?
This thread has been most thought provoking and I hope it's read by many.
The pictures are distressing, they show the execution of German soldiers who tried to escape by dressing as GIs, and labeled bodies of American soldiers at Malmedy.
With sadness for all on every side,
navyman.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Guy, the soldiers shown being shot by firing squad were actually part of a commando operation: Operation Greif. These were English speaking Germans led by Otto Skorzeny to cause confusion behind the US lines. If you Google it you will find lots of info about it online. The images are stills from Newsreel footage. I have seen the film in the past.

Cheers, Ade.

[navyman]

Ade,
Thank you so much for putting me right there, another fact to re-register in my old brain.
Apologies for my mistake, I take full responibility for it.
Good job we have some experts here or heaven knows what confusion may ensue!
Best wishes,
Guy.